"That is Marla," Ah-li was saying. "We shall have to put the light-force up now for the season of the growing of genes. The time has come."
With his questions, she tried to make it clear. The radiance off there which enveloped the little settlement was inherent to the ground itself. Most of the Marlans of this little world lived here. And those others who were nearby, now at the season of the growing of the genes, would come flocking into the glow. A few days, a week or two; and then the genes would die away until the next cycle of their growth. But even this natural glow was not sufficient to hold them off, so that the Marlans set up around their settlement what Ah-li called a light-fence. A sort of barrage; a few hundred little braziers of Xarite, set at intervals on the ground, their spreading glow mingling one with the other, encircling the village. A barrage which no gene would dare pass.
"I see," Atwood murmured. "But Ah-li, where do you get that Xarite? Near here?"
"Oh, yes." She gestured toward the dark little line of hills off to the left. "It is there. Most of it, in grottos underground. You see, it is not far."
"And what's it like? Loose in the caves?"
He held his breath for her answer. "Yes," she said. "The Drall-stone. It lies loose in the caves."
Triumph swept him. He could get his insulated cylinder packed with Xarite, and then get back to his Spaceship and away. And take Ah-li with him.
"Listen," he began, "show me the way to one of those caves. I want to see—"
"Here is water, for us to swim," she interrupted. "The flesh of the genes is still on us."
Heaven knew he had been conscious of it. A little stream of purplish phosphorescent water, impregnated no doubt with the Xarite, came babbling down the slope here from the distant hills. He and Ah-li plunged in; came out, with the purple phosphorescence of the water dripping from them.