by Speer, Flora
Reid saw Janina fall overboard. Knowing he ought to stay with the boat, ought to wait so he could throw her a line when she came to the surface, understanding what was the sensible thing to do - even so, he dove in after his love.
He was immediately sucked downward, until he was so far beneath the surface he thought his lungs would burst. And still he was dragged deeper. He felt something brush his hand. He thought it was some sea-plant until his fingers tangled in it and he knew it was hair.
Janina! He pulled on the strands he held and felt her limp body brush against him. With his free hand, he caught her around the waist, but he would not let go of her hair. Not yet, not until they were both above water. He dared not chance losing her.
His feet touched the solid rock bottom. He kicked hard, and then, with incredible speed, he and Janina shot upward, breaking through the surface of the water in the midst of a swirling, foaming maelstrom.
They were doomed, and Reid knew it. He had no idea in which direction the shore lay, nor was he capable of reaching it. He could hardly keep Janina and himself afloat. He could not see the boat. For ail he knew it was at the bottom of the sea.
Janina’s head lolled against his shoulder. She might be dead already. They would both surely be dead within minutes. He was filled with rage at their fate, with fury at the unfairness of it after they had survived so much.
‘Tamat!” he screamed, his words half choked by roaring water, “Tamat! Hear me! Help us! Help!”
Chapter 16
“Help! Help me! Help!” When the lights came on with eye-shattering brilliance, Osiyar was sitting up in bed, shaking and shivering. “Help! Drowning! Help!” he shouted at the people crowding into his room.
“It’s a delirious nightmare from the fever he’s had for the last few days,” Herne said. “I’ll prepare an injection to sedate him.”
“Osiyar.” Alla sat on the bed, taking both his hands in hers. “Wake up. You were dreaming.”
“I am awake.” Behind Alla’s concerned face, Osiyar saw Tarik with his wife Narisa, and Suria with her lover Gaidar the Cetan warrior. Beyond them were two other members of Tarik’s colony. All of them were in nightclothes. Herne had disappeared. Osiyar looked into Alla’s grey eyes and shook his head.
“It was not a nightmare,” he said. “It was a vision. I saw Reid.”
“Where was he?” Her hands held his tightly while he concentrated, trying to bring back what he had seen.
“In the sea,” he said slowly. “He was drowning. He and Janina.”
“Please.” Alla looked as though she would weep. “Help him, Osiyar.”
“I don’t know where he is.” Osiyar pulled away from Alla’s clutching hands. If these people would only go away and leave him in peace, he would be able to think clearly about what had just happened and he might be able to make some sense of it.
Herne bustled in with a treatment rod. Alla rose and went to stand between Suria and Gaidar.
“This will put you right back to sleep,” Herne told him. “Then the rest of us can get some sleep, too.”
“No,” Osiyar said, gathering his strength.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Herne advised. “It’s the best thing for you.” He bent over, took Osiyar’s arm and began to lift his sleeve.
“I said, NO!” Osiyar stopped the physician in mid-motion. Herne froze, unable to move from his bent posture or to speak, though his furious eyes said all that his immobilized tongue could not.
When they realized that Osiyar had asserted some kind of control over Herne, everyone in the room moved backward from his bed at least one step. Except Tarik. He came toward the bed.
“Release Herne,” Tarik ordered.
“First forbid him to inject me,” Osiyar said. “He can hear you.”
“No injection, Herne,” Tarik said in a loud voice.
Osiyar nodded and Herne straightened.
“By all the stars!” Herne raged. “You promised to harm no one here.”
“Have I harmed you?” Osiyar asked. When Herne shook his head, unable to speak for sheer anger, Osiyar continued. “I have the right to protect myself, even from well-meant medical treatment. I do not wish to return to sleep. I need to think about the vision I just had.”
“Can you help Reid?” Alla asked.
