Jo Clayton: Crystal Heat

Even with the exo and the frame supporting her, exhaustion dragged at Shadith and she didn’t want to think about how Aleytys felt; she told herself it was like the struggle to keep Lylunda alive, it reminded Lee of her strength where forces on Wolff conspired to remind her of her weaknesses.

Shadith sang a soft query to call the first Taalav from its contemplation of the healing. You have strength now, she sang to it, and you’ve seen our good will. If you stay here, the Curl Ears will surely find you and kill you. Do you want to go back where you came from? I will take you there if you ask it. Or there is another world that you can visit that might prove better for you than this. Will you risk that?

We went with One-bump ’Garrs, the Taalav sang, we had no choice, it took us, gathered us as we gather fruits from the grony bushes, yet we went with a certain willingness for we wished a new place, a free place that would be ours alone. We understood that the Curl Ears looked on us as beasts and harvested our histories because they were pleasant to look upon and their songs were prized. We thought One-bump ’Garrs was weak and alone and we could escape its hand easily enough when there was room to run. We did not understand that places could be more deadly than Kadbeasts. This person looks on your good will and accepts that. This person feels whole for the first time in many days. Yet, this person has learned fear of new things and it is hard to contemplate the choice youstilter/singer offer. Must this person choose?

I-Stilter/singer don’t understand. How possible that you-of-the-new-land could be returned and not-returned at the same time?

This person would look upon the new world, yet if the new land is bad also, this person would go back to the tie-land.

I see, Shadith sang. Yes, that is sensible. The sun’s color will be wrong on this new world also, but it will be warmer and, I think, more hospitable. She glanced at. Aleytys, sang: The healer is nearly finished with its work. Will you call your folk of-the-new-land together and come with us?

The hold in Harskari’s Tiauchi had been set to a proper gravity and the light provided was a close approximation of that on Pillory. The arrays left the flier with twitters of excitement and pleasure; they’d expected to have to suffer the same primitive conditions they had endured in Lylunda’s Dragoi.

Shadith introduced them to the mobile Grace who had taken on the semblance of an adult Taalav and acquired the Taalav langue from Tiauchi’s kephalos through Tigatri’s tie to Aleytys.

This place fit/not-fit desired be your

comfort

You of-the-new-land sing to Gracefood and

more

Dark and light is timedwhat can be done will

for you

The Taalav who’d spoken first to Shadith stood beside her; it sang an acknowledgment then went silent as it looked around the hold.

The baby body forms were chasing each other over the spongy flooring, in and out of the pseudo plant forms, whistling shrilly through their long dangly noses and having a grand time. The baby heads were crawling more slowly, nudging against each other and piling into sloppy heaps for the comfort of feeling others around them. And the other, more ambiguous juvenile parts of the Gestalt were wriggling and squirming around, wrapping themselves around head forms and licking at them, getting their taste re-registered, coiling round each other, looking more or less like knots of earthworms chased out of their holes by a morning rain. The other adult gestalts were moving about, exploring the place, singing their complex songs as they commented on what they saw.

The huge dark eyes of the Taalav turned on Shadith for a moment. She sensed wondering/tentativeness/ interest/tension and understood the mix as the Taalav moved over to the mobile Grace and sang a request for open water and food.

Shadith waited until Grace sang her answer, then she stepped onto the slide flat and was transported to the living areas.

“Loguisse.”

The Vryhh had the fragile look Shadith remembered from the first time she’d met her, delicate bones with barely enough flesh to put padding between them and the skin, but she’d lost her aura of ancient desiccation; her dark blue eyes sparked with life and there was color in her pale face. “A fascinating species, Shadow,” she said after giving Shadith a brief nod to acknowledge the greeting. She was examining a small Taalav crystal mounted in a dagnoster envelope, plotting the intricacies in the weaving of the extruded threads. “You say these are histories?”

“So the Taalav say. Some of the crystals anyway. Some are story books. And some are just for the pleasure they give. Harskari hasn’t come across yet?”

“Not yet. She’s doing some last minute planning with Lee. Should be finished soon, we’d agreed to be gone in another hour or so. Themis tells me the Taalav are settling in quite nicely. I can see why you like them so much… Charming creatures and very intelligent. If they prosper on Storsten and agree to it, I mean to bring, more of them there; for a viable colony they need a larger breeding base. Hm. The crystals being sometimes histories, I wonder what effect a transfer of them between the two groups would have. It would be interesting to see how their society changes and develops. Both on Storsten and on Pillory.” She smiled vaguely at Shadith, then went back to her examination of the crystal.

Shadith turned to Tigatri’s Master Mobile. “Themis, arrange my transfer to Tigatri, please.”

“What are you going to say to Digby when you tell him you’ve quit?” Aleytys was sitting on the boulder again, swinging her feet in the garden’s stream, kicking up sprays of water and watching the drops fall back.

Shadith shifted position; a root from the tree she was leaning against was poking too assertively into her back. “I don’t know. Wouldn’t be polite or politic to tell him it was because I just didn’t trust him anymore. Though that’d be the truth. The more I learn about the e more spooked I get. How far does his reach go? That’s a lot of power he has. What happens when that face he clings to turns into a mask with nothing behind it? How does he know who he is then? What does he want? What will he do to get it? What happens when he does get it? Does he turn into something like Kell? All malice with no internal limits?”

“Heavy list of questions.” Aleytys pulled her legs up, folded them into a lotus knot. “Thinking of getting answers to them?”

“No. Not unless I have to. If he leaves me alone, I’ll return the favor.”

“Mm. You told Lylunda the Taalav were dead. Tell him the same thing, but that you were really unhappy about the thought of the Kliu slaughtering them. So you’ve decided to find another way of making a living. And then go play around Vrithian for a while till the whole thing cools down. What are you going to do about his ship?”

“Take it to University in tow to mine, do my talking from there. He can send someone to pick it up. I’m not going back to Spotchalls, that’s for sure. Lee, what am I going to do?”

“What do you want to do?”

“You’re no help.”

Aleytys grinned sleepily at her. “Well, what kind of help were you when you were infesting my head?”

“Ah, so it’s revenge you want.” Shadith wrinkled her nose. “Having opted for mortality, I suppose I want that choice to mean something. I want people to be glad I walked through their lives. Like the Fior and Ketang of B6luchad. That was, well, satisfying, though I suppose it’s Aslan who made the big difference. But I helped.”