Silent Dances (16 page)

dangerously in and out of the ship
'
s path
,
their aerial acrobatics

becoming a
ri
sky ballet. The White Wind people were
escorting
the shuttle to their World.

Suddenly one of the avians at the end broke formation and tried to overt
ake

the leader
.
Tesa squinted as the lone Grus swe
rv
ed across the

Baraboo's
path.
The ship overcompensated, spun
,
and ... Tesa gasped
,
but the shuttle quickly recovered

76

and stabilized. The bird swooped away, far from the flight path.

Missed,
Tesa thought, releasing her breath in a whoosh. Then the bird

fluttered and fell into a deadly spiral. He flapped desperately, but could not

gain control and yielded to gravity even as Taller ran to climb into the sky.

77

Behind him, Taller could see the humans standing as if rooted. Ahead of him

was a falling body flailing weakened wings. Taller swam through the air,

feeling it flow over his body, friendly, malleable.
What would it be like to

have it turn against you, your life's ally?

His flock swerved and dived to get beneath their pinwheeling companion.

They won't make it,
Taller thought.

The injured yearling was Flies-Too-Fast, the same youngster who'd

carelessly thrown that filthy carcass at Good Eyes. He'd returned from his

flyaway-the adulthood rite every chick took at fledgling-only last month. This

was when youngsters became reckless as they struggled to earn a name,

impress a lover.

That made the old leader think of how Good Eyes had accidentally brought

the dark shadow of Death among them. But she, too, was only a juvenile,

new to the World. Like FliesTooFast, whose mistake could shatter him upon

the World.

The flock had reached the plummeting bird, and there was a flurry of activity

as the strongest flier attempted to maneuver under the stunned and injured

yearling. Suddenly they surrounded him, hiding him. Glancing backward,

Taller saw the

78

tiny specks of humans, helpless, tied to the ground. The pattern of the World

swam beneath him.
Not high enough,
he thought,
these wings, too old ...

Straining, he pushed on. It had been years since there'd been a free-fall

rescue.

The big twenty-year-old, Kills-the-Ripper, and his mate, Moon Dancer,

maneuvered beneath the youngster. Beside them was Taller's elder

daughter, Shimmering, helping them to stabilize. The three moved closer

together, their wingbeats synchronized, their primaries brushing one

another.
Directly under!
Taller silently commanded.
You must be directly

under the one falling!
But they hesitated, fearing the risk, and the youngster slipped through their net, hurtling past them.

Taller was not ready to let one of his own meet death through something not

of the World. Leveling out, the old leader sailed under the plummeting

yearling. The youngster's keel hit him hard across the back, where his lungs

were, knocking the air out of him, making him wobble-but they slowed.

FliesTooFast hit again, and they teetered wildly, but Taller stabilized, his

fingers brushing the younger bird's. That touch pulled the yearling out of his

panic.

The chick flapped hard, once, twice, then settled, lying heavily across

Taller's back, moving his wings synchronously with the older avian who now

labored to sail into a long, controlled spiral.
Not enough ... These
wings
too
old...

Then the powerful Kills-the-Ripper was beneath them, his mate on one side,

Shimmering on the other, the three forming a cushion of safety. They slowed

until finally Taller felt the weight of the youngster lifting, as he began to glide

on his own.

The flock re-formed into a ragged vee, Taller in the lead, Kills-the-Ripper in

the place of honor on his right. FliesTooFast would be last, his parents

beneath him for assistance.

The humans' ship had already landed when the people lowered their legs

and parachuted onto the hillock near Good Eyes and the others. Taller met

the newcomer's gaze and started, flaring his wings in surprise. Her large

golden eyes seemed all at once like Puff's-they held the same caring, the

same concern.

Tesa struggled to slow her breathing, reminding herself that no one had

been hurt. The injured Grus had come down too

79

SILENT DANCES 79 fast
,
stumbling before finding his legs, but he

seemed fine now.

Taller appeared calm as he met her gaze, only his crown and a flari
ng of

his wings indicating his inner turmoil.

Tesa broke their locked gaze only when Thorn touched her elbow.

"The
Baraboo'
s
down,"
he signed
, "
let's see how they are."

Tesa had forgotten that the shuttle had even been involved in the near

tragedy. She looked at the ship that was twin to the
Patuxent,
the one

they'd ar
ri
ved in yesterday
.
Only
yesterday? she thought with a start
.

She turn
ed back to see Taller and nearly jumped to find him
ri
ght

beside her. Meg came over quickly
. "
That was some flying!" she

signed to Taller
. "
Are you all
ri
ght?"

"
Yes, and the yearling will recover
,"
Taller assured her. "And your
vehicle?"

"Our ship'
s fine," Meg signed, "but I think the crew is a little shook up."

"Let me speak to the youngster first," Taller
signed. "Then I wish to
address the crew
."
He tu
rn
ed to Tesa
. "
Come with me, Good Eyes." It
was a request
,
not an order.

The "escort"
flock was cluste
ri
ng around the ship
,
except for the two
adults hanging back with their injured yearling. As Taller and Tesa

approached
,
they attempted to screen their child.

