Another voice, this time reminiscent of sand, agreed. “The canths belong to Xiantha.” The canth keeper sounded quite definite.
The canths’ diamond shape scintillated, almost amused by such fierce protection. “We have made our home on Xiantha. We cannot leave the canths. They would die if we broke the symbiosis.”
The response from the Ammonites was chilling. “What would that matter? They are only classical animals. They are not quantum. Quantum entities must protect themselves from impurity.”
A new voice joined in, booming into all of their minds with thunderous anger. “You are wrong. To isolate yourselves will only lead to stagnation. You must allow your race to adapt, you must join with the other races, and evolve.” Arcan sounded extremely cross.
The stellate form of the Ammonites shook slightly. “That will never happen. Our ancestors struggled and sacrificed themselves for us. Here on Enara we will live separately from the rest of the galaxy.”
“Good luck with that. Let’s hope the Dessites don’t find you.” The voice was unmistakably Six’s.
“The Dessites?” There was a pause as the star aura accessed what it had learned from the memories of the bipeds. Then a shiver of distaste ran through it. “They are no threat to us. We can overcome such beings with little effort.”
“Well, bully for you!”
“Shut up, will you, Six!”
“Why? They seem to feel superior to everything, don’t they?”
“Shh!”
“Oh, very well, but I ...”
“Six!”
“All right. No need to go on about it, is there?”
It was Arcan’s turn to shadow. “If you can overcome the Dessites so easily, your help will be most valuable if they attack us again.”
A ripple of unease flickered through the star diamond. “We cannot help. It is surprising that the canths have lost the ability to—” The star broke off suddenly. “No matter. Do not come to us again. We cannot involve ourselves in exterior problems.”
Arcan turned black. “You will take our help, and then not respond when we might need you?”
“Our customs do not permit it.”
The rainbow incandescence of the orthogel entity seemed to singe all of them.
Six ducked mentally inside the aura. “Here, Arcan! Take care, will you?”
“I am sorry, Six. But if these are my ancestors, then I am bitterly disappointed.”
“Yes, well, I can understand that. You expected to find something better than this, I imagine?”
“I thought ... that they would be superior to me, in every way.”
The Ammonite star dipped slightly. “We cannot apologize for our background. No other race has lived as long as we have. The survival of our species is primordial.”
Arcan darkened again. “What about my survival? I am descended from you.”
“You are an anomaly, an aberration. We are unable to explain how you came into existence, but we have, sadly, come to the conclusion that those Ammonites that were sacrificed in the mutation which created you are irrecoverable.”
The orthogel entity was swelling up. “I am an aberration?”
“We must ensure the continuity of our line. We must keep Enara as a forbidden place, except for Ammonites. We must allow no foreigners to find us. We must maintain all possible contaminants away from our future planet. We are, of course, most grateful for your help ... and that of these ... small creatures and animals you have brought with you.”
Since the star was hovering meaningfully right in front of that part of the aura which was Six when it used the word ‘animal’ he felt justified in assuming a threatening posture.
“Here! Just who are you calling animal, you frozen lightstick? Don’t you know anything about first contact? You are supposed to be discreet and polite.” He ignored a choke of laughter from his left, and gave a disgusted shake of his part of the aura. “And I haven’t heard any thanks for having toted huge machines out of a burning planet to save your skins.”
Tallen, Diva and Bennel, who were watching warily, and who had done their fair share of the actual toting, nodded inside the mental merge. They could still feel the weight of the two laser machines on their shoulders.
The diamond star glittered. “Why should we thank you? You did what was expected of you. You have done well. But you belong to an inferior species; you naturally did as you were ordered.”
A shiver of distaste ran right through Arcan. “And me? Do you think that I am an inferior species?”
The diamond star appeared to regard Arcan in a better light. “What you must understand is that we represent a perfection of evolution that you could not hope to attain. Through the astrand – this shape we are able to form – we will eventually be truly incorporeal. You are an unfortunate deviant, a mistake of nature. Even if you do possess the capability to transport by quantum decoherence, you have no future. We have evolved into this form over millions of years. We come from the oldest planet in the history of the galaxy. We cannot risk the sort of instability that you might bring us.”
The whole star pulsed and inflated slightly. Then it began to shine, and a curious buzz of anticipation traveled right through its individual parts. “We will, however, take the lost animas of Xiantha with us. They can still purify themselves of this symbiotic relationship with the canths. We need them. They will help to complete the astrand.”
The canth diamond opposite suddenly flared in response, giving off a strange luminescence. All those who were contained in their part of the mindmerge felt the sudden fierce resentment and independence course through that part of the aura which was the lost animas of Xiantha. “We have found our home. We will stay on Xiantha. Our future is with the canths, and with the orthogel entity. And we choose to be known as the lost animas, even though we are no longer lost.”
The canth keeper looked so excited that Grace was afraid he might fall off his seat. His thoughts bubbled over into the diamond shape. “They want to stay on Xiantha! They want to stay on Xiantha!”
