Hothouse - Brian Aldiss [37]
Toy took no notice. Within inches of those strangulating white roots, she and Poyly struggled to set Driff free. The latter’s leg was caught between two sandwiching slabs of wood. At last one of these shifted, so that she could be dragged away. Seizing her between them, Poyly and Toy ran for the long grass where the others crouched, and Gren ran with them.
For minutes they all lay panting. They were covered in stickiness and filth and nearly unrecognizable.
Toy was the first to sit up. She turned to Gren and said in a voice cold with rage, ‘Gren, I dismiss you from the group. You are an outcast from now on.’
Gren jumped up, tears in his eyes, conscious of their stares. Banishment was the most terrible punishment that could be used against anyone. It was rarely invoked against females; to invoke it against a male was almost unheard of.
‘You can’t do this!’ he cried. ‘Why should you do this? You have no reason.’
‘You hit me,’ Toy said. ‘I am your leader but you hit me. You tried to stop Driff from being rescued, you would have let her die. And always you want your own way. I cannot lead you, so you must go.’
The others, all but Driff, were standing now, open-mouthed and anxious.
‘It’s lies, lies!’
‘No, it is true.’ Then she weakened and turned to the five faces anxiously regarding her. ‘Isn’t it true?’
Driff, clutching her hurt leg, agreed heartily that it was. Shree, being Driff’s friend, also agreed. Veggy and May merely nodded their heads without speaking; they were feeling guilty because they had not also gone to the rescue of Driff, and compensated for it by breaking up Toy now. The only note of dissent came unexpectedly from Toy’s dearest friend, Poyly.
‘Never mind if what you say is true or not,’ Poyly declared. ‘But for Gren we would now be dead inside that bellyelm. He saved us there, and we should be grateful.’
‘No, the killerwillow saved us,’ Toy said.
‘If it had not been for Gren – ’
‘Keep out of this Poyly. You saw him hit me. He must go from the group. I say he must be outcast.’
The two women faced each other angrily, hands on knives, their cheeks red.
‘He is our man. We cannot let him go!’ Poyly said. ‘You talk rubbish, Toy.’
‘We have Veggy still, or have you forgotten?’
‘Veggy is only a man child, and you know it!’
Angrily Veggy jumped up.
‘I’m old enough to do it to you, Poyly, you fat thing,’ he cried, hopping about and exposing himself. ‘Look how I’m made – just as good as Gren!’
But they cuffed him down and went on quarrelling, Benefiting by this example, the others also began to quarrel. Only when Gren burst into angry tears did they fall silent.
‘You are all fools,’ he cried between his sobs. ‘I know how to get out of Nomansland but you don’t. How can you do it without me?’
‘We can do anything without you,’ Toy said, but she added, ‘What is your plan?’
Gren laughed bitterly.
‘You are a fine leader, Toy! You don’t even know where we are. You don’t even realize that we are on the edge of Nomansland. Look, you can see our forest from here.’
He pointed dramatically with outstretched finger.
chapter ten
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In their hurried escape from the bellyelm, they had hardly taken in their new surroundings. There was little room for doubt that Gren was right. As he said, they stood on the fringe of Nomansland.
Beyond them, the gnarled and stunted trees of the region grew more closely, as if tightening their ranks. Among them were spiky soldier trees, thorn and bamboo, as well as tall grasses with edges sharp enough to lop off a human arm. All were woven together by an absolute barricade of brambles. It was a thicket impossible to penetrate, suicide to enter. Every plant stood at guard like troops facing a common enemy.
Nor was the common enemy a reassuring sight.
The great banyan, pushing outwards as far as its nutritional requirements would allow, loomed high and black over the outcasts of Nomansland. Its outermost branches