Changelings (8 page)

No, can’t be. I mean, it can’t be mad at us. We’re not offworlders. We’re part of the planet just like the rocks are. It can’t get mad at itself, can it? Can it?

They fell silent and sat in the outer cave looking longingly at the waterfall. They had never before realized how long the communions took, but it seemed like hours passed. Any moment they expected to hear the footsteps and the very low conversation that sometimes followed communions, but there was nothing.

They’re sure taking their time,
Ronan said
. I wish Clodagh hadn’t said we’re not to swim. I would like to go down to the water and talk to Otter a little more. I think we forgot to thank him for his song.

We don’t have to swim to do that. Remember, otters are not afraid of seals who turn into humans. Clodagh didn’t say we couldn’t go to the water’s edge. Just that we shouldn’t swim.

They started calling as they took the path out of the cave and down the hill, enveloped in the sulfury and spicy mist from the springs.

But although their new friend had seemed very near when he sang them his song, when he finally answered, it was from far away, with a muffled,
Sleeping. Otters need to sleep.

Ronan sat down and felt through the snow for rocks to skip across the water, but found nothing. The longer they waited, the more worried and miserable Murel became. Something was really wrong. She knew it but she couldn’t think what it was.

Hush, younglings,
Nanook’s voice, purring and kind, said, as she insinuated her soft furry self between them and lay down with her head cradled on her paws.
No harm will come to you while we’re here. We may not be the best swimmers but we are your guardians.

Sleep. One prefers you when you sleep,
Coaxtl said, plopping down behind them to make a plush backrest.

These sometimes grumpy friends had been with the twins since they were babies. Their familiar presence was so comforting that the children fell asleep almost at once, Ronan leaning back against Coaxtl while Murel snuggled with Nanook, her arms around the cat’s body and her hands buried in the dense fur.

They awoke to the murmur of voices and looked up from sleepy eyes to see the villagers appear from the mist. The murmurs were not the kind that normally followed a Night Chant. Clodagh’s face, and their parents’ faces were very grave indeed. Only Marmion seemed to be smiling.

“Slainté,” Ronan said in greeting, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

Murel stood up and tucked her hands into Clodagh’s and Marmie’s. Her parents still looked grim.

“So, Clodagh, why couldn’t we come into the communion cave this time? Is Petaybee mad at us?”

“I don’t know, pet,” Clodagh told her. “I don’t think so. Perhaps it just wanted to talk to grown-ups tonight.”

“Oh.” Murel thought that over. “But it’s always let us come before. And it
is
our birthday.”

Over her head, Marmie exchanged glances with Mum and Da. “
I
have something I’d like to talk to you about, Murel, Ronan.”

Ronan arose, giving Coaxtl a pat as he did, and stretched. “What, Marmie?”

“We’ve been discussing this for some time, your parents and I, and of course, this is only if you’d like to, but I was hoping now that you’re old enough to go offworld, you might come and visit me for a while on my space station.”

“You mean
now
?” Ronan asked. His eyes were wide open. She had his full attention.

“Yes, well, since you’ve got your things with you already I don’t see why not. I’m sure, as you know from your biology lessons, that the older you get, the harder it will be for you to leave Petaybee for any length of time. And I just had that lovely waterway built at home, so I was so hoping you’d come. I know some other children your age I think you’d enjoy very much, and we have rather a nice school on the station.”

“School!” Murel said. “How long a visit are we talking about, Marmie?”

“Well—”

“The thing is, kids, it may be your only chance to see other places,” Mum said. “And frankly, your Da and I would like you to get some exposure to human culture on a more sophisticated level than we can provide here.”

“Our schools are okay,” Murel said.

“Yes, but Marmie’s are excellent.” Her mother squatted down so that her face was on a level with theirs. “And one day we’re going to need your help with managing things here. I don’t know how aware of it you are, but your father has been keeping tabs on some midsea volcanoes. They’re building up under the sea floor, preparing a new landmass, a warm island, islands, a continent. Lots of people from offworld will want to move here, and perhaps there’ll be room for a great many of them. We may need—
Petaybee
may need—your help sorting through them. You need to know something about the offworld universe to be able to cope.”

“Right,” Ronan said. That sounded good, but if Petaybee needed them to help with something, you’d think it would have let them into the communion cave one last time at least. Mum was just trying to make them feel better. He looked his father full in the face. “This is really about keeping us away from the otter rustlers, isn’t it?”

“Among other things, yes, but your mother’s reasons are very great concerns as well.”

