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The millipede had lowered its forepart to Robin's height as it listened to her. Now it smiled with its thin, sliced mouth
and asked gently. "What is your religion?"
"Oh, come on!" Robin snapped. "None of that!"
"Then what is your view of reality?" the millipede asked.
Nikki noticed that everyone in the crowd was standing silently, listening to the foreigner as though it were an oracle
from the stars. How stupid could they be? Did they really think this thing was going to tell them some great truth
they'd never heard from the thousand temples in Cirque, just because it came from somewhere else?
Sure, that was exactly what they thought. That was why they all came out to meet it to hear it talk about things it had
seen out near Aldebaran, or what it thought of Cirque, or how it felt to walk around on twenty or thirty legs. As
thought any of that meant anything.
"I'm just a Centrist," Robin said to the millipede. "You know the world radiates out from the Abyss because God
lives down there, where it's dark and nobody can see. But I'm not sure I really believe that even."
"Hey!" said one of the other children. "Did you know there's some real scary thing coming out of the Abyss? There
was a broadcast this morning."
"I do know that," said the millipede. "I want to see it. That is why I have come."
Jordan spoke up: "You mean you can tune in to the broadcasts too? I thought only humans could see them."
The millipede turned its head to him, lifting it further from the ground, blinking slowly. "I do not see your broadcasts. I
know of what is happening now in your
75 " CIRQUE
Abyss because this eraption is famous on my world. How could it not become famous?"
"Already?" said Jordan.
"Not already in time," the millipede said. "It will take days for this news to reach Aldebaran.
It's talking in riddles, Nikki thought. The better to im-press the heathens, of course.
"You never answered my question," Robin said. "I bet you don't even know the answer."
The millipede regarded her silently, then lowered its head till it was looking up at her from the ground. It
said, "That is true. I do not know of any purpose to life. There are so many people living now, yesterday,
tomorrow. There is no end to life, so if there is purpose it is never achieved. One person dies; a thousand
die; stars fade into blackness. All the purposes that people imagine die with them. And other people live
somewhere else with other purposes. Nothing is .ever an end. How can there be a purpose such as you
ask?"
Robin was making crosses in the dust with her heel, one after another, rapidly. She said, "I didn't ask you
about stars or anything. Forget it." She looked up at Nikki. "People who don't know anything aren't
interesting," she said.
There was an embarrassed silence. Nikki thought: Well, we've been rude to our visitor, and it hasn't even
gotten past the Gate.
But the millipede showed no sign of resentment. Raising its head into the air, forefeet waving, it asked, "Is
the River Fundament near?"
Several people tried to answer at once, Jordan among them. Nikki stepped forward and put her hand on the
millipede's sparsely furred back, forcing herself not to shudder. "I'll show you," she said magnanimously, and
guided the foreigner westward through the crowd. It wasn't as awful to touch as she'd expected; its fur
was soft, its skin surprisingly cool in the sun.
TERRY CARR " 76
The crowd followed them, and Nikki saw Robin star-ing at her with a look of betrayal. She suppressed a
grin. Kid, she thought, you've got a lot to learn about people.
"Here we are." Nikki guided the millipede toward a grey, sun-bleached dock where four gravity boats were
tied up. A single attendant lounged in the shade of his boathouse, placidly watching the approaching cr,owd
of people. He was used to crowds: the gravity boats on the River Fundament were popular with the tourists
hi Cirque and with the people of Cirque themselves.
The river flowed slowly past, bounded by high banks covered with dense foliage: wild strawberry vines,
flower-ing bushes, tree ferns, alders growing outward from the banks and curving up toward the sun. The
river was a soft blue here, its surface smooth, the lush banks of the western side reflected in it like a
memory of jungles.
The millipede paused at the top of the steps that went down to the dock. It peered upriver, its head bobbing
in the air. Then it slowly turned to scan the river as it flowed past and slipped quietly under the walls of
Cirque to the left. The millipede's fur stirred under Nikki's hand; she dropped her hand to her side.
"I feel honor," the millipede said.
"You'll feel more than that when you shoot the First Cataract," Nikki told it. "I'll bet there isn't anything like
it out in space."
Nikki had never ridden the gravity boats, either as her-self or as any of the other Nikkis, but everyone hi
Cirque knew of them. Sometimes the broadcasts included a trip downriver by some visitor; their reactions
were exciting.
"There is only one River Fundament," the millipede said. "There are rivers on every planet if not today,
then yesterday or tomorrow. None is the Fundament."
"Come on," said Nikki, urging the creature down the steps. The attendant had come eut «f his beathouse
when te saw the millipede; now he came forward to wait at the bottom of the steps, smiling bis tourist
smile.
77 " CIRQUE
Jordan had caught up to NikM and now walked beside her down the steps. He asked the millipede, "Is the
River Fundament famous on your world, then?"
"Very famous," said the millipede. "From the present time to centuries to come. It has given nourishment to
the eruption hi your Abyss, you see. It is a fortunate river."
"You seem to know a lot about Cirque that we don't know ourselves," Jordan said. "Are you sure you
haven't been listening to wild rumors?"
Robin laughed at that as though it were hilariously funny; but when no one else laughed she abruptly quieted
and looked annoyed.
"The city of Cirque is famous on my world," explained the millipede. "Its Abyss, its River Fundament, all are
famous. We of course have senses that you lack just as you can see broadcasts in your minds that we do
not see. Surely you know- much about Cirque that I shall never know."
They had reached the boat landing, Nikki and Jordan and the millipede, with the crowd close behind them.
The attendant, short and muscled in a red undershirt, stepped forward. He shook one of the millipede's
forefeet with his right hand, and another with his left. "Well come to the Winter Gate of Cirque," he said.
He had an accent, Nikki noticed not one of the Cirque accents, but one from the hills to the north. How
typical that an outlander should greet visitors to the city.
"I feel honor," the millipede said. "I shall ride a gravity boat all the way to the Abyss. I should like to pay for
the boat now."
The attendant shook his head as the millipede began to rummage in its green leather pouch. "Oh no, no need
to pay we provide the boat rides free for visitors."
"When a boat is damaged, it is the responsibility of the persen who has chartered it, is that correct?" asked
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