Authors: Gillian Andrews
Six opened his hands to let her go, but she was unable to float, and he had to catch her as she wobbled and nearly fell. He balanced her with great care on his hand, then shook his head. “I am fine. It is you I was worried about.”
“I know. Thank you for staying with me.”
“I told you on Valhai I would always be on the watch for backswampers. Nothing has changed.” He straightened up. “I haven’t changed.”
Diva shimmered a little. “No,” she said, in a small voice. “But I have.”
“Things change. People change. That doesn’t mean you don’t love them as much.”
“I know.”
They stared at each other, and then the visitor and the trimorphs came over.
“We have to take Diva back to Pictoria. She will barely be able to make it as it is. If we leave it any longer she will be marooned here, and she needs the ortholiquid.”
Six stepped back instantly. “Then take her. Take good care of her. Help her to get better.”
The visitor couldn’t hide his concern. “We will try. But she may have lost too much energy anyway.”
You didn’t have to be in a mindmerge to see that the bimorph was worried that she still might die, despite everything the canth astrand had done.
“Will you stay with her? Can I come over to help?”
“We will, Six – and no, you can’t come over. Not this time. Even if everything goes all right, she needs to be in deep immersion for a long time. We have no idea how long. If you did come, you wouldn’t be able to see her. —And she needs complete rest. She wouldn’t get that if you were scuffing about in the cavern. We will let you know how she is getting on.”
Six bit his lip. “Then I shall stay here.”
He was aware of a fleeting touch on his own mind as she said goodbye, and then he watched impotently as his wife blinked out of existence in front of him, not at all surprised at the desolation he felt.
Chapter 25
THERE WAS A very great treat in store for Raven. She was glad that all her cuts and scratches had finally healed, because they were to visit Valhai for the first time. The leader of Sell wanted to hold some sort of a ceremony to honour Tallen’s sister, and since the children had never visited Grace’s home planet, they had decided to take all of them this time.
Raven couldn’t wait to go bare planet and see the brilliant night sky for herself. Aunt Grace had told her about the planet many times.
But first there was another ceremony to be endured. The head of Sell had invited them all to some sort of dinner. Raven was not looking forward to it, but her father had told her that they would be the only guests, so she was hoping it wouldn’t be too much of a trial.
First, they were taken to the 21
st
floor of the 256
th
skyrise, and Aunt Grace showed them all around the luxurious accommodation. Raven raced Temar around the outside corridor, shouting with laughter at the way his short little legs pumped uselessly, trying to make him go as fast as she could. Then Tallen took pity on Temar, hoisted him up onto his shoulders, and beat Raven easily. Raven begged Bennel to do the same, but he shook his head in his usual serious way.
“You weigh too much, Raven. You are a big girl now.”
“I am not!”
“You can run faster than me!”
“Yes, but you are old.” Then she thought and tried to make it right. “Not really old, Bennel, just a lot older than everybody else. Nice old.” Then she looked at him in a worried fashion until his face wrinkled up into a smile, and she could relax.
Tallen put his burden down to the floor again with care, and Raven patted the toddler’s head fondly, empathizing with his wish to be faster than she was. “I guess you won this time, Temmy.” Then she spotted a small door. “Look! What is that?”
It turned out to be a small triangular-shaped room with a rexelene wall on the outside. They gasped. It was their first view of Valhai, and their mouths dropped open.
Raven jumped up and down. “Look! Look! Look at all the stars! And that must be Cian. Oh, I can’t wait to go bare planet.”
Grace came up. “We will go tomorrow. You are going to meet Arcan.”
“But we know Arcan.”
“Not the real Arcan. Not as he is naturally.”
This seemed complicated and the children stared at each other. Arcan was not the real Arcan? What could this mean?
Grace smiled. “You will see tomorrow. Now, who is going to have a bath before we go to the 1
st
skyrise for dinner?”
Raven wrinkled her nose. “Do we have to?”
Grace shook her head. “I wouldn’t have had to ask your mother twice.”
