Songs Of Harmony

by Andrew Elgin

  "He's starting to wake up."

  "Oh, great! Another problem to deal with," said Lisick. "Show Bellis those drawings and get started. I'll look after the boy. I'm not much use for anything else." To herself, she muttered, "Where is he going to go? And how long will he be around here? We've enough to do without him taking up our time."

  She waved Bellis over. "Gerant has something to show you. You might recognize the drawings. Can you help?"

  Bellis studied the drawings a moment or two before recognition dawned. "Oh I know these! They are good drawings, but they look like they are of old, dead ones. That's what made it confusing." She pointed as she spoke. "That one there, that's kefalos for certain. That one next to it, that looks like soldier grass gone to seed. The other two are brittlebane and scorry. Oh, and that small one down there, that is definitely minnit. See the leaves? Definitely."

  Gerant was impressed. "And where can I get hold of these?"

  Bellis laughed. "They are all growing outside of here." She looked at the surprise on their faces. "You two know everything there is to know about Harmony, except for what's right in front of you! I suppose you want me to get them for you?"

  "Please, Bellis, if you could. Possibly the whole thing, roots and all if possible? The open box they brought out is for them." Gerant's politeness hid his embarrassment at his lack of awareness.

  "Well, that was easier than I thought," said Lisick with relief after Bellis had left. "Still doesn't mean I like any of it, acting like we're their servants. Jumping when they say. And that threat! That's not something I'll ever forget. Nor forgive. Ever!"

  "I agree, Lisick," said Gerant, shaking his head in disbelief. "It's sad to realize that's how they think."

  "Sad and scary!"

  Gerant nodded. "While we're waiting, shouldn't we be seeing about our guest? I dare say he's not happy."

  "What are we going to do with him, Gerant? What can he do here? He's useless to anyone."

  Gerant put a finger to his lips, thinking. "I'll find somewhere for him, Lisick. I'll ask around. There's always a need for extra hands."

  "Yes. If they know what they are doing!"

  "I'll go and help Bellis, hand over the plants and then get started on finding a place for him. You try to find out what you can. I'll be back later. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe later. You can handle things until then?"

  "But I can't read him as well you can, Gerant. You know that."

  Gerant paused at the door. "That's just extra. He needs help now. That's what I'm going to do."

  Lisick found the patient sitting up, sipping at some soup Pasker had brought from the kitchen and looking pale still. Pasker himself was standing, watching, determined to stay, no matter what. "You were unconscious when you arrived. Do you know how long you had been like that?" she asked.

  A shake of his head, his dark brown eyes wary and watchful.

  "Do you know who you are? Your name?"

  He started to speak but had to clear his throat, as if it was painful. "My name is Javin. Javin Sarnum."

  "Do you know where you are?"

  "No."

  "We'll come to that later, " she said. "What's the last thing you remember?"

  Javin screwed up his face as he tried to remember. "I think it was being arrested. But I don't know what for. I think I was getting something to eat. In a queue. And then they arrived." He shook his head. "I don't remember much after that. Do you know why I'm here?"

  "We'll leave that to later as well, shall we? And what was it you did? Before you were arrested I mean. For a living? Did you live in a city?"

  Again, some careful thought. "Yes. In a city. Definitely. In Westbay. I sold things. Electronics."

  "So you were a trader then?"

  "You could say that, I suppose. Yes. A trader." Javin replied.

  "How much of it was illegal, Javin?"

  Javin turned a startled face to her.

  "Oh, come on! You were taken by them for something, and it wasn't for standing still, was it? You must have done something to upset them."

  "I don't know why they came for me. But they did. And if they were going to arrest me for that, then they would have to arrest a whole lot more people. I wasn't the only one!"

  "Calm down, boy," Lisick said. "You might be right and you might not be. I can't tell yet. The point is there are more important things to deal with."

  "Like what?"

