Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 (31 page)

A croaky voice interrupted him. “I will take care of them.”

They spun around. Grace had managed to push herself up onto on elbow and had obviously been listening to the last part of the conversation.

Grace closed her eyes for a moment to stop the room from wheeling about her dizzily, before managing to go on. “I will not leave Xenon 50 and Genna to independent care. They are part of my family.” She thought for a moment and then admitted, “Even though they probably hate me.”

Mandalon shook his head. “I am sorry, Grace, but that will not be possible. Even though they are family, you are no longer a Sellite, and so may not legally take responsibility for them. But, rest assured, I shall make sure that they are well cared for.”

Grace stared at the young boy in front of her. He was actually even younger than her niece and nephew, and it seemed strange to hear him talk about them as if they were children. Of course they weren’t, she realized. The Second Valhai Votation was to take place in a few months, and only this young, new, 50
^th
generation would be voting. She fell back onto the stretcher again, with a weak gesture of acceptance. They would do just fine. Valhai was a different place now.

A little later, when Grace was already back on her feet, the man who spoke to canths excused himself to her. “I have to take the canths back to Xiantha. They can’t stay any longer on the New Independence. But please will you let me know how your mother does? I shall be worried about her until I hear from you, although of course I will know of her progress by the state of her canth.”

Grace leaned forward rather unsteadily to kiss him on the cheek. “Thank you for all you have done,” she said.

He touched her shoulder with one hand. “I was honoured to take part in all that has happened. I hope you will all call on me again, should that be necessary. You have given me something beyond colour, and I shall never forget you. By the way, I have spoken about you to the other panchromes, and they have agreed to build you and your husband a cabin on the shore of the Emerald Lake.”

Grace opened her eyes wide. “Really? Just for us?”

“For you and Ledin, and for your children, should you have them. It is to be your own property too. We feel that the Xianthans owe both you two, and Six and Diva, a great debt. We are going to construct a similar cabin for the
Valhais
too.”

“But Six and Diva are not … that is, they are not in a—”

“
Valhai
Diva does not know her own mind. But she will do, and when she does, the cabin will be ready for them. Their colours are not quite equal yet. But the
Valhais
are a different case. For you, there is only one condition: you must be married. We could not allow you to lose colour.”

“M-married?” Grace felt a squeeze on her arm, and was glad to see that Ledin had come up and had been listening closely to everything that was said.

“That is no problem,” said the Kwaidian. “We can get married as soon as Cimma is better.”

“I am happy to know that,” said the Xianthan.

“Can we?” said Grace, at the same time.

Ledin grinned down at her, and for one second her heart flipped over. “Definitely,” he said. “I think we should be married now. Next time there is a war, and you decide again that you have to kill me, I want to know we had some history together.”

Grace smiled up at his candid eyes and felt a leap of faith. Her skin turned to goose bumps and she couldn’t break the gaze. They stared into each other’s eyes for so long that the rest of the buzz of conversation around them faded into insignificance. In that moment, everything that needed to be said was left unsaid, and everything they needed to feel was felt.

At last Grace tore her gaze away from Ledin, and turned back to the man who spoke to canths. “We can,” she said. “—As soon as Cimma can be a witness. Will you come to the ceremony, Man who speaks to canths?”

He inclined his portly body. “It would be a privilege. Where is the ceremony to be?”

Grace lifted a questioning eyebrow in Ledin’s direction, who laughed. “Where do you prefer, Grace? Here, Coriolis, Xiantha or Kwaide?”

Grace considered. “Not Kwaide,” she said, “because Arcan can’t go there. Not Coriolis, because Six can’t go there at the moment. So either here or on Xiantha.”

Ledin thought for a moment. Then he walked up to Mandalon 50, and they had a few minutes’ conversation together. Finally, Mandalon could be seen giving an emphatic nod, and they exchanged a knuckle touch of agreement.

Ledin walked back. “Here,” he said. “I think that it would make you happy to be married by the orthogel lake, and Mandalon has agreed to perform the ceremony there.”

Grace turned in amazement to stare at the young head of Sell. “He is prepared to go bare planet to marry us?” she gasped. “I can’t believe it!”

“He said he would have to take several exostop before venturing out, but yes.”

Grace flung her arms around her husband-to-be and gave him a huge hug. “How did you know?” she asked.

“I saw your face when we went bare planet. It is your favourite place.”

“Even more than the Emerald Lake?” asked the man who spoke to canths.

Ledin smiled at him. “Yes and no,” he answered. “The Emerald Lake is somewhere we could live, and we love it, but the orthogel lake is in Grace’s heart, is a part of her. She can’t live there, but she will always carry it with her. It is where everything changed.”