But the Ammonites unfortunately didn’t share his pleasure. The Ammonite star pulsed furiously, and then began to emit a high-pitched, keening sound. Each individual diamond point of the astrand flashed brilliantly in the sun, and then acquired the same bluish tinge as tempered steel. There was a certain electric awareness in both auras, a strange build-up of potential energy. It was most uncomfortable.
As the keening sound became louder and louder, the trimorphs began to be pulled out of the canth aura, and towards that of the Ammonites. The twins turned black with fear, struggling futilely against the strong pull which was somehow dragging them away from their friends, themselves emitting a cry of panic which drilled through the other consciousnesses in the rhombus.
At the same time, the lost animas of Xiantha were fighting to maintain their place. The diamond shape was flickering, and the others could feel that it was inexorably being pulled towards the Ammonite star, although the lost animas of Xiantha were fighting the attractive force with all their might. They, too, were panicking. The edges of the diamond shape were blurring and Six could feel that the integrity of the aura was weakening structurally, that within a few moments it would disintegrate completely. They were all conscious of the desperation of the canths, of their inability to brake the force, to stop their own reaction.
Then the rainbow part of the merge swelled. The kaleidoscope of colours that was Arcan gradually began to creep to the outer part of the aura, and where it did, the Ammonite drag was immediately released, the Ammonites themselves retracting back into their own star aura hastily, as if burnt.
“You may not threaten any other species, not while I am here,” said Arcan with an angry flare. “You have no effect on me, and the lost animas of Xiantha are under my protection.”
The Ammonite star withdrew a few metres, and darkened. “Who are you to interfere in our due process? How dare you?”
“These are my friends. We protect each other. I shall never
allow you to assimilate them into your mindset.”
“They belong with us. They still retain some degree of purity.”
“They have said that they will not go with you. The decision is made.”
The Ammonites gave a reluctant shimmer. “How are you able to block our influence?”
Arcan sparkled in all his rainbow colours. “I do not know. But you may be sure that, from now on, I shall always be close to the canths. They will have my protection at all times.”
“You are not immune to all influences,” said the Ammonites. It sounded remarkably like a threat. “Perhaps you should be more careful about what enemies you make?”
“I defend my friends with my life.”
“Then there is nothing more to say. Please leave our planet now.”
Everybody in the Xianthan merge felt Arcan’s rage shoot through them. It was so strong that the diamond aura crumbled and they dropped back out of the mental link and into their own bodies, still standing as they had been near the Enaran pools.
The Ammonites remained as the stellate diamond they knew as the astrand. Arcan looked at the canths, and flickered. The equines almost seemed to nod, before walking slowly past the pools and out of sight around the hill.
Arcan gestured to the canth keeper, and the four men shouldered his chair, much to the Xianthan’s embarrassment.
“No! Put me down! This will lose me colour. Please, I can walk, really I can!” He went a distressed pink colour.
But Arcan made signals to them to keep walking. As they moved around one of the small pools, Bennel saw that, while they had been talking, both shuttles had inconspicuously been brought down nearby, also discreetly out of sight of the Ammonites.
They deposited the canth keeper on the ground, on the other side of the shuttles, and he disappeared as Arcan transported him effortlessly all the way back to Xiantha, where the canths were already waiting for him. The rest of them piled into the two shuttles, having to squeeze to fit inside, and then blasted off the planet in a more classical way than they had arrived. Six and Arcan were seething as Ledin and Diva coupled the shuttles to the New Independence and they all made their way to the bridge.
“Who do they think they are?” demanded Six. “Of all the nerve! Instead of thanks, they tried to kidnap the canths! We should have left them where they were! By the way, why didn’t you want to transport us all directly, Arcan?”
“They had just threatened us all. I didn’t want them to sense any part of how my ability to transport works. It would not be prudent to allow them to see more of how my cells are made up. I fear that we have made a dangerous enemy in them.”
“And they called me an animal!” Six was hopping.
Diva looked at him sideways. She opened her mouth to speak, but Six favoured her with such a pre-emptive glare that she shut it again.
A ray of silver swept through Arcan. “You are animals,” he said. “But they underestimated you.”
The visitor agreed. “They didn’t seem at all grateful for everything we have done for them, did they?”
“It isn’t important. We do not require their approval,” said Arcan.
“I feel that they may try to regain control of the lost animas of Xiantha,” said the bimorph slowly.
Six nodded. “They sure have changed since they were Ammonites! Do you remember ...?” he looked over at the other three who had been in the Kintara merge with him, “... they were really nice when they lived as people.”
“They manipulated us.” Diva’s voice was rippling with fury. “And we didn’t see through them. We should have realized that they had some sort of hidden agenda. After all, they did draw the trimorphs over to Kintara without any thought of whether they would be able to get out again.”
All three morphics flashed a brilliant white above them. “We did try to tell you,” said one of the twins, unable to resist crowing just a little.
“Yes. They certainly manipulated us, and now we have a powerful adversary.” Arcan’s tone was grim. “Let’s just hope that they decide to allow the canths to continue with their lives as they are.”
