Jo Clayton: The Burning Ground

+Yes. By at least a handspan.+

+Good.+ She lifted the pole. “Hidan, warn me if this thing gets too close to the edge of the opening.”

The pole touched the glass. Holding her breath she opened the jaws of the clamp on the end and began easing them toward the sill. Inch by inch, down and down until the jaws touched the wood. She glanced at Hidan.

+Still clear.+

“Good. If the pole gets less than a handwidth from the edge, stop me.”

Hidan nodded.

Glancing repeatedly at the anya, she clamped the jaws on the sill, began tilting the pole downward, slowly slowly slowly-until the base end was jammed into the mud. She let out the breath she was holding, nodded her thanks to Hidan, and triggered the lockdown plate. When a hefty shove at the pole failed to move it, she wiped the rain off her face, stepped into the first half-stirrup, then went running up until she could touch the glass.

A suction cup in the center of the wide pane, four quick slashes with the cutter; a shove, and-the way was open.

Syon eased the pole into the empty storeroom, propped it in a corner and squatted beside it, a rifle across his knees, his eyes on the window.

Shadith pulled the knitted cowl over her head, smoothed it down, checked to make sure her eyes were clear. She glanced at the other hooded figures, squeezed the latch and eased the door open, slipped out into the hall and ghosted down it.

Shadith was several steps beyond the doorless arch that led into the workroom before the two techs noticed her. She stunned them, ran to Avo’s office, located the keybook Vourts had used, and hurried back to the station with it.

While she leafed through the pages until she found the one she wanted, Khimil and Nyen dragged the techs away from workstations, tied their wrists and ankles, gagged and blindfolded them. Hidan stood guard at the door, sweeping round with xe’s thinta, ready to whistle a warning if anyone came.

Shadith entered the Exec’s override and began the tedious process of making sure none of the base cardkeys or access codes would breach the shield and open the door; the accretions were even worse than she’d suspected and tracking down all the files was a pain, though it did give her a feel for what she’d have to claw through when she began working on the satellite programming. Outside, the rain drummed against the windows, the wind wailed and whooped round the corners. Inside, Nyen and Khimil’s boot heels were loud on the composition floor as they hurried about, gathering everything flammable they could find and dumping it on and around the other workstations. They spoke now and then, voices subdued.

At first all these sounds were distracting, but as Shadith worked her way deeper into ithe Ptak system, they faded until she was no longer conscious of them.

The sound of the door shutting woke Thann from troubled dreams. Xe’s anyalit wriggled protest as xe sat up, so xe pushed a finger into xe’s pouch for the infant to gum on. The babbit’s eggteeth had fallen out and the new set wouldn’t come in until the sixth month of the pouch year.

Isaho was gone, her covers thrown back, her clothes still folded on the stool at the foot of her bed. Sleepwalking again? Out wandering around somewhere wearing nothing but one of the starchy white nightgowns that Mercy Fisalin brought her clean each. night? Thann rubbed the heel of xe’s hand against xe’s right eye, then the left, then drew xe’s palm across xe’s face, trying to wake up enough to decide what xe should do.

With a sigh, xe gave a last rub to the babbit’s gums and freed xe’s hand. Xe forced xeself up, pushed xe’s feet into xe’s sandals and pulled on the hatchry robe, fingers fumbling at the buttons that closed the neck opening. Xe couldn’t count on the Mercys to notice Isaho and bring her back; they were asleep or busy at their prayers and meditations. If Isaho got outside… Xe could thin the Pilgrims out there, hundreds of them, marching in endless circles about the House, chanting the shimbils, muttering blessings on the Holy Child. They frightened xe. The walls were too thick, and they were too far from the hospitality wing of the House for xe to hear them, but even so xe couldn’t escape the terrible intensity of their yearning. If Isaho got outside and they saw her…

Xe thinta searched, touched Isaho, and started after her, as close to running as xe dared, the slap slap of xe’s sandals loud and intrusive in the empty corridors. Dark corridors, lit by tiny oil lamps set a maximum distance apart.

Light flared ahead of xe.

Xe could thin Isaho coming toward xe. And Mercys. Dozens of them. As if the House were emptying itself. Xe pressed against the wall and waited.

Isaho came round the corner, one of her hands nestling inside the Grand Mercy’s. In the other she held a glass candle lamp, the flame of the candle casting odd upside down shadows on her face. Her eyes had that stony sheen that terrified Thann whenever xe saw it, and her lips were curved in a tight triumphant smile.

The other Mercys followed, two columns of them, hands gliding through the Praise Songs, the shadows they cast dancing across the walls, dancing across Thann as they swept past xe.

Xe followed them from the House and into the street.

Isaho started singing, her voice cutting through the noise from the crowd of Pilgrims. “God has told me,” she sang. “God has spoken, God has promised, the Fence will fall, it falls tonight.”

When xe heard that, Thann’s stomachs turned to ice. Watching Isaho search faces everywhere for Mam, Baba, and Keleen after they passed through the Gate that first day was sad and troubling, and when her daughter began prophesying for the Mercys and the Pilgrims as if she were denying her grief again by using God as a shield, that was even harder to bear. But this…

Xe didn’t know which would be more terrible for Isaho-if the Fence stayed right where it was, or if it fell. And xe had no idea what xe could do.

The, procession swept up Bond Sisters as it passed their House, sucked in more and more Pilgrims as it moved down to Progress Way. Prophet Speakers came to swell the mix as they moved past the Seminary and the Tent. Brothers poured from the Grand Yeson as they circled around it and headed down the, wide avenue toward the Fish Gate and the seafront.

Thann’s anyalit picked up the excitement around them and needed constant minding as xe tried to crawl out of the pouch and go scurrying up the handholds sewn into the front of the robe so xe could sit with xe’s head out the neck opening and see what was happening. Xe walked with both hands pushed through the side slits in the hatchry robe so xe could catch the little wriggler and shove the questing head back past the pouch sphincter. It was a rather welcome distraction from xe’s worry about Isaho, because all this activity meant the babbit was not only healthy but bright beyond xe’s age.

As the procession reached the wharf, Thann tried to get closer to Isaho, but the press of the throng about her pushed xe aside. Afraid for xe’s babbit, xe gave up the struggle and moved away until she came to a double bitt. Xe settled xeself with xe’s legs hanging over the edge of the wharf, xe’s back and side pressed against the bitts. Though xe couldn’t see xe’s daughter, xe could hear her as she sang the shimbil litany, the crowd of watchers answering her.

The golden glow of the Fence flickered on, constant as the beat of Thann’s heart. Xe stroked the babbit’s small head until xe went soft against xe’s palm and withdrew into the pouch to curl up with the nipple in xe’s mouth.

An hour passed.

Another.

The shimmer at the edge of the sky vanished.

Even the most fervent watchers were silent, even they didn’t believe what they were seeing. They waited for the glow to come back. A soughing like the wind rising before a storm passed across the wharves as the thousands out here drew in a collective breath and held it.