  Lisick didn't answer at first. Just looked at the young man in front of her, as if assessing him. "Where do you think you are?"

  Javin shrugged. "I don't know. Your clothes look, well, they look old and dirty. But that might be to hide something else about you. Maybe some police station? Some sort of holding area? With food? I don't think I was charged with anything. Maybe you're part of some sort of assessment team before I get charged. Is that a question you ask people to see if they are on drugs or something? I've been drugged, but I'm not on drugs."

  "Wherever your home was, you're a long way from it, Javin."

  "Was? What do you mean 'was'?"

  "I mean," said Lisick, very slowly, "your home on Haven. You're not there now. You're not on Haven anymore. You're on a different planet. On Harmony. And you're not going back. Ever."

  There was silence.

  "Pasker. Take him outside and show him. It'll be quicker. Not where they landed. The other side."

  A few minutes later, with Pasker acting as support, Javin was staring around him.

  There were trees, or things like trees. Tall, spindly things with long, upward curving leaves, like spines. Some fat yellow and blue striped winged things as large as his hand floated off into the distance. At his feet, the ground was covered with a multitude of long intertwined strands of some sort of plant, vaguely green. It pulsed a little, or seemed to, whenever he moved his weight. The sun was low in the sky but looked smaller than he was used to.

  "This is either really advanced gaming programming, or she was telling the truth," Javin said.

  "That's Lisick. And she always tells the truth. Whether anyone wants to hear it or not. I don't know what you mean about gaming programming, though," replied Pasker. "Have you seen enough?"

  He steadied him back inside, back to the couch again. Lisick was waiting, twisting one strand of hair in her long, bony fingers.

  "Believe me now?"

  "You live in a wooden house?"

  "That's what got your attention, boy?" Lisick smiled and shook her head. "Yes. We live in a wooden house. Actually, it's a large house. We call it The Hall, because, well, that's what it was built as."

  "More food?" asked Pasker, reaching for the now empty bowl, and left before Javin had a chance to reply. Lisick wasn't entirely sure that Pasker's intentions were pure. She thought he was probably thinking about getting a quick snack for himself.

  "What are you thinking about now?" she asked.

  Javin shook his head as if he didn't know where to start. "Why am I here? And what did you mean I can't leave? Why?" He looked at her with eyes full of puzzlement and fear combined. "I don't know what to think, what to ask. What's going to happen to me?"

  Lisick pushed her hair back from her face again. "Look, boy, I know there's a lot of questions and there's a lot of things you need to know. There are two ways of doing this. The slow way and the quick way. Slow means you get to have all the answers over time and the quick way is you get them all at once. I don't have time for the slow way, so here's the quick one." She counted off the answers on her fingers.

  "One, you're here because you upset some important people back on Haven. I don't know what you did, but you did something because that's the only reason to explain the very few people that we have ever heard of arriving from there in the past.

  "Two, you can't leave because there's no way of leaving. That's a fact. Shh!" This was to quell the questions she saw coming. "And don't think that you can go back the same way you came. They didn't want you there, so they're not going to take you back. Simple, and obvious, I'd think.
<
br />   "And three, I have no idea what's going to happen to you because that's going to depend on you. But one thing's for sure, nothing you learned to do so far in your life is going to be much use here. Now I've got to get on with my things and you can ask Pasker for anything. He's the one with the food. Bellis, when you meet her, she's the one who cooks it."

  The look she gave Javin as she got up to leave quashed anything he might have wanted to say, and then she swept out.

  Javin spent the next several days beginning to understand some of what Lisick had said.

  Once, outside, trying to get used to all of it, he watched Bellis picking some plants for their meals. They were growing in an irregular-shaped bed. She didn't pick all of them, but moved amongst them in what seemed a haphazard way, leaving some and taking others.

  "Why don't you just pick all of them?" he asked her.

  "Because some of them need to be left to grow more."

  "What's the difference? They all look the same to me."

