“What are you smiling about, nomus? Are you laughing at me?” Her ferocious frown snapped into place.
He shook his head, and raised his hands, still smiling. “I wouldn’t dare…!”
She gave a small sniff. “Just so long as you weren’t.”
Six wondered idly whether all his children would prove to be just as full of bravado as she was. The thought was disconcerting; if they were he would have his hands full. The idea of keeping tabs on fifty miniature Divas was daunting.
“Are we going to be hands-on parents?” he asked.
She swiveled around. “For our two weeks every year? Definitely!”
“Then I shall go into training.”
She stared at him.
“What?” he said. “I have the distinct feeling I shall need it.”
“We’ll stay with them all at the Emerald Lake. It’s idyllic. What can go wrong?”
“Even I know better than to make statements like that!” He shook his head. “And you wonder why I have to watch your back!”
“As if I need anyone to watch my back!” She put her chin up, checked to see that the rope was correctly fastened, and then precipitated herself over the edge of the pothole defiantly.
Six looked up to the sky, and shook his head. Even one Diva was sometimes too much for him, he felt. He hurried to fasten his own rope, and then followed her.
LEDIN AND GRACE came to the claustrophobic entrance to the butte and Grace prepared herself to lead the way.
“What do you think you are doing?” demanded Ledin.
“I know the way. I should go first.”
“I will go first.”
Grace put her hands on her hips. “Does that mean that you think I am incapacitated?”
“Yes!” He caught her expression, and did a hasty mental backstep. “I mean no – of course I don’t!”
“You think I can’t do anything, because of my hands?”
“NO! Grace, of course I don’t think that. I was just trying … that is … I thought—” he broke off and considered, “—all right, I suppose your hands are a factor.”
She stood back, and signed for him to take the lead. Ledin blinked.
“You don’t mind my going first?” he asked.
“I just want you to realize that it is a physical disability; it doesn’t make me mentally any weaker.”
“I never thought it did!”
“Good. Because I don’t want to be pitied. Ever. I don’t want to have people stifling me with their concern. I don’t want to talk about it or think about it anymore than I have to. I want to move on.”
“It is a part of you.”
“Yes. Just one part, though. Not the defining part. My name is not ‘Girl who lost her fingers’. That name has no part in my future.”
Ledin looked at her and pressed his lips together. Then he gave a couple of slow nods, conceding her point.
“Let’s start again,” he said. He paused and took a deep breath, before going on, “Would you like to go first, or shall I?”
Grace pretended to think about it. “You can,” she said, “but be careful, because about half-way along the ceiling dips and you can get snagged.”
“I shall take care,” promised Ledin. “See you on the other side. Don’t dawdle.”
He leapt agilely up to the tunnel entrance, and disappeared. Soon Grace was left alone in the sun. She felt suddenly chilly. Words were all very well, she thought to herself crossly, but feelings sometimes didn’t heed them. She felt anything but independent just now. For a moment she didn’t know what she thought was worse – staying in the sunshine on her own, or following Ledin through the narrow passageway of stone. She gave a sigh and propelled herself into the tight tunnel, which seemed to press down on body and mind, once again threatening to leave her trapped there forever.
IT TOOK LEDIN and Grace a couple of hours to make their way up the steep internal paths to the top of the butte. Grace had plenty of time to regret having been so prickly about receiving help. Ledin was scrupulously ignoring all her slips and falls, clearly determined not to offer any assistance. Fool, Grace thought to herself. Why did you have to be so definite about it? Now that she had got what she wanted she felt perversely contrary about the whole thing. Why wasn’t he helping her?
Ledin was struggling to keep his hands from going to help Grace. She was right; it would be a terrible thing to treat her as if she were an invalid. Whatever happened, he mustn’t do that. But his nerves were suffering; every time she slipped and fell, his heart gave a lurch. He clenched his teeth. He would rather take on ten sycophants than have to do nothing like this. He was having to remind himself every few minutes how very important it was that he didn’t hurt her pride. He was beginning to realize that his education as a no-name on Kwaide had omitted to teach him very much about how to treat a girl. A burning desire to protect her clearly wasn’t enough. He listened again, as Grace slipped and knocked her head against the stone, wincing in sympathy at her gasp of pain.
“L-Ledin?” she said.
He stopped. “What?”
“I think it would be all right if sometimes you gave me a hand. Only like you would any other girl, of course. Just sometimes.”
He smiled into the darkness. “I think,” he said carefully, “that I would try to help any girl along here in this dark, and with this uneven floor. Even Diva!”
“Then I suppose I could accept a helping hand from time to time.” Her voice sounded subdued, echoing hollowly against the stone walls.
“I would even give First Six an arm over the bad bits.”
“In that case—”
He took her firmly by the elbow, feeling much happier. This whole thing about girlfriends, he was beginning to realize, was fraught with difficulties. They struggled on upwards, this time both feeling much more satisfied with each other.
