by Andrew Elgin
"I don't know. Beyond the obvious, anyway."
She smiled at him. "Neither do I. But what I do know is that Harmony was responsible for it. Which means, I think, that we have not much choice left but to trust Her. Which means, I think, that we have to keep going. At least, that's how I see it."
Javin returned her smile, his eyes gentle and relaxed. "I really do think you are much better than me at making decisions. Oh, yes, I can talk about wanting to have a choice, but when it comes to it, you're the one who decides." He leaned towards her and whispered conspiratorially, "And, that's fine by me." He stood up and held a hand out. Meldren grabbed it and stood up, easing into his embrace.
"Just as long as you know I'm in charge, then."
"Whatever gave you the idea that I ever doubted that?" He kissed her and then helped her adjust her load and off they set, downhill, to whatever awaited them.
Two days out in the plain, they still could not see an end to it. The soaring cliffs, far away to their right, looked like a solid wall, marching along with them, only gradually diminishing in height. Other than that, the plain was as empty as it had looked from the hilltop. They had slept in the open; a feeling which, the first night, had unnerved both of them. They were used to some shelter. A wagon, a handful of trees, a boulder or two. There had always been something against which they could rest their backs. But not here. As a result, they slept poorly, aware that they were easy prey to any determined hunter. Not that they knew if there were any such creatures. And that uncertainty itself added to their discomfort. They couldn't sing songs in their sleep.
As the sun rose and warmed their backs again on the third day, they trudged on wearily. Javin nudged Meldren with an elbow and indicated a clump of what he called trees far off to their left. There were enough of them to make for a shelter. The sun was high when they arrived. They both watched and listened for the songs of predators. Satisfied, they entered and put aside their loads and sat, groaning gratefully, in the shade.
"I'm thirsty," Javin complained. "And this little sprite round my neck is just making me more aware of my dry throat."
"Same here. I'm sure it's getting hotter day by day. I think it's time we tried singing. There's no fruit left, nothing with any moisture in it." Meldren wiped her forehead and left a little smear of dirt across it.
"What shall we try first? Water? Fresh water?"
Meldren closed her eyes in ecstasy at the thought. "Oh, yes, please! Lots of it, bubbling out of the ground right here," pointing to a spot just in front of her outstretched feet.
"Do you know what it sounds like?"
She shook her head. "No, but I'm willing to listen really, really hard." She sat up straighter and looked at Javin, tired eyes smiling at him. "Ready when you are."
He nodded and then closed his eyes and began to listen to the songs around them. Somewhere, in amongst all these wonderful sounds, there should be the sound of water, underground, moving, flowing, sliding along. Both brows furrowed as they concentrated; the two minds acting easily as one. And, as they listened, so they both heard it. A deep song, a lilting song, a smooth and glistening song. A song they could carry and lift and bring to them here. Catching the sounds and the harmonies, each began to sing their own part of it; one the direction, the other, the freshness. Together they began to reel it into them, sing it up to the surface. Closer and closer.
Just as it was about to burst through the ground and bathe their feet in its cool flow, the song changed. Instead of both of them singing it, they became part of another song; a louder, more insistent one which poured into them.
Suddenly, from watching the song of the water rise to them, they were the ones rising, being swept away. Higher and higher they rose. The melodies held them relaxed and wondering at all they saw spread out beneath them. The horizon began to curve into an arc as they floated relentlessly onward, upward. Stars flicked on in greater numbers until they could only see broad swathes of land and sea beneath. They saw the moon, coming up at them from behind the horizon's curve, larger and larger. And, at that moment, their vision was turned away from the globe beneath them as they seemed to rotate and place it at their backs, the better to immerse themselves in the space beyond.
The sun, they both knew, was away to their right. They also both knew that they could not look at it directly. Nor could they hear it as it truly was. Its songs were not for them. Although far away and, to their eyes at least, invisible, it was the dominant presence. The universe drifted before them. They had no reference and could not tell if they were moving through the universe or the universe was moving towards them. All they knew was they were seeing what no-one else had ever seen; how their sun fitted into everything they were experiencing.
Their sun was but one of many suns, all singing in the blackness, spinning worlds and life from the darkness, binding together across the vastness; spanning space in their limitless families. For they could hear in their minds, in the faintest of fashions, the symphonies which pulled their galaxy into existence and which drove it and gave it order and pattern and governed the motions of every part; from the formation of planets to the movements of clouds, the dance of insects. And they heard and felt how this system, their sun's, was also singing other large systems into consciousness. The deeps were full of lyricism, of the sounds of existence and awareness. These were no sounds they could sing or even share with one another upon waking. Such sounds could only be felt. They were bathed in them; they were the sounds as they thrummed through them. They could only know of it, be aware of it, deep within themselves, just as in any dream when knowing something is so obvious yet becomes so elusive when awake.
