by Jim Grimsley
“Very true,” said the tall woman. “You said that very well.”
Kitra searched Keely for some sign, brought her face close to where his face should have been. He had the body of a ten-year-old, frail and thin; he’d lost his family twice over; he’d been through the same ordeal she had. She spoke earnestly. “Keely, I don’t know you at all, but there’s nobody else around to ask you. Is this really what you want to do?”
He giggled, a sound that was gentle, but tinged with cold and distance. “What would you do if I say no? You can’t keep me if they decide to take me.”
She watched him. She turned to the women. Her heart was pounding so hard it left her faint; she thought she would sink to her knees but refused to give way. For a moment she glimpsed their faces, frozen as marble. Later, she wanted to be convinced she had seen peace and serenity in their countenances. Later still, she decided she had. “Where are you taking him?”
“To our home, to live with us.”
She wet her lips. “Is he a prisoner?”
“No, he’s not. But the one he carries is.”
Keely stepped around Binam, slid his hand out of Kitra’s. He walked over to the mule, which nuzzled him with its lips.
“I wish we could stay to help you,” said one of the women, to Kitra.
“We can’t see you on your way to where you’re going, she means,” said the tall woman. She was stooping, speaking to Pel directly. He knelt over the wreckage of the corpse’s head.
“We have to take Keely with us right away,” said the third.
Pel was controlling himself with effort and managed to nod, head bowed.
The tall woman went on watching him. “You might thank us, at least.”
“For what?” he asked.
“For saving you.”
He looked at her then, his face blank and ancient. Kitra felt tears streaming down her own face. “He was my friend,” Pel said.
“Who’s to say he’s not still your friend?” the tall woman asked, her voice cold and dry. “Perhaps you’ll run into him when you cross the mountains again.”
“As you wish, Sister,” he said at last, his face set as stone.
“Time to go,” said one of the others.
“This took longer than we planned. All this talking at the end.”
“It can’t be helped,” said the tall one, turning away, lifting Keely, setting him onto the mule. “These are good people, after all.”
“You’re always making new friends, Sister.”
“It’s my nature,” agreed the tall one.
As the three of them headed into the clearing, the one walking at the flank of the mule asked, “Shall I kill the rest of the forest?”
“I rather think not.”
“Enough waste,” said the third. “Though what we did was necessary, of course.”
“God’s will be done, Sister,” said the one at the flank of the mule.
The tall one looked around at the twisted stumps of trees, smoke rising from fires in the distance. “Amen, Sister. God’s will be done.”
Binam stood beside Kitra and they watched as the women vanished, Keely sitting upright on his mule, facing forward. At the last moment Figg’s spider leapt onto his shoulder, into his lap, folding its legs there. Keely lay his hand on the spider, sitting confidently, feet in the stirrups as though he’d ridden a mule before. Kitra shivered, chilled to the marrow. Binam pulled her against his side, tried to warm her. “I can’t stop shaking,” she said.
“It’s all right.” Binam lay his cheek against her forehead a moment. They stood quietly, breathing, and her heart was starting to slow.
Pel was still kneeling beside the body, touching one of the scars, a spiral inside a square.
“Who were those women?” Kitra asked.
He shook his head, big-knuckled hands touching the scar.
“Pel,” she said, and he looked at her. Pain in his eyes joined to something darker in the set of his mouth, his jaw. “Who were they?”
Voice a husk, he said, “We have to cover the body.”
“We can wrap it with the stuff they left when they threw it off the horse.” She took his face in her hands, made him look at her. “Tell me who they were.”
He spoke with effort, eyes half closed. “His teachers.”
“Whose?” But as soon as she asked the question, she understood.
“Help me,” he said.
Binam had fetched the stiff tarp where it had fallen beside the pool, and he started to flatten it in the grass beside the body. Pel was arranging the limbs; the arms had already been crossed over its chest and tied.
Pel took the cold, wounded shoulders in hand and looked at Kitra. She knelt, gathered its feet in her arms, tested the weight. The body looked pitiful and small, even fragile, an ordinary person.
“Are you sure you know who this is?” Kitra asked, wanting to let the body go. “There’s not even a face left—”
He looked at her coldly, and she fell silent.
They swung the body onto the tarp. A moment later he knelt, and he and Binam wrapped the body carefully, covering, finally, the ruined face and dark hair. Pel stood and looked at her. “You and your brother can come with me if you want.”
“Come with you?”
“I have to take him home,” Pel said, looking at the tarp. “I could use the help. And you can’t stay here, after all.”
She was still kneeling, touching the stiff fabric. As if unfolding came the memory of the scene she had witnessed when Dekkar was first taking out his pack, finding his bag of gems, preparing to fight on the river, and talking to Pel so frankly. She found herself unreeling all that she had seen of Dekkar these last hours, every glimpse.