SIX AND DIVA slid down the final rope into the underground cavern, and breathed a sigh of relief. The bloodthirsty bats appeared to be sleeping, and had left them alone. In fact the whole descent had been completely uneventful, if you discounted Six’s having come face to face with a scorpion. It had not had a happy outcome for the scorpion, which had made an error of judgement and curled its tail prior to a preemptive strike against his head.
They touched the floor of the chamber. There was an eerie luminous glow in the cavern which made it possible to see without a light, although the details were unclear. Six flashed a light around, trying to pick out the bimorph, and Diva walked over to the edge of the lake made of ortholiquid, and squinted into the distance.
“Visitor? VISITOR!”
There was no answer from the cavern, although her shout was amplified and returned to her in ever-dwindling repetitions of the last syllable. She went towards the walls, where the amorphs could generally be found. There were no signs of them either. She frowned. This didn’t feel right. Something had changed the ecosystem of the cave.
Six was examining his surroundings too. “Can you see anything?” he muttered.
“Something feels wrong, Six.”
“Yes. The amorphs don’t seem to be here anymore. And the lake looks dull, doesn’t it. Out of sorts?”
“Perhaps the amorphs are necessary for its survival. If they have gone …?”
“—And there is clearly no sign of the visitor anywhere. I don’t think there is very much point in staying down here, do you?”
“Not really. But it might be a bit hasty just to leave straight away.”
Diva looked around at the lake and its uncanny green glow. “I suppose.” Her tone of distaste showed exactly how she felt about that, and Six had to stop himself from holding out a hand. He knew that much, at least.
“We should check out the lake,” he said. “Want to come for a swim?”
“Definitely not!”
“Then I’ll go in on my own. I won’t be long – just want to check out that centre column, and make sure I can’t see any amorphs.”
“Fine.” Diva w
aited as he splashed his way into the lake, looking around her. The further away he got, the more a feeling of isolation took her over, but she certainly didn’t want to get soaked to the skin on top of everything else. Eventually, she sat down near the edge of the lake, and watched him as he swam strongly towards the centre dip, dived a few times and then made his way back. When the ortholiquid was shallow enough for him to touch the bottom with his toes, he began to talk to her again.
“No sign of any amorphs,” he said, trying to propel himself through the liquid and towards the shore with his hands. “They seem to have vanished into thin air.”
“Six …!”
“What?”
“The lake!”
He paused and looked around him. “What’s the matter? I can’t see anyth— uh-oh!”
Even he could see the massive build-up within the lake; a large swell was coming towards him, and the depth of the ortholiquid increasing accordingly.
Diva stood up. “Be CAREFUL! GET OUT OF THERE!”
Six regarded the oncoming swell and knew that he wouldn’t have time. He saw that Diva was nearly at the liquid’s edge, and held up a hand. When she didn’t take any notice he gave a shout. “DON’T COME IN! GET BACK!”
Diva stopped, her arms hanging uselessly by her side. The chamber around them was filling with a dull roar. It got louder and louder, reverberating around the rock walls until they covered their ears, afraid they would be deafened. Then the lake began to tremble, the surface forming tiny vortices which spun in whirlpools. A vortex had formed with Six at its focal point. The liquid began to swirl around and around him too, and they turned and looked across at each other over the expanse of liquid as the noise became unbearable.
As suddenly as it had started, the thunderous rumble stopped again, and the whole chamber was suddenly returned to absolute silence. They looked at each other in some confusion, and then Six looked around him. Nothing had changed in his near surroundings. Diva opened her mouth to shout a comment, and then closed it with a snap as she realized just what was happening: the surface of the lake was feeling its way up his body.
Even though Six had been expecting something like this it was really hard to make himself stand absolutely still. The liquid began to climb stealthily up his clothes, until it was around his neck. He and Diva gazed at each other in horrified anticipation, as it crept further and further up him, covering first his mouth, and then his nose, before it slipped over his eyes and coated them completely. Then the cavern returned to silent rays of light flickering off a calm surface. There was no longer any sign of Six. Diva stared at the still surface of the lake in horror, one hand over her mouth.
SIX FELT THE coating of ortholiquid drain away from his eyes, and opened them warily. He was standing in front of a huge expanse of more of the liquid, in an underground cavern. But there were just two problems; it wasn’t the same cavern as the last time, and there was no sign of Diva.
He looked all around, frantically searching for the Coriolan girl, but it was useless; she had disappeared. The lake had transported him to a different location. He waded towards the edge of the ortholake, wondering how Diva would take being left alone in the semi-darkness. He shook his head. There was nothing he could do right now about her. As he reached the shore, he closed his mind to the possibility that he might be trapped. Then he walked over to the side of the new cavern, and turned his attention to the walls, peering into the recesses to see if any of the amorphs were here.
