The two males slowly came up from the back of Hogram’s reception hall. They carried the heavy stone basin between them, holding on with three arms apiece. One of Iverc’s hands slipped. The basin tilted until he could regain his grip. Water sloshed over the edge.

“Ah,” Hogram said, extending another eyestalk toward the advancing males. “I’d wondered why they weren’t using a vessel made of ice. Now I see.” His eyestalks wiggled. “Put water in ice and you won’t keep either one long.”

“No,” Fralk agreed, as respectfully as if Hogram had said something clever rather than coming out with a clich6. “Set it down here,” the younger male added when Panjand and Iverc brought the big stone bowl up to him.

The two males widened themselves to do as he asked and stayed in the posture of respect until a wave from Hogram released them. In one of his free hands, Panjand was carrying a small boat. He passed it to Fralk.

Fralk gently set it on the water. “You see, clanfather, it doesfloat. “ “So it does, by itself,” Hogram said. “But will it bear weight and still stay on top there?”

The domain master might reject the fancy foreign word with which Fralk enjoyed showing off, but he knew what questions to ask. “lverc,” Fralk said.

The male handed him the stickwork cage he had been holding in the hand away from Hogram’s eyes. A half-tame runnerpest scurried about inside. Fralk undid the lashings that held the cage closed. He reached in and picked up the runnerpest. Its tiny arms flailed at him, but it did not really try to claw.

“The runnerpest’s weight, clanfather, is about the same in proportion to this small boat’s capacity as that of a load of our males will be to a fullsized boat,” Fralk said. He set the little animal down in the boat. The unfamiliar sensation of moving on water made the runnerpest chitter with terror but also made it freeze in place where Fralk had put it.

Hogram peered at the laden boat with three eyes, turning another on Fralk. “Very interesting, eldest of eldest,” he said at last. “You seem to have most of the answers we need.” Coming from Hogram, that was highest praise.

The runnerpest, of course, chose that exact moment to try running away instead of holding still. The boat overbalanced; water began pouring in. There was a fancy foreign word for what happened when something that had been floating abruptly ceased to do so. Fralk could not have thought of it to save his eyestalks. He stared in numb dismay as the runnerpest, all its appendages writhing frantically, went down through the water to the bottom of the stone bowl.

As befitted his years, Hogram kept his self-possession. He pulled the runnerpest out of the basin and set it on the floor. It scuttled off with the speed that had given its kind their name. Fralk watched it go, wondering if his hopes were fleeing with it.

“I presume our males will be instructed not to leap over the walls of their boats while crossing Ervis Gorge,” Hogram said drily.

“What? Yes, clanfather. Certainly, clanfather!” Fralk realized he was babbling and did not care. The domain master’s sarcasm was a small enough price to pay for a botched demonstration; Hogram could have canceled the whole boatbuilding effort or put another male in charge. In his relief, Fralk missed something Hogram had said. He contritely widened himself. “I’m sorry?”

“I was wondering, eldest of eldest, if the humans know anything about these boats. They’re such hot creatures that tricks with water should come as naturally to them as those with ice do to us.”

“They have said one or two things, clanfather,” Fralk answered cautiously, “but as I am still only a budling in such matters myself, I am not certain how much help they can be. I also have not shown them the fullness of my ignorance, lest they demand more for what they know.”

“Good enough,” Hogram said, and Fralk had to fight to keep from changing color in relief-he had dreaded that question and been sure Hogram would ask it. The domain master went on. “I was wise, it seems, to set you over both the building of the boats and dealing with the humans, if the two enterprises have the links they appear to.”

“No male of your clan has ever doubted your wisdom,” Fralk said. That was true enough and politer than saying that no male- himself very much included-expected Hogram to go so much as a fingerclaw’s width against his own advantage.

“Keep at it, then, eldest of eldest,” the domain master said. “Be sure I shall be watching with six eyes what you accomplish.”

“The notice you grant me is more than I deserve.” Fralkwidened himself. He had already suspected that some of the males who helped build boats also passed word on to Hogram. Had he been domain master, he would have kept an eyestalk or two on that project himself. As he had thought a moment before, Hogram was too clever not to protect his interest so.

After a few more polite exchanges, Fralk took his leave. A little while later, he unrolled a hide in front of one of the leading town merchants. Small red rectangles, each decorated with a white cross, spilled out.

“And what are these?” asked the trader, whose name was Cutur.

“Something new from the humans,” Fralk answered.

“Look-an eighteen of tools in one-a knifeblade, a rasper, an awl…” He used a fingerclaw to pull each tiny claw out of the case as he named it. “And they are all of this hard shiny stone the humans use, see, not of ice, so they’re good winter and summer, but so small and light that no one will mind using them.”

“Interesting-some, anyway.” Cutur never sounded more bored than at the start of a dicker.

This time, though, Fralk had the edge. He had gotten the humans to promise not to give out the little redcased tools through any other male. A similar promise from him to Cutur made the price the merchant paid hefty enough to suit him.

Of course, a good part of that price would go back to the humans, in exchange for the little cylinders that kept some of their gadgets alive. Hogram would get a fair chunk himself, as was the domain master’s right. Even Fralk, though, had little about which to complain over what was left. Before long, he thought, he would be the richest male who was not a domain master throughout all the Skarmer lands.

The humans, taken as a group, would not be much poorer, although Fralk was convinced he was cheating them outrageously. Their trade goods were not only unlike any that had ever come into the Skarmer domains but did things Fralk had never imagined tools doing. They could have demanded eighteen times as much for them as they got.

But as long as they stayed satisfied with perfectly ordinary local products in exchange for their unique ones, Fralk was not about to argue with them. No one held a knife to their eyestalks to make them deal as they did. And no one, Fralk thought, had to hold a knife to his eyestalks to make him turn a profit. None of the males sprung from Hogram’s buds was that kind of fool.

Irv was at the control board when the ship-to-ship light went on. He picked up the mike. “Athena here, Levitt speaking,” he said in fairly good Russian. “Go ahead, Tsiolkovsky.”

“Thank you so much, Irving Samuelovich. Colonel Tolmasov here. Be so good as to fetch Brigadier Bragg, if you please. What I have to say must be discussed at the command level.”

“Hold, please.” Frowning a little, Levitt cut the mike. Tolmasov’s English always sounded starchy, but this was worse than usual. Irv hit the intercom switch; Bragg, he knew, was in his cabin, going over computer printouts. When the pilot answered, Levitt said, “Tolmasov’s calling-says he won’t talk with anyone but you. Something’s hit the fan, sounds like.”

“Doesn’t it just?” As usual, Bragg sounded calm, unhurried. Irv was reasonably sure that behind his cool facade he had the same worries and fears as any other man, but if so, he did a hell of a job of hiding them. “Be right there,” Bragg finished. “Out.”