Ammonite Planets (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #1-3

by Gillian Andrews

  “Indeed I do.”

  “Then I am sure it is very happy too.”

  The Xianthan bowed and looked gratified. “Your words honour me,” he said simply. “Now, shall we go on?”

  They continued walking past the gates to the corrals, stopping at each so that the man who kept canths could open the gate, and wait for any possible responses. The corrals were huge areas that stretched off as far as they could see, but shaped as segments of a circle, narrowing in to another, concentric circle at the centre of the original circle. All the gates lay on the inner circle, which was about a kilometre in circumference.

  At the next gate but one, something happened. As they stood waiting, a ripple of interest seemed to run through those canths which were visible. They turned their huge heads to the far part of the corral, as if watching something in the distance. Then the sound of hooves on the hard earth became clear, and there was almost a trembling of the ground. The canths seemed to produce a humming sound, of some great excitement. Gradually, the hooves became clearer until at last the vague shape of one particular equine, moving towards them at high speed, became visible. Grace clutched Diva’s arm as the magnificent beast approached them.

  As it finally approached the open gate, all three of the visitors held their breaths. The canth passed the Xianthan, dipping its head infinitesimally as it passed, now at a walk. It seemed to halt for a brief minute, looking around at the three visitors with curiosity. Then it moved up to Six, and lowered its head again, this time unmistakably in his direction.

  “It chose me!” he shouted. “It chose me!”

  Diva touched her ears and winced at the sound level. “We can see that, nomus. There is no need to shout!”

  Six was pleased. “I got chosen first!”

  The canth keeper exchanged glances with the girls. “Indeed,” he said. “You have been chosen by a dapple grey. That is a most unusual colour. You are very fortunate. May you serve each other well. Your money is welcome!” Although Six was tempted to answer back to that, he held his tongue. This man seemed to be so genuinely content for him that the comment may actually have been made sincerely. Discretion being the better part of valour, he kept silent. Grace flashed him a grateful look and he straightened his shoulders.

  The little procession continued on to the next gate, joined now by Six’s canth which was following them docilely.

  “Who names them?” asked Diva.

  The canth keeper raised one eyebrow. “Name them?”

  “Calls them something – you know, like you are called the man who keeps canths.”

  “No names are necessary. What would be the point of naming them? They are free spirits, not to be tied to the letters you put to their bodies.”

  Six looked more favourably on the canth keeper. At last, he thought, a man of sense. That would teach Diva. Maybe she would stop always trying to name things.

  AT THE NEXT gate a canth chose Diva. It was slightly smaller than Six’s, and instead of a dapple grey, turned out to be a seal brown. The Xianthan told her that the seal brown was a very rare combination of dominant and recessive alleles. Diva stroked her canth on the neck, reminded of the avifauna on Pictoria, who she still missed, but there was no immediate mental link in this case, and the canth was clearly unlikely to be influenced by her will.

  Grace’s equine was proving more circumspect, however, and it wasn’t until the very last corral that they were able to hear the thunder of hooves again as the last canth came to meet its choice of rider. Grace was speechless as the animal came slowly through the gate, and dropped its head slightly in front of the man who kept canths. It was a beautiful golden colour, with flecks of silver. Even the Xianthan seemed to be holding his breath as it walked nearer to them.

  “A palomino gold,” he told them, “with silver markings. That is an excellent sign. They are very rare, and it is a great thing that this animal will have the chance to strengthen its line. This is a very important day for all of us – a day worthy of much colour.”

  Grace stroked a whorl of silver set into the golden neck, and felt absurdly pleased. She could tell that the Xianthan was most happy with the canth which had chosen her, and that made her feel privileged. Struck suddenly by something, she turned back to the man.

  “What colour picked my mother?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “I am not at liberty to tell you; you must ask her that.” His eyes went to the distance, as if looking for something in particular. “I always felt that she would come back to us one day. Tell her, when you see her, that we are waiting.”

  “Yes. I … err … will.” Grace was finding out more and more about her mother. The person who had seemed so predictable as wife to the head of the donor house, had been shown to have some very unpredictable facets. It was as if she were several different people in her own lifetime, as if she had several different lives to live.

  Diva paid over the money asked and the man kitted the canths out with some straps around their heads and necks, and a sort of saddle on their backs. He taught them how to mount and dismount, and gave them some instructions about food, and how to release them when they were no longer needed, explaining that the canths were quite capable of finding their own way back to the farm on their own. “Just say “abrogate” very slowly and clearly out loud to them as you leave. Then they will know that you and they have to part. They will wait for you wherever you leave them until released by the word I have just taught you. And it must be spoken only by the canth’s own rider. Nobody else can release them. Please do not forget this most important detail. If they are not released they will stay wherever they are left, and will starve themselves to death rather than move, if there is little food in the immediate area.”

  He finished the preparations for the journey. “One more thing,” he told them as they were about to mount. “Never, ever, under any circumstances tie up your canth. These animals are very proud, and will pull at the ropes until they either break the bindings or their own necks.”

  “We won’t,” promised Grace, seconded devoutly by Six and Diva. None of them would have dreamt of hurting these proud and beautiful animals.

