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"Wait," Sonok said. "They're group again."
TENZIONA, the shrimp coalesced.DYSFUNCTIO. GUARDATEO AB PEREGRINO PERAMBULA .
"I don't understand. Sounds like Italian do you know any Italian?"
The bear shook his head.
"'Dysfunctio,'" I read aloud. "That seems plain enough. 'Ab peregrino'? Something about a hawk?"
"Peregrine,it is foreigner," Sonok said.
"Guard against foreigners & 'perambula,' as in strolling? Watch for the foreigners who walk? Well, we
don't have the grammar, but it seems to tell us something we already know. Christ! I wish I could
remember all the languages they filled me with ten years ago."
The marks on the tank darkened and flaked off. The shrimp began to form something different. They
grouped into branches and arranged themselves nose-to-tail, upright, to form a trunk, which rooted itself
to the floor of the tank.
"Tree," Sonok said.
Again they dissolved, returning in a few seconds to the simulacrum of my body. The clothing seemed
different, however more like a robe. Each shrimp changed its individual color now, making the shape
startlingly lifelike. As I watched, the image began to age. The outlines of the face sagged, wrinkles
formed in the skin, and the limbs shrank perceptibly. My arms felt cold, and I crossed them over my
breasts; but the corridor was reasonably warm.
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The Venging
Of course the universe isn't really held in a little girl's mind. It's one small thread in a vast skein, separated
from every other universe by a limitation of constants and qualities, just as death is separated from life by
the eternal nonreturn of the dead. Well, now we know the universes are less inviolable than death, for
there are ways of crossing from thread to thread. So these other beings, from similar Earths, are not part
of my undifferentiated infancy. That's a weak fantasy for a rather unequipped young woman to indulge in.
Still, the symbols of childhood lie all around nightmares and Teddy bears and dreams held in a tank;
dreams of old age and death. And a tree, grey and ghostly, without leaves. That's me. Full of winter, wood
cracking into splinters. How dothey know?
A rustling came from the corridor ahead. We turned from the tank and saw the floor covered with rainbow
snakes, motionless, all heads aimed at us. Sonok began to tremble.
"Stop it," I said. "They haven't done anything to us."
"You are bigger," he said. "Not meal-sized."
"They'd have a rough time putting you away, too. Let's just sit it out calmly and see what this is all about."
I kept my eyes on the snakes and away from the tank. I didn't want to see the shape age any more. For all
the sanity of this place, it might have kept on going, through death and decay down to bones. Why did it
choose me; why not Sonok?
"I cannot wait," Sonok said. "I have not the patience of a snake." He stepped forward. The snakes watched
without a sound as the bear approached, one step every few seconds. "I want to know one solid thing," he
called back. "Even if it is whether they eat small furry mascots."
The snakes suddenly bundled backward and started to crawl over each other. Small sucking noises
smacked between their bodies. As they crossed, the red ovals met and held firm. They assembled and
reared into a single mass, cobra-like, but flat as a planarian worm. A fringe of snakes weaved across the
belly like a caterpillar's idea of Medusa.
Brave Sonok was undone. He swung around and ran past me. I was too shocked to do anything but face
the snakes down, neck hairs crawling. I wanted to speak but couldn't. Then, behind me, I heard:
"Sinieux!"
As I turned, I saw two things, one in the corner of each eye: the snakes fell into a pile, and a man dressed
in red and black vanished into a side corridor. The snakes regrouped into a hydra with six tentacles and
grasped the hatch's throw-bolts, springing it open and slithering through. The hatch closed, and I was
alone.
There was nothing for it but to scream a moment, then cry. I lay back against the wall, getting the fit out
of me as loudly and quickly as possible. When I was able to stop, I wiped my eyes with my palms and
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The Venging
kept them covered, feeling ashamed. When I looked out again, Sonok was standing next to me.
"We've an Indian on board," he said. "Big, with black hair in three ribbons" he motioned from crown to
neck between his ears "and a snappy dresser."
"Where is he?" I asked hoarsely.
"Back in place like bridge, I think. He controls snakes?"
I hesitated, then nodded.
"Go look?"
I got up and followed the bear. Sitting on a bench pulled from the wall, the man in red and black watched
us as we entered the chamber. He was big at least two meters tall and hefty, dressed in a black silk
shirt with red cuffs. His cape was black with a red eagle embroidered across the shoulders. He certainly
looked Indian ruddy skin, aristocratic nose, full lips held tight as if against pain.
"Quis la?" he queried.
"I don't speak that," I said. "Do you know English?"
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