The man who spoke to canths walked up close to Grace. “You have chosen well,” he said. “It will be a great honour to welcome you both to Xiantha again. But first, I will come to your wedding ceremony, if Arcan does not object to transporting me here again. When is it to be?”

“As soon as we know that Cimma is well enough to attend …”

Arcan shimmered, and then gave a flash of light. “Vion tells me that Cimma is responding quickly to treatment, and will probably be back to normal in two or three days.”

“Then … in four days’ time, Grace?” Ledin suggested.

She nodded.

Ledin gave a shout over to Six. “Doing anything next Saturday?”

Six shrugged, looked puzzled, and shook his head.

“Then you and Diva must come to our wedding.”

Six bounded over to pummel Ledin on the back. “Are you kidding? That is AWESOME! Of course we will be there!”

Ledin turned to Grace, who was being hugged by Diva. “Is there anybody else you would like to come?”

She thought about it. Arcan, the man who spoke to canths, her mother, Six and Diva. No, there was nobody else, except …

Ledin nodded. “The visitor, of course. I will ask Arcan to contact him, if that is at all possible. And if not, I will whip over to Pictoria and bring him back myself. You don’t want Diva’s mother, do you? And I don’t think there’s much point in the trimorph twins coming over, not if Arcan himself is here?”

Grace shook her head. “No. Just those six people. They are the ones who matter. Is there anybody you would like from Kwaide?”

For a moment Ledin’s eyes dimmed, but he shook his head.

“You were thinking of your sister?”

“I was. She would have been so happy for us.”

“What happened to her?” Grace took Ledin’s arm, and led him away, out of earshot of the others.

“It was a long time ago.” His eyes seemed to switch inwards, defocusing from the rest of the room. “We were trying to survive in the uninhabitable zone on Kwaide. She was eleven. I must have been fourteen. We had been on the run from the Elders for eight days – some of the younger ones were on one of their famous hunting parties, and it was as cold as Kwaide can get in the winter. We had been forced up into the mountains, above the tree line, and we were struggling to get through one of the few passes down to the black peak, which was below us. I …” his voice broke, “… I hadn’t been able to find us any food for days, and we had been drinking snow to keep us going. Even so, she hadn’t stopped laughing and teasing me about our journey, pretending we were going to the other side of the universe, and we would find a beautiful red planet at journey’s end.” He stopped. That was exactly what they had done now, only she hadn’t been there to see it. “I … I had no idea that she was even sick; she had said nothing. So I kept pushing her further and further, and she didn’t complain. She never complained.” He swallowed. “And, like the fool that I am, I didn’t realize that she was so ill. I thought she was pale because of the cold. I made her go on and on—” He stopped, but Grace put her arms around him and hugged him to her, gently. He bit his lower lip. “I was in front of her, had gone on ahead to scout for shelter. When I retraced my footsteps I found her … huddled in the snow, already gone, already frozen into place. She went on her own, Grace – I wasn’t there for her.” His eyes clouded over.

Grace hugged him tighter to her. “You
were
there for her. She knew that. You were looking for shelter for the both of you. You always looked after her.”

He looked anguished. “I wasn’t there for her. I never got a chance to say goodbye.”

“I know. I know.” She held him close again until he calmed down. “Thank you for telling me about her.” A thought came to her. “You were no-names then, weren’t you?”

He nodded.

“So she never had a name. Perhaps we should give her one now?”

Ledin’s eyes lit up. “Grace! That is a wonderful idea. Of course we should. What should we call her?”

“I don’t know. You said she was always happy, always animating you both. She could see the beautiful planet at the end of a journey across the universe. I think she must have been a little bit prescient. How about Hanna? It’s an almost magical name.”

“Hanna.” He pictured his sister in his mind. “Yes, that would have fit her beautifully. Hanna it is.”

“I’m glad.”

“She would have been too. I can almost see her eyes lighting up when she heard it.”

“I will help you to keep her memory alive.”

BY SATURDAY, CIMMA was able to walk perfectly well. But she told them all in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t about to go bare planet, even if it did mean that she would see her daughter get married.

“I will go up to the 21
^st
floor on the 256
^th
skyrise, and will organize some sort of a feast for everybody,” she informed them. “There is simply no way I am going to go bare planet on Valhai, not at my age.”

Grace tried to convince her, without much success. It was only when Arcan offered to transport Cimma to the scene in a bubble, that she gave in.

“Very well, but only for the actual vows themselves, and only for a couple of minutes, at most.”

Grace hugged her. “At least you will be there. Thank you, Matri.”

Cimma managed a faint grin. “Goodness knows what your father would have thought about all this.”

“He would have banished me from Valhai, but somebody got there before him, so he wouldn’t have been able to do anything.”

“He would probably turn over in his sarcophagus if he could.”