  “If you like, you will find the Emerald Lake about a hundred miles to the south of here, almost equidistant from the Donor Headquarters beyond Eletheia and the space port. It is a magical place. Most visitors find that a few days’ holiday spent there can give them many colourful memories. I would urge you to rest there with your canths. You will not regret it.”

  They looked at each other. It did sound attractive. They didn’t know what a holiday was. Perhaps this would be the perfect occasion to find out?

  Diva put her head on one side. “I suppose there is no immediate hurry to get to Eletheia,” she said.

  Grace nodded. “And they are such beautiful animals. It would be a shame to push them too fast. Perhaps they would like a few days to bathe in the Emerald Lake?”

  Six agreed. “The Elders used to have four holidays a year, you know. They thought it helped to prolong life …”

  They exchanged looks of complicity, and the Xianthan inclined his stately body. “You will tell me of your journey when we next meet,” he said. “May it be filled with light and colour!”

  The newly approved riders leapt up into the soft and luckily luxurious saddles, and headed their mounts in the southerly direction. They broke into a fast gait which was so smooth that they hardly seemed to be traveling at all, yet the countryside slid past at over thirty miles per hour.

  “Now this,” said Six happily, “is something like!”

  Chapter 9

  THE CANTHS MADE the journey unforgettable. Instead of worrying about the lack of roads their riders had nothing to do except look around them at Xiantha. The canths traveled in a direct line, taking their riders cross-country. There were small compasses set into the saddles to show them the north, and the man who kept canths had given them all detailed maps, so it was an easy matter after consulting the maps to head their canths in the
right direction. As they made their way towards the Emerald Lake, through the Great Plain – a sort of hot and arid plateau with very little vegetation, Six could feel the stress of the recent fighting on Kwaide and the tensions of Pictoria and Valhai easing away, as he slowly began to relax. Even the blisters from the cart seemed to disappear in the comfort of the canths’ saddles.

  The girls were apparently enjoying themselves too. Instead of the tight worry of the recent months they were laughing and giggling, exchanging shouts as they spotted particularly pretty views. They all, he felt, seemed younger than they had a scant few hours ago. He found he was really looking forward to this trip. He wondered what a holiday would be like. What did these Xianthans actually do on a holiday? It was all a bit of a mystery to him. He set a course for the Emerald Lake, though, and watched the countryside go by with interest.

  They kept going at the steady pace the canths had set up for three hours, but they knew that they would have to stop soon for food, and to sleep. Six kept a sharp eye out for the first signs of the Emerald Lake, and then, when he did see it, realized that nobody in their right mind could possibly have missed it, because it was set like a jewel – shining in the midst of the dry Great Plain. It was by far the most beautiful place he had ever seen, and they all reined in their steeds to gaze down at it.

  The lake was in the hollow of a ring of green hills, basking in the sunlight and surrounded by the tallest trees they had ever seen. Set between the trees nearest to the lake, which shimmered, aquamarine, were thousands upon thousands of flowers, of all colours. The total effect was so strong that they had to close their eyes.

  They grinned at each other, and gave the lightest of signs to their canths, who needed no urging to race down to the edge of the lake. There was a track which wound down through the trees, and the new riders found themselves whooping like young children as they came plunging to a halt in front of the water.

  “Look!” Diva pointed up at the trees. Set half way up each frontline tree was a tiny wooden cabin, just big enough for one person, and reachable by metallic stakes set into the tree trunks at regular intervals.

  Six pointed to the very tallest tree, and the cabin perched half way up. “That’s the one I want!” he shouted.

  Diva looked at Grace and laughed with glee. What a place! “I’ll take the one on the left of Six’s,” she said. “You can have the one on the right, Grace.”

  Grace nodded. “Fine by me!” she said. “I don’t think I have ever seen so much colour in one place!” She found it overwhelming at first – especially when compared to her native Valhai. She thought that if she lived here she might end up missing the dark slate grey of her home planet. But for a holiday … for a holiday it was absolutely, blissfully, completely and utterly PERFECT!

  THE CANTH KEEPER had insisted on giving them some peculiar garments as a gift, telling them that they would come in most useful at the lake. They turned out to be swimming garments, light pieces of fabric which covered the minimum of necessary places, but which could be relied upon, he had said, to dry out almost immediately.

  They each made their way up to their cabin, and agreed to meet in five minutes’ time for a swim. Diva and Six made a competition of climbing their trees, of course, each determined not to let the other get there first. Grace laughed as she watched them swarm up the thick trunks. She didn’t know who won, and definitely didn’t care. She didn’t think they really did, either. It was more a comfortable habit they had got into. She found herself taking her time, enjoying each rung set into the tree. It was quite easy to climb up to the cabin, because the rungs were very solidly set into the wood, and smooth to the touch. And the height – to somebody who had scaled skyrises back on Valhai and caverns on Pictoria – was nothing.

