Changelings

by Anne McCaffrey

  “We’ll hope they don’t take arrows in their anatomy to induce such a condition,” Yana said, referring to what was nearly a mortal wound for him. “And I thought leading training troops on landing parties for the Company Corps was a heavy responsibility!” She shook her head as if to clear it. “We’re borrowing trouble. It’s not as if shape-changing is a viable occupation.”

  “Oh, selkies would be real useful on water worlds,” Sean argued.

  “Yana’s right, Sean. There’s trouble enough right here and now without borrowing any,” Clodagh said in a cajoling tone. “Don’t fall into that water until the ice breaks up. For now your biggest problem is to decide what these babes of yours are to be called. I will think on it, remember the stories of our peoples, see if there’s some appropriate names there. You and Yana should sleep while you have the chance. The cats can’t take care of all the needs those babes will have.”

  THE DRUMMING BEGAN shortly after sunrise. Inside the nursery cube, the twins opened their eyes to the brightness pouring in through the piece of sheeting that covered the cube’s single small window. The babies whimpered and wiggled.

  Nanook’s ears were the first part of him to wake up. They pricked to attention. Coaxtl’s tail lashed restlessly before the snow leopard stretched a sleepy paw. The kits had awakened. Both cats stretched and rose, poking their noses over the sides of the cots.

  “Rrrow,” Nanook told his friend. “I’d cry too if I smelled like that. Where are those humans when you need them?”

  “These cubs leak,” Coaxtl agreed. “And they’ve got these things tied around their haunches to hold the leakage in. One wonders how humans come up with such ideas. This arrangement keeps the nest clean but the cubs dirty.”

  “Sean would not want his kits to be dirty,” Nanook said.

  “Can one pull these haunch harnesses off so one can clean them?” Coaxtl inquired.

  “Yes, they are meant to be removable. But take care with fang and claw. We want to remove the harnesses only, not the kits’ pelts. Humans, lacking proper coats, have very sensitive hides.”

  Nanook’s nose touched the kit’s leg as he grasped a pinch of cloth in his teeth. The kit stopped whimpering. He looked at it anxiously lest it was merely saving its breath for a good howl, but it was staring at him, wide-eyed and curious. Disconcerting, these human younglings, born with their eyes all open and gawking.

  “Hee,” the kit said aloud, quite distinctly giggling.

  “Hee,” the female kit echoed, pumping a plump fist in the air.

  Tickles, one of them—the female?—said.

  Ma? the other inquired.

  No, child, I am Nanook, your keeper. Your mother sleeps. And this one is Coaxtl, also your keeper.

  ’Nook. Nanook realized suddenly that the boy’s more advanced utterances were mental and that it understood as well as transmitted thoughts.

  Co’. The female kit was also transmitting thoughts.

  Co-ax-tl, the snow leopard said with a dignified fluff of his tufted cheeks. You may as well get it right to begin with, youngling.

  Co’.

  Nanook sat back on his haunches. The harness was too close to the tender skin. “Don’t growl, leopard. They will learn. When I was their age, my mother had to lick me to teach me to do what they’ve already done in their harnesses.”

  Coaxtl sat back too. “This harness removal is for those with thumbs. The drums call. The time has come to wake the parents. They can cope with haunch harnesses.”

  CHAPTER 2

  JUST IN CASE a seventy-five-pound track cat standing over her was not enough of a hint that she should wake, Sean was saying, “Yana, love, it’s time to rise. The drums have begun and the babes are hungry again.”

  “Yes, I got that idea,” she said, looking up into Nanook’s black-and-white marked face before Sean shooed the cat back to the floor. He had been so good, getting up to change the babies during the night and tucking them in with her so she could breast-feed without disturbing her rest unduly. She attempted to roll out of bed with her customary agility, only to find it sadly lacking. The birthing had not felt too traumatic, thanks to the underwater method Clodagh had employed to ease the way of the children into the world. But what pain had been spared her yesterday seemed to be catching up with her now.

