Shadow Singer

by Marcia J. Bennett

  Poco smiled. “You are learning, Taav.”

  She took Taav’s arm and led him toward Dhal and Gi. “Come on, let’s hear what Gi is telling Dhal. From the sounds of it, you must have had quite a day.”

  Screech sat quietly through Gi’s rambling account of their travels that day. Poco was not alone in noticing his silence.

  “You haven’t once corrected Gi, Screech,” Dhal said, looking at the derkat. “Has he been that truthful?”

  “Little Fur sees many things,” Screech signed. “But not everything.”

  “You mean there is something he missed,” Dhal said, his glance catching Gi as he smiled.

  The olvaar turned to Screech. “What Gi miss?” he demanded.

  “We were followed all day,” the derkat answered.

  “Followed?” Poco echoed. “By whom?”

  “No names. Each day different Ni.”

  “Screech, are you telling us that you have been followed before?” Dhal asked.

  “All of us,” Screech answered.

  Poco thought back, trying to remember if she had seen anyone in the past few days who had looked suspicious. After a moment of reflection, she decided not. Like Dhal, she had been so caught up in sightseeing that if they had been followed, she had not been aware of it.

  “Why didn’t you tell us before, Screech?” Poco asked.

  “One or two days, I thought the Ni were just curious. But still they watch us. Why?”

  Why indeed? Poco wondered. “It sounds as if they still don’t trust us,” she said. “What do you think, Dhal?”

  Dhal was looking at the derkat. “Screech, are you sure about this? You know how much interest you and Gi stir up when you wander around.”

  “I am sure. Those who follow us never come close to speak. They just watch.”

  “I don’t like the sound of it, Dhal,” Poco said.

  “No more than I. But what do we do about it?”

  “Confront them?”

  “When?”

  “Why not tonight?” she said. “Caaras might be able to give us some answers. If not him, perhaps Chulu will. He is supposed to be there too.”

  Dhal nodded. “All right, tonight. You go ahead and get dressed. I’ll help Taav. And you,” he said, looking down at Gi. “You need a bath before you go anywhere. What is that sticky stuff on your belly?”

  Gi looked down at the incriminating stain on his fur. He touched a finger to the sticky dribble and brought his finger to his mouth.

  “Is lidil jam, Dhal,” he said, his golden eyes wide and innocent. “Is very good.”

  “I’ll bet. How much did you eat?”

  “Not keeping count. Just tasting samples.”

  “Are you too full to eat supper?” Dhal asked.

  Screech made a humming noise through his nose, the derkat’s form of laugher. “Take a sea draak to fill Little Fur.”

  Gi clicked his indignation and made a show of chasing the derkat from the room. But a few minutes later, as Poco passed through the small kitchen on her way to get dressed, she saw Screech gently helping Gi wash off his fur.

  Chapter 24

  LONG AFTER THE SUPPER HOUR, POCO STOOD IN THE large, railing-enclosed porch overlooking Lake Hadrach. Most of Caaras’s guests had departed. Even Gi and Screech had left, taking a sleepy Taav with them back to the tree house.

  Dhal and Poco both had enjoyed meeting Caaras’s friends, most of whom were young adult Ni somewhere near their own ages. They also had enjoyed the fine selection of foods at the table, as well as the entertainment provided by a trio of musicians who played a variety of stringed instruments.

  She joined Dhal on the other end of the porch, where he was sitting with Chulu and his mate, Naalan. As Poco approached she heard Chulu ask Dhal if they were learning their way about the city.

  “Yes,” Dhal replied. “Caaras has been an excellent guide.”

  “You are enjoying yourself then?”

  “Yes, but we would enjoy ourselves more if we were not being followed wherever we go,” Dhal said.

  Everyone looked up as Poco approached. “Good evening,” she said. “May I join you?”

  Naalan stood. “Here, take my seat. I have something I want to say to Beirna. I’ll be back in a few minutes, Chulu.”

  Poco took the proffered seat beside Chulu. The light from the glass-enclosed candles set in the windows barely reached the far corners of the porch; Chulu’s face was deep in shadow.

