гBy all means,д said Don Carlos. гI should be honored.д
Do–ita Tresa shifted on light, impatient feet. гIt is customary to dance,д she said.
Her father laughed. гAh, yes. The young ladies have been getting very impatient, I am sure. Time enough to resume formal discussions tomorrow, Sвflor Captain. Now let the music begin!д
He signalled. The orchestra struck up. Some instruments were quite like those of the Maurai, others wholly unfamiliar. The scale itself was different. . . they had something like it in Stralia, butч A hand fell on Ruoriвs arm. He looked down at Tresa. гSince you do not ask me to dance,д she said, гmay I be so immodest as to ask you?д
гWhat does Оimmodestв mean?д he inquired.
She blushed and tried to explain, without success. Ruori decided it was another local concept which the Sea People lacked. By that time the Meycan girls and their cavaliers were out on the ballroom floor. He studied them for a moment. гThe motions are unknown to me,д he said, гbut I think I could soon learn.д
She slipped into his arms. It was a pleasant contact, even though nothing would come of it. гYou do very well,д she said after a minute. гAre all your folk so graceful?д
Only later did he realize it was a compliment for which he should have thanked her; being an Islander, he took it at face value as a question and replied, гMost of us spend a great deal of time on the water. A sense of balance and rhythm must be developed or one is likely to fall into the sea.д
She wrinkled her nose. гOh stop,д she laughed. гYouвre as solemn as Sв OsЋ in the cathedral.д
Ruori grinned back. He was a tall young man, brown as all his race but with the gray eyes which many bore in memory of Ingliss
ancestors. Being a NвZealanner, he was not tattooed as lavishly as some Federation men. On the other hand, he had woven a whalebone filigree into his queue, his sarong was the finest batik, and he had added thereto a fringed shirt. His knife, without which a Maurai felt obscenely helpless, was in contrast: old, shabby until you saw the blade, a tool.
гI must see this god 5в Osd,д he said. гWill you show me? Or no, I would not have eyes for a mere statue.д
гHow long will you stay?д she asked.
гAs long as we can. We are supposed to explore the whole Meycan coast. Hitherto the only Maurai contact with the Menken continent has been one voyage from Awaii to Calforni. They found desert and a few savages. We have heard from Okkaidan traders that there are forests still further north, where yellow and white men strive against each other. But what lies south of Calforni was unknown to us until this expedition was sent out. Perhaps you can tell us what to expect in Su-Merika.д
гLittle enough by now,д she sighed, гeven in Brasil.д
гAh, but lovely roses bloom, in Meyco.д
Her humor returned. гAnd flattering words in NвZealann,д she chuckled.
гFar from it. We are notoriously straightforward. Except, of course, when yarning about voyages we have made.д
гWhat yarns will you tell about this one?д
гNot many, lest all the young men of the Federation come crowding here. But I will take you aboard my ship, Do–ita, and show you to the compass. Thereafter it will always point toward 5в AntOn dв Inio. You will be, so to speak, my compass rose.д
Somewhat to his surprise, she understood, and laughed. She led him across the floor, supple between his hands.
Thereafter, as the night wore on, they danced together as much as decency allowed, or a bit more, and various foolishness which concerned no one else passed between them. Toward sunrise the orchestra was dismissed and the guests, hiding yawns behind well-bred hands, began to take their departure.
гHow dreary to stand and receive farewells,д whispered Tresa.
гLet them think I went to bed already.д She took Ruoriвs hand and slipped behind a column and so out on to abalcony. An old serving woman, stationed to act as duenna for couples that wandered out, had wrapped up in her mantle against the cold and fallen asleep. Otherwise the two were alone among jasmines. Mists floated around the palace and blurred the city; far off rang the гTodos buenд of pikemen tramping the outer walls. Westward the balcony faced darkness, where the last stars glittered. The seven tall topmasts of the Maurai Dolphin caught the earliest sun and glowed.
Tresa shivered and stood close to Ruoni. They did not speak for a while.
гRemember us,д she said at last, very low. гWhen you are back with your own happier people, do not forget us here.д
гHow could I?д he answered, no longer in jest.