  A muted buzz went off in the adjoining cube, which was the main office of the Shongilis. Sean paused halfway to the nursery cube, waiting until a second mechanical noise clicked in.

  “It’s working?” Yana asked in surprise. This was not the latest or most up-to-date answering machine, but it was the one that worked on their planet. They all listened for a second click, and then a red light appeared on the bar above the door into the cube, indicating a message was waiting. More efficient communication was one of the “improvements” that almost had to be implemented with all of the attention—most of it unwanted—Petaybee received from offworld interests. One com shed could no longer handle all of the messages, now that Intergal communications had pulled out when Space Base was dismantled. The landing area and fueling station had been left intact, and for a small consideration and a trade agreement regarding the fuel for visiting vessels, Kilcoole was allowed to retain it as a civilian concession.

  “That thing can wait,” Sean said. While recognizing the need for the “labor-saving” device, at the same time he resented its intrusion into what had once been their comparatively peaceful life. “I’ll help you with the twins.”

  First he had to help her hobble into the “nursery.” Coaxtl looked up, yawned, stretched, and padded out. One’s shift was over, one presumed. Nanook joined the snow leopard, and the two stood by the door until Sean retraced his steps and opened it for them to go out.

  The blast of cold air that blew in when the cats departed chilled the overheated room that had been so efficiently warmed by the woodstove and the hot burning Petaybean alder wood. The nursery cube, like the office cube also attached to the cabin, had its own temperature- and humidity-controlled environment, which was why they had chosen it for the twins, in spite of its lack of the individuality that characterized Petaybean dwellings.

  Both twins were wide awake and smelly. The little girl held up a fist full of white fur. “Coaxtl got too close to you, I see, my little Monster Slayer,” Yana said, pulling off the dirty diaper and cleaning the child with the moistened moss compresses Clodagh recommended for the job. “You need to choose your monsters more wisely, though, my love. Coaxtl is a friend.”

  “Hee,” the little girl said.

  “Hee,” echoed her brother, spraying his father with urine the minute the diaper was removed and air touched his skin.

  “Here now,” Sean said. “I think your mummy said your role model was called Born for Water, not Born to Water!”

  “Hee,” the baby said again, so of course his sister had to say it again too, so as not to be outdone.

  Sean held the boy and walked him around the cabin, talking to him while Yana fed her daughter. Then they switched babies. Finally the little ones were fed, changed, rediapered, and swaddled in clean furs.

  Yana had finished washing up and pulled on a pair of old uniform trousers and a fleece top when someone knocked on the door.

  She opened it to admit Bunny Rourke, Sean’s niece and her closest friend since she had first arrived on Petaybee. Beside Bunny was Aoifa, Bunny’s sister. Coaxtl considered Aoifa her two-legged cub.

  “Clodagh said we should come to help with the babes while you and Sean get ready.”

  “Clodagh’s reputation as a wise woman is richly deserved,” Yana said thankfully. “You missed the messy bits for the time being, but they can use distraction for a moment.”

  With the help of the girls, the entire family unit was ready to mobilize within an hour. Yana and Sean carried the twins, while the girls followed with their changes of diapers, their packets of moss wipes, and extra furs in case the twins messed the ones they were wrapped in. “We look more like an expeditionary force than a f
amily,” Yana remarked.

  Sean smiled. “You’ve not been around all that many families up till now, love. Families with new babies can make expeditionary forces seem underpacked.”

  “Good thing we brought the snocle,” Bunny said. “And a curly coat to carry the gear.”

  “Have packhorse will go next door,” Yana quipped when the girls loaded the supplies on the shaggy little Petaybean horse with its thick curly coat. Sometime during the night it had begun to snow. A blanket three or four inches deep covered the well-tramped path to the river road. Snow still sifted down from a light pewter sky. Soon the sun, which had just risen, would be setting again.

  Aoifa led the horse, while Sean and Yana—who were clad in parkas, snow pants, hats, mittens, and mukluks—squeezed themselves and their fur-wrapped offspring into the snocle beside Bunny.

