The Namura Stone (45 page)

“We will look after her, don’t worry.”

Six looked down at the small shape before him. Diva now seemed to be shivering.

“You had better,” he said savagely. “I will hold you responsible.”

Diva managed a weak grin. “They are only trying to help, Six.”

“I know.” He looked around. “I just wish there was something I could do.”

“I will be fine. I will come and see you when I am better.”

He sighed, a frown wrinkling his brow. “I will come to Pictoria, as soon as Arcan has finished here, and I have checked on Raven.”

The visitor and the twins began to visualize Pictoria, then the spreading out of all their waveforms into the huge extension of space. Diva closed her eyes and tried to let them pull her towards the vast expanse.

At first her exhaustion overshadowed anything else. But, then she began to perceive the spread-out waveform in front of her. Tentatively, she moved into it. Her mind immediately felt the tug of quantum decoherence. She let herself fall into the transfer. Although the trimorph and the bimorph were on either side of her, she was pleased to find that she didn’t need them to get back to Pictoria; she was still capable of transporting on her own.

Gradually, she began to have more confidence in herself. She concentrated on finding Pictoria from the infinite probabilities spread out in the waveform. At first she couldn’t locate it, and she knew a moment’s complete panic. Then a small flash caught her attention. There, a funnel of bright light to one side. With great relief, she let go completely, allowing herself to spiral down further and further towards the welcoming light.

Six saw the morphics disappear and breathed another sigh, this time of relief.

ARCAN HAD BEEN watching all this, but now he turned back to the waiting Dessites. The folds around their eyes were stiff with amazement, and their membranes were fluttering in the air which Arcan was keeping comfortably saturated for them.

A few of the Ammonites had now returned warily to the bubble which contained the Dessites.

“You should not have come here, to Enara. It is forbidden.”

The prognosticator straightened up. “You broke your pact with us. You were not available when we needed you.”

“We are not servants, to be at your beck and call.” The Enaran Ammonites were not going to admit how vulnerable they had proved to be to Diva’s attack.

“Since you did not fulfill your part of the agreement, our pact with you is hereby declared null and void. We have formed an alliance with the orthogel entity.”

The other Dessites seemed to approve this rather contorted version of what had just happened. Their eyefolds rippled with the Dessite equivalent of clapping. It made them look very strange.

The Ammonites all went dark at the same time, which made them seem surprisingly dangerous.

“That is not acceptable. If you side with the orthogel entity you will be classed as enemies of Enara. You will contravene
legil sumand
. You want to prevent the emergence of the sumand. That is an offence which is punishable by death under our laws.”

Arcan stared at them. “We want nothing of the sort. And you also have a law called
nox precatal
,” he said mildly. “I believe that states that you may not kill.”

“
Nox precatal
is overridden by
legil sumand
. It is sanctioned when necessary in order to preserve the astrand, which is the only way to transcend physical life.”

“There are few intelligent lifeforms in this galaxy,” pointed out Arcan. “No kind of thinking lifeforms should be eliminated, however inferior you may think them to be to you, or however much you may feel them to be wrong.” He seemed to be looking at Six as he said this, and Six was about to reply when Ledin stood heavily on his foot. There was a brief, discreet tussle before they settled down again, both grinning. Arcan went on. “Your laws are based on a misconception: that you are the most important beings in the galaxy. You are wrong; you do not have the right to decide over other lives. It is not acceptable for you to continue like this.”

The Ammonites were now furious. “And just what do you plan to do?” they demanded, spinning so fast that vortices were forming in a latticework in their bodies.

“If you attempt to kill any of my friends again then you will force us to deal with you ourselves.”

“That’s a fine thing from an entity that says it doesn’t believe in killing!” retorted one of the Ammonites.

“I did not say I would kill you; I said I would deal with you.”

“We shall see!”

“We shall indeed. But I would recommend that you remain here on Enara, and not interfere with other species. No good will come of it if you do.”

“Are you saying you will protect these … these … overlarge sea cucumbers?”

