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“What’s it got on its face?” asked Loaf.
“My guess is it drank from the stream,” said Umbo.
“I think so too,” said Rigg.
“You mean it picked up that parasite? That facemask thing?” asked Olivenko.
“Whatever it’s got on its head, it’s alive. A separate creature. With its own path.”
“Every time the beast smacks it or scrapes at it,” said Umbo, “it gets bigger. Spreads more, I mean. There’s a strand of it going into the poor beast’s ear.”
“So all the barbfeather’s efforts to get rid of it are actually helping it attach more firmly,” said Rigg.
“What a clever evolutionary ploy,” said Olivenko. “Facemasks that could make use of the beating and scraping would have a better chance of survival.”
“Maybe all the fear and aversion allow the facemask to find the right parts of the brain to attach to in order to get control,” suggested Rigg.
“You sound so excited,” said Param. “Has anybody noticed what this means?”
“That Vadesh wasn’t lying about the parasite, you mean?” asked Loaf. “That’s obvious.”
“I mean that we’re totally dependent on Vadesh for our drinking water,” said Param.
“You know,” said Umbo, “I’m thinking we ought to be able to find a place to slink back through the Wall and just figure out how to stay alive in our own wallfold.”
“Let’s see,” said Loaf. “A land with one dangerous parasite, or a place where thousands of soldiers will be looking for us and everybody else will be happy to turn us over to them in exchange for a reward.” He made weighing motions with his hands.
“They’re only looking for me and Param,” said Rigg. “Why don’t the rest of you go back?”
“And leave us here alone?” Param didn’t even try to conceal the panic in her voice.
“They’d still catch us,” said Loaf. “And then torture us till we told them where you were. And since they wouldn’t believe the truth . . .”
“I was just saying that you don’t have to stay here,” said Rigg. “I didn’t claim it would be perfectly safe.”
“What do we do about this poor animal?” asked Param.
Rigg looked at her in surprise. “Do?”
“It’s in so much distress,” said Param.
“Of course it is,” said Rigg. “It’s got a parasite sticking to its head that’s trying to invade its brain.”
“Well, we brought it here,” said Param.
“I suppose we did,” said Rigg. “But it’s from this world and, if Vadesh is telling the truth—and about these facemask things he seems to be—then the parasites are natives here, just like old barbfeather. So if we hadn’t pulled him to now to run into this parasite, he might just as easily have had exactly the same thing happen to him back then.”
“Except that the world was just about to end for him anyway,” said Loaf. “Our ancestors were about to wipe him out along with all his cousins, right? We saved him.”
“I can see now that he ought to be grateful,” said Param.
“Look, if you gave him a choice between parasite on his face and dead, what do you think he’d choose?” asked Rigg.
“Look what he actually is choosing,” said Umbo.
Param nodded but she clearly didn’t like it. “Life,” she said.
“Animals that don’t cling to it no matter what don’t survive long enough to make babies,” said Olivenko. “We don’t want to die.”