  SMOKE POURED FROM the smoke hole of the latchkay lodge, a great plume among the pinion feathers emitted by the chimneys of Kilcoole’s other houses. In front of the lodge, men stirred soups and stews in sterilized fuel drums over open fires. The smells didn’t travel far in the air, which was so frigid it froze the hairs inside people’s nostrils.

  The drums drowned out all other noises now, calling the people together. Their beat was so strong the snow seemed to fall in time to it.

  The babies wiggled in their parents’ arms, wanting to see what all the noise and fuss was about. The thing in which they had been squeezed, the thing that roared and slid, stopped, and suddenly they felt cold air rush in through their furs. It felt wonderful!

  Strange and familiar voices mingled all around them. Their parents walked forward until the cold went away and the babies were enveloped in great warmth and felt themselves being passed from their parents to other people. When they were handed back, their furs were removed and their mother had changed from the furry beast she’d transformed into outside back to the soft-slender-dark-haired-sweet-milk-smelling giver of food and cuddles who spoke to them in long utterances and smiled often.

  Many faces peered down at them, touching their cheeks and chins, toes and fingers, all of the features of their land shapes. People spoke in odd voices that had “ooo” sounds.

  They had slept well and were as curious as the cats who prowled among the people sitting and standing in the hall. The drums stopped for a while as people ate. During the eating, several people stood and spoke, saying things that seemed to make their mother happy.

  Then they were both in their father’s arms as the one drum began again and their mother stood and danced with other mothers, a slow pacing dance around the center of the big space. Father spoke to them then. He was easier to understand than anyone else, and half of what he said was inside their heads, his meanings confusing and mysterious but clearly important clues to what lay before them. His silvery eyes shone happily down at them as he spoke, and his voice held a lilt of laughter and good feeling.

  “Children, we are at your naming latchkay. What’s a latchkay? I’m glad you asked. The people of our village and I come from two peoples of Old Earth—the Inuit and the Irish. When something wonderful or important happened, the people would gather to eat and speak, dance and sing together. Among the Inuit, this was called a potlatch. Food and gifts were given to all. Among the Irish, it was a kay-lee, where there was much music and food and drink. We on Petaybee celebrate our occasions with something that mixes the two customs and we call it a latchkay. At this one, people will give us gifts for you. When you are five, we will hold a latchkay to redistribute the baby gifts you no longer use, and you will add gifts of your own to ones we make or barter for. Today your mother and I shall sing and dance with you, and everyone will suggest names and explain why they are good names. Clodagh will probably come up with the best ones. Clodagh was the lady you both saw yesterday, before you saw your mother’s face or mine. Your mother has finished dancing now and it is my turn. Any questions?”

  “Hee hee,” the twins said. Then, “ ’Kay.”

  But their father, passing them to their mother again, didn’t hear.

  Then Father picked Her up and mother picked Him up and they all danced, a happy jiggly rhythm such as the parents had used to put them to sleep. Two drumbeats, twin hearts, moved the people up and down, back and forth, up and down.

  After that there was some more fun. Mother and Father sat down, each still holding one of them, and a round lady not Clodagh brought bright-colored soft things with shiny little round things in pretty patterns all over the front.

  “Thank you, Aisling,” Mother said. “Carry pouches are exactly what we need. Now the twins can see what’s going on too.” Mother handed Him to Father and stuck her arms into the bright soft thing she said was “kind of a cobalt blue.” Father handed Him back to her, and she put Him into the thing, so that His legs were apart but stuck through the front, His middle held in by the strip with the shiny round things that sparkled in the light, and His head, though cradled between Mother’s food-givers, faced forward. He could see everything! Everything!

  Father handed Her to Mother too. Mother had a hard time hanging on to Her, because She wanted to see too and tried to twist in Mother’s arms. Mother’s cuddle wasn’t as comfortable as usual because He was in the way.