On hearing that description from their recent allies, the membranes of all the members of the council of guardians stood out from their bodies in absolute outrage.

Six nudged at Ledin. “They really
do
look like sea cucumbers when they puff out like that, you know. There’s no escaping it.”

Ledin nodded. “The prickly kind you find up in the north on Kwaide. Ugh! Did you ever try eating them?”

Six gagged at the memory. “Foul, aren’t they? I remember we had to eat them for almost a month, once.” He choked. “Yuck! Just the memory makes my stomach churn.”

Ledin swallowed. “We had to survive on them too, one very bad winter. I shall never forget it. I can remember how Hanna used to pretend they were sweetfruits, and we were surrounded by platters of rich food, even though every single mouthful made her retch.”

“She was a brave girl.”

“She was. She was like a sunbeam which shines through thunder clouds; she lit up my life.”

“You were lucky.”

“I was.” Ledin thought for a bit. “I still am. Now I have Grace.”

Six smiled, his face softening. “Grace is another person that illuminates everything she touches, isn’t she? How is the new pregnancy going?”

“She has been a little sick, but that phase seems to have passed now. Temar is very excited. He can’t wait to become an elder brother!”

“I know. Raven is pleased to have a new friend, too. She says—” Six suddenly became aware that everyone else was staring at them, and had clearly stopped speaking. He frowned. “—What?”

“The Ammonites have just declared war on us. They have issued an
Obellium dictio
against us, or a hadwah, as the ancient Cesans would have called it.”

“Oh. Right. Can we go now, then?” Six was tired of all the posturing.

Arcan seemed amused. “Soon, Six.” He turned back to the Dessites, always taking care to speak through Exemphendiss, rather than directly to the council or its president, clearly making an effort to hide his distrust and distaste for the species. “You have been included in the
Obellium dicti
o, so we advise you to block all mental contact with the Ammonites. They are extremely strong when they are in the astrand and can cause much damage.”

The prognosticator seemed to grow even taller. “They cannot travel to Dessia physically, and we are more than a match for them mentally. We are not afraid of a few hundred wisps of mind.”

“You must protect yourselves. If they succeed in finding a mental link, and are able to reach Dessia with the astrand, they will attack you. Like you, they are also able to manipulate other races.”

“There are too many of us for them to try that on us. And they might get a little more than they bargained for.”

“Then our agreement holds?”

The prognosticator exchanged impressions silently with the rest of the council. “It does.”

“I will return you to Dessia.”

“That is acceptable.”

“Remember that my ambassadors, or curators, may not be harmed in any way. If they are then all pacts will be invalidated, and you will be isolated.”

“We shall remember.”

Much to Six’s relief, the greens and mauves of the Eye of Enara vanished, and he and Ledin found themselves back on Xiantha, beside the Emerald Lake.

THEY MADE THEIR way exhaustedly along the path which led to Ledin and Grace’s house. There were welcoming lights in the windows, and they pushed inside together, laughing and happy to have finally reached home.

“Talking about sea cucumbers …” Ledin pushed open the door of his home, “… did you ever have to eat the berries of the mountain palmetto?”

“Did I ever!” Six shuddered. “Sacras! That has to be the worst taste in the universe, doesn’t it? But if you can keep them down, they will tide you over for a few days, won’t they?”

Ledin looked rueful. “A few weeks, sometimes. I think you must have been better at looking after your sisters than I was with mine.”

“We were lucky. We found that old abandoned house, and there were fruit trees nearby. It has always amazed me that we were left alone there. It was the perfect retreat, although I was continually worried that somebody else would come across it too, and we would have to leave. It took us a few years to find it, but once we did things got a lot better.”

“Yes. You were lucky. I never found anywhere we could be safe. We were always on the move, always cold, always fearful.”

“That was life on the old Kwaide. What is it like now?”

Ledin tilted his head. “Quite good, really. The Elders are still giving us a bit of bother, but life has improved enormously for the no-names and even the sycophants. Cimma is doing a great job at the combat training, and the university is starting to give results. New Kwaide can actually hold its own technologically, now, you know.”

