The Namura Stone (14 page)

“Then don’t,” said Six. He walked slowly back about five paces and then winked at Ledin. “Raven, you stay here.” With that, he began to run towards the lake, gave as high a leap as he could, and dived neatly into the water.

Both Raven and Temar gave cries of concern, until they saw that he had come to the surface, and was swimming naturally. Six made his way over to the edge and put his arms up for Temar. Ledin lifted the boy from his neck and began to pass him down.

The little boy was looking nervous. He squirmed back to look behind him at Ledin, trying to cling to his father’s arms.

Ledin nodded reassuringly. “Go with
Valhai
Six, Temar. It is quite safe.”

The baby clearly was doubtful, muttering some unknown combination of sounds to himself. Ledin quickly lowered him into Six’s arms and then slipped into the water himself, receiving his son back again. At first Temar clung obstinately to his father, but then he began to gurgle a little on his own, splashing his chubby arms.

Bennel stared down into the depths and gave a small grimace. “My daughter wouldn’t like this very much.”

Tallen lifted one eyebrow. “Scared of heights?”

“Petrified.” Then Bennel grinned at Tallen. “Happily, I am not. Namuri?”

“Sycophant?”

“Shall we?” Bennel jumped into the water, grinning.

Tallen peered over the edge. Truth be told, the sight of those walls plummeting down into the black depths was not exactly enticing, but he looked over at Raven and smiled.

Diva turned to Raven. “Coming?”

Raven shook her head, the mulish expression still on her face.

“What a pity, darling. Never mind, you can stay here.” Diva grinned at Six, then dived neatly into the pool.

Tallen stood looking into the water.

“You scared, T’an?” asked Raven. She was standing still, rather vulnerable.

He looked sideways at her. “Very,” he told her mendaciously. “I am frightened to go in on my own.”

“Do you need help?”

“That would be nice.”

“If I hold your hand, will you be able to jump?”

He hid a grin. “I might.”

She offered him a small hand, and he took it.

“I will jump with you, T’an. You needn’t be scared your leg will hurt. You are with me.”

“Then I shall jump fearlessly.”

“Sure?” She tilted her head sideways, looking bird-like.

“Sure.”

Raven led him over to the side, and then began to count. “Three … two … one … now!”

They both made a leap towards the water, and Raven gave an uncharacteristic squeak. Then they were in.

Instantly, Raven let go of his hand.

“Did you see?” she shrieked, looking at her parents. “Raven helped Tallen!”

“That was very brave of you,” Diva told her, smiling her thanks at Tallen.

Six swam over, and raised her out of the water, above his head. “Well done!”

After that, it was a day in paradise. They splashed about, and laughed, and played, and those who could dived a little in the cool water.

It was perfect.

Chapter 6

THREE DAYS LATER, Grace decided to go with Ledin to the Kwaide Orbital Space Station when Arcan took him over to work. She wanted to take Cimma the picture she had painted of their lifesharing ceremony, as promised, and she wanted to show her how well her grandson was getting on. She knew how happy it would make her mother to see him, to hear his happy babbling.

At the house by the Emerald Lake, she wrapped the painting up carefully in cloth. It had taken her a long time to paint because it was so important to her. In the end, it hadn’t really been about Ledin and herself, she had realized. The finished painting showed Cimma, standing in a bubble, her face pressed against the orthogel, looking so happy and proud that the whole of her face shone.

Cimma was the centre of the painting, but behind her was Valhai, stretched out under a slate sky, with just a tinge of brilliant orange where the arc of division between the day and the night side could be seen, far away in the distance. In the foreground was Arcan, fountains inside fountains flashing with a rainbow of colours against the rest of the lake, and the dotted forms of the others. They should have been unrecognizable, because they were all dressed identically in bodywraps and mask packs, but Grace had somehow managed to instill something special in each figure, something that made them all instantly identifiable.