“But we’re still going with you tomorrow to get the otters back, right?”

“Son, it’s just too dangerous. I think I told you that I’m afraid it was really you those men were interested in when they took the otters. I don’t want to give them any more chances to get any closer than they’ve been to you two already. By the time you’re back from Marmie’s, we’ll have them sorted out and galaxies away, possibly in prison. But I promise you, we will get the otters back if at all possible, and I will send word to you when we do.”

Marmie wasn’t really asking us, she was telling us,
Murel told her twin.

It might be fun except I really wanted to stay here and get to know the otters better,
her brother replied.

I don’t think we’re supposed to. If those men went after the otters because of us, then we just brought them trouble. Besides, Petaybee doesn’t want us here anymore. That’s why we couldn’t get into the communion room. Not just because we’re kids.

If Petaybee doesn’t want you, it makes you feel worse than that!
Ronan argued.
It drives the offworlders crazy and turns their hair white and stuff.

But they’re offworlders. And maybe it’s not mad at us, it just wants us to do this now, like Mum and Da and Marmie and Clodagh said.

That’s weird. Planets don’t take sides, do they?

Petaybee does. I don’t think we get to pick this time, Ronan.

“Okay,” Ronan said, “we’ll go. But as soon as those men are gone, you’ll send for us, right? Right?”

Nobody answered, and then Da laid his hands on his son’s shoulders and said, “I can’t promise anything right now, but we will send for you as soon as it’s time for you to return. Meanwhile, you’ll probably be having so much fun with Marmie, you’ll be mad at us for making you come home.”

CHAPTER 9

A
FEW HOURS LATER
, the twins watched Petaybee diminish into a blue and white ball and then just another distant dot in the cosmos.

This must be what it’s like to swim in the sea,
Murel said. Through the fantastic transparent hull of the view deck, they watched as the ship wove through a beaded curtain of star systems, suns with their planets, planets with their moons, all against the deepest blackness.

Yeah, the ship is kind of like a star seal. It’s the only thing out here that moves wherever it wants to. Everything else is anchored to an orbit—well, except meteors, I guess. They’re kind of wild.

Marmion stood behind them, a hand on each small shoulder. For the time being, the children seemed to have forgotten to be sad at what they saw as their banishment from Petaybee and abandonment by their parents.

Ronan turned suddenly and looked up into her face. “Marmie, do meteors decide where they want to go, do you think, or are they just falling all the time?”

“I don’t know that they have a plan exactly—I don’t think every random bit of rock is as aware as Petaybee—but they do seem to wander about randomly, getting bits knocked off them here and there.”

“But asteroids have orbits, right?” he asked. “And belts. They have belts.”

“They travel in belts with lots of other asteroids.”

“So the belts are like flocks of asteroids or herds,” Murel said.

“Only in the sense that a belt is composed of many asteroids. They aren’t animals.”

“I know that,” Murel said.

The trip was not a long one. Marmie’s ship was very powerful and very fast. Meanwhile, when she wasn’t on the com unit conducting business, she did her best to entertain them.

When they grew a little dizzy on the view deck, she took them to a large quiet room with a lot of cabinets and a big screen. “This is the ship’s library,” she told them. “My crew and I pick from the main library on the space station the various media we wish to take on our travels. I pulled some things I thought you two might be interested in before I left.”

“Marmie?”

“Yes, Murel?”

“You sent our suits with Johnny and we were gone for a night, but the next day when we came home after swimming with Father, you were there. We’ve already been on this ship two nights and we aren’t at your house yet. When did you leave?”

“About a week ago. I had business to conduct along the way. I think I understand what you’re getting at. You think I came to take you away because you got into trouble, don’t you?”

The twins exchanged knowing looks, then nodded.

“That’s not correct. I have, as I said, been hoping you would come and visit me for some time. As we explained at the hot spring, if you are going to travel, now is the time you must do it. Later you will be so completely adapted to Petaybee that you won’t be able to leave safely. Your parents have been worried since you were born that people such as the men who took your otter friend’s family might try to kidnap you for study to see what makes you able to change into seals and back again. When your mother contacted me about the suits, I sent them on the next ship, but both she and I realized that the time was coming when your natural wish to explore your environment might lead you into harm.”

“You could have come with Johnny, couldn’t you?”

“Captain Green’s ship was conducting other business for me in other places along the way than what I needed to do myself. Besides, his is a transport vessel and mine is a luxury liner. Much nicer, don’t you think?”