“I promise nothing,” Osiyar told her. “I do not understand what I just saw and felt. Neither Reid nor Janina is an overt telepath, yet I received a message.”
“You told us once that your High Priestess believed Reid might have latent powers,” Tarik said.
“That is not true!” Alla cried, as she had protested on the previous occasion. “Reid is no telepath.”
“Osiyar, if Reid were drowning,” Tarik went on as though Alla had not made her outraged exclamation, “and he were crying out for help with every particle of his being, might you sense his cry?”
“It is possible,” Osiyar answered, “especially if I were deeply asleep and thus unguarded and open to such a cry.”
“Then he is dead.” Alla sagged, all protest gone. Beneath the bright overhead lights, her thin face looked pale and drawn. Gaidar put a brawny arm across her shoulders to support her, while Suria took her hand and pressed it tightly.
“I think it very likely he is dead,” Osiyar responded. “I regret having to tell you that. It is amazing to me how deeply I feel your grief, Alla. I wish I had words to ease your pain.”
“I know who can help us learn Reid’s fate for certain,” Tarik mused, “if they are willing to explore a part of the world far from their usual range, and if you will give them the information they will need.”
“The Chon,” Osiyar said softly, meeting Tank’s searching look with no evasion. His eagerness must have shown in his face, for Tarik’s night-blue eyes were filled with curiosity.
“It is almost dawn,” Tarik said. “The Chon will waken soon to begin fishing in the lake for their morning meal. Get up, Osiyar, and we will go out to meet them. Herne said you would be well enough to get out of bed later today. A few hours won’t make much difference to your health.”
“I’m not sure that’s wise,” Herne grumbled. “If he is well enough to do what he just did to me, then we ought to keep him under some kind of restraint and well sedated.”
“It’s you who ought to be restrained,” Osiyar said, swinging his feet to the floor. “Restrained from forcing unwanted treatments on patients who don’t need them.” He stood up, then promptly sat down again, shamed by the weakness in his legs.
“How do you expect to stand?” asked Herne crossly. “You’ve been in bed for days and your broken leg is still healing. You will have to help him, Tarik, and he’ll need a crutch. Or perhaps Gaidar can carry him outside. I’m certainly not going to touch him again.”
“There is no need for either you or Gaidar to go along. Just bring him the crutch.” Tarik turned to his wife. “Come with us, Narisa. You have a special affinity for the birds, so you may be able to help. The rest of you go back to bed or begin your day, as you wish, but stay inside the building for now. I don’t want you to disturb the birds.”
“Let me go with you, too,” Alla begged, and after a moment’s consideration, Tarik nodded his permission.
With Osiyar hobbling on the crutch Herne gave him, and Tarik helping him when necessary, the four of them walked to the beach on the side of the island nearest to the cliffs where the Chon lived. The sun was just rising.
Osiyar caught his breath at the beauty of the landscape before him. The island lay at one end of an immense lake. On the mainland to the left rose the cliffs where the birds lived, while to the right the forest ended in a white sandy beach. The warm season was waning, so trees and underbrush were tinged with gold and bronze and deep, glowing reds, all of which were reflected in the placid waters of the lake. In the far distance rose a single mountain capped with snow that, as the sun moved higher, changed color from pink to gold to pure, glistening white, shining against the purple-blue sky. Behind the littl
e group on the beach lay the lush growth of the island, with the white headquarters building at its center.
Tarik had told Osiyar how he and Narisa had found the island on their first visit to the world they called Dulan’s Planet, and how they had returned with their comrades to establish a small colony to monitor the activities of the Cetans. Tarik’s wife Narisa had explained how the Chon had helped them on that earlier visit. Now Osiyar waited to meet the birds that had once been companions to his people, the birds the telepaths had long believed extinct through Cetan violence.
From openings in the cliffs high above them, graceful green or blue forms swooped, winging their way across the lake. Osiyar watched, touched beyond speech by the sight.
