"Well," said Geo, "I guess we head for the river, so we can get back to
your sister and Jordde."
"Jordde?" asked Argo. "Who's he?"
"He's a spy for the blind priestesses. He's also the one who cut Snake's
tongue out."
"Cut his--?" Suddenly she stopped. "That's right: four arms, his
tongue--I remember now, in the film!"
"In the what?" asked Iimmi. "What do you remember?"
Argo turned to Snake. "I remember where I saw you before!"
"You know Snake?" Urson asked.
"No, I never met him. But about a month ago I saw a movie of what
happened. It was horrible what they did to him."
"What's a movie?" asked Iimmi.
"Huh?" said Argo. "Oh, it's sort of like the vision screens, only you
can see things that happened in the past. Anyway, Dunderhead showed me
this film about a month ago. Then he took me down to the beach and said
I should have seen something there, because of what I'd learned."
"See something?" Iimmi almost yelled. "What was it?" He took her
shoulder and shook it. "What was it you were supposed to see?"
"Why...?" began the girl, startled.
"Because a friend of mine was murdered and I almost was too because of
something we saw on that beach. Only I don't know what it was."
"But ..." began Argo. "But I don't either. I couldn't see it, so
Dunderhead took me back to the temple."
"Snake?" Geo asked. "Do you know what they were supposed to see? Or why
Argo was taken to see it after she was shown what happened to you?"
The boy shrugged.
Iimmi turned on Snake. "Do you know, or are you just not telling? Come
on now. That's the only reason I stuck with this so far, and I want to
know what's going on!"
Snake shook his head.
"I want to know why I was nearly killed," shouted the Negro. "You know
and I want you to tell me!" Iimmi raised his hand.
Snake screamed. The sound tore over the distended vocal cords. Then he
whirled and ran.
Urson caught him and brought the boy crashing down among leaves. "No you
don't," the giant growled. "You're not going to get away from me this
time. You won't get away from me again."
"Watch it," said Argo. "You're hurting him. Urson, let go!"
"Hey, ease up," said Iimmi. "Snake, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell.
But I do want you to tell me. Very much."
Urson let the boy up, still mumbling, "Well, he's not going to get away
again."
"When did he get away from you the first time?" Geo said, coming over to
the boy. "Let him go. Look, Snake, do you know what there was about the
beach that was so important?"
Snake nodded.
"Can you tell?"
Now the boy shook his head and glanced at Urson.
"You don't have to be afraid of him," Geo said, puzzled. "Urson won't
hurt you."
But Snake shook his head again.
"Well," said Geo, "we can't make you. Let's get going."
"I bet I could make him," the giant mumbled.
"No," said Argo. "I don't think you could. I watched the last time
somebody tried. And I don't think you could."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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