  Bellis smiled. "They might look the same, but they don't all feel the same." She saw the puzzled look on his face. "It's part of this link we all have? With Harmony? Never mind. It's just something you get to know. You'll get to know it well enough on your own." And that was the end of that conversation.

  Then there was the time he became bored with looking at the new things around, knowing nothing about them, and wanting something that made connections inside his head. Something familiar. To block the boredom, he decided to find Bellis. The kitchen where she spent most of her time was very large. Even though he knew nothing about cooking, he could tell it was much larger than it needed to be. Where Bellis worked was but one small area. He felt awkward, standing in the doorway, watching her. Finally, he decided to ask Bellis what is was that Lisick actually did that kept her so busy.

  "She listens to Harmony. Finds out what's going on."

  "That doesn't make any sense, Bellis."

  She stopped and dried her hands. "Look at me, Javin and tell me what I'm thinking."

  "I don't know! How can I do that?"

  "Make a guess, then."

  "You're thinking about making a meal?"

  "That's not really saying what I'm thinking. That's what I am thinking about, perhaps. But what am I thinking? There's a difference."

  "Is there? Oh. So... you're thinking about... how long to cook everything?"

  "That was a guess as well, wasn't it?" Bellis was smiling.

  "What else could I do? I have no idea what you're thinking, do I?" Javin sounded frustrated.

  "Actually, that's something you could end up being able to do; know what others are thinking." Bellis turned back to her task. "Really, it's more like what emotions people have. That can be done. Like now, Javin. What's the main emotion I have in my head, without being able to look at my face?"

  Javin shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe you're happy. Happy at teaching me something I don't understand."

  Bellis turned to face him again, her smile broader. "What I just asked you to do is what Lisick does, but in a much bigger way. You had a guess that I was happy. And, maybe you were right. But Lisick, and Gerant as well, they listen to Harmony. They get to feel what's going on with the planet. If a place reports an infestation of some animals, Lisick and Gerant will be able to tell them why and what to do about it. Or, they will hear that one area feels wrong and direct people to make it right: unblock a river, or clear some land or whatever else they feel is needed to make Harmony better."

  "That doesn't make any sense at all. Listening to a planet? That's crazy!" Javin's expression mirrored his words.

  "You did ask. And that's the answer." She returned again to her preparation. "Everyone here on Harmony has a connection. Everyone has a way of connecting. For Lisick and Gerant, it's what they do, why they're here. You'll find your connection, Javin." She stopped what she was doing. "In fact, let's do that right now."

  "Do what?"

  "Find your connection. Or a connection at least. Come on. Outside."

  Bellis frowned for a moment as if concentrating, and then gestured at the land in front of them. "There's a special place for you somewhere here. Go find it."

  "What does that mean? And how?"

  "You wanted to understand about the connection with you and Harmony. Well, this is it. Find the place that feels special, that feels it's just for you."

  "And I do that... how?"

  "The 'how' is part of the connection." She clapped her hands in dismissal. "Now, stop wasting time and get started." And she went back to her chores.

  Javin sighed and, not thinking of anything better to do, began wandering aimlessly.

  Some time later, Bellis strode off to collect something from the garden.

  "Is this it?" Javin looked up at Bellis as she came back with her apron full.

  "What are you asking me for?"

  "Is this my place? You said to find my place. Is this it?" He was sitting on the ground near an old piece of wood or what passed for wood here.

  Bellis sat and spilled the plants onto the ground and began pinching leaves off, shaking her head with a smile.

  "What does it mean?" he asked. "This is as good a place as any, isn't it?"

  "Does it feel right?"

  "How do I know?"

  "There's a place for you. You'll know it." She smiled again. "It's not there though. Move somewhere else."

  Javin shook his head and sat down a few paces over. "Is this it?"

  "Stop asking and start feeling. Move somewhere else."

  Javin felt this was just a waste of time, but got up and wandered away a little bit. Again, he sat. He looked to Bellis.