Six and Diva were side by side, exchanging a conspiratorial grin, it seemed, though Six’s figure was in the process of taking a step back, as if to say he was tired of the ceremony already. Diva’s fingers were reaching out slightly to his hand, restraining him, drawing him back into the proceedings.

The canth keeper was standing with the small piece of cloth which he had held over Ledin and Grace’s joined hands. His mask pack seemed to radiate his pleasure at performing the ceremony and there was a sense of colour around his head, almost an aura, which seemed to extend to the couple too.

Lastly, hovering slightly to one side and above head height, was the visitor. Grace had painted him as just a touch of light, an area of white which was almost like a shimmering star. She had wanted it to be ambiguous; only the people who knew about the morphics should realize exactly who and what it was, the rest of the world should think it only to be an area of illumination in the painting.

As she wrapped the canvas up she was smiling. It had taken her a long time to paint and had cost her many hours of frustration. Her hands were so damaged now that it was hard to use a paintbrush; more often than not the strokes of the brush bore no resemblance to the picture in her mind. She had struggled with herself for many a long hour, often crying with impotence when she was unable to transmit her vision onto the canvas. In the end, despite many false starts, despite much repainting, it was finally done. Even Grace herself had been surprised at the result. It was different from her earlier attempts; the sheer difficulty she had experienced in painting it had given it an extra depth. She was pleased, in some private place inside her. She thought it was the best thing she had ever painted, and that was appropriate too. This painting was a way to thank her mother for everything she had done.

She hoped her mother would like it; it was hard when you produced something like this. You yourself might feel that it was all right, but that didn’t mean somebody else would feel the same way. Grace was unexpectedly nervous.

Ledin came up and planted a small kiss on the back of her bent neck. “She will love it,” he said, clearly guessing her thoughts.

“Do you think so?” Grace chewed her lip. “I was just wondering if I should have made Cian a slightly darker shade. Do you think there is time …?”

Ledin grinned and firmly folded the cloth over the painting. “It is over,” he said. “I think it is by far the best thing you have ever done, and I refuse to let you fiddle with it any more. In any case, Arcan will be here any second.”

He was; she could already detect the characteristic swirl of air that announced his arrival. Grace looked horrified and leapt to pile together all the things that had to be taken when travelling anywhere with a 6-month-old baby. Arcan was forced to wait as she finished her preparations.

“I cannot see why you need so much just for a day’s outing,” he said. “Your son is only small. Why should he require so much?”

Grace shot a meaningful glance at her husband, who nobly stepped in. “Babies are like that,” he informed the orthogel entity. “They need a lot of attention.”

Arcan scintillated. “Your evolutionary path is flawed. It cannot be energy efficient to have to look after the offspring for twelve years or more. I don’t understand it.”

Ledin, at that moment rather laden down with various bags and the painting, rolled his eyes. “Tell me about it!”

Grace looked at him sharply.

“What? It is true! Look at the Dessites – they just detach a bud and anchor it to the seabed somewhere. The visitor was telling me all about it. When the bud is capable of mature movement it dedicates all of its own youth to providing its parent with food. You have to admit, it sounds a lot more appealing.”

Judging by the look she gave him, his wife was not in agreement. Ledin shrugged at Arcan, as if to say ‘See? This is the sort of thing a man has to put up with’, which earned him another severe look from his life partner.

“Well, it is! I bet Six would know what I mean!” Ledin looked around the room, as if hoping his friend would suddenly appear from nowhere to agree with him. Seeing he didn’t, the Kwaidian gave a slight sigh. “Anyway, we wanted to take enough for a night. I know you are planning on visiting Enara today. You might not be able to transport us back tonight.”

Arcan, who was able to do several thousand things at once, looked rather insulted and seemed on the point of saying something. Then he remembered what had happened the first time he had taken them to Coriolis and thought better of it.

Grace picked a sleeping Temar out of the cradle, the bubble moved quickly over to encompass the three of them, and the next thing they knew they were standing on the hard metal plating of the Kwaide Orbital Space Station.

