by Chloe Garner
“They wanted to go out,” Cassie said. “They were checking on fields… and stuff.”
Jesse folded his arms across his chest and nodded slowly.
“They’re young,” he said.
“They’re just supposed to stay up in the tower all the time?” Cassie asked.
“I didn’t say that.”
“They wanted to get out and be themselves for a while,” Cassie said. “I don’t see what’s so wrong about that.”
“How very human you are,” Jesse answered.
“Don’t do that,” Cassie said, leaning out over the water again. In the vague light from the torch, it was impossible to tell what was shadow and what was a figure in the water. Jesse was watching her when she stood back up.
“We have to leave,” he said.
“We what? I thought you were going to help them.”
“I am. We are. But we have to go. Next sunrise.”
“Go where?”
“To the Others.”
They stood in the Url’s court again, Cassie stiff, with sore hands, and Jesse looking as though he belonged there, as impossible as it seemed. Whispering swirled around them, and Cassie knew much of it was directed at her. She’d been out with the new Url when they’d been attacked, and because of that attack, the war was going to gain a new pitch of urgency. There had been quiet conferencing everywhere Cassie had gone since she’d gotten back.
An Adena Lampak had turned up to tend to her hands, and had shown her to a shower. She was too worried about Jeen to think the obvious sarcastic thoughts about how much she’d wished she’d known about the showers, earlier.
No one would tell her about Jeen.
They sat for maybe an hour, waiting their turn before the Url, and then the scarred Adena Lampak motioned them over.
“Welcome, young one,” one of the Urls said. Cassie dipped her head.
“We heard that you represented yourself well, in your adventure,” the other said. Cassie tipped her head to the side, looking at the second of the Urls. The deep gray eyes watched her calmly for a moment.
“Aland told us that you fought well, especially given you are unsuited for time under water.”
Cassie avoided clenching her fists only because it would have hurt.
“Thank you, but my people would have said that fighting well is my job, whether or not I’m in my own element.”
“Does that make it less noble?”
“No,” Cassie said after a moment. “No, it doesn’t.”
“He just doesn’t know how to take a compliment,” Jesse said.
“You just don’t know how to give them without being patronizing,” Cassie muttered in English. He smiled. The Url blinked, then turned to Jesse.
“You still insist that your intentions are unchanged?”
“I do,” Jesse said.
“Even in the light of the attack on your friend?”
“That he was there doesn’t change the nature of the animosity,” Jesse said. “They weren’t attacking Cassie, they were attacking Calenna.”
“You put your life at risk, leaving us.”
“I like to think that I would be having this same conversation, there, if we had started out with them.”
“You assume that their motivations are reasonable and rational,” the Url said.
“I do,” Jesse said. “Nothing you’ve told me has suggested otherwise. They are Adena Lampak, are they not?”
The Url - Urls? Cassie still didn’t know how to identify them - looked at each other, then back at Jesse.
“We withhold judgment,” he said. Jesse nodded.
“In time of war, that is not unprecedented, but the diplomat must approach each side with a presumption of unbiased equality.”
“We wish you success,” the second Url said. “Even for all the pain they’ve caused us, we would be reunited.”
“They should be clear that we will pursue this as far as they do,” the first Url said. “We will not waver.”
“And yet,” the second Url said, “we need as many of us as we can preserve.”
The first Url nodded, then turned back to Jesse.
“We offer you our hopes. Carry them well.”
Jesse bowed low.
“I understand the importance of that burden,” he answered. He gave Cassie a quick smile as he turned, and they left.
“Tell me the truth,” Cassie said, looking out over the expanse of blue sea, touched with teal and gold as the sun set. She heard Jesse shift behind her as he continued working on modifying the Adena Lampak platform he intended to use to transport them to the Others. It was an acknowledgment. She continued. “We can’t save them. Can we?”
Jeen hadn’t improved much. Cassie had gone to see her, and the caretakers doted on her, lifting her to the surface to breathe at intervals, but it didn’t appear she had any form of awareness of her surroundings. The cuts were still deep, swollen now, and covered with a faintly-purple gel. They made her normally-sleek body seem deformed and broken. It had made Cassie morose.
“Probably not,” Jesse answered. “Their population can’t recover, whether or not we stop the war.”
“How could they do that?” Cassie asked, turning. “Wipe out your own species?”
Jesse’s blue eyes were penetrating, sharp and calculating as they often were.
“I’d think no one would be more suited to explain it than a human,” he answered. “There are species who are more violent than you, but you’re well within the group who would get it.”
“Sociopaths,” Cassie said. “Megalomaniacs. Fundamentalists. But they almost always have an ‘us’ that they’re trying to gain advantage for.”
“And you think the Adena Lampak are above that?” Jesse asked.
“Aren’t they?”
“You’ve only heard one side of the story,” Jesse said.
“The Others effectively snuck in behind them and wiped out every woman in the population,” Cassie said. “How is that ambiguous?”
“You’d make a rotten diplomat,” Jesse said.
“So you’re going to go try to understand an extremist group that’s willing to destroy their entire population without so much as an explanation?”
