Jo Clayton: Crystal Heat

Abra spoke. “Sensors indicate he has been dead for more than a year, Luna. There ’is evidence of several aneurysms in the brain that seem to have burst about the same time. He died within minutes of the event. The body has been preserved by the cold and the spun crystal.”

“So much for Prangarris and his plans.”

Shadith clicked her tongue. “What a dreary place. Looks like the Taalav are as dead as he is. The Kliu won’t be getting much for their coin. Luna, did Prangarris ever say why he chose it?”

There was a moment’s hesitation, then Lylunda’s voice sounded again. “Mostly because no one in his right mind would try to settle it. At least, that’s what he said. And he laughed when I agreed with him.”

Shadith rubbed at her nose. “Lee, could we do a circuit with Tigatri scanning surface for more signs of Taalav? I’d like to be sure we’ve found them all.”

“Abra, if you will…”

It was a desolate world, large land masses separated by narrow, sinuous oceans that were ocher and crimson vegetable stews; there were several volcanoes in the process of erupting, spewing huge clouds of matter into the atmosphere, further cutting down the amount of sunlight reaching the surface. The seas were the world’s repositories of strong color; on the land only a few colored lichens and mosses broke the dull monotone of mud, stone and coarse sand.

When they were stationary once again above the pod site, Shadith grimaced. “Maybe the Taalav like it. When I go down there, I’ll ask them.”

Shadith eased herself into the frame that was supposed to help the exoskeleton support her body so she could cope with the complicated language of the Taalav, with her breathing and the precise control of her voice. Because too many stilters might frighten the arrays into hiding and keep them from answering the song query, Aleytys was waiting a short distance off in the lander.

When Shadith was settled, she looked round. Neither array was anywhere in sight, not even infants and juveniles, but according to Tigatri and her own sense, they were within reach of her voice. She sucked in a lungful of the cold, thick air, ran through a series of vocalizations to help set her up for what she thought could become a long and difficult bargaining session.

Greet you of the newFrom tied-to-old-land

land

I, Singer No-harm offered wanted

Who stand on yourTheir song I offer.

land

She cleared her throat, drank from the stem of the waterbottle.

Silence all round. She swept the area with her outreach. The Taalav stayed hidden and she could feel a feeble startlement mixed with anger and distrust.

She sang again:

Tied-to-old-land If ours thrive

I,named Shadow I hear and repeatfor you

Sing for the old-landLet them be.

this song

Warning Truth and trust

I, named Shadowoffer with open hands

Sing to you-of-the-new-Death comes.

land

The Two-Mouthed swarm, disturbed nest

thieves

I, named Shadow sing warningrun here, run there

Burn, fire and more search out the-new-land

fire

She continued singing for around ten minutes, amplifying the warning, saying she had not come to take them against their will, though she would mourn their deaths if such were their choice.

She dropped into silence and waited.

And waited.

She could feel two adult Taalav circling warily about her, edging in closer…

When one of them finally appeared, moving into view around a pile of lichened rock, she was appalled. It looked sick and mean, the once bright cherry hood mottled with black and khaki, the large eyes of the headbeast filmy and oozing mucus. Around it was a dull aura of anger/resentment/hate that was thick enough to stain the air.

Why Why Why Why

Shadow Singer trust not/trust you who speak

We the betrayed land-tied, taken, stolen by you/

kind

Listen should who die(this/place) starve(this/

weplace)

(Woven around this, asides that commented on her likeness to Prangarris, the deep distrust of the singer, her smell, the inadequacy of her true-speech, and other things that once again were too subtle for the translator in her head to catch).

It was a passionate outcry, all the more so because the Taalav’s voice was weak from hunger and worn to a thread from coping with the bitterness of this world, breaking and wavering on some of the more difficult harmonies.

In the exchange that followed, Shadith discovered just how brutal life had been for the arrays that Prangarris had brought here. The sun was the wrong color, the Taalav sang to her, there were things in the water that did grief to the littles so they grew weak and died, the food plants that Prangarris had brought withered and died and the food the arrays found here was not complete. Prangarris fed them liquid supplements which helped them live, but something went wrong inside him and he was gone. They couldn’t get into his place and reach the supplements, so they starved. Slowly. The food they could find kept them just enough alive to feel the agony of that slow dissolution. This was a bad place, so many things were wrong here. We die, the Taalav sang to her, we rot here and die.

Shadith sang to the Taalav: I will call to you a healer. This person will give you strength and health again, adults and littles alike. This person need only touch you to heal. Will you trust enough to allow this?

The Taalav brooded in silence for several minutes, its eyes dropping shut, its body sagging in the cradle of its legs. Finally it sang: For the good of the newplacepeople, this person before you-stilter/singer will allow the touch.

When Aleytys left the flier and came toward Shadith, the Taalav stirred, gave out a flare of desperate hope. Its eyes were fixed on the healer’s bright red hair. Shadith thought about the cherry hood of healthy Taalav adults and understood. The Gestalt must be thinking, ah! an adult at last.

Will you permit? Aleytys sang.

Shadith.kept her face carefully blank. Lee couldn’t carry a tune if you gave her a universal gripper. Her voice wasn’t unpleasant but she had no grasp of the relationship of the tones and her approximations were enough off to make any singer wince.

She watched Aleytys set hands on the head and body of the Taalav, close her eyes, and begin work. For a while nothing seemed to be happening; then a healthy crimson crept back into the hood and the head’s eyes brightened. When Aleytys stepped away, the Taalav’s lively cheerfulness was back. The difference in its emanations was astonishing. And when it sang its gratitude, the harsh dissonances had vanished from the speech.

The other adults and the littles of the arrays came from hiding, scuttling and wriggling and slithering. Shadith watched Aleytys take up the tiny head forms and body forms, hold them in her hands until the distressing feebleness was gone, then set them down to run and play about the feet of the adults. It was as if they were reborn and reinfused with the stock of happiness that this world had sucked out of them. With a whine of servos, Lee knelt and began passing her hands across the wormforms that were also part of the Gestalt.

While she worked, the sun moved past zenith and a cold wind rose off the lake, bringing with it the rancid, sickening smell of rotten vegetation.