She looked at Binam. He smiled and said, “I can travel with both of you as far as the south end of Greenwood, anyway.”
“That’s a start,” Pel said.
He made a litter to carry the body on the walk, and some of the syms helped him. The sky cleared more, though it looked as like to cloud over again with debris or smoke or weather, and wind was blowing warm from the south. A tear in the cloud cover dropped a shaft of daylight through the forest, a light between amber and brown falling through the haze, but still light, and she could see the sun was low. Binam and Kitra sat together as if it were the most natural thing in the world, as if they had been sitting together at sundown every day since they were children, as if the world had not changed. She wondered whether it was all right to be happy, even so, a little.
“Careful,” Pel said when the bearers lifted the litter and the body shifted under the ropes. “He might wake up. You never know with these folk.”
But if he was asleep, he went on sleeping. Kitra stood in the shelter of the rocks, looking out at the clearing, the grass beaten down, patches of the black ooze visible, a wasteland made out of a forest. A few more of the tree-widows were emerging from cover, and when Pel was ready with the litter, they stepped into formation as before. Maybe it was a gesture of respect, or maybe the syms did it to comfort themselves with some sense of order. Out of the willow-wait the party marched, perhaps a score of them beside the litter-bearers, beginning the long journey, carrying the body of Great Irion home.
Glossary
Includes character names
TERM
LANGUAGE
REFERENCE
Aeryn
Erejhen
Old name for the country Irion; used in sources before the departure of King Kirith Kirin.
Ajhenus Cluster
Alenke
The cluster of stars adjacent to Aramen in which there are an unusual number of worlds friendly to life.
Ajhevan
Aramenian dialect of Alenke
The dominant northern continent of Aramen, home of Hormling colonists and the Dirijhi; stronghold of the Aramenian independence movement.
Ama
Alenke
Mother goddess, generic; worshiped under many other names (Ma, Am, Mur, etc.).
> Anilyn Gate
Erejhen
Gate from Home Star to Gate Red Star, from Senal to Aramen, opened and maintained by the Mage Malin and Great Irion.
Aramen
Alenke
The principal world of Red Star, home world to the Dirijhi, a race of sentient trees; gateway to the Ajhenus Cluster.
Arsa
Aramenian dialect of Alenke
City where the river David joins the river Silas, near the middle of the continent Ajhevan.
Arsus
Alenke
World in the Red Star system around which the Twelfth Fleet is stationed.
Badrigol
Alenke
City that spans the Isthmus of Fostine along the Iriwak Canal.
Binam
Aramenian dialect of Alenke
Brother of Kitra; he was born a human but elected to become a tree symbiont; he has been a resident of Greenwood for many years.
calcept
symbiont dialect of Alenke
Shadow mantis, one of the creatures brought to Aramen by Rao.
chalcyd
symbiont dialect of Alenke
A group of creatures that takes composite form as a human or humanlike variant predator but that travels as a flock of component beings.
Chulion
Erejhen
The house of the Sisters to which Jessex/Great Irion was taken as a child; his destination at the time of the Ajhevan Rebellion. Far in the northern mountains.
Collive
coined word
Legal category of a living being made up of closely connected, but still individual entities; the trees of the Dirijhi form a Collive.
Colony Bridge
Bridge that crosses the Trennt River from east Feidreh to Avatrayn.
Coromey
Erejhen
Jessex/Great Irion’s cat-hound, trained to accompany him on the journey to Chulion.
Conquest
The defeat of Hormling Enforcement by the Prin and the subsequent take-over of government by Malin and Hanson.
Corvad
Aramenian dialect of Alenke
The ocean south of Jharvan.
Cueredon
Erejhen
High place over the Citadel in Feidreh-Avatrayn on Aramen; built by Malin; has a central shaft of configurable metal allowing easy change of the tower’s ruling language.
David River
Alenke
A tributary of the river Silas, the river David begins in northwest Greenwood as a small creek in the hill country there; the David links with the crossing canal system. The David drains a large part of northwest Ajhevan, including the area near Fineas Figg’s farm.
Dekkar up Ortaen
Anin
Fallen Drune priest, a friend of Fineas Figg.
Dembut
Aramenian dialect of Alenke
Last village along the river Silas at the edge of the Dirijhi preserve; a main entrepot into Greenwood.
Dirijhi
Aramenian dialect of Alenke
Race of sentient trees on the north continent of Aramen.
Disturber toy
composite
Name of Keely File’s goo-toy set.
Drakkar Air Station
Alenke
Air base near Feidreh and the Jharvan coast.
Drune
Erejhen
The subset of the Prin who speak the true language, Ildrune, rather than Malei.
dumb-tree
coined word
In usage among symbionts speaking their dialect of Alenke, a dumb-tree is a tree without a brain. Symbionts sculpt immense structures out of living dumb-trees.