Jesse looked up and blinked at her.
“Yes.”
Cassie went to sit next to him.
“Why?”
“Because I want to understand,” he said. “And, honestly, it’s shocking to me that the Adena Lampak have gotten themselves into this situation, in the first place. It’s not like them. The Url know what they’re doing, and in this case philosophy and pacifism aren’t automatically the same thing, but usually well-considered opponents, ruling out the groups you identified, don’t come to blows. And according to the Url, the attack on the caretakers was completely unprovoked. They don’t think it was an act of escalation - at least, not in response to anything they’re aware of.”
“Is that what you call them?” Cassie asked. “They?”
Jesse shook his head.
“Human preoccupation with pronouns.”
“Shut up,” Cassie said. He grinned.
“Yes, Url is singular, but the pronoun is plural. By most conventions. There are languages where a mated pair is always singular, just masculine or feminine.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Cassie said.
“You have no idea how many language conventions would find that you don’t make sense,” Jesse said.
“No, that they would attack caretakers unprovoked,” Cassie said. “It’s not an act of war.”
Jesse nodded.
“That’s the analyst I kidnapped. Keep going.”
“Why would they want to simply demolish the worldwide ability to reproduce? How much of a role do caretakers have in healing? Was this tactical?”
Jesse nodded again.
“Caretakers are the best healers, because they have an instinctive understanding of anatomy and because they are designed to be able to pay attention to their pati
ent continuously, but medicine is well beyond the instinctive point, here. It would take two or three uprights to replace a caretaker, but that’s about the extent of it. They have doctors by trade.”
“So why would they target the only ones who wouldn’t be involved in war?”
“I don’t have an answer to that, nor does the Url,” Jesse said.
“How do you know that the Others aren’t just some deranged group set on returning the world to its natural state by any means necessary, and that they won’t just kill us on sight?” Cassie asked.
“I don’t know that they aren’t deranged,” Jesse said, “but I’m rather harder to kill than that.”
Cassie shook her head.
“It’s so sad.”
“That I’m hard to kill?”
“Jeen.”
“Ah.”
They sat quietly for a moment.
“I know you don’t believe it, because she hasn’t got a bunch of tubes poking out of her, but they’re taking good care of her,” Jesse said.
“You disagree with interventionist medicine?” Cassie asked.
“Not at all,” Jesse said. “There are races that have made themselves near-immortal with it, and who wants to die, really? I disagree with the barbarian version of it you people practice.”
“Go back two-hundred years and tell me what you think of it,” Cassie said. Jesse nodded emphatically.
“Go forward two-hundred years and look back,” he answered. “She’s young, she’s strong, and they got her back here pretty quickly after the fight. They’re giving her the best shot she could get.”
“But is she going to die?” Cassie asked. Jesse frowned.
“I don’t know. Frankly, you may never know. You need to come to grips with that.”
“What?”
“We may not come back here. You may never know.” He paused. “You know it’s not your fault, right?”
“What? Why would it be my fault?”
“You might be thinking, maybe not even consciously, that they wouldn’t have gone out to the fields if it weren’t for your presence. That they were showing off.”
If anyone else would have said it, or if he had said it any earlier, she would have been angry.
“Weren’t they?” she asked.
“No,” Jesse said. “They’re supposed to push boundaries and try things. They’re supposed to learn any way they need to learn. What Aland will have learned from this is in no way simple, but it’s going to last the rest of his life.”
“Can he be Url without her?” Cassie asked.
“No.”
“Then what’s the point?”
Jesse gave her a soft laugh and turned back to his work.
“Being Url isn’t like being King. It isn’t something with a line of succession and a lot of people paying attention to what they would have to do to get that power. It never goes to a pair who would choose it for themselves.” He paused, focusing on assembling a device for a moment, then looked back at Cassie again. “It keeps them out of the water and out of the hunt. Best analogy I could offer would be if being crowned king meant sitting blindfolded with your hands tied behind your back for the rest of your life. And if you wanted that, you’re obviously not qualified.”
“What are you proving?” Cassie asked. “That Aland might be happy if Jeen died?”
“Never,” Jesse said. “I’m saying that the experience is valuable to him as an Adena Lampak, not just as a future Url.”
“Well stated, Palta,” Aland said. Cassie jumped and turned. Aland had spoken in Adena Lampak, but neither Jesse nor Cassie hadn’t been.
“You speak English?”
“They’re very clever, Cassie,” Jesse said, turning back to his work with a smile.
“You should come with me,” Aland said to Cassie. “And you are invited if you care to join us, Palta.”
“Is it Jeen?” Cassie asked.
“No,” Aland said. “There’s a private moment happening that I’m allowed to see, as the future Url. I think you, as our diplomat, should come.”
“He’s the diplomat,” Cassie said. Aland shook his head.
“You are our diplomat of your own race,” he said. “I want you to see.”
She stood and Jesse wiped his hands off.
“Is this what I think it is?” he asked.
“I’m told you’re rarely wrong,” Aland asked. “I would like it to be a surprise, though.”
