They were sitting in the cool darkness of the central cave, deep inside the cliff. All the outer caves channeled back to this single large chamber, high-roofed and moss-floored, its rocks faintly phosphorescent. It was big enough to hold four or five times the clan’s present number. It was midday. Most of the people were sleeping. A few of the children, off to the rear of the cave, were scratching pictures on the packed bare earth with pointed, fist-sized rocks.
Lee sat with his back resting against a cool stone wall. The sleepers were paired off, man and mate, for the most part. The unmated teenagers slept apart, with the older couples between them. As far as Lee could judge, the couples paired permanently, although the teens played the game about as freely as they could.
Ardraka was dozing beside him. Lee settled back and tried to turn off his thoughts, but the old man said: «Lee is not asleep?»
«No, Lee is not,» he answered.
«Ardraka has seen that Lee seldom sleeps,» Ardraka said.
«That is true.»
«Is it that Lee does not need to sleep as Ardraka does?»
Lee shook his head. «No, Lee needs sleep as much as Ardraka or any man.»
«This … place that Lee comes from. Lee says it is beyond the sea?»
«Yes, far beyond.»
In the faint light from the gleaming rocks, the old man’s face looked troubled, deep in difficult thought.
«And there are men and women living in Lee’s place, men and women like the people here?»
Lee nodded.
«And how did Lee come here? Did Lee swim across the sea?»
They had been through this many times. «Lee came around the edge of the sea, walking on land just as Ardraka would.»
Laughing softly, the old man said, «Ardraka is too feeble now for such a walk. Ardra could make such a walk.»
«Yes, Ardra can.»
«Ardraka has tried to dream of Lee’s place, and Lee’s people. But such dreams do not come.»
«Dreams are hard to command,» Lee said.
«Yes, truly.»
«And what of Ardraka and the people here?» Lee asked. «Is this the only place where such men and women live?»
«Yes. It is the best place to live. All other places are death.»
«There are no men and women such as Ardraka and the people here living in another place?»
The old man thought hard a moment, then smiled a wrinkled toothless smile. «Surely Lee jokes. Lee knows that Lee’s people live in another place.»
We’ve been around that bush before. Trying another tack, he asked, «Have Ardraka’s people always lived in this place? Did Ardraka’s father live here?»
«Yes, of course.»
«And his father?»
A nod.
«And all the fathers, from the beginning of the people? All lived here, always?»
A shrug. «No man knows.»
«Have there always been this many people living here?» Lee asked. «Did Ardraka’s people ever fill this cave when they slept here?»
«Oh yes. When Ardraka was a boy, many men and women slept in the outer caves, since there was no room for them here. And when Ardraka’s father was young, men and women even slept in the lower caves.»
«Lower caves?»
Ardraka nodded. «Below this one, deeper inside the ground. No man or woman has been in them since Ardraka became chief.»
«Why is that?»
The old man evaded Lee’s eyes. «They are not needed.»
«May Lee visit these lower caves?»
«Perhaps,» Ardraka said. After a moment’s thought, he added, «Children have been born and grown to manhood and died since any man set foot in those caves. Perhaps they are gone now. Perhaps Ardraka does not remember how to find them.»
«Lee would like to visit the lower caves.»
Late that night he walked the beach alone, under the glowing star-poor sky, giving his weekly report back to the ship.
«He’s been cagy about the lower caves,» Lee said as the outstretched fingers of surf curled around his ankles.
«Why should he be so cautious?» It was Marlene’s voice. She was taking the report this night.
«Because he’s no fool, that’s why. These people have never seen a stranger before … not for generations, at least. Therefore their behavior toward me is original, not instinctive. If he’s leery of showing me the caves, it’s for some reason that’s fresh in his mind, not some hoary tribal taboo.»
«Then what do you intend to do?»
«I’m not sure yet—» Lee turned to head back down the beach and saw Ardra standing twenty paces behind him.
«Company,» he snapped. «Talk to you later. Keep listening.»
Advancing toward him, Ardra said, «Many nights, Ardra has seen Lee leave the cave and walk on the beach. Tonight Lee was talking, but Lee was alone. Does Lee speak to a man or woman that Ardra cannot see?»
His tone was flat, factual, neither frightened nor puzzled. It was too dark to really make out the expression on his face, but he sounded almost casual.
«Lee is alone,» he answered as calmly as he could. «There is no man or woman here with Lee. Except Ardra.»
«But Lee speaks and then is silent. And then Lee speaks again.»
He knows a conversation when he hears one, even if it’s only one side of it and in a strange language.
Ardra suggested, «Perhaps Lee speaks to men and women from Lee’s place, which is far from the sea?»
«Does Ardra believe that Lee can speak to men and women far away from this place?»
«Ardra believes that is what Lee does at night on the beach. Lee speaks with the Karta.»
«Karta? What is the meaning of karta?»
«It is an ancient word. It means men and women who live in another place.»
Others, Lee translated to himself. «Yes,» he said to Ardra, «Lee speaks to the others.»
Ardra’s breath seemed to catch momentarily, then he said with deliberate care, «Lee speaks with the Others.» His voice had an edge of steel to it now.
What have I stepped into?
«It is time to be sleeping, not walking the beach,» Ardra said, in a tone that Lee knew was a command. And he started walking toward the caves.
Lee outweighed the chief’s son by a good twenty pounds and was some ten centimeters taller. But he had seen the speed and strength in Ardra’s wiry frame and knew the difference in reaction times that the fifteen years between them made. So he didn’t run or fight; he followed Ardra back to the caves and obediently went to sleep. And all the night Ardra stayed awake and watched over him.
The next morning, when the men went out to fish and the women to gather greens, Ardra took Lee’s arm and led him toward the back of the central cave. Ardraka and five other elders were waiting for them. They all looked very grim. Only then did Lee realize that Ardra was carrying a spear in his other hand.
They were sitting in a ragged semicircle, their backs to what looked like a tunnel entrance, their eyes hard on Lee. He sat at their focus, with Ardra squatting beside him.
«Lee,» Ardraka began without preliminaries, «why is it that Lee wishes to see the lower caves?»
The question caught him by surprise. «Because … Lee wishes to learn more about Ardraka’s people. Lee comes from far away, and knows little of Ardraka’s people.»
«Is it true,» one of the elders asked, «that Lee speaks at night with the Others?» His inflection made the word sound special, fearful, ominous.
«Lee speaks to the men and women of the place where Lee came from. It is like the way Ardraka speaks to Ardraka’s grandfather … in a dream.»
«But Ardraka sleeps when doing this, Lee is awake.» Ardra broke in, «Lee says Lee’s people live beyond the sea. Beyond the sea is the sky. Do Lee’s people live in the sky?»