“But what were they trying to do?”
“They want the orthogel entity. If they can get him then they will have the means to travel instantly anywhere in the galaxy.”
“Anywhere already ‘seen’,” corrected Arcan.
“Yes, but instantly. That is what they have been searching for all these tens of thousands of years. And Dessia can’t sustain all the population it has now, so finding new planets they could inhabit has become the main priority. ”
“Why don’t they build bigger spaceships, so that they themselves can colonize other planets?” asked Grace.
“They are aquatic, and would require huge weights of water to travel stellar distances. It isn’t practical using classical methods.”
“Thank goodness you are both safe,” said Grace.
“Ye-e-s.” The visitor sounded doubtful.
Grace looked at him again. The colours inside the tiny shape were whirling. “You think they will come after Arcan again?”
“I am sure of it. I think that Arcan is the only salvation the Dessites have. I am sorry. I did not realize how bad things had become on Dessia. I have never lived there, and I have been so long in transit that the situation on the home world was unknown to me.” The tiny globe darkened, just as Arcan did when he felt bad. Grace found herself smiling, despite the bad news the visitor had just given them.
“Never mind, Visitor,” she said. “It is going to take them years to get here, so that will give us plenty of time to think up a way of beating them!”
“That is true,” said the visitor. “But the orthogel entity must never again try to contact the Dessites!”
“I certainly won’t!” agreed Arcan. “That was NOT a very nice feeling!”
SIX AND DIVA had struggled to the surface of the planet without incident, and managed to make their way back to the Independence in the space shuttle. They went through the protocol of detox together, and then made their way to the bridge.
Grace began to fuss over the bites all over Six’s back and head. “You were lucky they hardly attacked you at all, Diva,” she said, applying a very strong antiseptic, which caused Six to flinch away from her helping hands.
There was a strange silence, which caused Grace to look up from what she was doing.
“Err … yes,” said Diva. “They obviously found Kwaidian blood much more tempting.”
Six grinned and winced at the same time, as Grace addressed herself to his wounds again. “Much more nourishing than your thin Coriolan stuff,” he agreed.
Grace, however, caught a look that went between them. She wondered what had really gone on in the climb down to the cave.
“I’ll have to give you a rabies shot,” she said, pulling a large syringe out of the medical kit.
Six groaned. “Not again!” he said. “I was hoping not to see one of those for a long time.”
“Then you shouldn’t get yourself chewed up by bats,” said Grace severely.
Six hung his head in mock surrender, and screwed his eyes up theatrically as the point of the syringe bit into his arm, making Grace laugh.
Diva found herself staring at the Kwaidian, suddenly realizing that he had saved her several times now, and never, ever boasted about even one.
The visitor had come over to inspect Six’s bites. He flashed with colour as he saw how many times the Kwaidian had been bitten.
“I am sorry, Six,” he said.
“Sorry? Why?”
“Because you got hurt trying to help me.”
“They are only a few bites, Visitor. Nothing to make a fuss about. It would have been a whole lot worse if I hadn’t been wearing a bodywrap. They will be better in a couple of days. All they need is a bit of fresh air on Xiantha.”
“Are you ready to come with us to Xiantha, Visitor?” asked Grace.
The little bimorph hummed. “Not yet,” it said finally. “I think I should stay for a while here on Pictoria. I need to find out details like whether I need to eat, and what I eat if that is the case. And I think it will take me quite some time to come to my true potential. You all go back to the binary system, and I will come over, or contact you when I am ready. I will watch out for the Arcan amorphs too, see if they are still alive.”
A shiver of a shadow passed through Arcan; he seemed to commune with the new being for a few seconds in a way that nobody but the two of them could hear. Then he agreed. “I believe that it would be prudent for the visitor to stay here for the time being. He is endemic to Pictoria, and it might cause him distress if he were to move away so soon after his formation.”
The visitor glittered with agreement, and they said temporary goodbyes. It seemed really strange to be leaving their friend behind, even more so since he no longer was the same creature.
“I hope he doesn’t go on and on about our being classified as type 3 anymore,” said Six to Grace. “It was one thing when I thought he was just a few neurons from outer space, but now it looks as if he is here to stay!”
“Shush! He will hear you!”
“He probably will,” grumbled Six. “There will be no getting away from him!”
“Then we had better enjoy our time on Xiantha while we have it!”
They all nodded to Arcan, and the skies above Pictoria dissolved into the haze above Xiantha. Arcan put the Independence into orbit above the surface of the planet, and disappeared, promising to visit from time to time. He and Grace had settled on a date for work on the Arcan Foundation to start; it would be in a couple of weeks time – just after Aracely finally finished her university course. That gave them at least ten days by the Emerald Lake to relax and for Grace to get her fingers healed properly.
Chapter 24
THE SHUTTLE TOUCHED down on Xiantha, and it was just like their first visit, nearly two months earlier. Worst of all, there were still only vaniven carts available for transport, and Diva tapped her foot crossly.
“We should have called up the canth keeper on the tridi,” she said. “Look! It is exactly the same cart driver who first took us to the canth farm. This is ridiculous!”