They shrugged. “I guess so,” Ronan said. The ship had less people and was more spacious while not being much bigger, but he felt like they all sort of rattled around in it. “Any word from Da about the otters?”

“No, but when there is, I’ll let you know right away,” she promised. She showed them how to use the vid screen, earphones, and other apparatus. “I have a bit more business to conduct and then I’ll be back to tuck you in. Enjoy yourselves.”

S
EAN
S
HONGILI WAVED
good-bye as his children marched sleepily onto Marmion’s luxury spaceship, the
Piaf.
Yana turned away as he did and marched straight back to the snocle. He knew she didn’t want him to see her crying—again—which was fine with him. She wouldn’t see his tears either that way, which would help them both keep control of their emotions in the days to come. Sinead had brought the team up to collect Sean, and the red dogs were straining against their harnesses, ready to be off for a good run.

His sister didn’t say anything as he climbed aboard her sled and she shouted at Dinah, the lead dog, to go. Sinead wasn’t happy to see her niece and nephew vanish into space either, but she understood the necessity.

Back in Kilcoole they met with Liam Maloney, the borough sheriff. Sinead herself was now Game Warden and Environmental Control Officer. Two of her rangers and two of Liam’s deputies brought their teams along as well. Dierdre Angalook, a student of Clodagh’s who studied animal healing, rode a curly coat and brought saddlebags full of items for otter first aid.

“Are you all armed?” Sean asked.

“Yes, Guv,” Liam answered.

“Can’t be too careful with otter rustlers, can we?” Sinead asked.

Sean nodded his head gravely in agreement. “Okay, otter posse, I’ll meet you by the shack.”

He had an ice fishing shack on the river he used for removing his clothing before dropping through the hole and changing into seal form. Marmion had provided him with a suit similar to the ones she’d given the children. She said she was glad to find something useful to give him for his birthday. Once he transformed, he swam over to the otter’s den.
Are you ready, Otter? My friends are on their way.

Yes, Father River Seal, but where are Murel and Ronan? Otters like brave children. Otters find them very reassuring.

They had to leave, Otter. They are indeed brave children and their mother and I are very proud of them, but they aren’t always very wise. I believe the people who took your family did so because they were curious about Murel and Ronan. They must have seen them changing.

“Hah!” the otter said.
When we get my family back, will you send the men away and let Murel and Ronan return?

As soon as possible, Otter,
Sean said.

The dog teams pulled up alongside the bank near the ice fishing shack. Sean surfaced, but the otter stayed under the ice. “The otter tunnels are just before the Chatanika Falls. We’ll stop before we reach the tunnels. Keep as silent as possible and be alert for any signs of surveillance from the woods or elsewhere. We’ll meet you there.”

He and the otter swam on, their noses and eyes barely above the water. They dived under the ice whenever possible. On the banks, the sleds shushed along beside and slightly behind them. Otters and seals were both very fast swimmers, while dogs had to stop to sniff things and take turns yellowing the snow and making their deposits.

Nanook and Coaxtl ranged along with the others, leaving a scallop of tracks along the river as they ran half circles around the dogsleds. Nanook ran along the side of the river where the mushers were, Coaxtl took the opposite side. Away they’d race to the surrounding woods, sniff a few rocks and bits of vegetation, and then return to the river. A half a klick before Sean and the otter reached the ruined tunnels, Nanook spoke to Sean.

There. They are back there. I smell them. I smell otters too. Frightened, angry otters. Now the men will smell like them.

Does the scent grow stronger or weaker the farther downriver we go?
Sean asked.

Nanook sniffed for a moment longer, then replied,
Weaker.

Can you pick up the trail at that point?

I can. I am standing on it now.

Otter, did you understand Nanook?

Cats do not speak as clearly in the mind as otters or river seals, but the cat’s meaning was clear. Do we leave the river now?

I will, at least. You may stay here if you wish.

No, my family will feel better if I am near to reassure them. Also, other otters may speak to me when we are closer and I can speak to you.

Fair enough,
Sean said. He dived, leapt, and landed on the ice, then slid across to the bank, where he shook off the water and donned Marmie’s silver warm suit.

It felt almost too warm to Sean but he was glad of the cover and admired the way it kept out the wind that stirred the light dusting of new snow across the ice.

Something low and brown streaked past him. The otter.
Hah! Come, Father River Seal, I’ll race you to the cat,
he called.

Nobody races anybody, Otter,
Sean told him.
We must go quietly and carefully, stalk these men as if they are prey.

