‘Know what the yillibeeth are, little girl?’
She didn’t answer, so he went on, ‘The reduls resemble some Terrestrial insects. They go through several stages of development, you know; reduls are just the final adult stage. Their larval stage is rather like the larval stage of the dragonfly. It’s a greedy, omnivorous beast. It’s aquatic and it’s big. It’s armoured. It’s called a yillibeeth. That’s what we are going to be tied together to fight, a couple of big hungry yillibeeth. Are you feeling like dying this morning, Awn?’
Instead of answering, she turned her head away and brought a hand up to her mouth.
‘Oh, no! No crying in here, for Earth’s sake!’ he said. He got up, yelled through the passage door, ‘Ik So, Ik So, you traitor, get this bloody woman out of here!’ … recalled himself, jammed the lip-whistle into his mouth and was about to call again when Awn caught him a backhanded blow across the face.
She faced him like a tiger.
‘You creature, you cowardly apology of a man! Do you think I weep for fear? I don’t weep. I’ve lived nineteen years on this damned planet in their damned farms. Would I still be here if I wept? No – but I mourn that you are already defeated, you, the great Javlin!’
He frowned into her blazing face.
‘You don’t seriously think you make me a good enough match for us to go out there and kill a couple of yillibeeth?’
‘Damn your conceit. I’m prepared to try.’
‘Fagh!’ He thrust the lip-whistle into his mouth, and turned back to the door. She laughed at him bitterly, jeeringly.
‘You’re a lackey to these insects, aren’t you, Javlin? If you could see what a fool you look with that phony beak of yours stuck on your mouth.’
He let the instrument drop to the end of its chain. Grasping the bars, he leaned forward against them and looked over his shoulder.
‘I was trying to get this contest called off.’
‘Don’t tell me you haven’t already tried. I have.’
To that he had no answer. He went back and sat on the bench. She returned to her corner. They both folded their arms and stared at each other.
‘Why don’t you look out into the arena instead of glaring at me? You might pick up a few tips.’ When she did not answer, he said, ‘I’ll tell you what you’ll see. You can see the rows of spectators and a box where some sort of bigwig sits. I don’t know who the bigwig is. It’s never a queen – as far as I can make out, the queens spend their lives underground, turning out eggs at the rate of fifty a second. Not the sort of life Earth royalty would have enjoyed in the old days. Under the bigwig’s box there is a red banner with their insect hieroglyphs on. I asked Ik So once what the hieroglyphs said. He told me they meant – well, in a rough translation – The Greatest Show on Earth. It’s funny, isn’t it?’
‘You must admit we do make a show.’
‘No, you miss the point. You see, that used to be the legend of circuses in the old days. But they’ve adopted it for their own use since they invaded Earth. They’re boasting of their conquest.’
‘And that’s funny?’
‘In a sort of way. Don’t you feel ashamed that this planet which saw the birth of the human race should be overrun by insects?’
‘No. The reduls were here before me. I was just born here. Weren’t you?’
‘No, I wasn’t. I was born on Washington IV. It’s a lovely planet. There are hundreds of planets out there as fine and varied as Earth once was – but it kind of rankles to think that this insect brood rules Earth.’
‘If you feel so upset about it, why don’t you do something?’
He knotted his fists together. You should start explaining history and economics just before you ran out to be chopped to bits by a big rampant thing with circular saws for hands?
‘It would cost mankind too much to reconquer this planet. Too difficult. Too many deaths just for sentiment. And think of all those queens squirting eggs at a rate of knots; humans don’t breed that fast. Humanity has learned to face facts.’ She laughed without humour.
‘That’s good. Why don’t you learn to face the fact of me?’
Javlin had nothing to say to that; she would not understand that directly he saw her he knew his hope of keeping his life had died. She was just a liability. Soon he would be dying, panting his juices out into the dust like that game young centaur … only it wouldn’t be dust.
‘We fight in two feet of water,’ he said. ‘You know that? The yillibeeth like it. It slows our speed a bit. We might drown instead of having our heads bitten off.’
‘I can hear someone coming down the corridor. It may be our armour,’ she said coolly.
‘Did you hear what I said?’
‘You can’t wait to die, Javlin, can you?’
The bars fell away on the outside of the door, and it opened. The keeper stood there. Ik So Baar had not appeared as he usually did. The creature flung in their armour and weapons and retreated, barring the door again behind him. It never ceased to astonish Javlin that those great dumb brutes of workers had intelligence.
He stooped to pick up his uniform. The girl’s looked so light and small. He lifted it, looking from it to her.
‘Thank you,’ she said.
‘It looks so small and new.’
‘I shouldn’t want anything heavier.’
‘You’ve fought in it?’
‘Twice.’ There was no need to ask whether she had won.
‘We’d better get the stuff strapped on, then. We shall know when they are getting ready for us; you’ll hear the arena being filled with water. They’re probably saving us for the main events just before noon.’
‘I didn’t know about the two feet of water.’
‘Scare you?’
‘No. I’m a good swimmer. Swam for fish in the river on the slave farm.’
‘You caught fish with your bare hands?’
‘No, you dive down and stab them with a sharp rock. It takes practice.’
It was a remembered pleasure. She’d actually swum in one of Earth’s rivers. He caught himself smiling back into her face.
‘Ik So’s place is in the desert,’ he said, making his voice cold. ‘Anyhow, you won’t be able to swim in the arena. Two feet of muddy stinking water helps nobody. And you’ll be chained onto me with a four-foot length of chain.’
‘Let’s get our armour on, then you’d better tell me all you know. Perhaps we can work out a plan of campaign.’
As he picked up the combined breastplate and shoulder guard, Awn untied her belt and lifted her dress over her head. Underneath she wore only a ragged pair of white briefs. She commenced to take those off.
Javlin stared at her with surprise – and pleasure. It had been years since he had been within hailing distance of a woman. This one – yes, this one was a beauty.
‘What are you doing that for?’ he asked. He hardly recognised his own voice.
‘The less we have on the better in that water. Aren’t you going to take your clothes off?’
He shook his head. Embarrassed, he fumbled on the rest of his kit. At least she wouldn’t look so startling with her breastplate and skirt