  She shrugged. "Does it feel like it?"

  It was his turn to shrug. Again, he got up. A new place. Down he sat. He kept moving around, always checking with Bellis who was taking far more interest in her plants.

  He didn't bother with sitting down after a few more changes, just stood still at each place. There was no difference that he could see.

  Bellis stood up, gathered her plants again. "You're getting there." And then she left him alone.

  He had nothing better to do, he thought, so why not keep doing this? He continued to move from place to place. It all felt the same. Except... here. Just here. He felt lighter. More relaxed. Or something like that. He took a step to the side and the feeling went. Step back and the feeling came back. There was nothing visible. No marker he could see.

  As he was experimenting moving back and forth, Bellis came back out.

  "This is my place, isn't it?", he said. "It feels... better."

  She smiled again. "That's Harmony. Harmony and you. Now go and find the place that is the opposite of what you feel there."

  Javin looked at the ground spread out around him. It seemed huge. And he felt so small.

  That was a long day.

  Some time after, he was sitting outside trying to see if there was anything visible about 'his' spot when Lisick wandered out, stretching as if tired. She noticed him, shook herself, and said, "Nothing to do? We'll solve that!" She marched him into the kitchen, dragging him by the arm, where Bellis was working as usual.

  "About time he learned something useful, Bellis. Teach him how to make a blade, will you?" And off she went before Bellis could remind her that she also had work to do.

  That was the beginning of another long day. Instead of finding his own spot, he had to be able to cut a piece of leather into a square.

  "And how do I do that?" he asked, holding up a fist-sized piece of black stone and a raggedy piece of leather.

  Bellis smiled (she was always smiling, Javin realized) and said, "To cut, you need a sharp edge. To make a sharp edge, you must find it in the rock. And you find it by getting rid of what is blunt."

  "And, but I'm getting tired of asking this, how do I do that?"

  She pulled some slim, short wooden sticks out of her apron and another, lighter colored stone. "With these. You can make the blade stone really sharp. You'l
l find out how, I'm sure." And again, smiling, she left him to it.

  At the end of the day, he was bleeding from several small cuts on his hands and legs. He had reduced the black stone to the size of his thumb, but one edge of it was very sharp and he was able to cut the leather.

  Feeling inordinately pleased with himself, he found Bellis seated, eating at one of the large tables in the kitchen. Javin proudly showed the almost square piece of leather, together with his blade. Bellis took the blade from him and turned it in her hand to inspect it.

  "Sit down and I'll get you some food."

  "What do you think, Bellis?" He smiled, as the food was placed in front of him. He picked up a spoon and was about to eat as Bellis placed something beside his bowl. It was a blade. No doubt of it. And, if that was a blade, then his effort was a hammer.

  It was about the length of his hand and about two fingers wide tapering to a sharp point. The other end was rounded and fit easily in his hand. It was, quite simply, beautiful. And effective, as the ease with which it sliced into the leather made clear. Javin held it admiringly. He looked up at Bellis. She simply arched her brows, as if to say, 'Well, that's what you're aiming at. Think you can do it?'

  Suddenly, Javin didn't feel so smug and was a little less hungry as well.

  The next day, he made one in half the time which was twice as good and which got a grudging nod of encouragement.

  He was making progress.

  When Gerant returned, however, five days after setting out, looking weary and dirty from travel, and said that he had found a place for Javin, it knocked back down what small confidence he had gained with Bellis' help.

  Chapter Two

  The third day after Gerant's return, Javin and Bellis were sitting together on the ground, picking over some vegetables, throwing out the small and the bug-eaten ones. Three days and Javin was realizing that things did not happen quickly. Apparently he was waiting for someone to take him to his new home. Not that he wanted to think of that. This place, with Bellis, and Lisick and Gerant, this was home. At least, it felt more like it. It was becoming familiar. And now he was to leave.