Fish?
the otter asked.

Very slippery fish.

Slippery fish who steal otters.

Keep trying to talk to the other otters. Let me know when you get a response, if they can tell us anything about where they’re being held, what kind of condition they’re in, how many men there are.

How many? A hundred, Father River Seal. A hundred otter-stealing men all with big tight nets.

I can see this might be a problem,
Sean said. Murel had told him about the otter and counting.
Can you get them to say, “the man with the torn coat” or “the man with the beard,” and tell us who each of them is that way? Then we’ll have a better idea how many there actually are.

Otters can do that. Otters have good eyes.

And try to stay back here near us, Otter. If you run ahead of us too far, the men might capture you too.

Otters can be very fast, but otters can also be sloooow, like men and dogs and cats.

Carrreful who you call slow, little beast. This cat can run down a caribou herd,
Coaxtl grumbled.

The woods were still, as if holding their breath, when the rescue party, dog teams, and the curly coat slipped into the forest almost as silently as falling snowflakes.

The otter chirped and gibbered seemingly to himself, but Sean realized these were the outward manifestations of the little creature’s attempts to link minds with his family members.

My mother! She is alive!
the otter declared at last.
She did not want me to come because she feared I would be captured too, but at the same time she was thinking that, she was thinking, “Get me out out out.” And she did not know until I told her that the father of river seals and his hundred friends with their sharp-toothed dogs and their long-clawed cats are with me. She was afraid of you too until I told her that you are the father of Murel and Ronan River Seal, the friends who attack wolves who try to eat otters.

I trust she was reassured by the news?

Oh, yes.

Did she give you any idea of how far away the men took her and the others?

Otter didn’t answer for a moment, then said,
Not far. Otters had no time to bite through nets before they were put in dens with heavy bars on them.

Sean considered. Apparently, while he could converse with the otter who was with him, he was not sufficiently attuned to the species to share long-distance inter-otter telepathic communications.

And how many men—can she say what each man there is like?

After another pause, the otter said,
There is man with wind like dead things, man with chin fur, man with wet nose, man with longer chin fur, man with lip fur but no chin fur, young female and old female.

Is that all?

Mother says yes. Hah! Mother is growling. Man puts hands on her.

Can’t have that, now can we?
Sean said, and made a sweeping gesture with his arm ending with a point in the direction the track cats were following. The dog teams and the curly coat swung in behind.

Sean took several more strides forward and saw Nanook’s tail whipping back and forth across the trail in front of him.

Here, Sean. Otters are here,
Nanook told him.

That was immediately evident, as from beyond Nanook came otter chirpings and jabberings and explosive “Hah!” “Hah!” sounds in the voices of, if not a hundred otters, at least fifteen.

And human voices called out suddenly too. “What’s with these specimens all of a sudden? They sound like someone stuck a pin in them and let the air out.”

“Omigod, I see what the problem is. They see that big old house cat there. Here kitty kitty . . . kitty like otter meat?”

Nanook growled low in his throat, but Coaxtl let out a roar that sounded as if it came from deep inside a cave instead of a snow leopard’s chest.

Sean caught up with the cat. “Slainté. What are you doing with these otters?”

“Uh, studying them.”

“Yes, we have seen some unusual creatures on this planet and we want to make sure these otters are the ordinary kind and not some strange Petaybean hybrid.”

“What if they are a Petaybean hybrid?” Sean asked. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Dr. Sean Shongili. My grandfather collected and adapted the creatures here on Petaybee. I don’t think he’d appreciate it if you attempt to reverse-engineer his otters.”

Sinead stepped into the clearing as well. The men kept the otter cages in the open but they had puff tents for themselves. The puff tents were first cousin to the Nakatira cubes. You set them up, opened a valve, and they inflated themselves with a foot of air in walls, floor, and ceiling. Furthermore, they were totally fireproof, so a heating device or even cooking equipment could be used inside them if the occupants were very careful about how they moved. Four of these tents were set up among the spindly trees that were part of the landscape on this part of the planet. Because of the deep ice, even very mature trees reached no great girth. The otter cages were on a table in the center of the clearing, where they would be in full view of the occupants of each puff tent.

“I am Sinead Shongili, and I’m the game warden for this area. I don’t recall issuing you an otter-molesting permit, folks. If our creatures need taking care of or keeping track of, my rangers and I see to it. I’ll thank you to release the creatures you have in custody. If any of them have been injured or killed while in your care, you must turn them over to me in the name of the Kilcoole Wildlife Council.”