At first he could see nothing, but then his eyes became accustomed to the darkness. He moved over to the dark areas below the rocky cliff face which soared into the heights of the cavern dome. There was still nothing to be seen, and he was on the point of giving up when he caught the slightest movement to his right. He froze, not wanting to startle the small beings; not wanting to spoil all his chances of seeing these creatures who might in some way be able to sense who he was looking for. Gradually the amorphs appeared at his feet; they seemed drawn to him, clustering around until he would risk standing on one of them if he moved. He wondered what his chances were of finding the visitor or the trimorphs. If there were many of these underground caverns it could be that he had no possibility at all of finding one particular being. He looked down at the creatures at his feet, and gave a lengthy sigh. Then he squatted and picked one of them up. It lay for a moment in the palm of his hand, and then seemed to spin, and his hand burnt, forcing him to drop it.
“So what now, genius?” he asked himself. “Think of something useful to do!”
Hard as he tried, he couldn’t make any progress. He had managed to find an underground cavern, certainly, but last time it was the three amorphs that had found him, not the other way around, and he didn’t know enough about the habits of these small creatures to know how to get their attention. His mind kept turning to Diva, alone in the dark. Finally he slumped down to the floor. He would need to rest for a while if he were to make any attempt to scale the alarmingly vertical rock faces surrounding this particular cavern. And he could see very little light above him. It may be that this cavern was not connected to the surface; that there would be no escape for him.
SIX WAS GLOOMILY propped up with his back to one of the soaring rock faces when the creatures found him. The first one suddenly appeared, hovering in front of him.
“Six,” it acknowledged.
“Visitor?” He scrambled to his feet eagerly.
The small being modified its shape slightly, showing its discontent. “No,” it said. “The visitor is gone.”
“Gone? How can he be gone? Arcan?”
“I am the fusion of one of the Arcan amorphs with the black canth.”
“So that makes you what Grace calls a trimorph.”
The small globe considered the name, and then flashed. “I like that. Yes.”
There was another glitter of light, and an identical being appeared beside the first.
“Why did you leave me on my own …” it said rather crossly, before noticing the larger shape in front of it. “Oh! Hello, Six!”
“You must be the other trimorph.”
“We call ourselves the twins,” it told him sternly.
“Err … How do you do? Are you quite well? Did the joining with the canths go according to plan?”
The twin twinkled in the darkness of the cavern. “It was most satisfactory. There was a feeling of unity, of … of inevitability. It was as if this were something that should have happened many, many millions of years ago. The lost anima symbionts have come home.”
Six looked from one to the other. “I can’t tell you apart.”
“Of course not. That is why we call ourselves the twins.”
“Do you think alike? I mean, do you both think like Arcan, or do the canths come into your characters too?”
The trimorph went a beautiful shade of brilliant white. “The canths are part of us. They help us shine. We have Arcan’s brain – though with limited potential, of course – but their sense of emotion, and the lost animas of Xiantha give us the most wonderful memories and feelings, too. It is marvelous – we can be happy!”
“Is Arcan never happy, then?”
The first trimorph – Six thought it was the first – went momentarily dark. “No. He doesn’t have it in him to be happy, exactly. He is … alone.”
The second one twittered alongside his twin. “Alone,” he agreed. “He can never feel like we do. But we—” he spun and spun until he lit up the cavern, “—we have each other. We are never alone.”
“But you don’t know where the visitor bimorph is? You haven’t seen him?”
“He isn’t here. We can feel him, because we have the quantum non-locality of the lost animas – but he is so far away that it is only the slightest touch. We have been waiting for you all to come, because the visitor is trapped.”
“Trapped? Where?”
“On Dessia.”
“DESSIA? How? What? When?”
The two twins spun around each other and
Six lost any hope of telling them apart.
“You are so slow, Six. Can’t you get your mind to work any more quickly?”
“My mind works quicker than most.”
They seemed to titter amongst themselves. “Relative to what? A monkey? A vaniven?”
Six glared. “Do you mind?”
“Not at all,” they chorused politely. “Not if you don’t. Though it is hard to see how you couldn’t.”
“Are you just going to hover there insulting me all day, or are you going to help me get out of here?”
“How did you get here?”
Six told them about the lake, and that Diva was back in the original cavern, probably worried.
The twins didn’t seem able to grasp the concept of worried. “She knows where she is,” one of them told Six.
“Yes, but she doesn’t know where I am,” he pointed out.
“And that will make her sad?”
Six wasn’t too sure. “It might.” Even he could hear the rather wistful tone to his voice. “She will be … uncomfortable. She might be scared.”
“Diva? Scared?” they chorused.
“Well, she might be worried about me.”
They consulted silently with each other, a series of flashes traveling through both of them. They didn’t appear to find that very likely. Then they turned to Six. “All right,” one of them told him. “Would you like us to visit her now?”
“Yes, well. Girls, you know. There is something about dank dark caverns that seems to upset them.”
“You do not mind the dark yourself?”
Six gave a rather false laugh. “Me? I am used to the dark. But Diva is bound to be wondering where I am, so I suppose I will have to stop sitting around having so much fun, and get myself out of here. She will need somebody to haul her up the last part. Grace came down to Pictoria in the other shuttle with Ledin. She won’t be much use – not the way her hands are now, but Ledin ought to be able to help Diva up that last shaft. You will have to transport to the top of the butte, too, and tell them what has happened.”
Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 Page 5