Dalgard had seen no
arms except the bows and the sword-knives carried by all venturing
away from Homeport. And what use would a bow or a foot or two of
sharpened metal be against things which could kill from a distance or
turn rock itself into a flowing, molten river?

He was impatient to move on, to reach this city of forgotten knowledge
which Sssuri was sure lay before them. Perhaps the colonists could
draw upon what was stored there as well as Those Others could.

Then he remembered--not only remembered but was corrected by Sssuri.
"Think not of taking _their_ weapons into your hands." Sssuri did not
look up as he gave that warning. "Long ago your fathers' fathers knew
that the knowledge of Those Others was not for their taking."

A dimly remembered story, a warning impressed upon him during his
first guided trips into the ruins near Homeport flashed into Dalgard's
mind. Yes, he knew that some things had been forbidden to his kind.
For one, it was best not to examine too closely the bands of color
patterns which served Those Others as a means of written record. Tapes
of the aliens' records had been found and stored at Homeport. But not
one of the colonists had ventured to try to break the color code and
learn what lay locked in those bands. Once long ago such an experiment
had led to the brink of disaster, and such delvings were now
considered too dangerous to be allowed.

But there was no harm in visiting this city, and certainly he must
make some report to the Council about what might be taking place here,
especially if Those Others were in residence or visited the site.

Sssuri still kept to the fields, avoiding the highway, until
mid-morning, and then he made an abrupt turn and brought them out on
the soil-drifted surface of the road. The land here was seemingly
deserted. No moth birds performed their air ballets overhead, and they
did not see a single hopper. That is, they did not until the road
dipped before them and they started down into a cupped hollow filled
with buildings. The river, whose delta they had earlier seen, made a
half loop about the city, lacing it in. And here were no signs of the
warfare which had ruined the port.

But in the middle of the road lay a bloody bunch of fur and splintered
bone, insects busy about it. Sssuri used the point of his spear to
straighten out the small corpse, displaying its headlessness. And
before they reached the outer buildings of the city they found four
mor