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The Tree.
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That evening, an officer who introduced himself as Tarshkrat came for him. He followed the billowing
cloak of the giant into the office of Shegnif. The Grand Vizier asked Ulysses to sit down and offered him
a dark winy liquid. Ulysses accepted it with thanks but did not drink much. Even that little made his veins
sing.
Shegnif snuffed the stuff up his trunk and squirted it into his mouth while tears of pleasure, or pain, ran
down his cheeks. The stone container before him held more than two gallons of the liquor, but he did not
drink much. He just tried to give the impression that he did. While listening to Ulysses' speech, he dipped
the trunk frequently into the stone vessel. But he was probably just stirring the liquid with the tip of his
trunk.
Finally, he held up a hand for Ulysses to stop talking, and he rumbled, "So you think that The Tree is not
an intelligent entity?"
"No, I do not think it is," Ulysses said. "I think the Dhulhulikh would like everybody to believe that it is."
"You are probably sincere in your belief," the Grand Vizier thundered. "But I know that you are wrong. I
know that The Tree is a single sentient being!"
Ulysses sat even more upright, and said, "How do you know?"
"The Book of Tiznak has told us that," Shegnif said. "Rather, it has told some of us that. I cannot read
the Book except here and there. But I believe those who claim they can read about The Tree."
"I do not know what you mean."
"Nor do I expect you to know. But you will know. I'll see to that."
"Whether or not The Tree is sentient, it grows," Ulysses said. "It will cover this land in about fifty years at
its present rate of growth. And where will you Neshgai go then?"
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"The Tree seems to be limited in its growth near the seacoast," the Grand Vizier said. "Otherwise it
would have covered us up long ago. It is growing northward and will eventually shadow all the land to the
north. Except near the coast. It is not the growth of The Tree itself that we fear. We fear the peoples of
The Tree. The Tree has been sending them against us, and it will not stop until it has exterminated us or
forced us to go live with it."
"You really believe that?" Ulysses said.
"I know that!"
"What about the Dhulhulikh?"
"I did not know, until you told me, that they lived in The Tree. They had always claimed they came from
the north. If your story is true, then they are our enemy. They are, you might say, the eyes of The Tree.
Just as the other peoples, the Vignoom and so forth, are the hands of The Tree."
Ulysses said, "If The Tree is an entity with intelligence, then it should have a central brain. And this brain,
once located, could be destroyed. If The Tree is just a mindless vegetable entity which the Dhulhulikh
control, then the Dhulhulikh can be located and destroyed."
Shegnif pondered this for a few minutes. Ulysses watched him over the top of his tall glass and took a
sip of the strong stuff. How strange, he thought, to be sitting in a Brobdingnagian chair and talking to a
being descended from elephants, talking about little winged men and a plant that might have a brain or
many brains.
Shegnif curled his trunk up and back and rubbed his forehead with its double-tendriled tip. He said,
"How would killing the central brain of The Tree or killing all the Dhulhulikh stop The Tree from
growing?"
"If you kill the brain of an animal, you kill the entire animal," Ulysses said. "This may hold true for a
complex vegetable entity, in which case The Tree will die. And the Neshgai will have enough firewood to
last them a thousand years," he added.
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Shegnif did not smile. Perhaps the Neshgai sense of humour was not that of humans.
"If the brain is dead but The Tree still lives, The Tree is at least not organising its people to attack you.
They are primitives, relatively few in number, who would be warring against each other if The Tree, or
the batpeople, did not prevent it.
"If The Tree is only a means for the Dhulhulikh to control this land, then killing the Dhulhulikh will
disorganise the other peoples who live on it. And then we may attack the problem of killing The Tree
itself. I would suggest poisoning it."
"That would take much poison," Shegnif said.
"I have much knowledge of poisons."
Shegnif ridged his skin where his eyebrows would have been if he had them. "Indeed? Well, poisons
aside, how could you possibly locate the Dhulhulikh? Or attack them? They have all the advantages."
Ulysses told him how he thought it could be done. He talked for more than an hour. Shegnif finally said
that he had heard enough. He would have rejected his ideas at once if anyone else had submitted them.
But Ulysses had said that the devices he would build had once been commonplace, and he saw no
reason to doubt him. He would have to think about the proposal.
Slightly tipsy, Ulysses left the Grand Vizier. He was optimistic, but he knew that Shegnif would be
talking again to the bat-men, and there was no telling how they might influence him.
The officer who conducted him led him to a suite of rooms instead of the barracks. Ulysses asked him
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