The cart driver was looking at Diva with some reluctance. He clearly remembered her, too. Diva tossed her head and went to stand to one side as Six undertook the negotiation for them to be taken to the canth farm.
“Is her ladleship coming too?” sniffed the Xianthan driver.
“Yes.”
“Then there will be a surcharge of ten percent.”
Diva stiffened. “Six!”
Six ignored her. “Very well.” He handed over the money and the cart driver looked mollified.
“You shouldn’t have paid him more! That is ridiculous! How can he demand so much? I didn’t do anything to him.”
“No, but you did threaten him,” said Six reasonably. “And there aren’t any more carts waiting here, and it isn’t my money.”
“You haven’t got any money!”
Six grinned. “I’m about to marry a rich wife. I have prospects.”
Diva grimly predicted his demise encased in a rexelene museum.
“I shall die a happy man, as your consort,” he bowed with gallantry.
Diva glared, and kicked him on the shin in retaliation. The cart driver winced in sympathy. He should have asked fifteen percent, he thought to himself, as they set off for the canth farm.
This time the journey went more quickly and slightly more comfortably, since Six had thought to buy them a cushion each before they climbed into the wooden cart. The only contretemps was when the girls insisted in going into a shop which sold clothes. Six spent the time they were inside kicking a stone about the dusty track with a sense of aggrievement, and glaring at the cart driver when he offered commiseration.
When they arrived at the canth farm the canth keeper seemed genuinely pleased to see them again. He walked around the compound with them as their canths came up to the gates, and was delighted that they had stopped to purchase some of the traditional Xianthan robes.
“You will find them so muc
h more comfortable than ordinary clothes when you are traveling in the Great Plain,” he told them. “They are loose enough to allow the flow of air, and that creates an insulating layer which regulates the temperature. And it is a real pleasure to see you in colours.”
“We didn’t bother too much about how many colours they had; we just bought the ones we liked,” Diva told him.
“Visitors are not expected to conform to our colour system, but you have chosen well.”
Grace smiled at him, and the Xianthan raised one eyebrow in her direction as he gave her a broad smile back. “Have you changed your name yet, Girl who fell?”
Grace shook her head, but pulled out a small painting that she had asked Arcan to bring her from Valhai. “No, but I have brought you a very small present. It … it is not very good, but I wanted you to have something that I had painted.”
The man who spoke to canths was speechless. He stared at the painting, full of the dark slate colours of the Valhai sky, turning the canvas from side to side so that he could see it better. “I am honoured. I shall treasure this. You humble me with such a valuable gift.”
“Oh, no, it is not at all valuable. It is just something I did … before I lost part of my fingers.”
The Xianthan gazed at her from under his brows. “You will paint again. The loss of a few joints will not be enough to stop you. I can see from this canvas that it is a part of you. You have painted your heart in this picture.”
“Do you think so?”
He gave a throaty chuckle. “I am quite sure. I will gain much pleasure from looking at this painting. I thank you again. Perhaps I should call you Girl who paints Valhai?”
Grace gave a sort of half-shrug, and smiled shyly.
“There is no hurry. You will find out one day.” He looked around. “Ah, here is your canth now, looking forward to a trip to the Emerald Lake with you!”
Grace ran forward, and buried her face into its silvery mane, putting her hands as far as she could around its neck. The canth nickered a welcome, and nudged at her with its large head, twisting to reach her.
“Thank you,” she managed, talking to the canth. “I know that without you and the other canths the visitor could never have saved me. I don’t know how to tell you that I am very grateful.”
The canth keeper smiled. “They know,” he said. “I think they can feel things that we can’t. He doesn’t want your thanks, but I think he would appreciate some greener grass.”
“He will get it!”
“Just send him back to us when you leave – and come back to Xiantha soon. There is a place for you here – for you and yours, Girl who fell.”
“Thank you.”
The Xianthan turned and bowed to the others. “And, of course, for Valhai Diva and Valhai Six. That goes without saying. Xiantha is already in your debt, and your visits here bring us much colour.”
Diva and Six inclined their heads. They were anxious to be on the move, and were a bit surprised that Grace and this strange Xianthan had grown so close.
BACK BESIDE THE Emerald Lake to finish her rehabilitation process it was as if none of the past few months had existed. Grace reveled in the clear blue water, and swimming seemed to be helping her fingers and toes, too. The dark discolouration was slowly fading, and she was beginning to get used to being without several fingers. Six and Diva had insisted on going with her, and they swam through the mornings, rode their canths in the afternoons, and practiced with their daggers in the evenings. It had been hard at first for Grace to grasp her catana; she had had to develop different tactics, and now needed both hands. She found she had lost a lot of her muscle tone, too, and was usually so exhausted after these sessions that she simply tumbled into bed in her tiny cabin and let her dreams take over.
Unfortunately, in her dreams she always had all her fingers, something which led to intense disappointment the following morning, she learnt. However hard she tried to forget her new disability, it came back to her every time she tried to pick something up, or hold anything. Even riding was a struggle.