“Yes. But he didn’t get to live through the changes we have.”

Cimma looked thoughtful. “No, you’re right. He didn’t. Who knows, he might have agreed to come and live on Kwaide with me.”

They stared at each other, and then burst out laughing. Such a thing was absolutely impossible to imagine.

“Thank you for saying you will come – even if it is only a minute or two.”

“You will have to paint the wedding scene for posterity. After all, it will be the only wedding ever celebrated bare planet on Valhai.”

Grace nodded. “I will. I haven’t had much time to practice since this—” she held out her battered hands, “—but it is something I want to keep up with.”

“You should. You are good at it. And you will find a way to paint with a few fingers missing, you’ll see.” Then Cimma caught sight of Grace’s face and held up her own hands. “All right, I know they’ll never have a high cost-to-bulk ratio, but for me they do. Like the Xianthan highlander paintings. Remember?”

Grace gave her a hug. “Thank you Maestra. I will paint you a picture of my wedding then. I promise.”

“Hmm. Don’t you dare forget! And don’t think I’m going to dress up for the occasion.”

“Seeing that the rest of us will be in bodywraps and mask packs, the last thing we need is for you to appear in a gold-weave robe.”

“Good. Because I won’t.”

“On the other hand,” said Grace wickedly. “Perhaps you might consider not coming in a dressing-gown.”

They laughed. Nowadays Cimma dressed neatly but very simply in the traditional Kwaide long tunic, but there had been a time when she had lived in her dressing-gown. “Times have changed,” she said.

Grace nodded. “You can say that again!”

THEY WERE STANDING on the first floor of the 256
^th
skyrise, ready to step out of the airlock onto the terrace as soon as Mandalon 50 arrived. The visitor was hovering around their heads, almost as if nothing had changed; as if he were still the rather annoying video-camera and not a fully adapted bimorph. Six was swatting at him lazily.

“For something that might live a million years you can be awfully irritating,” he grumbled. “Do you have to buzz around my head like that?”

“That’s because you are only a category 3b, and can’t understand my higher plane.”

Six chortled. “Higher plane? I think the avifauna have a higher plane than you!”

The little sphere flashed with anger. “I might only be a few tendrils of brain,” it said fiercely, “but I can outwit you any day!”

“Says someone who let themselves get trapped by the Dessites!”

“That has nothing to do with it!”

“That is what started the whole war on Pictoria!”

The little orb squeaked in anger. “Take that back!”

“Won’t!”

The tiny being darkened ominously, and then Arcan’s figure appeared.

“What is the matter?” he asked in a tone of long-suffering. “What are you doing to the visitor, Six?”

Six muttered something, and the visitor twisted in the air around his head in a victory roll. Six snatched at the air, and then held up one hand containing the small sphere with a triumphant smile, which turned to pain as the visitor spun in his palm, and burnt him. Six dropped the little bimorph with an exclamation, and the others stared at him.

“When you have
quite
finished playing with the visitor,” said Diva in a pained voice, “do you think you could finish putting on that bodywrap? Mandalon and the officiator will be here any moment. And, Visitor, you had better keep out of the way.”

Six glowered at her, looking about fourteen again for a second, and she had to laugh. “It wasn’t my fault,” he said, pointing at the visitor, who had moved to blend in with the background at the top of the wall. “He started it!”

Diva gave a sigh, and looked across at Grace. They both raised their eyes towards the sky and gave their heads a little shake. They were in complete agreement.

“What?” said Six. “He
did
start it!”

Luckily Mandalon and the officiator arrived at that moment, transported in by Arcan. The officiator was already wearing a mask pack, and a bodywrap, and was not looking very happy at having to go outside on the planet’s surface. Mandalon was dressed in his normal toga. They were accompanied by several guards.

Diva gave Six an imperative jerk of her head, signaling him to finish getting his protective gear on. It was his turn to raise his eyes, but he obeyed her anyway. By the time Mandalon had greeted the others, he was ready.

“May I introduce the Sell officiator, Zorion 49,” said Mandalon. They all gave small bows and the Sellite official stared back with unwavering black eyes which told them that he was not exactly delighted with this assignment. Mandalon went on, “I am afraid that I cannot go with you. The safety committee has decreed that I may not go bare planet. They consider it far too risky.” He looked around them, and Ledin thought that he seemed a little disappointed. “However, Zorion is fully authorized to officiate all ceremonies here on Valhai, and so the marriage will be completely legal.”

Grace took one look at the expression on Zorion’s face and shook her head. The others all stared at her.

“I am not going to be married by somebody with an expression like a dried prune,” she said. “We’ll have to do this another day.”

There was a chorus of dismay, but Grace was quite determined. “This is a happy occasion,” she said. “I am not going to have it completely spoiled by a Sellite officiator who thinks we are all traitors.”

