asked. "We'll tell you, we'll show you, if we can. "
Speaker in turn looked at Miro and Ouanda. "What should I ask them? I know so little that I don't know what we need to know."
Miro looked to Ouanda.
"You have no stone or metal tools," she said. "But your house is made of wood, and so are your bows and arrows."
Human stood, waiting. The silence lengthened. "But what is your question?" Human finally said.
How could he have missed the connection? Miro thought.
"We humans," said Speaker, "use tools of stone or metal to cut down trees, when we want to shape them into houses or arrows or clubs like the ones I see some of you carrying. "
It took a moment for the Speaker's words to sink in. Then, suddenly, all the piggies were on their feet. They began running around madly, purposelessly, sometimes bumping into each other or into trees or the log houses. Most of them were silent, but now and then one of them would wail, exactly as they had cried out a few minutes ago. It was eerie, the almost silent insanity of the piggies, as if they had suddenly lost control of their bodies. All the years of careful noncommunication, refraining from telling the piggies anything, and now Speaker breached that policy and the result was this madness.
Human emerged from the chaos and threw himself to the ground in front of Speaker. "O Speaker!" he cried loudly. "Promise that you'll never let them cut my father Rooter with their stone and metal tools! If you want to murder someone, there are ancient brothers who will give themselves, or I will gladly die, but don't let them kill my father!"
"Or my father!" cried the other piggies. "Or mine!"
"We would never have planted Rooter so close to the fence," said Mandachuva, "if we had known you werewere varelse."
Speaker raised his hands again. "Has any human cut a tree in Lusitania? Never. The law here forbids it. You have nothing to fear from us."
There was a silence as the piggies became still. Finally Human picked himself up from the ground. "You've made us fear humans all the more," he said to Speaker. "I wish you had never come to our forest."
Ouanda's voice rang out above his. "How can you say that after the way you murdered my father!"
Human looked at her with astonishment, unable to answer. Miro put his arm around Ouanda's shoulders. And the Speaker for the Dead spoke into the silence. "You promised me that you'd answer all my questions. I ask you now: How do you build a house made of wood, and the bow and arrows that this one carries, and those clubs. We've told you the only way we know; you tell me another way, the way you do it."
"The brother gives himself," said Human. "I told you. We tell the ancient brother of our need, and we show him the shape, and he gives himself."
"Can we see how it's done?" said Ender.
Human looked around at the other piggies. "You want us to ask a brother to give himself, just so you can see it? We don't need a new house, not for years yet, and we have all the arrows we need - "
"Show him!"
Miro turned, as the others also turned, to see Leaf-eater re-emerging from the forest. He walked purposefully into the middle of the clearing; he did not look at them, and he spoke as if he were a herald, a town crier, not caring whether anyone was listening to him or not. He spoke in the Wives' Language, and Miro could understand only bits and pieces.
"What is he saying?" whispered the Speaker.
Miro, still kneeling beside him, translated as best he could. "He went to the wives, apparently, and they said to do whatever you asked. But it isn't that simple, he's telling them that - I don't know these words - something about all of them dying. Something about brothers dying, anyway. Look at them - they aren't afraid, any of them. "
"I don't know what their fear looks like," said Speaker. "I don't know these people at all."
"I don't either," said Miro. "I've got to hand it to you - you've caused more excitement here in half an hour than I've seen in years of coming here."
"It's a gift I was born with," said the Speaker. "I'll make you a bargain. I won't tell anybody about your Questionable Activities. And you don't tell anybody who