Samoso was waiting to take Grace and the baby down to the surface of Kwaide by shuttle, where Cimma reached out eager hands to lift her grandson high in the air.

“How big he is! Is he crawling yet? Can he talk?”

Grace giggled. “What are you expecting? Some sort of superbaby? He still hasn’t reached 6 months, you know. He can’t crawl properly and he can’t talk, but he does babble to himself, and he can sit up and seems to recognize people he knows well. When Ledin comes in his whole little face lights up.”

“When he’s old enough, I hope you will let him spend some time here each year for combat training.”

“Of course. I can’t think of anyone better to teach him.”

“I will look forward to that.” Cimma smiled and began the long walk to her wooden cabin, chattering to her new grandson and pointing out all the landmarks to the baby, who was looking about him with a serious expression on his face. He seemed unimpressed by the unfamiliar place.

When they reached Cimma’s draughty log cabin, however, his eyes lit up at the sight of the blazing fire in the hearth, and he tried to tip himself over from Grace’s arms in its direction. She caught at him hastily.

“Temmy! Stop it! You can’t touch the fire; it will burn you.”

Cimma laughed, and indicated a small wooden cot with vertical bars. “I borrowed this. Pop him in there. There are a few toys, too.”

Grace did as suggested, and Temar instantly began to try to put the toy he liked best in his mouth.

Cimma watched him for a moment before beginning to open her present.

“I must say, Grace, it has taken you long enough. I was starting to think—” she broke off suddenly as the picture was uncovered.

Grace grinned. “ …That I would never finish it? There were times I thought I wouldn’t, either.” Then she saw that her mother was crying. “Maestra? Is there something wrong? Do you not like it?”

Cimma shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes. “I love it!” she said simply. “I absolutely love it. But why … why did you make me the centre of the painting?”

“Because I wanted you to know how much I love you … how grateful I am for everything. How much it means to me that you came to Kwaide with us, that you adapted so well to such a different life. When I started the painting I realized that although it was
my
lifesharing ceremony, it was about
you
too. It was about continuance and change. This is the way I want to remember you. This is the picture of you I want to hold in my mind forever.”

Cimma was staring at the painting. “You have captured my feelings. I … I remember being really happy.”

“Yes. You looked so pleased for me, so proud. That is what I had to paint.”

“I shall treasure it. Thank you.”

Grace saw that her mother’s hands were shaking. She grinned. “It doesn’t have a cost-to-bulk proportion of over 5000 to 1,” she teased. “Not even 300 to 1, like your Xianthan lowland paintings, remember?”

Cimma was brushing the tears away, rather embarrassed to have been caught showing so much emotion. “It is the most beautiful painting I have ever owned. It will remind me every day of you, of Valhai, of that ceremony, of … of everything that has happened. And it is exquisite – I knew that you would still be able to paint, despite the hands, but I never expected anything like this!”

Grace had gone slightly pink. “Anyway,” she said, rather uncomfortably, “enough of that! Tell me all the news about New Kwaide. How is combat training going?”

ARCAN AND THE visitor landed close to the heated pools on Enara and waited. It didn’t take very long for the Ammonites to appear. They formed an astrand almost immediately, clearly feeling threatened by the orthogel entity.

“Why have you come?”

“I have come to tell you that an alliance with the Dessites would be a mistake.”

“You dare to tell us what we should or should not do? You are not one of us. We do not want you to come here.”

“Then I shall simply ask you. We should all work together. There are only a very few quantum beings in the universe. It is not acceptable for them to try to destroy one another. It is a terrible waste of millions of years of evolution. You must not do it!”

“Will you give us the canths?”

“The canths will make up their own minds. I have no say in what they decide to do.”

“You are the cause of their reluctance. They clearly believe that you are more powerful than we are.”

“No! I don’t believe that to be true! You are wrong about me. And I believe you are wrong about the sumand, as well. I believe that we must accept evolution, even if it comes in a form we are not expecting.”