  “Your mate is very beautiful, Dhalvad,” Chulu said.

  “I agree,” Dhal replied.

  “I think you have both made some good friends tonight.”

  “We hope so,” Dhal said.

  Poco glanced at Dhal. “Speaking of friends, perhaps you would answer Dhal’s question now?”

  “Question?” Chulu said.

  “Why are we being followed, saan? Ssaal-lr has seen your people every day. There is no point in denying it,” Poco said.

  Poco was startled by a soft growl. She leaned out and saw Screech sitting on the floor deep in the shadow of Dhal’s chair. She had not realized that he had returned to the party.

  Chulu tried to explain about the guards sent to watch over them. While he was speaking, Caaras approached quietly and stood listening.

  Poco interrupted. “Are you saying that the Ni who follow us are for our own protection?”

  “Your protection and our own,” Chulu responded quickly. “Amet convinced the Elder’s Council that we would be foolish to let strangers wander too freely—not when we are so close to our objective.”

  “Are you ready to move against the atich-ar?” Dhal asked.

  “Yes,” Chulu responded.

  “When?”

  Chulu shook his head. “I am sorry, I cannot tell you. All I can say is that it will be soon.”

  “Being the strangers you speak about,” Poco said, “are we so suspect that you no longer wish our aid in helping with the world gate? If so, there is nothing for us to do here and we might just as well leave.”

  Caught off guard, Chulu quickly softened his tone. “No, you must not leave! We have already added your strength to our numbers.”

  He paused, as if searching for a way to explain without offending. “It is not that we don’t trust you, Pocalina. It is just that we cannot take a chance of making a mistake, not now, not after planning so long.”

  But the truth is that you don’t trust us, Poco thought.

  “Call off your spies, Chulu,” she said. “Trust us and we will stay. Don’t—and we leave. It is that simple.”

  Poco looked at Dhal, wondering if he would back her up. But then Caaras spoke up.

  “Nothing is that simple,” he said. “As things stand now, Amet would not let you leave. As Chulu said, we are too close to declaring war on the atich-ar.”

  Dhal stood up. “You were in on this, Caaras?”

  “Yes,” the young Ni answered. “I am sorry, Dhalvad. I was only doing what I was ordered to do.”

  “So where do we stand?” Dhal snapped. “Are we your prisoners?”

  “No!” Caaras replied instantly. “Never that! I know you feel I have betrayed your trust, Dhalvad, but I haven’t, and I hope that you will call me friend again one day. Personally I believe you are to be trusted, and so I have told Amet, but he has not withdrawn his people. Please do not be angry. What was done was done to protect us all, and to make sure that our attempt to regain the Ta-morlee is successful.”

  Poco walked down the narrow lane leading away from the Learning Arc. She saw Dhal and Gi waiting for her near the entrance to the herb garden on the terraced slopes below.

  The late afternoon air was fresh with the first of the spring rains. The path was still wet though Ra-gar had shone brightly for several hours.

  Poco jumped a puddle and waved to Dhal. He saw her and returned her wave. A week had passed since their confrontation with Chulu, and Poco still was finding it hard to reconcile herself to the fact that somehow Caaras had convinced Dhal to forgive Am
et his suspicions and keep his promise to help them retrieve the Tamorlee. Dhal, in his own way, had convinced her to give the Ni-lach another chance, but she did not like being watched and she would not stop grumbling about it.

  Gi ran to meet Poco, his whistle-clicks of greeting attracting the curious glances of several garden workers. Poco swung the olvaar up into her arms and gave him a hug, then passed him over to Dhal.

  “Been waiting long?” she asked.

  “A while, but it’s pleasant here,” Dhal answered, as he set Gi on his shoulder.

  “Is Taav with Screech?”

  Dhal nodded and took Poco’s arm, steering her toward the steps leading down to the lake. “Taav was sleeping when we left, so Screech said he would stay with him. Taav has been wandering a lot these past few days and Screech has been kept busy just keeping up with him.”

