Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 (41 page)

Petra’s eyes never left her brother’s. She said nothing however, merely waiting as Arcan moved over to encompass the three of them, and they disappeared. Grace vanished at the same time, bound for her desk job in Sell.

The morphic turned to the others. “I am sorry,” he told them. “But I must go too. I have already been here for too long. I need to get back to Pictoria to rest.” With that, he disappeared from the hot Xianthan air.

The man who spoke to canths gave a smile at those who were left: Six, Diva, Bennel and Tallen. “We just have to perform the marriage ceremony and then
Valhai
Six and
Valhai
Diva can leave, together with their canths.”

“We
are
already married,” pointed out Six. “Hang it, I don’t see why I should have to go through yet
another
ceremony!” This comment earned him a sharp look from Diva.

“Yes,” said the canth keeper, “but it is the custom here. I am sure you would want to respect our customs. A Coriolan ceremony is definitely not the correct way to start to a journey of colour.”

“You know,” said Six slowly. “I really ought to be getting back to Kwaide. Couldn’t somebody stand in for me this time? You know, marriage by proxy ...?” Six paused, tried to look winning, and then stared at Diva hopefully.

She said nothing, but her posture was eloquent.

Six sighed. “On the other hand, I suppose we
do
live on Xiantha now ...”

The man who spoke to canths relaxed. “Good. It will be of great benefit to your fifty children.”

Diva looked up. “Where is the ceremony to be?”

“Where else? The Emerald Lake, of course. All the canths are eager to go back there. It is their favourite place on Xiantha.”

“And will you marry us, Man who speaks to canths?”

The canth keeper looked down at the dust around his feet, and seemed to hesitate before answering. “I ... am ... afraid that I am not allowed to marry you. There are ... certain ... incompatibilities.”

Six looked at him, with one eyebrow raised. “Incompatibilities?”

“What sort of incompatibilities?” asked Diva, at the same time.

“Err ... ” The canth keeper’s eyes darted around, as if trying to find a way out of the difficulty. “Err ... I ... that is ... there are children in common.”

“Excuse me?” Diva stared.

“I thought you knew,
Valhai
Diva.” He moistened his lips. “I was ... fortunate enough to be chosen as one of the donors for your oocytes. If you remember, there were no male
Valhais
at the time. I don’t know the exact number, but I believe that around 48,000 of your offspring here on Xiantha are coproducts of my own genetic signature. I am therefore disqualified by Xianthan law from performing the marriage ceremony.”

Six was just grasping the point. “You mean, you have more children with Diva than I do?”

“Considerably more.” The Xianthan gave a wry, yet diffident, smile.

Diva’s face was a picture. “I ... I ... I ...”

“There is no need to comment,
Valhai
Diva. I am aware that the honour was entirely mine. You gave me much colour. I became a panchrome because of it.”

“I ... I ...” Diva gave a convulsive swallow, and tried hard to think how Grace would have taken such information. “Err ... thank you, Man who speaks to canths! I am ... fortunate that such a worthy subject was chosen for my offspring.” She tried not to look appalled. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the man; it was just a bit unexpected to find she had nearly 50,000 children with him. As far as she knew, there weren’t any protocols for news like that.

Six was looking disconcerted and a bit suspicious. “Why did they choose you?”

The canth keeper shrugged. “As you know, Xiantha is now almost totally irradiated by the flares of Almagest. There are only a few spots which escape the damaging rays. The canth farm is one. That is why the canths are now kept inside such a small area. It would be disastrous if their reproduction were to be halted too. Of course, one of the side benefits of my job is that I, too, am considered to be a safe genetic depository.”

Diva hated to be reminded of the way all her genetic material had been forcibly removed. “How ... how ... nice.”

The man who spoke to canths smiled. “It was a very great privilege,” he said gently. “I am sorry if you do not see it in the same way. I hope that our children will grow strong and will find great colour.”

“G-great c-colour,” Diva replied blankly. “Of c-course. Great colour.” She looked around rather desperately, as if checking out an escape route.

The man who spoke to canths seemed satisfied, and looked thoughtful. “I need to find a panchrome to marry you. I am not sure ...” He thought for a few moments. “I shall ask the man who contrives children to meet us at the lake. He would seem to be the most suitable choice.”

Diva stared at Six. This was turning into a very strange day.

THEY WERE MARRIED for the final time on the banks of the Emerald Lake, and Six shifted from foot to foot.

“This is the third time I have had to marry you,” he grumbled. “It is getting awfully repetitive!”

Diva gave him the look, and he noticed that one of her canine teeth was overlapping her bottom lip - never a good sign.

“Now what? Oh come on, Diva! You can hardly expect me to be happy about having to go through the whole thing three times!”