гYou have so much more than we,д she said wistfully. гYou have told me how your ships can sail unbelievably fast, almost into the wind. How your fishers always fill their nets, how your whale ranchers keep herds that darken the water, how you even farm the ocean for food and fiber andчд she fingered the shimmering material of his shirt. гYou told me this was made by craft out of fishbones. You told me that every family has its own spacious house and every member of it, almost, his own boat. . . that even small children on the loneliest island can read, and own printed books . . . that you have none of the sicknesses which destroy us. . . that no one hungers and all are freeч Oh, do not forget us, you on whom el DIo has smiled!д
She stopped, then, embarrassed. He could see how her head lifted and nostrils dilated, as if resenting him. After all, he thought, she came from a breed which for centuries had given, not received charity.
So he chose his words with care: гIt has been less our virtue than our good fortune, Doflita. We suffered less than most in the War of Judgment, and the fact of Judgment, and the fact of our being chiefly Islanders prevented our population from outrunning the seaвs rich ability to feed us. So weчno, we did not retain any lost
ancestral arts. There are none. But we did re-create an ancient attitude, a way of thinking, which has made the differenceчscience.д
She crossed herself. гThe atom!д she breathed, drawing from him.
гNo, no, Doflita,д he protested. гSo many nations we have discovered lately believe that science was the cause of the old worldвs ruin. Or else they think that it was a collection of cut-and-dried formulas for making tall buildings or talking at a distance. But neither belief is true. The scientific method is only a means of learning. It is a. . . a perpetual starting afresh. And that is why you people here in Meyco can help us as much as we can help you, why we have sought you out and will come knocking hopefully at your doors again in the future.д
She frowned, though something began to glow within her. гI do not understand,д she said.
He cast about for an example. At last he pointed to a series of small holes in the balcony rail. гWhat used to be here?д he asked.
гWhy . . . I do not know. It has always been like that.д
гI think I can tell you. I have seen similar things elsewhere. It was a wrought-iron grille. But it was pulled out a long time ago and made into weapons or tools. No?д
гQuite likely,д she admitted. гIron and copper have grown very scarce. We have to send caravans across the whole land, to T‡mico ruins, in great peril from bandits and barbarians, to fetch our metal. Time was when there were iron rails within a kilometer of this place. Don Carlos has told me.д
He nodded. гJust so. The ancients exhausted the world. They mined the ores, burned the oil and coal, eroded the land until there was nothing left. I exaggerate, of course. There are still mineral deposits here and there. But not enough. The old civilization used up all the capital, so to speak. Now sufficient forest and soil have come back so the world could try to reconstruct the machine cultureчexcept that there arenвt enough minerals and fuels. For centuries men have been forced to tear up the old artifacts, if there was to be any metal at all. By and large, the knowl
edge of the ancients hasnвt been lost; it has simply become unusable, because we are so much poorer than they.д
He leaned forward, earnestly. гBut knowledge and discovery do not depend on wealth,д he said. гPerhaps because we did not have so much metal to cannibalize in the Islands, we turned elsewhere. The scientific method is just as applicable to wind and sun and living matter as it was to oil, iron, or uranium. By studying genetics we learned how to create seaweeds, plankton, fish that would serve our purposes. Scientific forest management gives us adequate timber, organic-synthesis bases, some fuel. The sun pours down energy which we know how to concentrate and use. Wood, ceramics, even stone can replace metal for most purposes. The wind, through such principles as the airfoil or the Venturi law or the Hilsch tube, supplies force, heat, refrigeration; the tides can be harnessed. Even in its present early stage, paramathematical psychology helps control population, as well asч No, I am talking like an engineer now, falling into my own language. I apologize.
гWhat I wanted to say was, that if we can only have the help of other people, such as yourselves, on a world-wide scale, we can match our ancestors, or surpass them. . . not in their own ways, which were often short-sighted and wasteful, but in achievements uniquely oursчд
His voice trailed off. She wasnвt listening. She stared over his head, into the air, and horror stood on her face.
Then trumpets howled on battlements, and the cathedral bells crashed to life.
гWhat the nine devils!д Ruori turned on his heel and looked up. The zenith had become quite blue. Lazily over Sв AntOn floated five orca shapes. The new sun glared off a jagged heraldry painted along their flanks. He estimated dizzily that each of them must be three hundred feet long.
Blood-colored things petaled out below them and drifted down upon the city.
гThe Sky People!д said a small broken croak behind him. гSantвsima Marl, pray for us now!д
III
