ad idea at that," he added, turning to Naxa. "Do
you hear any animals around the ship now? Not the ones you're used to,
but the mutated, violent kind that live only to attack the city."

"Place's crawling with 'em," Naxa said, "just lookin' for somethin'
t'kill."

"Could you capture one?" Jason asked. "Without getting yourself killed,
I mean."

Naxa snorted contempt as he turned to leave. "Beast's not born yet,
that'll hurt me."

They stood quietly, each one wrapped tightly around by his own thoughts,
while they waited for Naxa to return. Jason had nothing more to say. He
would do one more thing to try and convince them of the facts, after
that it would be up to each of them to reach a conclusion.

* * * * *

The talker returned quickly with a stingwing, tied by one leg to a
length of leather. It flapped and shrieked as he carried it in.

"In the middle of the room, away from everybody," Jason told him. "Can
you get that beast to sit on something and not flap around?"

"My hand good enough?" he asked, flipping the creature up so it clung to
the back of his gauntlet. "That's how I caught it."

"Does anyone doubt that this is a real stingwing?" Jason asked. "I want
to make sure you all believe there is no trickery here."

"The thing is real," Brucco said. "I can smell the poison in the
wing-claws from here." He pointed to the dark marks on the leather where
the liquid had dripped. "If that eats through the gloves, he's a dead
man."

"Then we agree it's real," Jason said. "Real and deadly, and the only
test of the theory will be if you people from the city can approach it
like Naxa here."

They drew back automatically when he said it. Because they knew that
stingwing was synonymous with death. Past, present and future. You don't
change a natural law. Meta spoke for all of them.

"We ... can't. This man lives in the jungle, like an animal himself.
Somehow he's learned to get near them. But you can't expect us to."

Jason spoke quickly, before the talker could react to the insult. "Of
course I expect you to. That's the whole idea. If you don't hate the
beast and expect it to attack you--why it won't. Think of it as a
creature from a different planet, something harmless."

"I can't," she said. "It's a _stingwing_!"

As they talked Brucco stepped forward, his eyes fixed steadily on the
creature perched on the glove. Jason signaled the bowmen to hold their
fire. Brucco stopped