Mandalon opened his mouth to disagree with her, and then looked over at Zorion. She was right. The Sellite’s mouth was a thin and bitter line of contempt, and his eyes slid from one to another with thinly disguised hatred.

Mandalon sighed. “You are excused,” he said to Zorion, nodding to Arcan. The officiator disappeared, still looking as if he had just tasted a sour lemon. Mandalon looked around. “What can I do? I’m sorry.” He spread his hands apart. “I really would have liked to conduct the ceremony myself, but my advisors are quite convinced that I will kill myself doing so, and the safety committee insisted on sending all these armed guards with me, in case I decided to go anyway. They wouldn’t be able to stop me, of course, but they would insist on accompanying us. I didn’t think you would like that.”

Both Grace and Ledin shook their heads at the same time. They wouldn’t.

The man who spoke to canths, who had been one of the first guests to be brought in by Arcan, cleared his throat, and they all looked at him.

“I am hesitant to offer my services,” he said cautiously. “but on Xiantha I am authorized to conduct lifesharing ceremonies. I don’t know if here …”

Grace’s frown cleared. “Oh YES!” she breathed. “That would be perfect.”

They all looked in Mandalon’s direction. He seemed dubious. “I don’t think such a ceremony would be valid under Sellite law …”

Ledin stepped forward. “Would it be valid under Xianthan law?” he asked the man who spoke to canths.

The Xianthan nodded. “Certainly. There is no restriction about where the ceremony should take place. I am fully authorized in any geographical location.”

Ledin and Grace exchanged a long glance, and then he reached out to her, closing his fingers over the whole of her hand. “Then that is good enough for us.”

“Xianthan law requires five witnesses.” The man who spoke to canths paused, and then began to count them off on his fingers. “Six, Diva, the visitor, Arcan and Cimma. That is sufficient.”

“Then let’s do it!” said Grace. “Perfect!”

The man who spoke to canths held up a warning finger. “Although you would have to agree to undertake the journey of colour.”

“What is that?”

“When young Xianthan couples commit to lifesharing, they are required to go on a journey immediately after the ceremony. This is a spiritual journey of some sort, one which aims to imbibe them both with equal colour; to eliminate any colour imbalance between them. ” He looked around at the doubtful faces. “It does not have to be for very long. Two weeks will suffice.”

“Does it have to be on Xiantha?” asked Grace.

He shook his head. “All that is required is that it should be a journey of the spirit, a journey to attain colour.”

“Well,” said Ledin slowly, “I don’t know where we will go, but we will do our best.”

“Nothing more is required.”

They took their leave of Mandalon, who actually looked very regretful at not being able to go with them. As they let themselves through the lock and out onto the airless terrace, they saw him disappear into thin air, transported back to his chambers by Arcan. Grace thought she saw him make the Sell cross in the air with his fingers as he was leaving. She smiled. That was kind of him.

AS THEY STEPPED bare planet, Grace felt an immense sensation of belonging take over her. She was coming back to the surface of Valhai, this time with the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. She found herself remembering the lost girl who had wandered for the first time out onto the surface of this beautiful and inhospitable planet, and realized that girl had faded. The new Grace was perhaps a little more battered in parts, but she had so much more happiness than that distant little girl who had longed so much to fit in somewhere. She looked around her at the dark sky. The missing fingers mattered not a jot at that moment, and she felt such a sensation of happiness that her heart seemed to swell up, as if it was trying to reach out to the stars above.

She gazed at the stars. The first time she had set foot on the surface of Valhai, it had seemed as if they were mocking her, mocking the Sellite race who were no nearer to interstellar travel then than they had been thousands of years earlier. But now … she turned in the sky until she could make out the constellation of the Giant Crab. It shone down on them from afar, and she could make out the multiple star system of Pictoris, which contained Pictoria. But she was seeing a Pictoria 30,000 years old; a Pictoria which hadn’t yet had its routine interrupted by visitors from the binary system, hadn’t yet had to fight against the Dessites. The light which was reaching her now had taken 30,000 years to weave its way through the sky to get to them. She shook her head. It all felt very strange.

And here they were, on the surface of Valhai. The deep violet-blue of Cian seemed to light up the slate-gray of the planet’s surface, throwing deep shadows where there was any unevenness or rock formations. The rest of the stars shone down unblinkingly at them; there was only a very sparse atmosphere to cause aberrations of the light. Grace turned to pick out the Vanex constellation. That was only 13,400 light years away, and there she was now able to visualize a younger Dessia, perhaps with other species still enjoying the damp atmosphere, perhaps before the Dessites had decided they needed to take over the whole planet.

With a start, she realized that the others were waiting for her. She went red. “I … I’m sorry.”