Brightness Reef (57 page)

Over to the left, the Stranger had set aside his dulcimer to watch Kurt’s nephew, young Jomah, play a game of Tower of Haiphong with a red-qheuen salt peddler, a pair of Biblos librarians, and three hoonish pilgrims. The contest involved moving colored rings over a hexagonal array of posts, stuck in the sand. The goal was to pile a stack of rings on your Home Post in the right order, largest at the bottom, smallest on top. In the advanced game, where ring colors and patterns signified traeki attributes, one must wed various traits to form an ideal traeki.

Pzora seemed more entranced by the storyteller than the game. Sara had never heard of a traeki taking offense at Tower of Haiphong, even though it mimicked their unique mode of reproduction.

“See here?” the boy explained the game to the Stranger. “So far I got swamp flippers, a mulching core, two memory rings, a Sniffer, a Thinker, and a Looker.”

The star-human showed no sign of frustration by Jomah’s rapid speech. He watched the apprentice ex-ploser with an expression of intelligent interest—perhaps he heard Jomah’s warbling voice as something like musical notes.

“I’m hoping for a better base, to let my traeki move around on land. But Horm-tuwoa snatched a walker torus I had my eye on, so it looks like I’m stuck with flippers.”

The hoon to the boy’s left crooned a low umble of gratification. You had to think fast, playing Tower of Haiphong.

“Build me a dream house, oh my dear,

fourteen stories high.

Basement, kitchen, bedroom, bath,

I’ll love you till I die.”

Jomah and the others all stopped what they were doing to stare at the Stranger, who rocked back and laughed.

He’s getting better at this, Sara thought. Still, it seemed eerie whenever the star-man came up with the verse to some song, perfectly apropos to what was going on at the time.

With a glitter in his eye, the Stranger waited till the other players were engrossed once more in their own stacks. Then he nudged Jomah, covertly pointing out a game piece ready to draw from the reserve box. The boy stared at the rare torus called Runner, trying so hard to stifle a yelp of joy that he coughed, while the dark alien patted him on the back.

Now how did he know that? Do they play Tower of Haiphong, among the stars? She had pictured space-gods doing—well, godlike things. It was encouraging to

think they might use games with simple pieces—hard, durable symbols of life.

Of course, most games are based on there being winners . . . and losers.

The audience hissed appreciatively as the bard finished her epic and left the low platform to accept her reward, a steaming cup of blood. Too bad I missed the end, Sara thought. But she would likely hear it again, if the world lasted beyond this year.

When no one else seemed about to take the stage, several urs stretched and started drifting toward the nearest tent flap, to go outside and check their animals, preparing for tonight’s trek. But they stopped when a fresh volunteer abruptly leaped up, clattering hooves on the dais. The new storyteller was Ulgor, the tinker who had accompanied Sara ever since the night the aliens passed above Dolo Village. Listeners regathered around as Ulgor commenced reciting her tale in a dialect even older than the one before.

Ships fill your thoughts
 
right now,

Fierce, roaming
          
silently.

Ships fill your dreams
   
right now,

Far from all
       
watery seas.

Ships cloud your
   
mind-scape now,

Numberless
         
hordes of them.

Ships dwarf your
   
mind-scape now,

Than mountains,
    
vaster far.

A mutter of consternation. The caravan chief corkscrewed her long neck. This was a rare topic, widely thought in poor taste, among mixed-races. Several hoon-ish pilgrims turned to watch.

Ships of the
       
Urrish-ka

Clan of strong
reverence.

Ships of the
       
Urrish host.

Clan bound for
vengeance!

Bad taste or no, a tale under way was sacrosanct till complete. The commander flared her nostril to show she had no part in this breach, while Ulgor went on evoking an era long before urs colonists ever set hoof on Jijo. To a time of space armadas, when god-fleets fought over incomprehensible doctrines, using weapons of unthinkable power.

Stars fill your thoughts
 
right now.