  “I believe Taav is more alert since coming here, Dhal. Do you think it might have something to do with seeing other Ni?”

  “Could be,” Dhal said. “He certainly doesn’t act as if he is afraid any longer.”

  “Except when he sees Amet,” Poco said.

  Dhal nodded. “Where Amet is concerned, Taav has cause to fear. If Amet had his way, Taav would still be locked away somewhere.”

  “Dhal, do you think there is any possibility that Taav is one of the two escaped atich-ar Chulu says they lost near Val-hrodhur?”

  “No, I don’t. Why? Do you?”

  “No. But there are moments when I do wonder what happened to him and how he came by the head wound that knocked him witless.”

  “Well, personally, I don’t see that it matters one way or the other,” Dhal said. “If Taav isn’t one of the enemy atich-ar, we have nothing to worry about, and if he is, what harm can he do if he is on our side of the world gate? There is no way for him to get back through to warn his people, not alone. He may be able to hold a gate, but he cannot create one.”

  “You’re right. I guess I am just letting Amet and his people make me nervous.”

  They descended two flights of steps then turned eastward onto the well-trodden path leading to their tree home.

  Dhal paused to set Gi down on his feet. As they started off again, Poco asked the question that had been in her mind since seeing him.

  “Well, has the Council made a decision yet?”

  “I don’t know,” Dhal replied. “All they will tell me is ‘soon.’ Amet doesn’t trust Taav and the council doesn’t trust us.”

  “Well, they had better start trusting or they can do without us!” Poco snapped, angry at the disappointment she heard in Dhal’s voice.

  Gi patted Poco’s leg. Realizing that they were setting too fast a pace for the olvaar, she slowed down. “Want something, Gi?”

  “Poco like singing with Niifan?” he piped up.

  Aware that the olvaar disliked any show of anger and was trying to steer her thoughts away from the Council, Poco shook her head. Gi-arobi would never cease to amaze her; his perception and wisdom were so often obscured by his childlike innocence and good nature that one almost forgot how truly intelligent he was.

  You win, Gi, she thought. Getting angry is not going to help.

  “Yes, Gi,” she said. “I do like singing with Niifan.” Niifan was the only other female among the Singers who would open the I-naal gate.

  Poco recalled the practice session that afternoon and felt good inside. She had been working with the Ni Singers for the better part of five days and that day, under the direction of Lurral, the oldest and most accomplished Singer in Jjaan-bi, they had sung the first sequence of music that would open the I-naal gate; the notes varied only slightly from the sound pattern Poco had discovered when holding Zaa-ob’s pendant.

  Earlier Poco had told Lurral about the pendant and the mysterious Singer who had taken over her voice. After examining the pendant, Lurral had explained about the vibrations that become entrapped in objects once handled.

  “Picking up these vibrations is a matter of concentration,” Lurral said. “It does not surprise me to learn that the pendant you carry somehow absorbed Zaa-ob’s song, for the pattern of the I-naal gate was one of his greatest accomplishments, even if its finding lost us the Tamor-lee.”

  Dhal interrupted Poco’s thoughts. “How much longer before Lurral thinks you will be ready?”

  “He says that there are two more sequences to practice, so I would say three or four more days until we put it all together. If the gate did not have to be so large, fewer of us could sing and it would be easier to match our voices. But Lurral says that Chuiu wants a gate large enough for twenty-five Ni walking abreast. That means using every Singer in Jjaan-bi.”

  Gi led the way up the large tree limb that served them as a stairway to the outside porch on the first level of their two-level tree home.

  When they reached the porch Poco turned to face Dhal. “There are still some things that bother me about the world gates,” she said.

  “What things?” he asked.

  “Like, why doesn’t it matter where we are when we set the pattern? When we used the gate before, we were somewhere on the plains and the door we passed through took us to that hill overlooking the Ni temple. According to Lurral, when we open the I-naal gate for you in a few days time, we will arrive at another place not too far from that same hill. Tell me, how can that be when Jjaan-bi is so far away from the plains? Shouldn’t we enter Ari-al in another place equally distant from our original entry point? The more I think about it the more confused I get.”