“Did you notice that they said they were surprised that the canths had lost some sort of ability?” said Grace. “I wonder what they meant.”
“Yes, I picked up on that too.” Diva nodded. “It was something to do with the Dessites. And they didn’t seem to like Arcan much either, did they?”
“They are determined to keep their race pure and unsullied by new blood,” said Tallen with a curl of his lip. “They sound like meritocrats!”
Diva turned sharply. “Meritocrats are nothing like that, thief!”
Tallen’s hand went automatically to his hip. “They are exactly like that. Always talking about their privileges and rights! They just don’t give anybody else the same privileges and rights. And, as far as I know, no meritocrat has ever had a Namuri consort. Not that we would want to consort with them, of course.”
Diva had turned pink. Her eyebrows nearly met in the middle, and she shook off Six’s warning hand on her arm crossly, the fire in her heart having rushed too hastily to her head. “Take that back, Namuri!” she snapped.
“Why?” Tallen inquired, his eyebrows arching up incredulously and his stance challenging. “It is true, isn’t it?”
Six grabbed his wife by the arm, and swiveled her around to face him. “He has just lost his sister, Diva. Leave it alone!”
She flushed up to the roots of her hair. “Yes, but ... but, he said ...”
“I know what he said. He is a fourteen-year-old boy who is in mourning. Let him be.”
She breathed in rather shakily, and bit her lip. Then she gave a ragged sigh, and a nod, forcing herself to look down at the metal plating of the shuttle. Six gave her arm an encouraging squeeze. He looked up at Tallen.
“Don’t try to pick fights,” he said.
Tallen bristled. “I wasn’t! I was—”
“Yes, you were. Please don’t do it again.”
It was the Namuri’s turn to go red. “I don’t see—”
“We all miss your sister, and we all liked her. We haven’t forgotten her, you know, and we won’t.”
The boy looked mutinous. “You don’t mention her.”
“We don’t talk about it because we don’t want to cause you any more pain.”
“I want to talk about her.”
Six smiled. “Then we will. But we are your friends. You shouldn’t rage against us. It wasn’t our fault.” He thought for a moment. “At least, I suppose you could say that none of it would have happened if I hadn’t interfered, but ...”
Tallen shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. “You saved our lives, back there in the Widowmaker.”
“Yes, but I took you to Kwaide, and if you hadn’t gone there, Petra would never have agreed to bodyguard Mandalon.”
“It isn’t your fault. I never thought it was.”
Diva looked up again, just in time to catch the hard flash of pain in Tallen’s eyes. He was standing truculently, but it was clear that his heart was broken.
“She was very brave.”
“Thank you.” His voice was muffled.
“She truly earned her place in the sacred marshes of the Namuri.”
His face burned with feeling. “She did, didn’t she?”
Grace moved forwards and gave him a tentative touch on the arm. “We just don’t know what to say,” she explained. “If we talk about her, it seems as if we are rubbing salt into the wound. If we don’t, you think we have forgotten her.”
“I know.” Tallen rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and then stared at them all, rather defiantly. “I ... it ... it just hurts all the time. It is like a gaping hole inside me that nothing can fill.”
The others nodded. They knew it would take a very long time before Tallen could live without remembering the death of his sister every few moments.
Tallen met Diva’s gaze. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I know you are trying to be a bette
r meritocrat. You didn’t deserve that.”
She grinned, and gave a shrug. “I probably did. It is actually harder than you think to lose your origins. And you were right; the Ammonites are a bit like the meritocrats: hidebound, determined never to change. I can see the similarities. I apologize too; I always have had an abominable temper.”
The Namuri held out his hand shamefacedly. “I do trust you, Valhai Diva.”
She took it. “And I trust you, Namuri. With my life.”
He bowed. “Then the blue stone honours me.”
Six blew a sigh. “Now can we stop all this chit-chat and decide where we are going?” They stared at him.
“What?” He spread his hands. “Places to go, you know. People to see. Diva and I ought to get back to Xiantha. We need to organize some sort of schooling for Raven, and see if the house by the Emerald Lake is ready for us. He turned to Bennel and Tallen. “Will you come with us? We would appreciate it.”
Tallen looked across at Bennel, but Six couldn’t read his expression. Bennel, in turn, met Tallen’s gaze, before turning to Six with one of his rare smiles. “I should like that.”
Tallen was silent for a moment or two before he, too, inclined his head.
Grace cleared her throat. “Ledin has to go back to Kwaide for now, of course, and Arcan needs me on Valhai for a while. But then we shall be coming to live on Xiantha too.” She was silent for a short time, and her eyes went to Tallen with a worried expression. She looked towards Ledin. “We want our children to be brought up there.”
There was a general nod of fairly disinterested agreement, until something about the stillness of Grace finally percolated through to the rest of those present. One by one, their heads turned in her direction.
“Grace!” said Diva. “You’re not ... that is ... I mean ...”
Both Grace and Ledin suddenly allowed themselves to look pleased, and they nodded simultaneously.
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