Ships large as
     
mountain peaks,

Setting stars
      
quivering,

With planet-sized
        
lightings.

Sara wondered—why is she doing this? Ulgor had always been tactful, for a young urs. Now she seemed out to provoke a reaction.

Hoon sauntered closer, air sacs puffing, still more curious than angry. It wasn’t yet clear that Ulgor meant to dredge up archaic vendettas—grudges so old they made later, Jijo-based quarrels with qheuens and men seem like tiffs over this morning’s breakfast.

On Jijo, urs and boon share no habitats and few desires. No basis for conflict. It’s hard to picture their ancestors slaughtering each other in space.

Even the Tower of Haiphong game was abandoned. The Stranger watched Ulgor’s undulating neck movements, keeping tempo with his right hand.

Oh ye, native
      
listeners

So-smugly
                
ignorant,

Planet-bound minds,
dare you

Try to
             
conceive?

Of planet-like
     
holes in space,

In which dwell
     
entities,

That planet-bound
        
minds like yours

Cannot
             
perceive?

Several hoon umbled relief.
 
Perhaps this wasn’t about archaic struggles between their forebears and the urs. Some space-epics told of awesome vistas, or sights baffling to modern listeners, reminders of what the Six had lost, but might regain someday—ironically, by forgetting.

Cast back your
     
dread-filled thoughts,

To those ships,
          
frigidly,

Cruising toward
          
glory’s gate,

Knowing not
        
destiny.

If the first bard had been ardent, chanting bloody glory, Ulgor was coolly charismatic, entrancing listeners with her bobbing head and singsong whistle, evoking pure essences of color, frost, and fear. Sara put her notebook down, spellbound by vistas of glare and shadow, by vast reaches of spacetime, and shining vessels more numerous than stars. No doubt the yarn had grown in retelling, countless times. Even so, it filled Sara’s heart with sudden jealousy.

We humans never climbed so high before our fall. Even at our greatest, we never possessed fleets of mighty starships. We were wolflings. Crude by comparison.

But that thought slipped away as Ulgor spun her rhythmic chant, drawing out glimpses of infinity. A portrait took shape, of a great armada bound for glorious war, which fate lured near a dark region of space. A niche, mysterious and deadly, like the bitter hollows of a mule-spider’s lair. A place wise travelers skirted, but not the admiral of this fleet. Steeped in her own invincibility, she plotted a course to fall on her foes, dismissing all thought of detour.

Now from one
       
black kernel,

Spirals out
              
fortune’s bane,

Casting its
              
trap across,

Throngs of
               
uneasy stars . . .

Several hoon umbled relief. Perhaps this wasn’t about archaic struggles between their forebears and the urs.

With a sudden jerk, Sara’s attention was yanked back to the present by a hard tug on her right arm. She blinked.

Prity gripped her elbow, tight enough to grow painful—until Sara asked—“What is it?”

Letting go, her chim consort signed.

Listen. Now!

Sara was about to complain—That’s what I was doing, listening—then realized Prity did not mean the story. So she tried to sift past Ulgor’s mesmerizing drone . . . and finally picked up a low mutter coming from outside the pavilion.

The animals. Something’s upsetting them.

The simlas and donkeys had their own camouflaged shelter, a short distance away. Judging from a slowly rising murmur, the beasts weren’t exactly frightened, but they weren’t happy, either.

The Stranger also noticed, along with a couple of librarians and a red qheuen, all of them backing away, looking around nervously.

By now the caravan chief had joined the crowd of rising-falling urrish heads, lost in a distant place and time. Sara moved forward to nudge the expedition leader—carefully, since startled urs were known to snap—but all at once the chiefs neck went rigid of its own accord, anxious tremors rippling her tawny mane. With a hiss, the urs matron roused two assistants, yanking a third back to reality with a sharp nip to the flank. All four stood and began trotting toward the tent flap—

then skittered to a halt as phantom shapes began rising along the shelter’s western edge—shadowy centauroid outlines, creeping stealthily, bearing spiky tools. A dismayed screech escaped one of the caravan-lieutenants, just before chaos exploded on all sides.