  “Sit down,” Dhal said, as he lowered himself to the edge of the porch. “I will try to explain.” He smiled. “If I can.

  “Poco, you are thinking of the two worlds as if they both exist in the same space and time. They don’t. Time may be the same for the atich-ar as it is for us, but the space is different. Caaras refers to it as a different dimension or reality. As for where we start out and where we arrive when passing through a world gate, it is much like the energy patterns the Seekers use when they travel from one place to another. The image one holds in his mind directs his destination.”

  “Are you saying that the energy patterns we create as Singers are not bound by natural laws of movement, that if I wanted a world gate to another place on Ari-al, all I would have to do is envision it in my mind, then create a song pattern to match it?”

  “Yes, something like that, but according to Resset, who is the oldest Seeker among us, the creation of a new world gate is ninety-five percent luck and only five percent design.”

  “Dhal, has anyone thought about the two atich-ar who followed us through the gate that day? After losing two of their people, won’t the atich-ar be looking for another breakthrough into their world?”

  Dhal nodded. “That is why Chulu wants so large a gate. He hopes that sending a large number of us through at the same time will improve our chances of securing the hills south of the temple. Once we have the hills, we will march on their temple, or whatever it is they have built there. He hopes to find the Tamorlee there, and the Ni who were captured years ago.”

  “Do you think we have the numbers to retake the crystal?”

  “I don’t know. The main thing against us is time. The Sensitives cannot hold the gate open forever. There is a good possibility that we will have to carry them through with us, close the gate, and then reopen it when we are ready to bring the Tamorlee back to Lach.”

  “That means the Singers will have to go through too.”

  “Yes.”

  Poco nodded. In the back of her mind she had really guessed as much. “What happens if the crystal has been moved?”

  “The Council has discussed that possibility and has prepared contingency plans that include setting up a permanent base camp and sending out search parties headed by Seekers. The fire stones we carry should help us locate the crystal no matter where the atich-ar have it hidden. And there is a chance that they haven’t moved it at all. They may believe themselves strong enough to defeat any invasion. Amet says that�
��”.

  Poco saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head slightly, she saw Taav standing in the doorway to the main living area of the tree home, watching Dhal.

  “… but many on the Council do not agree,” Dhal was saying. “They believe the atich-ar are too loosely organized to put up much of a battle. I guess we will know soon enough.”

  “I guess,” Poco said. She turned suddenly and caught Taav’s glance. The startled look on his face lasted but a moment, but in that moment Poco had the distinct feeling that a stranger stood in the doorway. How long had he been standing there listening? she wondered.

  “Taav awake now,” Gi observed, sliding off Dhal’s lap and padding over to the open door.

  “About time,” Dhal said, turning. “Come join us, Taav.” Dhal signed as he spoke.

  Taav looked at Dhal, then his glance returned to Poco. He shook his head, turned, then disappeared back into the house.

  “That’s odd,” Dhal said, startled by Taav’s abrupt departure.

  Yes, Poco thought, odd for the Taav we know, but what about the stranger I saw just a minute ago?

  Dhal asked Gi-arobi to go and see if Taav was feeling all right. Poco watched Gi leave the porch, then turned back around and found Dhal staring at her.

  “Poco, you have the strangest look on your face. Are you feeling all right?”

  “I’m fine. I was just thinking about Taav.”

  “Don’t worry. He has probably eaten something that didn’t agree with him. I’ll go in in a minute and check on him.”

  “No—it’s not that,” she said.

  “Not what?” he asked, frowning.

  Poco hesitated. “Taav was listening to us talk about the world gate.”

  “Just now?”

  “Yes.”

  “So? We have spoken about it in front of him before.”

  “Yes,” Poco agreed. “But this time he was listening to what we said. Really listening.”

  “What are you saying?”

  Poco shook her head. “I don’t know. I just feel that somehow Taav has changed, and suddenly I don’t know that I trust him.”