by Anissa Gray
The ladies stared in silence at his sculpture. Some of them moved, to study it from another angle. Kiti knew that the workmanship of his sculpture was exceptionally good, and that the sheer size of it was audacious. He felt the clay fever stirring within him, and all the ladies looked beautiful to him. He saw their skeptical expressions with dread—he longed now for them to choose him.
Finally the silence was broken. “What is this supposed to be?” whispered a lady. Kiti looked for the voice. It was Upua, a lady who had never married and who, in some years, had not even mated. It gave her a reputation for being arrogant, the hardest of the ladies to please. Of course she would be the lady who would interrogate him in front of all the others.
“It grew under my hands,” he said, not daring to tell them what it really was.
“Everyone thought that you would do honor to your otherself,” said another lady, emboldened by Upua’s disdainful question.
The hardest question. He dared not dodge it. Did he dare to tell the truth? “I meant to, but it was also my own face, and I wasn’t worthy to have my face sculpted in the clay.”
There was a murmur at that. Some thought that was a stupid reason; some thought it was deceptive; some gave it thought.
Finally the ladies began deciding. “Not for me.” “Ugly.” “Very odd.” “Interesting.” Whatever their comment, they took flight, rising up and circling, drifting toward the branches of the nearest trees. The men, no doubt feeling quite triumphant at the complete rejection of the supposedly talented Kiti, joined them there.
At last only Kiti and Upua remained upon the riverbank.
“I know what that is,” said Upua.
Kiti dared not answer.
“This is the head of an Old One,” she said.
Her voice carried to the ladies and men in the branches. They heard her, and many gasped or whistled their astonishment.
“Yes, Lady Upua,” said Kiti, ashamed at having his arrogance caught out. “But it was given to me under my hands. I never meant to sculpt such a thing.”
Upua said nothing for a long time, walking around the sculpture, circling it again and again.
“The day is short!” called one of the leading ladies from her perch in the trees.
Upua looked up at her, startled. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I wanted to see this and remember it, because we have been given a great gift by the gods, to see the face of the Old Ones.”
There was some laughter at this. Did she really think Kiti could somehow sculpt what no one had ever seen?
She turned to Kiti, who was so filled with clay fever now that he could only barely keep from throwing himself at her feet and begging her to let him mate with her.
“Marry me,” she said.
Surely he had misunderstood.
“Marry me,” she said again. “I want only your children from now on until I die.”
“Yes,” he said.
No other man had been so honored in a thousand years. On his first sculpting, to be offered marriage, and by a lady of such prestige? Many of the others, ladies and men alike, were outraged. “Nonsense, Lady Upua,” said another of the leading ladies. “You cheapen the institution of marriage by offering it to one so young, and for such a ridiculous sculpture.”
“He has been given the face of an Old One by the gods. Let all of you come down here and study this sculpture again. We will not leave here for two songs, so that all of us will remember the face of the Old Ones and we can teach our children what we’ve see this day.”
And because she was the lady who had offered marriage and been accepted on this spot, the others had to do her will for the space of two songs. They studied the head of the Old One, and together Kiti and Upua entered into the legends of the village of Da’aqebla forever. They also entered into marriage, and Kiti, who would have trembled at the thought of being the husband of such a terrifying lady, would soon learn that she was a kind and loving wife, and that to be an attentive and protective husband to her would bring him only joy. He would still miss kTi from time to time after that, but never again would he think that Wind had punished him by not catching him up to heaven with kTi.
On this day, however, they did not know what the future would bring. They only knew that Kiti was the boldest sculptor who had ever lived, and because his boldness had won him a lady as his wife, it raised him at once in their estimation. He was truly kTi’s otherself, and though kTi was taken from them, in Kiti his courage and cleverness would live on until, with age, they would become strength and wisdom.
When the two songs had passed, when the flock of ladies and men arose and went on to the next man, dark shapes emerged from the shadows of the trees. They, too, circled the strange sculpture, and then finally picked it up and carried it away, though it was uncommonly large and heavy and they did not understand it.
Continued in Earthfall, the fourth volume of the Homecoming series, available now from Tor Books.
Tor Books by Orson Scott Card
Note: Within series, books are best read in listed order.
—–
ENDER UNIVERSE
Ender Series
Ender Wiggin: The finest general the world could hope to find or breed.
Ender’s Game
Ender in Exile
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
Ender’s Shadow Series
Parallel storylines to Ender’s Game from Bean: Ender’s right hand, his strategist, and his friend.
Ender’s Shadow
Shadow of the Hegemon
Shadow Puppets
Shadow of the Giant
Shadows in Flight
The First Formic War Series (with Aaron Johnston)
One hundred years before Ender's Game, the aliens arrived on Earth with fire and death. These are the stories of the First Formic War.
Earth Unaware
Earth Afire
Earth Awakens
The Second Formic War Series (with Aaron Johnston)
The first invasion of Earth has been beaten back, but that was just a scout ship and the mothership is almost here.
The Swarm
Stand-alone Novels
Children of the Fleet: Orson Scott Card makes a powerful return to the universe of Ender's Game with a new stand-alone novel
Ender Novellas
A War of Gifts
First Meetings
The Authorized Ender Companion by Jake Black
A complete and in-depth encyclopedia of all the persons, places, things, and events in Orson Scott Card’s Ender Universe.
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Danny North is different from his magical family. And when he discovers his gift, it is greater than he ever imagined—which could earn him a death sentence.
The Lost Gate
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Gatefather
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Visit the magical America that might have been; marvel as the tale of Alvin Maker unfolds.
Seventh Son
Red Prophet
Prentice Alvin
Alvin Journeyman
Heartfire
The Crystal City
HOMECOMING SERIES
Earth has been rendered uninhabitable. But it is still vital.
The Memory of Earth
The Call of Earth
The Ships of Earth
Earthfall
Earthborn
WOMEN OF GENISIS SERIES
Fiction exploring the human side of Biblical women.
Sarah
Rebekah
Rachel & Leah
THE COLLECTED SHORT FICTION OF ORSON SCOTT CARD
Experience Card’s full versatility, from science fiction to fantasy, from traditional narrative poetry to modern experimental fiction.
Keeper of Dreams
The Changed Man
Cruel Miracles
Flux
Monkey Sonatas
<
br /> STAND-ALONE FICTION
Hart’s Hope: dark and powerful fantasy
Lovelock (with Kathryn Kidd): a startling look at the ethics of bioengineering
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus: In this novel of time travel, can the past be changed?
Saints: a novel of the early days of the Mormon Church
Songmaster: an SF classic and a haunting story of power and love
The Worthing Saga: the tale of a seed ship sent out to save the human race
Wyrms: the story of a young woman’s journey to confront her destiny, and her world’s
The Folk of the Fringe: when America is destroyed, it’s up to those on the fringes to rebuild
Zanna’s Gift: A Life in Christmases: a touching tale of love, loss, and the true meaning of Christmas
—–
www.tor-forge.com
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.
THE SHIPS OF EARTH
Copyright © 1994 by Orson Scott Card
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
Cover art by Keith Parkinson
Map by Ellisa Mitchell
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
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ISBN: 978-1-4299-6613-9
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 93-42549
First Edition: February 1994
First Mass Market Edition: January 1995
Printed in the United States of America
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