“I understand,” Jesse said. Cassie frowned at him and he grinned. “I won’t spoil it.”
Cassie sighed at him and turned to follow Aland. He led them through the twist of stairs and halls and rooms to the main tower, going into it and down the stairs. Somewhere at the bottom was Jeen’s broken body. The darkness suited Cassie.
They descended the stairs and Aland eased into the water next to a small group of Adena Lampak already swimming there. There was a caretaker in the middle of the small circle. Cassie looked at Jesse.
“What is this?” she asked. He shook his head.
“Are we ready?” one of the Urls asked. There was a murmur of consensus around the circle, and a pair of Adena Lampak moved closer to the caretaker, who rolled in the water to expose a wide, pale belly. It had a split down its long abdomen that was not unfamiliar, comparing to the other Adena Lampak, but as Cassie watched, the deep indentation in the muscle slid open, revealing the pale blue surface of an egg the size of a small pumpkin. The two Adena Lampak helped free the egg, then let it float in the water, suspended just below the surface as the caretaker slid away and returned. The two parents held the egg curled in the long, fingered ends of their arms and the caretaker put its head against the surface of the egg. The water around the egg trembled.
“The cold triggers hatching,” Jesse whispered.
A crack emerged, V-shaped and expanding, and then the parents pulled the two halves of the egg away. An eel with great big eyes and a flat face slid over and over itself in the water. There was a sigh that Cassie couldn’t translate that passed around the circle.
“Cut him,” one of the Urls said. The last member of the circle, one Cassie didn’t recognize, passed a blade to one of the parents. The caretaker rolled back onto its back and the second parent held the infant flat against the caretaker’s belly. With careful, quick motions, the first Adena Lampak slid the metal blade through the infant’s sides and its tail. Cassie covered her mouth.
“That’s how they have arms,” she whispered. Jesse nodded. The infant thrashed, new appendages coloring the water purple as they wiggled uncontrolledly along the baby’s body, then the circle broke. Jesse took a step back and Cassie followed, making room for Aland and the rest of the Adena Lampak on the stairs. The parents and the caretaker sunk deeper under water, vanishing.
“Healthy boy,” Aland said.
“Are you disappointed it wasn’t a caretaker?” Cassie asked. He shook his head.
“No, the babies will be born in the correct ratio. More caretakers won’t help fix the problems we have today.”
She nodded.
“I can’t believe you…”
He nodded, glancing back.
“It’s the cost of being one of us,” he said. “The infants heal quickly and they can’t remember a time they didn’t have arms and legs, but that wasn’t what nature designed for us.”
“Why don’t the caretakers have arms and legs?” Cassie asked.
“Because their bodies won’t ever cope with gravity outside of the water,” Aland told her. “It will be two tides before they even consider taking the baby out of the water. He needs constant care and water gravity to form correctly.”
Cassie paused at the head of the stairs, looking back down at the water far below.
“Thank you,” she said. Aland nodded.
“That’s what the Others took from us,” he said, an angry edge in his voice. “I wanted you to understand that.”
They spent the long darkness finishing the boat and packing food and water. The A
dena Lampak would escort them out a day’s swim away, which would take two days by boat, and then return before darkness. Then they’d be on their own. Jesse had navigation instructions for the overnight portion of the sail - while the stars were out, they could make very good estimates of where they were - and if everything went well, they would reach the area where the Others would intercept them by dawn.
Aland came to see them off; Jeen was not improved enough to be awake. They told Cassie that she was getting better, but when Cassie went down to visit her in the hours before they left, the Adena Lampak looked just as swollen and broken as she ever had, listlessly rising to the surface to breathe as physically enabled by a pair of caretakers.
For a moment, she had been stung that she would be leaving Jeen and Aland, Calenna, to go to the brutes who had done this to Jeen, who had tried to drown her, but she was not so numb to the realities of war to let it change her rational mind. She had been with a pair of Calenna Adena Lampak. They’d been easy targets, and the Other Adena Lampak had taken the opportunity. No one had yet figured out why they had been so close, so soon after the tides, nor why they wasted their moment of surprise so fruitlessly. There had been an additional raid further out and two Calenna Adena Lampak had died. The Url was maintaining an offense, sending out scouts and raiding groups even as Jesse and Cassie had prepared to go, under the cover of darkness in order to be there at dawn as the farmers went out and while underwater visibility was still poor.
The window of normalcy Cassie had gotten, spending time with Jeen and Aland, was gone. She’d never lived in a country that was in the middle of a survival-scale war, but she’d read enough to recognize it. The normally laissez-faire economy was much more closely controlled by the Url; excess was evaluated for economic benefit verses its equivalent military conversion value. She started to recognize the social strain around her as they gathered supplies and equipment and made their final preparations.
There weren’t many fans of them going, even if the Adena Lampak would have collectively agreed to the value of the attempt at diplomacy. The slaughter of the caretakers had plucked a deep nerve and driven a certain unforgivingness into the Calenna Adena Lampak that made Cassie wonder if diplomacy was already doomed.