She narrowed her eyes.

Six didn’t seem to notice. “You’d think that once would be enough for any man. I bet Ledin wouldn’t have married you three times. I mean, it’s a lot to ask, is all.” He pulled the edges of his tunic together and managed to look uncomfortable. “Still, at least we know that the Xianthan marriage ceremony only lasts five minutes. That’s one thing to be grateful for, at least.”

Unfortunately the man who contrived children managed to string the whole thing out for half-an-hour, by which time Six would have fulminated him with his gaze, if he could. He was visualizing throttling the man slowly, to choke off some of those thousands of words, when he realized that the man was drawing to the end of his monologue.

“By the colours vested in me, I announce that
Valhai
Diva and
Valhai
Six will share their colours from this moment on, for as long as they both may live.” The functionary removed the swatch of material which had been gently placed over their two hands as a symbol of their bonding, and gave a wide, if yellowing smile. Diva nearly cringed as she saw the dark stubs of teeth, with remnants of his last meal conspicuously present.

Then the five witnesses stepped forward to congratulate the new lifesharers. Apart from Bennel and Tallen, the canth keeper and the director of the donor headquarters were there, together with a tall Xianthan they hadn’t met before. There were handshakes, and best wishes. The man who spoke to canths came closer to them. “The journey you are about to undertake will be dangerous; the canths can feel that. And I can sense uncertainty between you. But this journey will imbibe you both with equal colour; it will eliminate any colour imbalance between you. Remember that it is not only a rescue mission; it is a journey of the spirit as well. You must both do the very best that you can. No more, no less.” He joined their hands together, laid his own over the top, and tightened his fingers. “I wish you both well. May your journey of colour be a journey of light.”

Six looked sideways at his bride, who was looking anything but sunny. “Sweetness and light,” he murmured to himself ruefully, as he saw Diva’s fierce expression. Then he grinned. He wouldn’t change one hair of her head, and certainly neither of them could be described as sweet.

He was aware that behind the frown Diva was disconcerted. Her world had changed so drastically in the last few days that it was hard not to feel for her. Six hoped that the canth keeper’s comments would come true. If anybody needed to find themselves, it was Diva. She looked as if she had lost an emerald and found a pebble. The trouble was, he thought
he
might be the pebble.

The man who contrived children took Diva and Six aside after the ceremony.

“It’s about your children,” he said.

Six and Diva exchanged a glance. “Is anything wrong?” asked Six.

The Xianthan shook his head. “It is a question of colour,” he said. “You told me that one of your children would inherit Coriolis, I believe?”

They nodded.

“Then it is necessary to decide which one.”

Six raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t they a bit too young for that? They are only a few months old.”

“That is true, and normally any decision of that kind would be left until they were much older, but the council of panchromes has decided to rescind the usual Xianthan laws in this case, and award on-going majority custody to the parents.”

Diva’s eyes widened. “What does that mean?”

“—That you and
Valha
i Six will be able to have the child in question with you for almost the whole of each year, instead of the one month which is customary.”

“Terrific!” Six looked pleased. “He or she can come and live with us by the Emerald Lake, then.”

“Indeed.” The man who contrived children bowed. “But the question is ... which of the fifty children is the one to inherit Coriolis? Last time we spoke it was left very unclear.”

Both men looked in Diva’s direction. She hesitated. “By Coriolan law, it is up to the mother to designate her body heir. She normally chooses her first-born, of course, but that is more a custom, than a law.”

“Then how will you choose?” asked Six. “After all, they are still only tiny. What can babies do at eight weeks old?”

“Some of them can react to stimuli; they may get excited when they see food arriving, that sort of thing. They can focus at a distance, and follow people around a room. They are just learning what are parts of themselves, and what are external objects.”

“Can they walk?” asked Six.

The Xianthan stared at him. He appeared to undergo a short struggle with himself, and then shook his head. “No,
Valhai
, they can’t. They usually start walking after six or seven months.”

Diva began to laugh. “Shows how much you know about babies, no-name!”

Six was offended. “Well, stands to reason. Never had anything much to do with them.” He grinned at her. “Lucky you are such an expert, eh, Diva? At least one of us will know what to do when we get him or her full time.”

Diva suddenly looked aghast. “Look after them? When they are little?” Her eyes took on a hunted expression. “How are we going to do that?”

He grinned again. “
Great
parents we are going to make. The only things we know about are fighting and getting into trouble! Wonderful attributes for stability!”

The man who contrived children was obviously in agreement, but was trying not to show it. “It was considered necessary, in view of the complicated future that your heir would be facing. We deliberated about it for some time, and the majority view ...” he stressed the word ‘majority’ as if disassociating himself from it, “... was that a much higher level of contact with the parents would be necessary.”