“Did she like baths?” Raven found this hard to believe.
Her father and Ledin exchanged a knowing grin. “Getting your mother out of a Mesteta wine bath was like coaxing a warthog out of the mud.” He led them across the receiving chamber and past the magmite columns that led into the voting chamber. “Come on, the sleeping rooms and the baths are through here.”
His intention was to lead them along the corridor which skirted the voting chamber, but as soon as the younger members of the party saw the voting room they were inside. The sight of the four chairs sitting in solitary splendour was too much for them.
“Look! They are sized according to our heights!” Raven clambered up into the second smallest one and looked across the room imperiously. “Come on, Temmy! Get into yours!”
“Don’t touch any of the buttons, either of you. They are still connected!” But Aunt Grace was laughing with her eyes, which meant she wasn’t really cross at all.
Temmy scrambled up the smallest chair and they looked across the vast expanse at each other, feeling very important.
“Now what do we do?” asked Raven.
“Now you vote on the important issues,” said Grace. “Like I did when I was a little girl.”
This picture was completely new to Raven. “You were once a little girl?”
Grace nodded. “Yes.”
“And you lived here?”
“I did. At least, I lived in an identical home on the 48
th
floor of this skyrise.”
“What did you do?”
A shadow crossed Grace’s face. “I stayed inside. For the first 14 years of my life.”
This was very hard to believe. “You didn’t go out?”
“No. Sellites stay in their skyrises.”
“Why?”
“A good question. I suppose we got used to it.”
This seemed a very weak argument to Raven, who couldn’t imagine staying inside all your life. She felt suddenly very sorry for her aunt Grace, clambered down all the steps to the high chair, ran over to her, and gave her a hug. “I’m sorry.”
Grace hugged the little girl back. “You needn’t be, Raven. Look how things worked out – I can’t complain, now can I?”
Raven regarded Ledin and Temar and the new baby, Ashuaia, who was up in Ledin’s arms at that particular moment.
“You have a nice family,” she said politely.
“That’s right.” Grace hugged her again. “And you are part of it.”
“Am I?”
“Of course. I am your second mother. Now, stop trying to make me forget all about the baths. None of you can go to dinner with Mandalon looking like that. You all look as if you have been fighting with a ten-legged decipus on a river bank!”
One of the best things that happened that day, as far as Raven was concerned, was the appearance of Grace’s mother, Cimma. She came over especially from Kwaide, where she was in charge of combat training, bringing Raven a small, beautifully balanced wooden sword to begin combat practice with. Six’s daughter was so puffed up with pride at being thought old enough to start training that she insisted on escorting the others everywhere, wielding the sword rather inexpertly and waving it from side to side in front of her. Even though it was only wooden, Tallen had to move hastily out of her way once or twice. Raven was delighted, making bloodthirsty cries deep in her throat and pretending to attack the Namuri. He rolled his eyes, but said nothing. It was good to see the little girl playing so happily. After everything that had happened, it was something she needed.
MANDALON TURNED OUT to be quite nice, thought Raven. He wasn’t that old, really – about the same age as Tallen. He and Tallen seemed to have other things in common, because they chatted together like old friends. The Sellite leader seemed to know quite a lot about Xiantha, too, because he was due to make a state visit there soon; the first visit of his leadership off planet.
Raven tried to listen to the adult conversation going on, but quickly got tired of sitting on the ornate gold leaf chairs, and signaled to Temar.
“May we get down?” she asked Six, who was talking to Bennel, and who nodded almost automatically.
Raven needed no other encouragement. She slid down from the chair and went over to give Temar a hand. “Let’s explore!”
Together, they ventured out of the eating chamber and began to explore the skyrise. It wasn’t long before they discovered what must have been the biggest wardrobe ever invented. They sneaked inside and, once the door was closed, Raven reached up to switch on the light.
She gaped. Inside was the most ornate gown she had ever seen. It was made of gold, she thought, for it shone exactly like the burnished bracelet
her grandmother had been wearing on that first trip to Mesteta.
