"That gives me another good reason to kill her," Longbow said. Then he paused. "Male bugs aren't really very important, are they?"
"Only at breeding time," Keselo replied. "There's no such thing as a king bee—or a king ant."
"Has Dahlaine ever found the exact location of the nest of the Vlagh?" Omago asked.
"Oh, yes," Keselo replied. "He knows exactly where she is. If it was permitted, he could probably obliterate her and all of her children." The young Trogite frowned. "That's one thing I've never understood. Dahlaine is a god, and he can do almost anything—except kill any living creature. I wouldn't be at all surprised if chopping down a tree would obliterate him."
"It worked quite well recently," Longbow said. "Aracia really wanted to obliterate Enalla. Wars between various people aren't really all that significant, but a war between gods might just set the world on fire."
"Has Dahlaine ever described the servants of the Vlagh?" Omago asked. "I mean, just exactly what are they supposed to do?"
"They feed Mother," Keselo replied, "and keep her warm, of course. I'm just guessing here, but I'd say that if there wasn't anything for the Vlagh to eat, her servants would offer her themselves, and they'd set themselves on fire if she started to shiver. Self-sacrifice seems to show up quite often in the nest of the Vlagh."
"I think we might be getting somewhere now," Omago said. "The Vlagh has been modifying her children since last spring. She's been turning them into imitation people—except that they have no sense at all of self. If there was some way that we could give them a sense of personal identity, they might not be so eager to sacrifice themselves."
"Persuade one of the others to do it instead, maybe?" Keselo suggested.
"That would probably be the first step," Omago agreed.
"They'd have to have names then," Keselo added. "The name lies at the very core of personal identity." He hesitated slightly. "I didn't come up with that all by myself," he admitted. "One of my teachers at the university dropped it on us. He made quite an issue of it when he told us that a man without a name is not a man. He never got around to telling us just exactly what a man without a name really was, though."
"We'll have to pick up Rabbit before we go out into the Wasteland," Longbow reminded them.
Omago blinked, and then he felt a bit embarrassed. "We will, won't we?" he said. "I should have thought of that myself."
"And now we are—or will be—four," Keselo declared quite formally. Then he laughed. "Sorry," he apologized. "It was just too good an opportunity to let slide by."
Chapter Two
"re you certain that we're really going to need that Maag called Rabbit?" Omago asked Longbow and Keselo a bit later.
"He's very clever," Keselo replied, "and on several occasions he's come up with ways to accomplish things that never would have even occurred to me." The young Trogite smiled. "It just wouldn't be the same without him," he added.
"Do either of you have any idea of exactly where I might be able to locate him?"
"Sorgan Hook-Beak would know," Longbow replied, "and Sorgan's almost certainly in Aracia's temple—stealing everything of value in that oversized building. I can go down there and find him, if you like."
"I'll take care of it, Longbow," Omago replied. "I have certain advantages that aren't available to you."
"You're going to fly, I take it."
"Well—sort of," Omago said. "I can go from here to there very fast when it's necessary."
"You have a tame thunderbolt the same as Dahlaine has?" Keselo asked.
Omago smiled. "Not exactly," he said. "Why don't we just leave it there? It's one of those things you really don't want to know about. Rabbit and I should be here in a day or so. Then we can go to the nest of the Vlagh and see what we can do to disrupt things for her."
Omago went down the stone staircase to the center of Gunda's fort, and when he was out of the sight of Longbow and Keselo, he rose rapidly up into the still, night-dark air and willed himself to the shabby stone building Aracia's overweight priests had constructed to make their owner happy.
He sent out his thought in search of Rabbit, but the little smith wasn't there. He did sense the presence of Sorgan's cousin Torl, however, and he dropped down into the temple to have a few words with the clever Maag. "I've been looking for Rabbit," he said, "but I can't seem to find him anywhere here."
"You're the farmer called Omago, aren't you?" Torl asked.
"That's me all right," Omago replied. "Longbow the archer wants to have a few words with Rabbit, but I can't find the little fellow."
"He's out in the harbor on board that Trogite tub called the Ascension" Torl said. "We found out that the bricks that made the walls of Aracia's throne room are actually gold blocks and cousin Sorgan put Rabbit to work melting them down and making small blocks out of them. A big gold block is worth too much to waste on little things. Smaller gold blocks work better." He squinted at Omago. "Do you think you could row a skiff across the harbor to the Ascension?" he asked. "I'd row you out there myself, but cousin Sorgan has me busy doing other things now."
"I can manage, Torl," Omago said. "I thank you for the information. I could have spent a week or more looking for Rabbit here in this overdone temple. Give your cousin my regards."
"I'll do that, Omago," Torl replied.
Omago went back outside the temple and located the Ascension out in the harbor. Then he willed himself from the beach to the ship's deck, and he could clearly hear the sound of a hammer pounding on something made of iron near the ship's bow.
"Ah, there you are, Rabbit," he said to the little smith. "Why are you working in the middle of the night like this?"
"Cap'n's orders," Rabbit said sourly. "He doesn't really trust all the sailors here on this oversized tub, and I'm working with gold, so the cap'n would rather that I didn't do it out in the open in broad daylight."
"I heard a somewhat peculiar sound up here when I first came up on the deck of this boat. Does gold really ring like a bell when you tap it with your hammer?"
"That was the mold," Rabbit explained. "The gold the cap'n stole from Lady Aracia's temple was mostly used for disguised bricks that had been used to make her throne room. I've been melting it down and pouring it into molds. After it hardens, I tap the back of the mold to make the gold blocks break loose."