  But Father put on his new soft bright thing, which he said was “Hot pink, not my color, but Hers,” and then She too faced forward.

  Thus they were able to see all of the gifts. Soft warm things, not furs, for covering during sleep. Moss wipes and haunch harnesses, as the cats called them, though Mother and Father called them diapers. Small versions of Mother’s fur-faced thing that made her big when she went outside. Other things like that, garments, clothes, they were called, that their parents held against them or stuck over their arms and legs a little ways to show.

  The pile in front of them grew and grew until they couldn’t tell one thing from another. Then two men came forward, “Seamus” and “Johnny.” If the first thing was the best so far, these last things were best too. They brought between them a cot surrounded by a box that had images of fishes swimming all around it. The bottom had things they took off and put on again.

  “Rockers for in the house,” Johnny said. “Runners for sledding them over the snows,” Seamus said. “Wheels for when it’s dry,” they both said, attaching round things to the front and back and taking them off again. “And when you’re near water and you don’t want them in it, use nothing at all on this and it will float tight and dry as any boat.”

  Best of all, it was not one cot but big enough for two. Mother and Father laid the twins together in it, so they could see each other and snuggle together. It was very nice but the twins did not let them get away with it, of course. Sleep could not come without food.

  BEFORE THE LATCHKAY adjourned to the communion place for the Night Chants, the singing was interrupted by the howls of the dogs tethered outside and answered by dogs running toward them. The lodge’s doors were flung open and three figures, heavily covered in fur parkas, snow pants, and boots, stamped inside. Bunny and Aoifa Rourke, Diego Metaxos, and young Chugiak rushed out to tend to the newcomers’ teams.

  “Friends, we’re so pleased you’ve come to honor these children and their parents!”

  The first person, now stripped of his parka, was a small dark-haired man. In his plaid shirt and snow pants, he walked in among the celebrants and said, “We are not the only ones to honor them! For weeks the seals have been gathering along the beach, thick as snowflakes. Dolphins and whales come too in great profusion, not to their killing grounds but near our settlements, as if waiting for something to happen. Then yesterday the ice began to crack and break up as if it were spring. Finally, a giant wave came rolling in and crashed onto the shore, carrying fish and other creatures, some we have never seen before, and washed away half the village. We heard twins were born here in Kilcoole at the same time the wave rolled in, and the three of us, who have the fastest teams in our area, were sent to greet the children and bring them naming gifts.”<
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  The twins, seemingly oblivious to the noise, were asleep in their new cradle when the coastal people arrived, but by the time the visitors stood dripping melted snow from their hair in front of Sean and Yana, the little ones had awakened again.

  One man pulled out a length of string and began making figures with it a few inches above the twins’ faces. “A story string to amuse them and help them trap the best stories in its net. It is made of good strong synweb too, so they can use it to snare rabbits if they want.”

  The next person, a woman, handed Yana two knives: a dagger, and a blade that looked as if it were a quarter cut from a circle, the point removed and replaced by a bone handle. “A hunting knife and an ulu, so they will never go hungry or cold.”

  The third person, also a woman, handed Yana a large-eyed steel needle with a cutting end. “My mother always said a needle was the true magic of our people because without a needle, we would not be able to make the clothing we need to survive. Actually, my mother wanted me to bring you her old treadle sewing machine, but there wasn’t time to load it, even if there had been room on the sled.”

  Yana and Sean laughed and thanked them all.

  The baby girl reached up and snagged the story string in her tiny fingers.

  The man who had been demonstrating its use beamed.

  Then the food was served, musicians brought out their rusty instruments, and people began dancing the reels and figure dances from long ago, separated by occasional waltzes.

  Marduk, the orange and white striped cat who had adopted Yana when she first arrived at Kilcoole, hopped into the cradle and wrapped himself around the twins’ feet, purring when a baby hand patted his magnificent bushy tail. Nanook and Coaxtl reappeared and sat on either side of the cradle. Nanook looked expectantly up at Sean.