“Temmy!” She pulled him over to the magnificent dress. “Let’s put it on!”
Temar appeared doubtful at first, but he always followed Raven’s lead eventually, so she was confident that she could convince him.
Sure enough, a few minutes later they had dragged the immense gown off its hanging support and were pulling at it, each trying to be the first to get it over their shoulders, even though it threatened to engulf them completely.
There was the sound of the door opening, and two slightly guilty faces looked up at the newcomers. They weren’t completely sure that this would be on the list of things one was allowed to do at dinners.
Then they heard a gasp. The head of Sell, Mandalon, was in the door. A rather furious-looking Tallen was standing beside him, and behind them Raven could see her father and Grace, both of whom were looking anything but pleased.
Mandalon grinned around at them all. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I don’t think they have done any lasting damage.”
Tallen was torn. On principle, he hated the symbol of wealth which was lying creased on the floor in front of them, and would have been the first to vote for its destruction. On the other hand, Mandalon had been very kind to him, and he hated to see something the Sellites obviously valued very highly being treated like that.
One look at Tallen’s face, and Raven knew she had gone too far. She took a hasty step back, grabbed Temar’s arm, and pulled him back too. They stood, heads hanging, waiting for the torrent of displeasure.
Six caught Tallen’s eye, and gave a small shake of his head. Then he stepped forwards.
“Apologize to Mandalon, Raven. You too, Temar. You have damaged something very important to the Sellites. This is not acceptable behaviour.”
Raven felt a huge knot in her throat. She had gone red, and was fighting back tears. “I-I’m s-s-sorry,” she managed.
Temar was looking at his parents, a crease of incomprehension across his normally placid face. “Sorry?” he said, making it sound like a question. He couldn’t see what all this was about. He and Raven had just been having fun, after all.
Mandalon nodded, and smiled down at them. “It isn’t important,” he told them, although he knew that it would take weeks of work to remove any creases from the garment it had taken ten embroiderers two full years to make. “The door should have been locked.” He flicked a displeased glance at one of the Namuri guards who now looked after him, but this stalwart fellow simply stared back impassively. He couldn’t have cared less about a gold-weave robe that cost more than his whole tribe had seen in centuries.
Tallen found himself grinning. It was clear that there were aspects of having Namuri guards that Mandalon was finding difficult. He was only an emptor to them, not somebody who was entitled to order them about. The difference was slight, but very important to a Namuri.
Mandalon saw that Tallen was amused, and gave a wry nod. It was true; there were parts of this new system which were sometimes hard to accept. But it was doing him good and he didn’t regret his decision.
“Who wears this dress?” Raven had recuperated her buoyancy.
“I do. And it isn’t a dress. It is a robe.”
“Do you wear it often?”
“Once.”
Raven stared. All this fuss for a robe he had only worn once? It made no sense to her. She turned her head slightly, to examine the dress again. “Is it magical?” she asked.
“No.”
“Only, I have never met a dress with its own room before.”
Mandalon suddenly was able to see the absurdity through the eyes of a young girl. She did have a point.
A shaft of light caught the namura stone around Raven’s neck, and both Tallen and Mandalon thought they saw something in its flickering depths. Tallen drew in a sharp breath, and Mandalon turned quickly towards him.
The Namuri boy had narrowed his eyes. “Did you …? No, nothing.”
Mandalon bowed his head. “It doesn’t matter, Raven. The robe is meant to be a symbol of the superiority of the Sellites, and I no longer believe we are superior. You are right. It is crazy for a dress to have its own constant temperature area.”
“… Because it isn’t like a person, is it?” Raven was still trying to make sense of it for herself.
“No. It isn’t like a person. You are right.”
She frowned at him. “A lot of people could sleep in the space this dress takes up.”
Tallen grinned, and Raven sensed approval. It was hard to earn Tallen’s approval, so she felt pleased, though she was not quite sure what the reason for it was.
Mandalon tipped his head on one side. “You are quite right, young Raven. A lot of people could.”