  She reached her tiny cabin, opened the transparent door which faced out towards the lake, pulled herself inside, and examined it closely. Inside it was lined with a thin sheet of rexelene, so as to keep insects out, and boasted a mattress which looked uncomfortable at first, but later proved to be wonderfully soft, moulding itself to the sleeper and cocooning him or her in a way guaranteed to bring instant, dreamless sleep.

  She changed into the swimming garment quickly, and then looked down. It felt very strange to be wearing so few clothes, and she felt self-conscious about it. There was something a bit unnatural about showing so much skin, she found. Then she gave a mental shrug. It made far more sense to bathe in these garments than in her usual clothes, so she should just forget about how she was feeling, and get on with it, she thought.

  As she was moving to the door to start her descent, she became transfixed by the view she had across the lake. For it was not just the water she could see. It was teeming with fish, and beyond the brightly covered buoys which marked the swimming area she could see huge specimens leaping into the air, to fall back into the water with large splashes. Even the fish seemed happy here!

  She heard laughter from the left. Six and Diva were already on their way down, and from the exchange of insults were having a bit of fun at the expense of each other’s costumes. She slipped through the rexelene door, taking care to close it firmly behind her, and let herself down the rungs of the ladder, shivering as she felt air on her back for the first time.

  Down by the side of the lake her friends were waiting for her, dabbling their toes in the water, and splashing each other.

  Six smiled as she came up. “Right,” he told them. “Let’s go for a swim in the lake.”

  Grace looked down, feeling suddenly very small. “Err … you know I can’t swim.”

  Diva nodded. “Of course, I had forgotten – not the sort of thing you would learn being brought up on Valhai, is it? Never mind, I will show you how it is done. You will be fine.”

  Grace gulped. “It must be … difficult. Are you sure?”

  “You will be fine, Grace. Don’t worry. Everybody should know how to swim.” And Diva took her to one side and began to teach her the basics, keeping her well away from Six until her pupil was able to splash her way across a few metres on her own.

  “Hmm. It isn’t the best style I have seen, but it will keep you afloat!”

  Grace felt elated. “This swimming thing is fun!”

  Diva grinned down at her. “Fun doesn’t seem to have been much on the list on Valhai!”

  “Have you ever worn anything like these clothes before?”

  Diva grinned again. “No, and Six was very rude about them. Something about never having seen so much hide on the hoof, I think. He intimated I would stop a vaniven dressed like this!”

  “Perhaps it was a compliment!”

  “Only to another vaniven! Six and I don’t really do compliments you know.”

  “I had noticed, now you come to mention it!”

  Diva saw the face Grace was pulling and couldn’t resist dousing her with water. This led to a royal battle of spray, which the Coriolan won easily, since Grace was terrified of ducking her head under the water and drowning.

  They spent an hour idly bathing, until Six came splashing up to them, covering them both with spray deliberately and making them scream at him, although he was careful to make sure Grace was in her depth. “Now this is my idea of a perfect bath!” he said. “You can keep your Mesteta wine.”

  Even Diva was mellow. “I must say, this is very pleasant.”

  “What about the canths? Do you think they want to swim?” asked Grace.

  Six lifted his eyes skywards. “Honestly, Grace, here we are – in the perfect lake on the perfect planet, and you want to fill it up with a load of animals!”

  “It already is full – of fish. I just thought the canths might be hot and tired too!”

  “I guess they will come in if they want too.”

  “Ye-es.”

  “Oh, all right, call them in!”

  Grace looked around to locate her silver palomino mount, and clicked her teeth at it. It looked at her, and then slowly walked into the lake, coming to a stop beside her, and looking
quite content. The other canths followed its example, and joined them, putting their heads down and drinking from the surface from time to time. Grace smiled. “There. Now they won’t be so hot.”

  “They were standing under the trees,” Six pointed out.

  “Yes, but I felt guilty, with us being in here and them out there!”

  “Honestly, Grace! You need to work on that. It’s as if you don’t think you have any right to be happy!”

  “Now I come to think about it, shouldn’t Arcan be here?” asked Grace. “If we are going to have a holiday, I think he should too. And he could bring the visitor.”

  “That’s one thing that won’t be able to share the lake!” teased Six. “Are you sure there is nobody else you would like to invite?” He raised his eyebrows so far that nobody was in any doubt who he meant.

  Grace went red. “No,” she said stiffly. “I can’t think of anybody else.”

  “Not even your mother?” Six wasn’t done teasing her yet.

  “Oh. My mother. I thought you meant … Six! Stop it!” Grace tried to drench him with water, but miscalculated and soaked Diva instead, who shook her head like a Cesan catumba and glared magnificently, her eyes promising vengeance. “No! Now Diva! I’m sorry! You know I didn’t mean it!”

  Six lay on his back, floating, letting the water wash over him and enjoying himself. The sound of the girls’ fight died away – they were swimming together now in the direction of the red buoys, and pointing out the fish that leapt out of the water, far beyond the barrier. It was so relaxing that he jumped himself when one of the canths close by him whickered. This in turn spooked the equine, which plunged, causing waves. Six swallowed water and shouted, and the whole episode ended with the canths turning away in disgust and walking in a stately manner out of the lake.

  “Six!” shouted Grace. “Why did you do that?”