“They fish in the early morning and again at evening,” Narisa said. In the softness of her voice, Osiyar sensed her understanding of his reverent mood.
“Will they come at your bidding?” he asked.
“Almost always. Do you want to try to call them?”
“You do it,” Osiyar decided. “Let them grow accustomed to me before I attempt to communicate with them.”
Two birds came, a blue one with an old scar on its beak, and a green one. While Osiyar watched them, moved almost to tears by the appearance of beings from an ancient legend, they landed on the sand near Narisa. They were beautiful, with fine, richly colored feathers and long beaks, and they were tall. Standing, they were almost Narisa’s size. She touched the green one, stroking its wing.
Osiyar could not make himself wait any longer. Filled with an excitement he had never known before, he put out his hands, palms up, and opened his mind. There was a confusing surge of impressions at first, then a steadying as the birds’ inherited memories awakened and they allowed a portion of Osiyar’s consciousness to touch a part of their awareness. It was not the same as the mind-linking he had experienced with Tamat and Sidra. Because of differences in their patterns of comprehension, complete linking with this other species would be difficult and dangerous for both man and bird. But these representatives of the Chon did understand that he was a descendant of their telepathic friends of long ago, and for a time he stood bathed in their joy at his presence.
After a while, Osiyar let them know that two humans were lost and in danger. He tried to envision the far northern country, to show the birds where Reid and Janina might be, but, never having been there, he could not form a picture in his mind. He sensed the birds’ fear at what lay on the eastern side of the continent, and he understood that to protect their reduced numbers from possible future Cetan violence they had restricted their range to the area between the lake and the far side of the prairie.
All at once Osiyar felt another presence intruding on the communion he had established with the Chon. With a shock, he recognized Alla. Her desperate fear for Reid was communicating itself to the birds. Her love and concern for her cousin, memories of Reid as a small boy, and her pride in his accomplishments poured out of Alla in a flood of emotion that Osiyar found painful to bear. He wondered how the birds could tolerate it. And he wished there had been someone in his life who cared for him so much.
Unable to fight off the emotional battering of Alla’s hopes and fears for Reid, Osiyar closed his mind again, breaking off contact with the birds. He had not really been well enough yet for the sustained effort of contact with another species. A wave of weakness washed over him. He shook his head, staggering, and came to himself to find Tarik holding him upright. He was about to scold Alla for her foolish and uncontrolled interference, when she turned to him, her face alight.
“You’ve done it,” she said. “They will help.”
“Is this true?” Tarik asked.
“Of course it is.” Alla answered for Osiyar. “They will search this side of the grey mountains, to the end of the land, where all is ice and cold. And they will search the sea beyond, for as far as they can fly. Thank you, Osiyar. I knew you wouldn’t fail us.”
Osiyar said nothing to that. Instead, he admitted to the fatigue he felt so they would ask him no questions. After they had seen him safely back to his bed to rest, he began to wonder about Alla and how she had known what the birds were planning to do. As he thought about her, he remembered how she had told him shortly after he was rescued that she was absolutely certain Reid was still alive. Had some telepathic connection between them convinced her of that improbable fact?
Tamat had believed Reid possessed some latent portion of the Gift. Alla was Reid’s first cousin, with much of the same genetic material. Might she also have some part of the Gift? If so, Osiyar doubted that she was consciously aware of it. She would have denied it in any case, because in the Jurisdiction, her native part of the galaxy, telepathy was forbidden. But if she did possess a portion of the Gift, she could pass her unsuspected abilities on to future generations.
Osiyar wondered with growing excitement if it might be possible to begin anew, to breed a new population of his people, trained to use the Gift for the good of all and linked in co-operation and affection with the Chon. He would have to lead them, for there was no one else who had the experience and the training necessary to accomplish such a purpose. So far as he knew, he and Janina, who under certain circumstances was capable of prophecy, were now the only descendants left of the original colony of telepaths. Reid and Janina, if they were still alive, would willingly provide the new genetic material Tamat had wanted, for they were lovers bound together more completely than even they realized.
