“What is he talking about now?” asked the oracle.

“Nothing important.” I thought for a while. “It’ll take him two days, Derek. We ought to start worrying in the evening of the day after tomorrow. No, the day after that.”

“Okay. We are going to move as quickly as we can. Maybe the river is closer than we think.”

“Are you frightened?” I asked.

“Yes, of course,” he said in English. “If we kill any more natives, we are going to end up on the ship—cleaning out sewer lines, most likely. Or maybe cleaning cages in the laboratories. Anyway, we’ll be finished down here forever.” He glanced at me. “I bend rules a lot, and I operate close to the edge. But I have no intention of getting myself in serious trouble.”

“Why do you bend rules?”

He laughed. “To prove I can.”

We traveled till sunset, then made camp. The clouds parted and the Great Moon shone down on us. It was a little past full. Derek peered up at it. “The eruption must have ended.”

“Uh-huh.” I got out my one remaining human shirt and looked it over. A little dirty and with one tear. I decided to put it on.

“It’s too late,” said Derek. “That man has already seen Inahooli’s shirt.”

“Nonetheless…” I changed into my shirt and folded Inahooli’s, putting it away.

My radio rang. I turned it on.

“First the good news,” said Eddie. “The committee has decided to approve—with regret—your action in relation to Inahooli. You had no choice. Maybe if you hadn’t been half-unconscious, you could have figured out another way to stop her. But it was her fault that you were in no condition to think. Her karma was working itself out. There should not be any increase in your karmic burden, at least in the opinion of the committee.” I could hear a certain aloofness in his voice. Eddie had nothing against the various Asian religions—in their place, which was not a committee in charge of establishing policy for a scientific team. “Nothing bad is going on your record.”

I felt my body relax. I let my breath out in a sigh, then rubbed the back of my neck. “Okay. What is the bad news?”

“There are three pieces. Derek got a reprimand for that silliness about the bracelet.”

I looked over at Derek. He shrugged.

“However, that is not going to slow down anyone with his list of publications. The second piece of bad news is—the committee has decided to recommend a shipwide discussion of our policy re the natives.”

“Nonintervention?” I asked.

“Uh-huh.” Eddie sounded grim. “They want to reopen the question. I really would like you up here, or at least I would like the option. And that brings me to the third piece of bad news. Lysenko has gone over all the information we have about your part of the continent. The nearest place he is willing to land a plane is to the west of you. It’s a river that widens into a lake. He says it’s not good, but it’s possible.”

“How far?” I asked.

“Our best estimate is eight days. I am going to try to stall the first meeting of the all-ship committee.”

“That isn’t the worst of it, Eddie.”

“Oh, no? What is?”

“We met a native today. Inahooli’s brother. He is going to visit his sister.”

“Does he know you met her?”

“I had on a tunic that belonged to Inahooli. So did Nia. He recognized the clothes. That didn’t bother him. The natives are always exchanging gifts. But when he finds the grave…”

“Oh, damn.”

“And he has two brothers. They are traveling together or—at least—in the same direction. We may have three large angry natives after us.”

Eddie was silent for a minute or two. “What do you plan to do?”

Derek said, “Run like hell and hope they don’t follow.”

“I guess that’s the best idea. The committee is right about one thing. There have been too many incidents. I can’t figure out why.” Eddie sounded plaintive.

“You aren’t thinking,” Derek said. “Consider the people who’ve been having all the trouble. Me.

Harrison. Gregory. All men. We all ran into the same problem: the social role of adult males. I don’t know how Santha managed to avoid trouble. Do his people allow men into their village?”

“Now, that is an interesting story,” Eddie said. “But it is pretty long, and diagrams help a lot. I’ll tell you about Santha when you get back up here.”

“Okay,” said Derek.

“I’m not sure your explanation works. What about Lixia? Why has she had so much trouble?”

“Remember her traveling companions. Two men and a woman who has a widespread reputation for perversion.”

There was a silence. “You’re right, aren’t you? This is my mistake. I should have pulled Lixia out after the fiasco in that first village and reassigned her, maybe to the other continent.”

Derek made the gesture of uncertainty, then said, “I don’t know. I am not crazy about second-guessing history. And I don’t like words like ‘should.’ ”

“Well, do the best you can. Lysenko will be waiting when you reach the lake.”

Derek turned off the radio. “Do you notice how much Eddie uses the first person singular? The way he talks, he is the one who makes all the decisions and takes all the responsibility with no help from the rest of the committee.

“I, me, my, mine—

Each one a danger sign.

“That’s what the witches used to tell us. Listen for those words, they said. If a person uses them too often or with too much emphasis, then he or she is sinking down into the well of self. And that is a dangerous situation. You may be face-to-face with a greedhead or a power freak.”

I made the gesture of acknowledgment. I didn’t want to discuss the social theories of the California aborigines—not in English in front of Nia and the oracle. It was rude. I looked at Nia. “Our friend, the one whose voice is in the box, is worried about the amount of trouble we’ve encountered.”

“It is never easy to travel,” the oracle said. “I know that. One of my sisters is a great traveler. She has been as far north as the men go and met the Iron People in their summer range. She has been south as well and seen the ocean and gotten gifts from the people who live there: the Fishbone People and the People of Dark Green Dye. My mother has told me about her adventures. Hola! What a tale!” He bit one of his fingernails. “What does your friend expect?”

“A good question. I’m not entirely sure.”

For the next three days we traveled as quickly as possible. Nothing much happened. The sky was mostly clear, and the land rolled gently. We saw animals in the distance: flocks of grazing bipeds and once a solitary animal that Nia said was a killer of the plain.

“A male. See how big he is and how he shambles?”

“Nia, that thing is a black spot to me. I thought it might be a person.”

“What eyes you have! It is certainly a killer and a male. A female would be traveling with her children. The children would be hungry, and she would be dangerous. But a male is not much of a problem.”

“You say that!” the oracle put in. “I know better.”

“You were alone and had no fire.”

“We’ll make one tonight,” said the oracle.

This was in the middle of the third day. By then we were all getting uneasy, looking behind us and around us.

We stopped early atop a rise that was higher than the other little hills. Derek peered east. “Nothing,” he said. “I can’t see them. But nonetheless, we are going to keep watch. And I don’t think I want to risk a fire.”

“We have to,” Nia said. “There are worse things here than men. I do not want to lie in the darkness and wait for a killer of the plain.”

“All right,” Derek said.

We built the fire and huddled around it. Derek took the first watch. I sat and worried. Finally, when I couldn’t stand the worry anymore, I called Eddie.

“Any sign of the three brothers?” he asked.

“No. And I don’t want to think about them. How are things on the ship?”

“Not good. Meiling went over to the opposition.”