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The Umiau had been remarkably uninformed about
Ivrom, which wasn't as strange on the face of it as it would seem. The Umiau
were water creatures, and their need was for technological items they could
not manufacture. An alliance with the Czillians was nat-
ural; their other neighbors they at least knew from watery experience, even if
they didn't get along too well with all of them, and AlisstI was too hot to
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han-
dle. Ivrom, named from the old maps and not by the inhabitants, was peaceful
forests and meadows, no major rivers, although it had hundreds of tiny creeks
and streams. It was a nontechnological hex, so it wasn't easy to get to, even
harder to move around in, 245
and probably not worth the trouble. Of course, the major problem was that no
one who had ever set out for Ivrom to study, for contact, or to go through it
had ever been seen or heard from again. For
a reef, over a submerged shoal in deep water, and anchored for the night even
though there would still have been time when they arrived to have made camp on
or near the beach.
It did look inviting, too. The air was sweet and fresh, about twenty degrees
Celsius, surprisingly com-
fortable humidity for a shore area because of the in-
land breeze, a few light, fluffy clouds but nothing that looked threatening,
and a deep blue sky.
The shoreline revealed a virgin sandy beach, flat and yellow and stretching
down the coast. The break-
ers and some obvious storms had forced driftwood onto the shore, where it had
built up near the begin-
ning of the forest. It was a very dense forest, rather dark from the thickness
of the underbrush and giant evergreens, but nothing looked suspicious or
sinister.
As twilight deepened, they could make out an occa-
sional small deer and a number of other animals much like muskrats, marmots,
and other woodland creatures.
It reminded Brazil of a number of really pleasant places on Old Earth before
they were paved over.
Even the animals and birds, now flocking to roosts in the tall trees, seemed
very Earthlike far more than even the most familiar hexes he had been through.
He wished he could recall more about the place, but be couldn't. Nobody could
keep track of every-
thing, he thought, even though the mind behind Ivrom had obviously paid a
great deal of attention to a Type
41 habitat.
Insects, his mind kept telling him. But that was the kind of fact that you
heard once or twice rather than recalled from personal experience, and it
registered but was not something you had paid attention to at the time.
Everything has changed so much it probably wouldn't matter anyway, he thought.
Evolution and natural processes like erosion and deposition, diastrophism
and the other forces operated in accord-
ance with the logic of each hex, so things were con-
246
stantly changing on the Well World as they were everywhere in the universe.
Darkness totally obscured the shoreline for all but
Cousin Bat, who reported that he couldn't see any-
thing they hadn't seen by day.
"Well, maybe something," Bat corrected. "I can't be sure at this distance,
though. Looks like tiny, little, blinking lights, on and off, on and off, all
over the forest moving around, too, but slowly."
Lightning bugs, Brazil thought. Was he the only per-
son from their little comer of the galaxy who could remember lightning bugs?
"Well, go on in, then," Brazil told the bat after a while, "but be careful.
Looks peaceful, but the place has a really spooky reputation, and except for
the fact that my mind keeps insisting that the life form there is insects, I
can't think of anything else to tell you.
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Just watch out for insects, no matter how small or in-
significant they might be somebody we'd rather make friends with."
"All right," Bat responded calmly. "Insects are a normal part of my diet, but
I won't touch them if I
can help it. Just a quick survey, then I'll be back."
They agreed and Bat took off into the darkness.
When the sun came up the next morning. Cousin
Bat still had not returned.
Just over the Nation Slelcron
Border Morning
THE REL STOPPED JUST AHEAD AS THE AIR SUDDENLY
cleared and they walked into bright sunshine.
"You may all remove your breathing apparatuses and discard them," it told
them. "The air is now quite safe for all of you."
Skander reached up and took off her mask, but stowed it in the pack case.
"I'll keep mine, and I
247
think you others should, too," the Umiau cautioned. "I
have no idea what the interior is like, but it's possible we may need the
couple hours of air left in these tanks. If the mechanism is self-operating,
it ma^ not exist in any atmosphere."
"I am well aware of that, Doctor," The Rel re-
plied. "I, too, can not exist in a vacuum The Diviner requires argon and neon,
and I require xenon and krypton, which, thankfully, have been present in the
quantities we need in all of the hexes so far. We had weeks to prepare for
this expedition, you know, and I
fully expected us ultimately to have to face a vacuum
in which those little respirators will do us no good whatsoever. The packs
contain compressed pressure suits designed for each of us."
"Then why didn't we use them in that hellhole we just went through?" Hain
grumbled, outraged. "That stuff burned!"
"That was a hex of sharp edges and abrasives where the suits might have
suffered premature damage," The
Rel replied. "It was a discomfort, no more. I thought it best not to take any
risks with pressurized equip-
ment until we have to."
Hain grumbled and cursed, and Skander wasn't much better she was drying out
rapidly and itched terribly.
Only Vardia was now perfectly comfortable the sun was very strong, the sky was
blue and cloudless, and she even somehow sensed the richness of the soil.
"What is this place, anyway?" Skander asked. "Any chance of a shady stream
where I can wet down?"
"You'll survive," The Rel responded. "We will al-
leviate your discomfort as soon as we can. Yes, there are almost certainly
streams, lakes, and ponds here.
When I find one shallow enough and slow enough that it will not be your avenue
away from us, you will get your wish."
The place was thinly forested, but had tremendous growth of bushes and vines,
and giant flowers millions of flowers, as far as the eye could see, rising on
stalks from one to three meters high, bright orange centers surrounded by
eighteen perfectly shaped white petals.
Huge buzzing insects went from flower to flower, but the actions were
individualistic, not as they would
248
move in a swarm. Each was about fifty centimeters long, give or take, and very
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