Silent Dances (12 page)

Meg was looking at Tesa warmly
,
but the younger wom
an
had tu
rn
ed
her attention to the scene
ry
again.

"Well," Thorn interjected,
pulling her line-of-sight back, "I hope you
'
ll be
patient
.
I've never known a deaf person befo
re
."

Tesa gave him a knowing glance. "
But I thought we we
re
all deaf on

Trinity
.
Meg tu
rn
ed her ears off the moment we landed."

He looked confused,
until the older woman showed him the gold orbs on

her earlobes.

"My controls,"
she told him
. "
They're a lot more reliable th
an
the
nullifiers
."
Meg seemed so much like her old self that Thorn felt
an
immense sense of relief
,
remembe
ri
ng the way she'd been after

Scott's death.

"Well, if we stand around here much longer," Thorn
signed, "we'll miss
sunset
."
Crooking his arms gallantly for the two women
,
he led them to
the hillock
'
s steep edge.

The hillock was a high,
d
ry
land mass
,
thick with a rustcolored ground
cover
,
shrubs,
an
d a scatte
ri
ng of trees. Behind them to the west was
an old
-
growth forest
,
the giant trees forming a hazy mass on the ho
ri
zon.

The marsh stretched clear to the horizon.
B
ri
lliant blue sky and white
,
fleecy clouds were reflected in the stretches of open water
.
Eve
ry

where it seemed the peak of autumn
,
with trees in
ri
otous displays of
reds, oranges
,
yellows, and soft browns, making the occasional splash

of green startling. Mosses in soft blues
an
d lavenders cushioned their

eve
ry
step.

Meg sat where she an
d Scott used to, near the edge
.
Seeing

56

her love for this place reflected in her eyes, Thorn knew she had buried as

many ghosts as she could.

He gestured for Tesa to sit between them. Pulling her long legs up to her

chest, she gaped at everything, trying to drink it all in with her eyes.

Above the eastern horizon hovered the three celestial bodies the people of

Trinity called the Sun Family. The day of Scott's death, they'd been in a tight

triangle, an unusual configuration. Since the gas giant planet and the red

dwarf sun were at the farthest reaches of this solar system, changes were

gradual. While the triangle had been steadily drifting apart, it could still be

seen. The sky had already begun to color, and red-gold reeds nodded their

heavy heads in the breeze.

Tesa turned to Thorn, and he felt himself blush as though she'd caught him

at something. He reddened easily, a trait he'd damned his father's genes for

on many occasions.

"These sunsets are different from Earth's," he signed to her inanely, feeling embarrassed, "but just as beautiful."

"More so," Meg signed. "No contrails."

That seemed especially to please Tesa. "When I was little," Tesa signed, "I'd watch
sunsets
with my grandparents. When the stars came out, they'd show

me which little light represented my parents' latest work station. They'd sign,

`Tell Mom and Dad you love them.' And I'd sign with my little fingers,

convinced my parents were watching me from the stars." She held up her

hand in a sign he'd never seen-the thumb, index, and pinky finger extended,

the middle and ring fingers folded against the palm.

The colors shifted as the red dwarf-the "Child" star to the Grus-dipped lower.

It would be the first to disappear. Bands of scarlet ran across the horizon.

"Last time I was on Earth," Thorn signed, "I couldn't even
see
the sunset. I was in New York."

"What does a biologist do in New York?" Tesa asked. "Surveys songbirds in Central Park," he answered.

"On Shassiszss," Meg told them, "they're more interested in the night sky. I missed this terribly."

Oranges overlaid red.

"Once, when I was eight," Tesa signed, "my dad and I were watching a

beautiful sunset, and I asked, `What kind of sound does the sunset make?'

He gave me a funny look. Ìt's
too beautiful to make noise
,'
he signed
. `

Sunsets are silent.'

57

That made me so happy
!
I feel the same way
ri
ght now." Thorn realized
he and Meg were both giving Tesa that

"funny look."
In fact
,
Meg's eyes were a little glitte
ry
, he thought.

"Sorry,"
Tesa apologized
, "
the hiber drug makes me ramble."

Meg patted her and smiled,
then suddenly g
ri
pped her arm, pointing
.

Thorn
peered
,
straining to see what she was showing Tesa
.
He finally
saw them
,
a flock of high-flying birds coming in from the east
.
They
were too far away to see clearly, just a ragged vee formation and wings

beating steadily in that distinctive two-beat patte
rn
. It was the Grus.

58

They moved fast, on huge, outstretched wings, long, black wing-fingers

spread to aid their maneuvers. After circling the waterway, they pointed their

dark legs downward, backwinging slow and easy, parachuting, barely

disturbing the water as they landed. In a world of color, their simple black

and white feathers and red crowns were striking. When the last one touched

down, the flock lifted their heads to the
suns
and called.

Vibrations ran through Thorn's body. He glanced at Tesa and felt

inordinately pleased at her wide-eyed amazement. When their calling ritual

was over, Thorn cupped his hands and shouted. When the Grus turned and

saw Meg waving at them they began flapping and jumping exuberantly,

many breaking into dance. Then the flock stretched their wings and ran

forward, taking to the air, heading for the hillock.