"The humans are visitors on the World,"
Taller signed to them
. "They
are
our invited guests. Conside
ri
ng the danger Flies-Too
-
Fast placed

them in
,
a gift seems approp
ri
ate
.
Flying is not natural to humans
,
so
we must be cautious."

His suggestion seemed to take the edge off the parents' nerv
ousness
.

After a rapid exchange of signs, they flew off toward the marsh
.
The

youngster remained
,
head lowered nearly to the ground
,
elbows fla
ri
ng so that his wings looked like a cape.

"Why would an adult,
fresh from his flyaway
,
hide behind his parents
?"

Taller asked him.

Reminded of a Grus chick'
s
ri
tual of independence, the youngster

raised his head
,
pulling his wings in tight. As significant to them as the

Plains Indians'
hanblechia
,
the vision quest
,
the flyaway was a chick
'
s
time to discover the World. Only when he'd learned something of impo

rt
ance could the youngster retu
rn
home
.
He might be given a new

name
.
There'd

80

be a dance in his honor,
and he
'
d be given his hatching cloak. From that

day on he was an adult.

Of course,
not all chicks retu
rn
ed
.
Inevitably
,
some died. Bad news
tr
avels on wings, and when the parents found out, they would attach the

cloak to the outside of their nest shelter and abandon the building, as a

monument of g
ri
ef to their lost child.

Some youngsters joined other flocks or formed their own. Once established

in a new flock,
the yearling would retu
rn
to collect his cloak and give a

dance
.
For the Grus, as long as there was life, the
re
was a
re
ason to
dance.

"You must ask the humans to forgive your recklessness," Taller told Flies-

Too-Fast. "Your foolhardy act might have caused your death."

The avian lost his timidity. "But I wasn'
t close to the ship! Something

invisible sucked up the air
,
making me tumble."
The force-field,
Tesa
thought
,
he must
'
ve gotten close enough
to trigger the Automatic Protection System.
When the shield snapped on it would create a vo
rt

ex. "He's telling the truth," she told Taller
. "
The ship can defend itself."

Taller looked at the bold youngster thoughtfully. "
Puff said nothing could

hu
rt
the ship
,
but now we know that in protecting itself
,
the ship can
hu
rt
us. Let Loves
-
the-Wind look at your wing-she
'
ll know how to
help it
.
But first
,
we'll all talk to the humans." He moved purposefully
toward the shuttle.

The yearling stepped up beside Tesa. "
You're the new human!" he

signed as though his d
re
ssing-down was already forgo
tt
en
. "
The
one who can't hear
."
He eyed Tesa's small ears with open cu
ri
osity
even as she noticed the few cinnamon
-
colored feathers around the

yearling's head.

"Yes," she signed. "
I'm called
`
Good Eyes
.'
And you?"

"Flies-Too
-
Fast
."
The sign meant more than that
-
it meant
re
cklessness
,
fearlessness
.
The yearling
'
s body language indicated
that
,
at the moment
,
he was chag
ri
ned to tell her
,
though she
suspected at other times he'd sign it with p
ri
de. "They told us you can
dance. Would you dance with me?" As he finished asking
,
he sprang

into the air.

Tesa felt awkward.
She didn
'
t want to do anything clumsy that might

embarrass the youngster
,
but she was tempted by his high
-
spi
ri
ted
joy
.
She tried a few steps. Flies-Too
-
Fast spun, leaped up, and she
followed, startled at how high she could jump in the
re
duced gravi
ty
.

81

SILENT DANCES 81
"You can! You can really dance!" He seemed thrilled

with

Tesa's sho
rt
performance
,
and she was flushed with excitement, until
she
re
alized that
everyone
had tu
rn
ed to watch.
"
You've given him
quite an honor," Taller signed.

Is that good or bad?
Tesa wondered. Meg's and Thorn's
faces were equally

unreadable.

The
Crane
crew was out of the ship now, and as the Grus
moved away
,

Tesa could see their drawn
,
anxious faces. Lauren's was pasty
-
white
and she was c
ry
ing. B
ru
ce had an arm around her. Tesa noted their

nullifiers and Terran voders.

Peter'
s dark face was bobbing in a sea of white bodies in the
Baraboo's

hatchway,
as G
ru
s heads snaked around on long
necks, and black,

stick-thin legs moved back and forth.

Taller strode forward while Tesa struggled to keep up, FliesTooFast beside

her.

B
ru
ce was speaking to Lauren
,
who, after reading his words,
hurriedly wiped her eyes and nodded. Dr. Li stepped out from
behind B
ru
ce as she

took Lauren
'
s readings with a mediscanner. The doctor jumped as

one of the Grus slid a sleek head over her shoulder and peered at the

glitte
ri
ng device
.
Her brown hand tightened protectively around the
inst
ru
ment before it
could find its way down a Grus gullet. The doctor gave Lauren
the standard
"
okay" sign, then said something to B
ru
ce.

Tesa dug in her pouch for her voder and turned it on.
What
a nuisance
,
she
thought, ir
ri
tated
.
It was one thing to use it to record the language
an
d
customs of the G
ru
s
,
but another to need it to communicate with her
own species.

She suddenly glanced at the cluster of humans.
She was used to thinking

that hea
ri
ng people could hear
everything,
but on Trinity they'd
all
be deaf. What was it like for
them?
Did they
feel funny using their voices?