Silent Dances (50 page)

"Let's
take this baby home
,"
Tesa told Sailor and Thunder.
"What?"

Thorn looked
alarmed. "Didn
'
t you read what that female
said!
It'
s way
too dangerous, I can
'
t let you--"

"It'll be okay,"
she reassured him. "Her daughter
,
Thunder, is with me
,
and this chick will give us a big bargaining wedge. It's time for me to do

my
job, Thorn. Then Sailor
and I will
talk to Taller,
convince him to
evacuate the flock."

"If
you live!" Thorn
signed
,
exasperated
. "
I don't like it, but"--he smiled
slightly--"if you could
pull it off
... Look,
without the ship
,
Maltese only h
as
the sleds, and the weapons they
'
re car
ry
ing now ... and the
Aquila.

They'
ll be depending on them to make the difference
. You really think

you can ...

"I don'
t know
,"
she signed, honestly
. "I can only try."
Impulsively Thorn
hugged her, then gave her a b
ri
ef, hard kiss on the mouth
. "
Be ca
re
ful!
"
he demanded.

Deep in the forest, beside the giant fallen limb, Tesa knelt, fingering the

corner of her grandmother's quilt, grateful for modern fabric preservatives

that would keep the fibers from being damaged. Thunder clung to the limb

that had once housed her nest and called to the skies.

Sailor was apprehensive. Tesa knew he questioned the wisdom of

deliberately
calling down Death. "Good Eyes," he signed, "we must agree on something, before we suggest this compromise."

She looked
at him
, surprised. "Yes?"

"Let
me
suggest the compromise
after
we return the chick. If I don't speak for my own people, Death-the Hunters, that is-will have no respect for us." He

peered at the bundle huddled against Tesa's chest. "This chick can't be part

of the compromise. We'll return him simply because my people value

children. That's the only trait their people
and mine
share. I don't know if

that'
s enough
to build a compromise on."

"If that's what you want," Tesa agreed.

A shadow passed, then Rain backwinged onto the log.

246

I KNEW
she had to be near here!
Tesa thought
,
anxiety knotting her

stomach
.
But will she recognize her daughter?
The Aquila stare
d wa
ri
ly at the grown chick as Tesa checked the voder on her w
ri
st.

"I'm Thunder,
daughter of Rain and Wind," the youngster said
, "
and I
'

ve brought this from my first kill." She plucked out the thong from

under her mantle of feathers, the long Ripper claw d
an
gling from it.

The older female just stared
,
clearly disturbed
.
Tesa tensed
.
They had
no Pl
an
B.

Rain moved her head. "
You-you weren
'
t killed when the nest fell
,
and
Wind died
?"
She seemed stunned.

Thunder told her mother of how she'd sat under leaves, cold and hungry,

waiting to die. She told of being found by an alien and one of the White

Winds' children
.
She told about their jou
rn
ey
, an
d how the two fed
her
,
cured her illness, and taught her their l
an
guage
.
Then she spoke
of how they
'
d fought together and killed the people
'
s most
-
feared
enemy
...
how two beings who had not hatched her had
ri
sked their

own lives for her.

Rain eyed Sailor,
Tesa
,
and the conspicuous Ripper robe warily
.
She

thrust her head at Tesa
. "
I know you
!
I spoke to you when you first
came, but you wouldn
'
t answer me."

"I'm deaf to your language,"
Tesa explained as Thunder tr
an
slated
. "

The day you attacked us
,
you talked to me again, but I still couldn
'
t
understand
.
I'm sorry."

"You were
brave that day
,"
the Aquila remarked grudgingly
. "
Your
courage saved you
and
the White Winds' child. That'
s why I spoke to you
again
.
I wanted to know why one human could che
ri
sh one child
'
s
life while another human saw our children only as vermin
.
You

protected that child like a parent."

"I am
his parent."
Tesa indicated Thunder
. "
And hers, too."

Rain seemed to ponder this,
then tu
rn
ed to Thunder. "To kill a Ripper
...

is unknown
!
The volcano is far from here--you've flown that distance?"

"
It took m
an
y days, but yes," Thunder said.

Rain turn
ed to Tesa. "It
'
s hard to accept
,
but you've raised her well--I
only wish that you had kept her there
.
There's nothing for us here

now
,
since your people have made us scavengers
.
Take Thunder

back to the volcano
,
where she can

247

SILENT DANCES 247 live f
re
ely
...
if you stay here
,
human
,
it won't be
safe for you.

Tesa and Sailor exchan
ged a ne
rv
ous gl
an
ce. "There may be

something we can do about that problem
,"
Tesa suggested,
re
aching
into the mesh bag.

Taller pee
re
d at the midafte
rn
oon sky. The weather was good
,
but he
sensed something troubling
,
like the touch of a spi
ri
t that couldn
'
t
find its way to the suns
.
He shudde
re
d, then gl
an
ced at Shimmering
and Flies-Too-Fast to take his mind off it
.
The two we
re
playing at

catching fish, but were paying much more attention to each other th
an

the swimmers weaving safely around their legs. Perhaps there
'
d be an

egg next year...