Slowly, however, as the days slipped past, she began to regain some of her spirits, and to see that she had been immensely lucky. She had escaped death by so very little. She found herself reveling in the sunlight and the stupid games they played, every day mending her a little more. The strong sun on Xiantha was finally leaving her with a tan, and the swimming was helping to cauterize interior as well as exterior wounds. But the part of the day she loved most was when they rested in the lush vegetation around the lake after their ride with the canths, spending hours picking some of the edible berries while the equines ate their fill of the juiciest grass they had ever seen.
DIVA WAS FAST asleep on the last night they were to stay at the Emerald Lake when a knock on the cabin rexelene caused her to jump so high that she nearly hit her head on the roof. Ready to eat the person who had caused the damage, she ripped the door open.
“WHAT? Oh, it’s you, nomus. What’s the matter?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. Can I come in for a few minutes? I wanted to see you.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I suppose.”
He scrambled very uncomfortably into the tiny space and they sat side by side, their arms around their knees, which were tucked under their chins.
Six gave her a sideways look. “I don’t actually have to behave as if we are married, do I?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well. I thought I might go to Kwaide for a couple of weeks. I could get up to date with Ledin about what’s happening on the planet, see some friends, go out a bit …”
“Go out?” Diva looked suddenly alert. “Who do you want to go out with?”
“Oh, would that bother you?”
She hugged her knees even more closely, and stared at the night sky with a strangely static expression on her face. “No-o, of course not. Why should it? It just sounds a bit … odd.”
“Only you said that ours is just a marriage in name, didn’t you?”
“Ye-e-s, but …”
Six tried to look angelic. Luckily it was dark. “But…?”
But Diva had recovered her usual aplomb. “Of course. You are right. You will be free to do whatever you want. Naturally.”
Six blew a theatrical sigh. “That’s a relief. I have been worrying about telling you.”
“Why ever should you be?”
His eyes flashed. “I thought you might be jealous,” he said simply.
“ME? JEALOUS?” She sounded as if she couldn’t believe her ears. “Of you? Per-lease!”
“Then you won’t mind?”
“Mind? Of course I won’t mind. I told you.” She tossed her growing hair over her shoulder. “You can go out with whoever you want on your stupid Kwaide!”
Six was well-satisfied with his progress. “Good, good,” he said. “Beautiful night, isn’t it?”
Diva stared some more at the stars. “I’m surprised you aren’t thinking about all your friends on Kwaide,” she said gruffly.
Six gave a brilliant smile to himself in the dark.
GRACE WAS STARING over the dark starry sky above the lake. Her little cabin cocooned her against the chill of the night air, and she felt protected and safe.
She had been surprised when the Xianthan had called her the girl who painted Valhai. At first she had been inclined to dismiss it, but she had been going through the exercise he had taught her, and she realized that there were two things that she found herself going back to – again and again.
The night sky on Valhai did seem to define her in some way. It had led to the discovery of Six and Diva. It had enabled them to rescue Arcan. None of the things that had happened would have taken place if she hadn’t decided to go bare planet. Just thinking about her walks on the surface of Valhai made a bubble of happiness well up inside her. This had to mean something important for her. It was telling her something about who she was as a person. The trouble was, she didn’t know enough about all this Xianthan self-examination
stuff to say exactly what that was.
But the other … the other was even more surprising. Because underneath all of the things that had happened to her this year she was seeing a face. It was a calm face, steady and comforting. And it was there all the time, in some corner of her very person. It was supportive and strong, but flexible too.
She smiled at the stars. She could feel that person right now, as if he were here with her, as if he were sitting beside her watching these very same stars. Grace found herself blinking back tears, and moistened her lips. How could somebody creep into your heart without you even noticing? And why? What was so special about that one person that you were you when you were with them, and you were suddenly not quite complete without them? It didn’t make sense. She should have said something. Next time they met, she would, she thought.
So she sat watching the starry sky silently, in a cloud of thought. She should know her own name, she decided. ‘Grace’ was all very well, but it wasn’t very helpful when deciding who you were. She was the girl who fell, of course. Yes. But she was something more than that now. That was a part of her past, but not of her future. Another part of her past was the battle for Kwaide. She stared up at the Ammonite Galaxy, a thick band of denser stars which curved right across the sky above her from East to West. She almost felt as if Solian and Gerrant were there, looking down on her, telling her to move on with her life, to fix them in her memories of the past, and look forwards. If she thought about the future, she suddenly realized, then the girl who fell was not present. Nor was the girl who fought on Kwaide. She liked the title of ‘girl who painted Valhai’, but she was not sure that she would ever be able to paint again, and that was painful to contemplate. Not that she was very skilled, but it had become a way to express some part of her. She wasn’t quite sure it was in her future; it seemed a hazy future, undefined and unfathomable.
She shifted her position; she had been sitting in the same one for a long time, and her muscles were protesting. She winced a little as the movement caught the stump of one of the amputated fingers on the rexelene floor, then she became lost in thought again. She couldn’t see what the future held for her, but she did think that perhaps she wouldn’t have to be facing it alone any more.
Ammonite Planets (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #1-3 Page 88