The audience burst into confusion. Grunts and whistling cries spilled from stunned pilgrims as the tent was ripped in a dozen places by flashing blades. War-painted fighters stepped through the gaps, leveling swords, pikes, and arbalests, all tipped with bronze-colored Buyur metal, driving the churned mass of frightened travelers back toward the ash pit at the center.

Prity’s arms clasped Sara’s waist while young Jomah

clung to her other side. She wrapped an arm around the boy, for whatever comfort it might offer.

Urrish militia? she wondered. These warriors looked nothing like the dun-colored cavalry that performed showy maneuvers for Landing Day festivals. Slashes of sooty color streaked their flanks and withers. Their weaving, nodding heads conveyed crazed resolve.

A caravan-lieutenant bolted toward the stand where weapons were kept, mostly to ward off liggers, khoo-bras, or the occasional small band of thieves. The trail boss shouted in vain as the young urs dove for a loaded arbalest—and kept going, toppling through the stand and skidding along a trail of sizzling blood. She tumbled to a stop, riddled with darts, at the feet of a painted raider.

The expedition leader cursed the intruders, deriding their courage, their ancestry, and especially her own complacency. Despite rumors about trouble in far corners of the plains, peacetime habits were hard to break, especially along the main trail. Now her brave young colleague had paid the price.

“What do you want?” she, demanded in GalTwo. “Do you have a leader? Show her (criminal) muzzle, if she dares to speak!”

The tent flap nearest the oasis lifted, and a burly urrish warrior entered, painted in jagged patterns that made it hard to grasp her outline. The raider chieftain high-stepped delicately over the lieutenant’s bloody trail, cantering to a halt just before the caravan commander. Surprisingly, both of her brood-pouches were full, one with a husband whose slim head peered under the fighter’s arm. The other pouch was blue and milk-veined, bulging with unfledged offspring.

A full matron was not usually prone to violence, unless driven by duty or need.

“You are not one to judge our (praiseworthy) daring, “ the raider captain hissed in an old-fashioned, stilted dialect. “You, who serve (unworthy) client/masters with too-many or too-few legs, you are not fit to valuate this band of sisters. Your sole choice is to submit (obsequiously), according to the (much revered) Code of the Plains.”

The caravan chief stared with all three eyes. “Code? Surely you do not mean the (archaic, irrelevant) rituals that old-time (barbaric) tribes used, back when—“

“The code of war and faith among (noble, true-to-their-nature) tribes. Confirmed! The way of our (much revered) aunts, going back generations before (recent, despicable) corruption set in. Confirmed! Once again, I ask/demand—do you submit?”

Confused and alarmed, the caravan chief shook her head, human style, blowing air uncertainly like a hoon. With a low aspiration, she muttered in Anglic,

“Hr-r-r. Such jeekee nonsense for a grownuf adult to kill over—“

The raider sprang upon the merchant trader, wrapping their necks, shoving and twining forelegs till the caravan chief toppled with a groan of agony, wheezing in shock. Any Earthly vertebrate might have had her spine snapped.

The raider turned to the pilgrims with her head stretched far forward, as if to snap anyone in reach. Frightened prisoners pressed close together. Sara tightened her grip on Jomah, pushing the boy behind her.

“Again I ask/demand—who will (unreservedly) submit, in the name of this (miserable excuse for a) tribe?”

A dura passed. Then out of the circle staggered a surviving lieutenant—perhaps pushed from behind. Her neck coiled tightly, and her single nostril flared with dread as she stumbled toward the painted harlequin. Trembling, the young urs crouched and slowly pushed her head along the ground till it rested between the raider’s forehooves.

“Well done,” the corsair commented. “We shall make a (barely acceptable) plainsman of you.