As for Alla, that slender, difficult, oddly attractive creature who seemed to care for no one but Reid - might Alla, if properly approached, consent to be Osiyar’s mate? Did he want her if she would agree? It was a possibility that ought to be carefully considered.
From that morning, Osiyar began to watch the tall, dark young woman with a very special interest.
Chapter 17
When Janina regained consciousness, she was lying on a narrow, stony beach. Towering grey rocks piled on all sides blocked any possibility of escape from her forbidding refuge, and an icy wind was blowing, making her shiver in spite of sunshine and blue sky. She was half frozen, and she felt nauseated and dizzy.
She was completely alone. There was no sign of Reid or of their boat. She remembered falling overboard. She clearly recalled the sensation of plunging downward through endless ages of freezing water, knowing she would never breathe air again, yet wanting with ail her heart to rise to the surface, to find Reid. And she remembered understanding that she would never see him or hold him in her arms again, that she would die in the sea.
How, then, had she come to this desolate beach? And where was Reid? Was he, perhaps, lying injured on the other side of that broken pile of foam-speckled rocks to her right? Or had his broken body been tossed by the waves onto the more level outcropping on her left? She had to know. If Reid was anywhere in her vicinity, she would find him.
The decision made, she quickly scrambled to her feet, only to double up when a fresh wave of nausea overcame her. She went to her knees, coughing up salty water. After she had finished, she stayed as she was for a time, with her head bent, waiting for the dizziness to pass. When she felt a little stronger, she got to her feet again and staggered across hard pebbles to the nearer pile of rocks on her right. She dragged herself slowly up the rocks, not wasting her energy in calling out Reid’s name, thinking only of the task she had set for herself, forcing herself by sheer willpower to the top of that slippery heap. Waves smashed at her, soaking her badly chilled body with more cold and wet.
Reid was not on the rocks. Beyond the pile she had climbed there was only a second beach, stonier and narrower than the one on which she had wakened. Beyond it, the solid rocks plummeted straight into the water. Janina sat on the topmost rock of the pile she had climbed and hung her head in disappointment and suddenly renewed nausea.
A wave crashed over her, nearly dragging her into the sea as it receded. Janina clung to the rock, fighting the ocean’s pull. When the wave had gone, she climbed back down as qu
ickly as she could, and retreated above the waterline of the beach.
She would have to search the rocks on the other side. She stood wavering in her weakness, trying to collect enough strength for the effort.
“Chon. Chon-chon.” The loud cry made her look upward. Two large birds flew above the beach, wheeling and dipping on the wind. They came closer and closer, until finally they lighted at the very edge of the sea. One was blue, the other green. More than a little frightened by their size, Janina watched them with apprehension. They appeared to be looking directly at her. She wondered if they would attack her, and how she would fight them off if they did.
From above her came a low-pitched humming noise that gathered strength until it blotted out the sound of the sea. Oddly, the birds did not fly away from that noise. Janina had the feeling that they were waiting for something to happen.
When she looked upward again, searching for the source of the humming sound, there appeared far above her a dark grey oval shape, pointed at one end, with a red stripe along its side. She stared at it in fascinated, immobilized shock as the shape descended until it settled on the beach. It was enormous, bigger than any fishing boat she had ever seen.
She was comforted to note that the birds did not move or display any fear of the object now resting on the beach in sudden silence. If the birds did not think it would harm them, perhaps it would not hurt her, either.
The grey object had barely stopped moving before a door slid open in the side and a woman stepped out. She was followed by three men. They were all dressed in brilliant orange suits like the one Reid had worn the day she met him.
Greatly relieved to recognize humans, and filled with renewed hope, Janina stepped forward. From their clothing she assumed these were Reid’s friends. They must still be looking for him after all this time. If she was right about them, they would help her to find him.