Now, just as when floating and flying above the planet, one part of the whole came closer to them, or them to it. Their awareness came back to their sun, their solar system. They, or the songs of which they were composed, flew by each of the six planets, hovering near enough to see the arc of the horizon against the blackened sky, star-frosted and eternal. Sometimes bigger than Harmony, sometimes much smaller in span, they were each unique. Each one a fresh song of their sun, a chorus in the greater symphony. After hovering at each planet, admiring it, reveling in the beauty, hearing the purity of it, they returned, again, to the planet nearest to the orchestral sun. The planet called Haven.
The song here began to sound off-key, as if parts were missing or too quiet. It lacked the resonant euphony, the breadth of the other planets' songs. The sounds brought them swooping down closer to the surface. Close enough to see whole cities. Straight roads ignored the shape of the land. As the planet whirled beneath them, the night side of it was full of sparkles of light, splashes of brightness. The planet's music never faltered, but it had some shrill notes, jarring and unpleasing. It was chaotic more than harmonic. It was more a competition to be heard than something to be enjoyed for its own sake; too many sounds trying to overwhelm each other. There was an underlying score, but it was struggling to coordinate so many individual notes.
Then away again, swirling away, back out towards the orbit of Harmony again. Back to Harmony and the moon. Looking now with fresh eyes, Harmony hung beneath them; green and blue and white and yellow; pure colors. A sense of peace accompanied the vision and was hinted at in the blending chords they heard. The difference in the songs of Harmony and Haven were clear. Harmony's song was pure, with just the slightest of dips in rhythm and the rare, brief, muted flat note here and there, to short to disturb the underlying rhythm and cadence of it all.
And then, a pause, a hesitation, a purposeful wait as the main theme song held them. There was no depth, no sense of near nor far against such a backdrop. And then suddenly, a movement. A star occluded. A light moving. A group of lights. The two tried to adjust their eyes in the dream, to focus on the movement. As when an optical illusion is resolved, there was nothing and then there was a new vision. A fleet of ships. Sparkling and small in the immensity. Ships moving out from the sun, away from Haven. Towards Harmony. The dreamers drifted along with them fo
r a time, noting them, hearing the sun sing, hearing Harmony's chorus within that song.
Nearing the ship, there was again a sensation, this time of something raucous and atonal, a tiny echo of the unbalanced songs and edginess of Haven. Not frightening. Not fearful. Around that, holding it within it, another was being woven. It contained notes of sadness and determination.
And this feeling, this resolve remained as the dreamers were floated away again, before spiraling back, faster and faster, through Harmony's clouds and air. A long, last look at the aching beauty of Harmony before it faded gently into nothing more than shadows on the eyelids, and movements of branches in a gentle breeze.
The elusive music, at once so simple as to be entirely obvious, and yet at the same time with a complexity beyond words, beyond understanding, remained with them after they had woken. It circled within them, conjuring up the visions given them, allowing them to see the dream again and again. The scale of it, the reality of it, had them amazed, stupefied almost. They each knew that they had shared the same experiences, seen the same things and had been left with the same questions.
Each reached for their throat as the sprites keened and swayed, extending out and holding their small heads up, as if staring at the sky. Automatically, each tried to soothe them by stroking and murmuring gently at them. The sprites subsided and re-coiled again as suddenly as they had extended.
Before either Javin or Meldren were ready to speak, the earth between them gave a small shudder and a bubbling stream of water, fresh and cool, eased its way from a small fissure and ran over the ground, gathering in a small hollow within arm's reach.
Javin looked around, as if to reassure himself that, now, he was awake and that he was in the same place. He also checked Meldren, to see what color her eyes were. Realizing what he was doing, she opened her eyes wide at him before turning to the water. Reassured, he peered through the trunks of the trees and saw that the sun was now much lower in the sky.
"That took a long time. But I don't feel ill, for a change. How about you?"
Meldren had drunk from the new pool and was scooping water over her arms and face, dabbing at the back of her neck, reveling in the cool, clean feeling. She shook her head and brushed some wet hair from her face. "No. I feel fine. Confused. But fine." She scooted over a little to give Javin room to drink. "What was that about? Why were we shown that? And what exactly was the 'that' we were shown? Did you recognize the other planet, Haven?" She shut her eyes briefly to see the vision more clearly again.
Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Javin had the same look of confusion. "I've never seen Haven from space, but I guess that's how it would look. I thought I recognized some of the coastline from maps. But what were those ships we saw? And why show us?" He made himself more comfortable, leaning against a trunk, still puzzling over the experience. "I still don't understand why us? What are we meant to do about that? What's the point of showing us that stuff if there was no reason? There has to be a reason, but I can't begin to think what it is." He gave an exasperated sigh.
"Well, at least, like you said, we're not ill this time." Meldren brought out some dried meat from her satchel and offered some to Javin. She chewed a while in silence, occasionally picking off a tiny piece to offer to her sprite. "When I think back to being shown those ships, the song I heard wasn't right somehow. There was something wrong about it. I suppose they were headed here. Or," and she sat up straighter as the realization dawned. "Or, that is actually happening, right now. There really are ships coming here. And if I heard that song correctly, it means they aren't really coming for good reasons. Their songs weren't right." She turned to Javin, an urgent look on her face. "What if we were shown those ships because they are real and they are coming here and we've got to do something about it?"
