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light. Squint a little, squeeze the eyes tight, and one could almost see those
chitonous barbs and protuberances coming together to form, if not an actual
crown, at least an approximation of a comparable configuration.
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 What now? he muttered.  Don t tell me, bruther, that you can talk to even so
lowly a creature as this?
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A Triumph of Souls: Journeys of the Catechist, Book 3
Big as it is, it is still only a crab, a creature that spends all its life
grubbing in the muck and ooze at the bottom of the sea.
 You have many good qualities, friend Simna, but you also have an unfortunate
tendency to underestimate all manner of living things based upon their
lifestyle. I know of men who abide at rarefied heights yet who cannot be
trusted to tend to their own children, while others who live in the depths of
poverty and homeliness I would charge with the safekeeping of my own wife.
Simna was not so easily rebuked.  Then if I underestimate, you overtrust, my
friend.
Ehomba smiled.  Perhaps between us, then, we may make one sensible human
being. He turned away as long, clawed legs came clambering over the side of
the ship.  You are right to say that I cannot  talk
to a crab. But there are numerous manners of speaking, Simna, of which the
Naumkib know more than many other peoples. It is what comes of living in a
lonely country. You learn to make yourself known to whatever inhabits the same
land as yourself, however many legs it happens to walk upon.
The prodigious crustacean finally clambered over the railing to settle on the
deck with a waterlogged thunk.
Stalks swiveled bulbous eyes to right and then to left. Behind it, a
captivated
Stanager Rose spoke to Ehomba without taking her eyes off the visitor.
 If this is what your weedy man meant when he told you he would try to implore
a king to come calling on us, then he must have believed you could communicate
with it. I certainly can t. I would know how to boil it, but not talk to it. I
certainly don t see what other use it can be of to us.
 Nor do I, Ehomba confessed.  But you are right, Captain. The sargassum man
must have had a thought in mind or he would not have asked this creature to
seek us out. I will try my best to find out what is afoot. As soon as he
stepped forward, the huge crab scrabbled sideways to confront him. It was
wary, but not afraid. Nor had it reason to be; not with those enormous
sharp-spined arms with which to defend itself.
 What is afoot not indeed, but aplenty, Simna murmured to the hulking
Hunkapa, who stood open-
mouthed behind him. Unsurprisingly, the shaggy mountain did not react to what
the swordsman felt was his best sally in some time.
Behind both of them, the black litah stood and stared in silence. From time to
time its long tongue would emerge to lick heavy lips. The humans aboard were
not alone in their fondness for the taste of crabmeat.
The cat restrained the impulses that were surging through it. Ehomba had
scolded him before for trying to eat an envoy. It was, the herdsman had
pontificated at the time in no uncertain terms, not only bad manners but very
poor diplomacy.
But oh, Ahlitah mused, what a meal this visitor would make!
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A Triumph of Souls: Journeys of the Catechist, Book 3
Standing alone before the visitant, aware that those watching viewed it from
perspectives as wildly different from one another as from his, Ehomba
considered how best to proceed. The type of talking itself was no stranger to
him. He had known it since childhood, albeit with a considerably lesser degree
of eloquence. He simply did not want to get off on the wrong foot. Offend this
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noble creature and it would doubtless plunge itself right back into the depths
it had risen from. It was not for nothing that its kind were called crabs.
Raising both hands, he began to wiggle several of his fingers in a certain
manner. Though when it came to sheer number of limbs his counterpart had him
outgunned, not all could be used simultaneously for conversation. Out of the
water, at least, several had to be used at all times to support the weighty
body.
 Well would you look at that! Not for the first time Simna was all but struck
dumb by an unexpected talent of his lanky companion. This time there was no
question that sorcery was not involved. It was, as
Ehomba had tried to explain, simply a different kind of speaking. One that
made use of hand signs, or in the case of the crab king, foot signs, to
express notions, emotions, and ideas.
After several minutes the giant crustacean and the tall human were practically
shouting, so rapid and intense had the movements of their respective limbs
become. It was certain that much was being said, but what, not a man jack
among the crew had a clue. Neither did Simna ibn Sind, or the black litah, and
certainly not the utterly engrossed Hunkapa Aub, who had to pause to ponder
the meaning of any sentence longer than ten words.
Eventually the frenetic exchange of signs slowed. Bending low, Ehomba extended
a hand. It was met by a thorny claw. They did not shake, exactly. The
crustacean s armature would not properly allow it. But there was a definite
physical meeting, following which those remarkable legs proceeded to carry
their owner once more up over the railing and down the side of the ship.
Rushing to the rail, those members of the crew who had remained on deck
watched as the spiny, starlike shape sank once more beneath the wavelets,
swallowed up entire by water the color of blue-black ink.
Direct as always, Stanager was first to question Ehomba.  Are we to make
anything of that? Or was it no more than an unlikely dialogue?
Turning to her, the herdsman smiled.  They are going to try to help us. Not
because it is in their nature to do so, or because it would ever happen under
ordinary circumstances but because the sargassum man asked it of them. As
fellow creatures of the sea, it seems they have a compact of sorts that is
very old, and inviolate. The king was reluctant, but as soon as he saw that I
was able to speak with him, his last uncertainties disappeared. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]