As the humans backed away from the cliff edge, Tesa made a sign over her

heart, to show them it was beating wildly. For a moment, it seemed as if the

avians might land on the humans; they were buffeted by the wind from those

great wings. Then the avians alighted, shuffling and shoving one another to

find a good location near Meg, surrounding the humans in a forest

58

59

SILENT DANCES 59 of legs, necks, and wings
.
The Grus' trim, oblong

bodies were level with Tesa
'
s shoulders
.
When they stretched their

necks they towered over her
.
Tesa sta
re
d up at them in awe.

Meg became lost in a cloud of black and white feathers, as her Grus fri
ends

enveloped her under their wings in a special greeting
,
rese
rv
ed for
family
.
When Thorn caught a glimpse of Meg
'
s face
,
he could see it
was streaked with happy tears.

He noticed,
too, a scatte
ri
ng of birds that stood outside the group
,

obse
rv
ing eve
ry
thing wa
ri
ly
,
remaining uninvolved. The
re'
d been a
lot of that lately
,
and it made Thorn uneasy.

Tesa pulled at Thorn'
s sleeve as the chaos began to subside.
"
Is that
Taller?" she asked.

Thorn glanced at the great bird conversing with Meg, then nodded,
sta
rt

led
. "
Yes, it is." It'd taken him months to learn to tell one of the avians
from another.

Just then,
Taller moved gracefully away from the crowd and approached

Thorn and Tesa. Thorn moved to make introductions.

"This is Taller,"
he signed
,
formally
, "
the tallest Grus in this ter
ri
to
ry."

This was the closest the Grus came to a title. Suddenly the avian pulled

himself up until he was standing

nearly on tiptoe,
his neck
ri
gidly straight
,
towe
ri
ng over his flock
,
fixing them with a cold gla
re.
They respectfully lowered their heads
,

even those who were still hanging back.

For the Grus,
height was an impo
rt
ant factor in social status,
an
d these
days
,
Taller needed eve
ry
little help in clinging to his precarious

leadership.

"And this," the avian signed, "
is the human who will fulfill the plans of my
son, Water Dancer,
an
d our human f
ri
end, Puff."

Thorn saw Tesa'
s quizzical expression and knew he'd have to explain

Scott
'
s name-sign later
.
Taller had given it to him because Scott
'
s
bushy moustache always puffed out when he spoke. The name
-
sign

imitated this with the fingers mimicking the dangling moustache as it

blew with the force of Scott's breath.

Slowly the avian approached Tesa,
never lowe
ri
ng his height as he

circled her slowly
,
walking stiffly
.
Tesa was t
ry
ing hard to hide how ra
tt
led she was by his examination
.
Finally the avian stopped
,
staring
pointedly at her face
,
his deadly black bill inches from her nose
. Thorn
admired the woman
'
s ne
rv
e. She barely flinched
,
then gazed back
unblinking.

60

Thorn had trouble enduri
ng
"
the look" as the Grus called it, a test that
,
they believed
,
would reveal the lies hiding in the back of a dishonest

person
'
s eyes
. Thorn,
ever the biologist, had t
ri
ed to still his ne
rv
es
by memo
ri
zing the unique bill that
could pluck out his eye like an hors d'oeuvre, the perfectly
round golden eyes, and the black hairlike feathers

that sparsely cove
re
d the red crown up to whe
re
the gleaming white

began. It hadn
'
t helped
-
he would inva
ri
ably ave
rt
his eyes.

Taller
continued to peer down his bill
,
making him seem
almost cross-

eyed. Then, as familiarly as any Terran bird, he cocked his head to look at

Tesa first with one eye, then the other. It was a comical gesture, and for a

second, Thorn
thought Tesa might burst into giggles
,
but she

controlled herself.

"She has good
eye color," Taller
signed
. "
Is she named?" The question
was phrased as if Meg and Thorn were Tesa's parents. Names were

significant
,
since they were "ea
rn
ed."

Before Meg or Thorn could answer,
Tesa began signing. "In
my homeland,

I'm called 'White Spirit Animal.' This name
has special meaning
for my

people."

There was an explosion of activity. With a great flap, Taller leaped into the

air, landed with a bounce, then bowed. Several
others imitated him
,
some

twirling in the air.

Tesa looked stunned.

"You have
a real
name!" Taller signed when he settled down. "You are the first of your people that has come here with
a real
name. Well, welcome to

the World, White Spirit Animal. The White Wind people greet you."

Tesa looked up into Taller's golden eyes.
Damn, Thorn
thought,
she's

shaking all over. She's in love,
he realized, and was surprised to feel a

stirring of jealousy.
She's fallen in love with these big birds just like Scott did.

"The name given you in your homeland will always be your
name the
re,"

Taller
signed
. "
But, to make
the World your
new home
,
the White Wind
people will give you one of our names, as though you had
be
en

hatched here
."
He peered at
her.
"Good eyes.
That's what we wil cal you.

Good Eyes."

Then the huge white avian walked away
,
pa
rt
ing the flock. Stretching
his wings and taking long st
ri
des
,
he sailed easily off the cliff edge
.

The others paraded up to Tesa
,
one at a time, scrutinized her

momentarily
,
then followed Taller.

Forgett
ing Thorn and Meg, Tesa ran to the cliff edge. Thorn

61

started after her, irrationally wor
ri
ed that she might leap off the edge