"But what, for goodness' sake? Fly into space and push them back by ourselves? If what we saw and heard was real, then, again, why bother? Because if everything's a song, then a new song would make them disappear or something. It comes back to the same thing every time. Why show us?"
Meldren chewed some more as she thought about it. "If we are being shown this for some reason, then the only thing I can think of, and it's not an answer I like, is that we, the two of us, really are special and we have to do something about it." She hurried on to prevent Javin interrupting. "Yes, I know what you're going to say. I agree. How can we do anything?" She suddenly chuckled and shook her head in disbelief. "Listen to me. To us! Here we are talking about ships in space, how the sun sings everything and how we can hear Harmony and Her songs, and it's like the most natural thing in the world! I mean, we even sang this water to us! And we're trying to make sense of it all? It makes no sense. Nothing does! Do you realize? In the spring, I never knew you, you never knew me, we were normal people, doing normal things. And now? Nothing is normal and that is the new normal for us. How can we ever think we are going to do anything normal again? Normal now is songs and singing and stars and the sun taking us on a tour of all the planets. That's normal now. Which means, that nothing we can think of doing is stupid or wrong or impossible. We're living impossibly, every day."
She stared straight up at the sky between the fronds. "Is there a reason behind all this? Yes. Do we have to do something about it? Probably. Do we know what that is? No. Are we going to get some help? Probably." She looked now at Javin. There was tiredness in her eyes again. "My guess? I don't think we're going to have to wait very long before we find out the answers."
Javin had been watching her as she spoke, finishing his food. Now he nodded in agreement. "I think you're right. And I also think we're not going anywhere else today. It's too late to get started. Besides, we've got water and food and some shelter. Why leave? We may not be ill because of it, but I know I am tired, more tired than I should be from just sitting here."
"Me, too," said Meldren, yawning.
"Then let's see if we can get some undisturbed sleep and be ready for whatever abnormally normal thing happens next."
"Abnormally normal. I like that."
"It was your idea. And I like your ideas."
"Is that all you like?"
"I'm not sure. I need to take a closer look."
"I thought you were tired."
"Parts of me are."
"Ah. Good to know."
"Shhh."
Chapter Thirty
Waking the next morning, Javin again reassured himself that he was still in the same place and that the water was still bubbling into the new pond before trickling away to soak into the ground beyond the tiny grove. He bathed his face clear of sleep and watched Meldren still sleeping, a tender smile on his face, quite content to wait.
Shortly thereafter, she woke up, blinking at him sitting beside her as her eyes adjusted to the brightness. She yawned and sat up, and searched for the tie for her hair which had come loose again in the night.
"The good news is that we are still where we thought we were and I had no visions."
"Neither did I," said Meldren. "Although I was rather expecting something to happen." She splashed some water on her face, took a few quick sips of it and rubbed her eyes free of any remaining sleep. "I'm hungry! What do we have left?"
Javin spread out their remaining food on their blanket. It was hardly tempting anymore. They had been eating the same food since leaving Arlen. What there was was either dried or stale by now. They picked it over and ate without much enthusiasm.
"What do you suggest we do now?" asked Meldren after cleaning her hands in the water which bubbled up between them and drying them off on her skirt. "Wait for something to happen or move on?"
"I didn't dream about anything. I thought I would have dreamt about the ships or something. But, no. Nothing." Javin was staring off into the distance. "I thought I might have an answer when I woke up. Something, some plan would have come to me." He brought his gaze back to Meldren. "I think I was hoping that would be the plan for today." He sighed a small sigh. "Oh, well. I suppose we'll have to d
o something ourselves." He pointed at the food. "We could sing some more food. But I was wondering why we have to walk all this way with nothing to help us? Why not sing ourselves somewhere else? Like those cliffs in the distance?"
Meldren had a doubtful look on her face. "Do you think we should? After all, shouldn't we be doing something about those ships we saw? Plus there's the problem of how to sing us there. Singing water up; that's one thing. Singing ourselves to another place..." She shook her head. "What happens if we miss by just a little and we fall from the height of the cliffs? Or, worse, what if we sing ourselves inside the rock?" She shuddered at the thought. "I'm not against the idea in theory. But I do really think we should be focusing more on what we were shown."
"And we do that, how?"
"I don't know. But, why not think of something? Anything. Remember, we know we're definitely not normal, so let's just say some ideas out loud and see if that helps. We don't have to know how it would work. Just ideas."
Javin thought for a moment. "Sing a song to turn them back?"
"Or, could we stop them leaving in the first place?"
"How about we make them nice people so they decide to go home on their own?"
Meldren grinned. "Let's make them grumpy with each other so they fight amongst themselves and never get anywhere."
Javin smile reflected her happiness. "And still the problem with all of them is the same: how do we sing any song like that so that it has an effect. We're good at songs here, on Harmony. But I can't think of being powerful enough to affect things out there, in space. Can you?"