They were so busy talking that the sound in the background took a long time to filter through to them. Then Ledin frowned. That sound was familiar to him; but there was something wrong. It was a sound he associated with the past, somehow. It was out of place at this moment of time.

He had been about to expand on Kwaide’s new technology, but now he paused, mouth open, eyes puzzled, trying to put his finger on what was different.

Six saw this and became aware at the same time that he, too, was hearing a sound which shouldn’t be present. It was there, at the back of his mind. A repetitive, mewling sound.

They both realized at the same time what that sound meant, whirling around to stare towards the seating area.

Grace was sitting in the most comfortable chair, propped up, but with a small bundle in her hands.

“Took you two long enough to figure it out,” she said, with one of her slow, sweet smiles. “I’d like you to meet Ashuaia, our new daughter.” She and Ledin looked at each other. It was a special moment, full of complicity.

He put his head on one side, listening to the low, comforting, whistle of the wind, outside. “You named her after the ashuaiana winds, the ones that bring the warm summer days on Xiantha. I like that.”

“She came early. I suppose the actions of the Enarans brought on labour. She is fine, though during the birth I was worried, because of everything that had just happened. The sound of the wind kept me company. It made me think of halcyon days: of sunlight and blue sky. When I saw she was healthy, it seemed a good name.”

They nodded in agreement and moved over to her to examine the baby, who was quite beautiful. Six clapped Ledin on the back.

“Congratulations. Now there will be two women in the house to tell you what to do!”

Ledin nodded. “Won’t know a moment’s peace from now on!” Then he looked worried, thinking back to other, less happy times. “Are you all right, Gracie?”

She nodded. “Lannie helped me, and it was an easy birth, luckily, so we were fine.”

“I wanted to be here.”

“I know. You were here, in a way.”

They gazed at each other, and Six felt a sudden moment of intense loneliness. He looked away, trying not to show his feelings, but Grace noticed the change in his face immediately.

“Sorry, Six.”

“Sorry about what?” He made his face smile. “You have nothing to be sorry about. I am very happy for both of you.”

“I know you are. How is Diva?”

They sat down to tell her everything that had happened, and her eyes got wider and wider as they did.

“So now the Dessites are our allies? How strange, no? But, will Diva be all right?”

When they had both reassured her on this, she relaxed, and handed the baby over to its father. Ledin looked down at his newly-born baby daughter and then grinned over at Six. “Two against fifty,” he said. “I’m catching up.”

Six thought of being buried in sand by fifty-two children and gave another shudder. “I should stop while you are still ahead,” he said. Then he punched Ledin on the arm, and they touched knuckles. “Way to go!”

But both the Kwaidians looked grave as Grace recounted what she knew of the events on the beach. Six gave her a brief hug. “Are you all right? I know you were terrified of being taken over again.”

She exhaled rather shakily. “It … it
has
been a bit of a long day.”

Six grinned. “A bit of an understatement! —Never mind, Grace. You got through it. Well done!”

She nodded. “We have Tallen and Lannie and the children to thank for it.”

“Yes.” Six looked thoughtful. “We were lucky there. And it was brave of Quenna to try to overcome her fear of heights.”

Grace nodded. “They were all so good, so quick to act. But Bennel is finding it hard to assimilate that he tried to kill Tallen. In a sense, seeing his struggle to overcome the indignity is helping me to accept my own. Luckily Raven and Temar are too young to realize what happened. I don’t think they will even remember it.”

“Hopefully, they won’t. They need to have a happy childhood, not one worrying about whether their minds can be taken over by the Enarans. Though I think Diva’s attack will make the Ammonites realize that it can be a two-edged sword. She broke up the astrand by using second sound, you know. They may not be so keen to do it again for a while.”

Grace’s face shadowed. “It will always be my worst nightmare. It is such a horrid, horrid experience.”

Six felt inadequate. There was nothing he could say to make her feel any better. He got up and gripped her shoulder. He could understand what she had been through, especially knowing in advance that it was going to happen again.