Eighth Army
Army that defends Feidreh-Avatrayn.
Erlot
symbiont dialect of Alenke
Numbers of Rao, the true-quantum system of manipulation used by Rao and followers.
Erra Bel
Erejhen
Name of Pel Orthen’s boat.
Eseveren Gate
Erejhen
Gate from Senal to Irion, located in the Inokit Ocean, maintained by Irion; in Alenke it is called the Twil Gate.
Eshen Arly
Anin
Drune operator of the fourth rank assigned to Cueredon Tower.
evar
Erejhen
Cantor of a Prin choir of ten.
Faltha Menonomy
Erejhen
Prin member of pononter assigned to Cueredon Tower; a pononter couple is a couple practiced in the use of the Malei language together.
Fang of Gar
composite
Pass leading north from Svyssn Country into the Barrier Mountains; Jessex takes this route on his walk to find Chulion.
Fentonmarch
coined word
Village east of Feidreh-Avatrayn, site of a small Enforcement airfield.
Fineas Figg
Alenke
Eldest son of House Bemona-Kakenet; Figg is his proxy name.
Flat Head Farm
composite
Farm of Fineas Figg on the river David, where he grows protein meat forms, soybeans, wheat, truck.
Flores
Alenke
Farm-support village in Jharvan Western, located east of Avatran; destroyed in rebel attack by shadow mantis and construct troops.
Fukate choir of Ten-thousand
Erejhen
The Prin ten choir of stationed on Aramen; named for their Thousand victory in the Fukate rebellion early in the history of the colony. A well-armed armada of former Orminy loyalists went through the Anilyn Gate and landed marines on Jharvan in an attempt to take over the colony; the rebels came from Fukate, the second-largest planet in the Home Star system. The Aramenian Prin defeated the armada and marines handily, with no loss of life on either side.
Gatekeeper Station
coined
The independent station in orbit around Aramen; it monitors traffic through the Anilyn Gate on the Red Star side.
Grand Wheel
The government complex that surrounds the Anilyn Gate on the Home Star side, including a Prin choral facility and a residence for the Mage and her staff; takes advantage of proximity to Senal and the gate (and Aramen beyond) for communications efficiency.
Hanson
Alenke
A very successful aggregate consciousness made up of several hundred individuals; Hanson ended the most bitter phase of the Metal War by merging his organic components with some of the central machinery in the deeps of Senal.
himmel
Erejhen
Leaf chewed for its sedative properties; also used in certain kinds of Prin medicine.
Hormling
Alenke
The name for the human race on Senal that has also populated a number of the neighboring stars.
ipock
symbiont dialect of Alenke
Operator in the Erlot language; the ranks and levels are the same as for the Prin.
Iraen
Erejhen
Name for the country beyond the Twil Gate (Eseveren Gate), though the country is also often called Irion or Aeryn. The new name, Iraen, came into official usage during the fourth century after the Conquest in order to distinguish between the country called Irion and the person called Great Irion.
Irion, Great Irion
Erejhen
Name of the over-mage who governs the Oregal from deep within the northern part of the country that bears his name. The original name of Great Irion was Jessex Yron; in the age after the departure of King Kirith Kirin, he became more commonly referred to as Irion, and later as Great Irion. In time his name merged with the name of the country over which he ruled.
The most common earlier form of the name of the country Irion was Aeryn; this name is most commonly used when referring to the country under the rule of King Kirith Kirin.
The inconvenience of the blurring of these names led later politicians and scholars to adopt the name Ira
en for the country, though the term Irion continued to be used as the name of the country for many decades.
Jedda Martele
Alenke
Former linguist who was consort of Mage Malin.
Jessex
Erejhen
Birth name of Great Irion; name by which he is called by his teachers. Later he was given the honorary second name Yron; this took place in the era before the passing of King Kirith Kirin. In later ages, he was better known under the name Irion or Great Irion, the over-mage who ruled the Oregal during the classical era.
Jharvan
Aramenian dialect of Alenke
The southern continent of Aramen, divided into eastern and western zones connected by a broad isthmus; the eastern zone is largely desert; the western zone is the site of a very large Hormling population composed mostly of descendants of immigrants from Senal.
juduvar
Erejhen
The cantor of a Prin choir of one hundred.
Keely File
Alenke
Fineas Figg’s adopted son, though Feely refers to Figg as “uncle.”
Zhengzhou
Alenke
Fineas Figg’s bodyguard.
Kinahd
Alenke
City from which Keely File comes, though most city jurisdictions don’t extend as far down as the Reeks, which underlies most cities on Senal.
Kitra Poth
Aramenian dialect of Alenke
An Aramenian employed by the Prin who is asked by Dekkar up Ortaen to escort him into Greenwood; she is on a mission to rescue her brother Binam from his tree slavery.
