Subject: (whorl) Inhumu's secret

From: Roberson, John <robersonj at bek.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 08:07:56 +0000

Further speculations on this: I think the "you are what you eat"/chameleon
theory must be a part of the Rajan's threat to the inhumu and therefore
their secret---this seems to be a part of what Krait must have told him as
he was dying.  When he reasons that they hibernate and are very weak when
unearthed, and captures Jahlee, he offers her a cow to break her fast.
Could it be he has figured out that, after hibernation, they have begun to
lose their intelligence and human shape as their bodies use up all the human
blood/DNA they've ingested, and that if captured in their famished state and
offered a cow, that they'll feed ravenously and perhaps adopt a cow's low
level of intelligence and docile nature?  I admit I don't have a lot of
textual basis for this---does Jahlee seem "dumber" after she drinks cow's
blood?  (But the Rajan doesn't let her drink her ravenous fill---perhaps
because he wants her intelligent enough to parley with and do her dirty work
against the Hannese?)  She does seem to assume a human shape pretty quickly,
however, so that ability yet remains.  I dunno....idle speculation, perhaps.
I think Gene has simply withheld (or just not emphasized enough) a few vital
clues that would help us all peg the Secret exactly, so: sweet misery until
the next book....

What do you think of this angle?

-Ram

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---

From: Kieran Cleary <kierannwn at tinet.ie>
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 14:51:01 +0000

Ram wrote:

>does Jahlee seem "dumber" after she drinks cow's blood? <

Maybe. When Horn exhumes Jahlee, he says:

Horn: "I warn you, if you will not [obey me] I am going to spread my
knowledge everywhere...."
Jahlee: ..."What do you want from me?"...
Horn: .."You are quick."...
Jahlee: "I used to be. Tolerably so." [p.315-316]

On the other hand, she's able to come up with some pretty sly rejoinders:

Horn: "It's just occurred to me that you inhumi are rather like a kind of
lizard I've noticed in my garden.It can change colors, and because of its
size and shape, and because it remains so still, it is easy to take one for
a pice of brown bark, or a green leaf, or even the flesh-colored petal of a
rose. While I acknowledge that you inhumi are a much higher form of life, it
seems to me that the principle is the same."
Jahlee: ..."You are correct, Rajan". [p.317]

Which I take to mean, Yes we are a superior form of life, Rajan.

A thought struck me recently: how on earth could Green be Lune (this from
someone who quite likes that idea)? I mean, are we to seriously expect Horn
to bounce his way around the jungles Neil Armstrong-like in search of Auk?

Kieran C.