He broke off on a single, hoarse, dry sob that shook his heavy chest. "I can't do anything," he said. "She won't come near me." "Of course not," said Amanda gently. "What do you expect'? When you reached for her that way, you just confirmed whatever it is that makes her what she is. She'll never come close to anyone as long as you're around." "What can I do?" Artur looked at her. "I can't just forget about her and leave her alone down there!" "Send a woman," said Amanda. "Didn't you ever think of that? I'd guess even your Old Man wouldn't have a chance at her now. Also now that I know what her story is, it's plain my idea of a group taking her would be the last thing to try. It'd probably destroy whatever chance there is of her becoming half-normal again, if she was taken by force. But a woman, starting from scratch, could get close enough to make friends with her. Note, I said make friends with, not grab. The day she'll come home to you safely will be the day she comes up to this ledge of her own free will, holding the hand of someone she trusts."
Amanda stopped. Artur stared almost blindly at her. "I'd do it myself," said Amanda, "but I've got other responsibilities, and she's still only one life, while there're hundreds of lives within two days' walk of here who can use my help. It'll take time to do, probably. Time I can't spare for that alone, in any case. But there must be a woman member of the Guild who could help you."
She reached out to put a hand on his arm. "The hard part for you," she added, "is going to be staying away while the woman makes friends with her." "Yes..." Artur's face twisted, then straightened out. "Woman! I'd never thought of that.- "You should have." said Amanda. "The soldiers were probably all men, judging by what I've seen of the Occupation forces. And she wits well enough up in years to know the difference and what she is, herself. You can try it." "I will. Thank you, I will." His face twisted again for just a second. "But it'll be hard not going down to see her, day after day, just as you say."
He stood up. "Never mind. That's what I'll do. If you'll excuse me, Amid. I think I'd like to go and look for someone to help me with Cee right now. "
"Just a second, " said Amanda. " Before you go, can you telI me what the idea was of that vine around her waist, and what it is she carries in the pod in the middle of it?" "Rocks," said Artur. "My sister, Mila, and Petay, her husband, used to hunt rabbits as part of their food. Petay could throw a rock accurately enough to kill a rabbit from some little distance. He'd wait until one sat up with its head above the ferns to look around and then aim at its neck. If he was a little high he'd still get the head. If he was a little low he'd still strike a shoulder area and slow the creature down so that he could run it down and catch it.-"
"They weren't pure vegetarians, then, your sister and brother-in-law" Amanda asked. "No," said Artur, "luckily for Cee. She's got no access to diet supplements. Mila preferred to use a sling - you know like the sort of sling they used on Old Earth in very ancient times. Whether Cee learned from the two of them, or practice made her good at hunting since she's been on her own, I don't know, but she kills rabbits regularly for her own eating, both ways. She can throw very hard and accurately with a sort of sidearm swing, or she can use the vine and pod, or something else as a sling, to kill from a greater distance. When you tried to catch her, did she make any motion to use the vine, or take one of the rock's out of' it?" "No,- said Hal.
Artur nodded. "She wasn't too frightened of you, then. She must have been sure she could get away. But she does know what she can do with those rocks - as I say, whether she had lessons from Mila or Petay or not - and I've always been afraid that if soldiers came up here and chased her she might try to use the rocks on them. Then they undoubtedly would shoot her!"
He turned abruptly to Amid. "Forgive me. Amid," he said, unusually brusquely for an Exotic, "but the sooner I find someone as Amanda suggests... " "Go ahead, go ahead!" said Amid. When the door had closed behind Artur's back, he turned to Amanda. "I don't think you'll ever know how much of a help that suggestion of yours was to Artur, just now. Well, never mind that, now. HOW soon had you planned to leave"" 'Right away," she answered. "Both Simon and I'll be going our separate ways."
She looked at Hal and smiled a little, regretfully. "Let's step outside and have a word by ourselves, before you go, " Hal said to her. "Amid, Simon - you'll forgive us'? We won't be more than a few minutes. "By all means," said Simon, "we've got all the time there is. Take what you want."
Amid simply waved them out. Once in the open air and the sunshine beyond doors, Hal began to pace toward the ledge. Amanda walked along with him. Their hands joined automatically. They walked without speaking until they came near the edge and turned, so that they walked along it, with empty air on their left and the further, vertical cliff-face of rock behind the ledge some distance to their right. "There's everything to say, and no good way to say just part of it," murmured Hal finally.
"I know. It doesn't matter." said Amanda. "You'll find what you want, and then I'll be back." "And Simon'll take us back to the Encyclopedia, then we'll be apart again. Or will you even be coming back with me. There's no real need, if you're tied to your work here." "If I can be of use, I'll go anywhere with you, my Hal,'' she said. "You know that. If I'm not really needed by you, though. I am needed in other places." "Yes." Hal had it sudden mental picture of how they look to the Guild members outside the buildings who happened to look this way. The tall man and the tall woman, holding hands, their heads close together in conversation as they walking along the edge of the emptiness beyond the cliff edge. "Somewhere, somewhen, there's got to be time for just being together. Time to shut ourselves away from anything else, without having to keep an eye on the need to go back to duties."
He searched her face with his eyes. "Life ought to owe us that much for ourselves, shouldn't it? "Are you asking Amanda - who loves - you, or Amanda - who-"
"Both," said Hal. "Amanda-who-loves-you promise some day will have the rest of our lives together.
"And Amanda-who-sees" Her face very still. "That's one thing, Amanda-who-sees isn't able to see." She stopped and turned to face him. "Oh, don't I trust Amanda-who-loves-you? Don't you trust her, too? She trusts you." "Always." He smiled down at her. "I always trust her. first and foremost..."
They went back to walking again. "Do you have any idea at all of how long you'll he here'!" asked Amanda after a moment.
He shook his head. "I'm at the point now where I'm beginning to pull strings together in my own mind." "Which strings'?" "I think, mainly, the strings to Western and Eastern thinking. in spite of the three hundred years the race has been on worlds beyond Old Earth, those two schools of human thought still need to be reconciled in lots of ways. Then, there're the strings to the past, to the present, and the future, to be brought together, and the strings to the real universe and the Creative Universe. Many, many strings. Too many. actually, to hope I could pull them all together, here and now. All I can hope is to tie enough of them in with each other so I can move up the line and begin tying in the rest." "But you do feel I was on the right track, bringing you here?" said Amanda. "Yes," he answered. "There's something necessary to be learned in this place, at this time. Something I need, in this whole idea of a second Chantry Guild and particularly in Jathed's Law. I've to understand that Law, understand it absolutely. But you know, there're probably other things I don't recognize yet as important to everything I work for, that are here, too, and need taking into account, here was a researcher once, long ago. who said that whenever a source or a reference was really needed, it'll manifest itself out of the continuum. And centuries ago, back in the old days of magazines, editors used to talk about the fact that all of a sudden a number of writers would simultaneously submit stories about the same idea - writers who in many cases didn't even know each other. Then, of course, there're the historical facts about important inventions, or technological advances, appearing at the hands of two or more entirely separate inventors or workers, at almost the same time - and a arguments about who came up with that first. "I don't see how simultaneity like that ties, into your problem," said Amanda. "Oh, sorry," said Hal. "You're the only person who hits to suffer this from me - I got to thinking out loud around you. What I'm driving at is that I have to go on the premise that wherever I am there may be historically important forces at work in making me see what I see. Forces I should recognize - in things like Old Man, Artur, or even the little girl, Cee."