"Taller,
look!" Weaver was pointing to the west
.
A young Grus came
winging home and beside him flew ... one of the humans
'
flying sleds!

Taller dropped his wings, th
re
w his head back to call t
ri
umph
an
tly
.

His son was
home!
His son and Good Eyes!

When he turn
ed
,
Shimme
ri
ng and Flies-Too
-
Fast had melted into the
reeds
,
to give the parents p
ri
vacy with their child. Sailor backwinged
into the clear water while
Good Eyes

hove
re
d her sled next to the platform
.
Taller
an
d Weaver both we
re
shocked to see what she wore
,
but befo
re
they could wonder much

about it
,
Taller
re
ally
looked
at his son.
His eyes widened
.
Weaver saw
it, too. Sailor had grown
.
He stood taller than his father now.

The male Grus swelled with pri
de.

The adults enveloped the return
ing wande
re
rs with joy and rapid
-
fire g
re
etings
. Taller could
see plainly
how weary they
both were
. "
Come into
the nest shelter," he urged. "I c
an
see you have sto
ri
es to
tell.
"

They'
d barely se
tt
led comfo
rt
ably befo
re
Good Eyes began signing-
"

Taller
,
the
re'
s something we must tell you,
ri
ght now."

The avian
w
as
surp
ri
sed at the anxiety the two displayed. Youngsters
retu
rn
ing f
ro
m a flyaway we
re
usually happy to
re
st and draw out the
sto
ry
telling of their expe
ri
ences.

"You must evacuate the flock,
immediately
!"
Good Eyes signed bluntly
. "

D
an
ger
'
s coming, ve
ry
soon."

Taller felt his crown shri
nk
. "
Is it flood?"

"Worse," Good Eyes
signed. "It's human
." Quickly she

248

explained about the evil beings who'd killed so many and wanted to kill still

more. The avian's feathers stood straight
out as she told him that these

hum
an
s could speak to Death.
She said they had even forced those

hated murderers to help them. This was a horrifying concept for Taller, that

humans could produce individuals so malignant they could bend even

Death to their will. The Grus leader felt a wave of helplessness wash over

him.

"What can we do in the face of such a threat," Taller asked, bitterly, "but flee? And how long can we hide on our own World?"

"We'll
fight
them, Taller," Good Eyes signed angrily. "My people won't lie down before these murderers, I promise you!"

"You said Death flocked to them like seed-eaters."

"Father," Sailor moved forward to speak. "There's one chance. Let me tell you what happened on my flyaway." Taller's son began to relate a story

unlike
any
Taller had ever heard.

"You compare your talk with
... Death
... to the compromise your grandfather built with the Blue Cloud people?" Taller asked, amazed, when his son had

finished his tale.

"The Hunters are people of the World, just as we are," Sailor insisted.

"However, the Blue Cloud people all think alike, while the Hunters are

individuals. I don't know if
..."

"Hunters?
" Taller stormed. "Killers, you mean!"

"Father, we ate the Blue Cloud people," Sailor reminded him. "Until

Grandfather changed that."

Taller stood rigidly straight, and Sailor matched his posture. The two stayed

locked in position, each unbending.

"My friend," Weaver signed to Taller, "try to understand. We made a new

kind of family to solve a problem, and our son and our partner have tried to

make a new compromise to end an old conflict. Whether it works or not,

they've done this to
help
us. We can't deny their goodness of heart, their

strength of spirit.
"

Taller gazed at her, seeing the wisdom in her words even though he felt

torn--and afraid. He stared at the clothing the human had made from such a

formidable creature, a creature his son had helped kill. He could not deny

their strength of spirit.

"You named this child of Death, Thunder?" he asked Sailor. "Yes, Good

Eyes named her," the youngster replied stiffly.

249

Taller fixed
his son with a cool sta
re. "Then
your name must

now be Lightning-
the pa
re
nt of Thunder." He reached into
the bowl of the nest where Sailor's hatching cloak lay folded;
lifted it, and handed it to

his son. "Welcome home, Lightning."

Sailor seemed stunned for a moment,
then fluffed his feathers and took

the cloak as his avian parents enveloped him under their wings
.
Taller

could see Good Eyes wiping water off her
face. "I have no new name for

you," he told her. Taller thought
he could see disappointment etched on

her features.

"It seems," he continued, "
that all unknowing, I've al
re
ady
given you the best name. Good Eyes, you see what others
can't
,
you see the truth
,

even when it's upside down, even
when it's backward." He enveloped her

under his wing, and
Weaver and
Sailor
-
Lightning!
he reminded himself-joined him in the special greeting .
Whatever happened
,
they were a

family again.

Meg poured a cup of coffee, trying to shrug off her depression. It had settled

on her like a cloud, since the day Thorn
abandoned camp
.
It was hard to

accept the things Bruce said about him-but it was harder to deny them,

now.

She felt as if her sense of purpose had left with Thorn. Or
maybe it had

been trickling away since Sco
tt
's death
,
and she just hadn
'
t
re
alized
it
.
You're an old babushka
,
she told herself.
You can't take the pressure.

When the CLS reps come, put in for your retirement. It's time.
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