Free Breed to Come by Andre Norton Page B

or maimed at their will.
    "But it was because of this that we grew in ourminds—as the Demons dwindled and died. For theyforced on us their fatal sickness, trying to discoversome cure. But us it did not slay nor render sterile.
    Instead, though our females had fewer younglings,those younglings were different, abler in ways.
    "And the Demons, learning too late that they hadset those they considered lowly servants on a trailwhich would lead those servants to walk as theirequals, tried then to hunt them down and slay them, since they wished not that we should live when theydied. But many escaped from the lairs, and those wereour forefathers, and those of the Barkers, and theTusked Ones.
    "The Rattons went underground, and because "theywere much smaller, even than they are today, theycould hide where the Demons could not find them.And they lived in the dark, waiting, breeding their warriors.
    "The hunting of our people by the Demons was atime of great pain and terror and darkness. And it setin us a fear of the lairs, so great a fear that it kept ourpeople away, even when the last Demon met death.That was a disservice to us, for it cost us time. Andeven now, when I send to the tribes and tell them ofthe wonders waiting them here, few conquer theirfears and come."
    "But if we learn the Demon's knowledge," askedFurtig slowly, "will not all their evil learning perhapsbe mixed with the good, so that in the end we will gothe same way?"
    "Can we ever forget what happened to them? Lookabout you, Furtig. Is there forgetting here?
    No, wecan accept the good, remembering always that wemust not say 'I am mightier than the world whichholds me, it is mine to be used as I please!' "
    What Gammage said was exciting. But, Furtigwondered, would it awake the same excitement in, say, such an Elder as Fal-Kan? The People of thecaves, of the western tribe, were well content with life as it was. They had their customs, and a warrior didthis or that, spoke thus, even as his father before him.
    A female became a Chooser and set up her own household, even as her mother. Ask them to break such patterns and be as these of Gammage's clan, who paidmore attention to learning the ways of Demons thanto custom? He could foresee a greater difficulty thanGammage could imagine in that. Look at what theElders now said of the Ancestor, in spite of his yearsof free giving, because he had tried to breach customin a few of their ways.
    While he was with Gammage, listening to the Ancestor, inwardly marveling at the fact that it was because of the will and curiosity of this single memberof his own cave that the lairs had been invaded, that its secrets were being pried open, Furtig could believethat this Elder was right. Nothing mattered save thatthey learn, and learn in a race against time with someinvisible enemy who might at any moment arrive todo battle. And that the only weapons which would adequately protect them were those they still sought inthat time race.
    However, Furtig's own part was not only insignificant but humiliating. For he, a seasoned warrior, must return to the status of youngling, studying withthose half his age, even less. For learning here did not go by seasons reckoned from one's birth, but ratherby the speed with which one absorbed lessons in the instruction rooms.
    He wore that ill-fitting headgear until his headached. So equipped, he watched pictures flit across the wall, listened to that gabble of voice whereinabout every third word had no meaning for a hunter warrior. And those in the room sharing these periodsof instruction were all so young!
    The air of superiority worn by the lair peoplechilled him, seemed to erect an unscalable barrier.
    The adults Furtig dealt with were curt, always hurried. If they had any leisure, they spent it in somesection to which he had not been invited. None wereinterested in Furtig as an individual, but merely asanother mind to be pushed and pulled through learning.
    His resentment grew, coloring what he