Silent Songs (13 page)

It was almost dawn before the humans successfully attached the a-gravs.

Tesa had activated three small cell regenerators over the sensitive wounds on the calf's back and had helped give the youngster a fair amount of pain relief.

The tide had dropped so low the Singer no longer had to lift his head to breathe, but every inhalation was now an effort. Jib's chest felt as though someone had enclosed his lungs in a vise. His limbs moved as if he were on Jupiter, not Trinity. He struggled to ease the fear radiating from Taniwha's mind as he pulled his arm out of a narrow tunnel he'd dug under the being.

"Mine's in place," he signed, gasping. "We almost ready?"

Bruce nodded, watching K'heera calibrate her voder. Her sled

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sat in the water, its own a-grav removed, and she worked in the water uncomplaining. Jib was impressed--he knew her people hated getting wet.

"It's time," Bruce signed. "K'heera, wait for our signal."

The older man positioned himself behind Jib and across from Tesa as they prepared to guide the large animal across the sandbar. The Grus watched, fascinated, as the humans used their machines to aid the "River Spirit."

Bruce nodded at the Simiu.

Slowly the Simiu ordered the a-gravs to lift. The Singer's great tail swung up, hitting the water hard.

"Jib," Tesa signed, "calm him down!"

The young man projected images of the two of them swimming free, without a care, and finally, the creature stilled.

"Okay, everybody," Bruce signaled, "let's push." K'heera came up behind Tesa to place her palms against the alien's bulk. Gently the four moved the huge body across the wide sandbar to the River's deepest channel.

Lightning and Flies-Too-Fast followed, overseeing.

Jib and Taniwha wheezed synchronously as the lack of water compounded the animal's great weight, further straining his lungs.
Just another minute,
Jib
told
him, frustrated at being unable to visualize that brief passage of time.

Suddenly Jib fell, and the water closed over his head. He'd been concentrating so intently, he'd stepped right off the sandbar.

His hand slid over the bruised shoulder, and down the flat flipper. Stubby fingers wiggled against his own, then grabbed his hand. Even when his head bobbed back into the air again, the Singer clung to him, though the young man couldn't tell if that was to help him or calm the Singer's own fears. "I'm okay," Jib signaled to the others.

The huge creature settled slowly into the water as K'heera manipulated the a-gravs. Breathing easier now, Jib dived under the submerged animal and pulled the four a-gravs off his chest.

You're free,
Jib thought, gulping air into his own tortured lungs. He was busy visualizing Taniwha swimming to safety when he was startled by two spouts of water sounding almost beside him. Instinctively, Jib backed away at the sight of the massive parent Singers. How long had they been hovering there?

The youngster released Jib's hand and darted away, nearly bowling him over with the powerful fluke. He was surprisingly graceful in his own element. Jib watched the youngster nuzzling his parents, touching them, even as the parents patted and snuffled the calf in return. Then, human hands touched him.

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"You'd better get out of there, son," Bruce said, leaning over the shelf. "They might view you as a threat."

Nodding reluctantly, Jib hoisted himself back onto the sandbar. Tesa, Bruce, and even K'heera seemed inordinately pleased at the happy outcome, and the cohort, including Thunder, appeared more relaxed as they witnessed something they had no trouble understanding--the love of parents for their child.

Suddenly Taniwha left his parents and approached the sandbar, just barely lifting his head above the water. He eyed Jib squarely as he sent him back his own image--greatly enhanced. In the young Singer's mind, the two of them swam free and unfettered through the warm, sweet womb of the River.

Every hair lifted on Jib's body, and he shuddered, the odd euphoria nearly overwhelming him. Swallowing, he focused on the marble-bright eyes of his new friend, Taniwha of the Singers. "Yes," the Maori whispered softly, and before anyone could stop him, he plunged into the water just as Father Sun kissed the sky.

"Jib," shouted Bruce, "come back!"

The young man sank beneath the waves, the sound of human voices distant and muffled, of no concern. His arms and mind reached out for the huge creature as the young Singer spun in the water, suddenly as graceful and lithe as an eel.

Taniwha pressed stubby fingers against Jib's chest as a new picture formed in the human's mind. The image was clear and he realized he'd adjusted to this very different telepathy.
Yes,
he thought, knowing Taniwha, too, was learning to understand him. The calf turned so that Jib could straddle his broad back. Grabbing hold of the two flukes, Jib clung tight as the powerful swimmer sped through the water, his huge parents flanking him.

Jib's head broke the surface and he gulped air greedily as they sounded. Off in the distance, he could hear the oddly melodious warble of Tesa's voice, the voice she only used on the rarest of occasions, angrily calling his name.

But the joyous music in his head quickly drowned her out as dawn broke over Trinity, and the Singers carried him west, through the warm waters of their River of Life.

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CHAPTER 7

"Damn it!" Tesa shouted as she watched the Singers ferry Jib away. There was no music now; the big mammals were directing all their attention to the one person she wished they'd never met. To compound things, every one of their sleds was down, since they'd dismantled them to aid the calf. She had to restrain herself from diving in after the retreating figures. Instead, she begged the cohort, "Follow him before we lose them!"

The avians hesitated long enough for her to realize what she was asking.

She could see it in their bodies, their crowns, their faces. The River Spirits had claimed her brother, and now she would risk
them
as well. Then, as one, they turned their heads. Thunder, still perched on K'heera's sled, had thrown her head back in her own cry. The rising suns glistened off her freshly dried bronze feathers.

"We can't just let the River Spirits take Good Eyes' brother!" the raptor signed, then launched herself after them. The Grus all glanced at one another, their fears battling their reluctance to be shown up by a Hunter.

"Flies-Too-Fast, Hurricane, and I will follow," Lightning decided. "We'll call so that you can guide Good Eyes when her machines can fly again." Without another moment's pause, the three oldest Grus ran across the sandbar and lifted into the air.

When Tesa turned back to Bruce and K'heera, she could see them working feverishly to get K'heera's sled back on line. Within seconds it lifted, dripping, from the mud. Without thinking, Tesa moved to mount it, but Bruce stopped her.

"Whoa, there, friend," he signed. "You're not goin' on this wild critter chase alone."

She started to argue, but he interrupted her.

"We're goin' back to camp," he insisted. "K'heera and I can get the
Demoiselle
in the air just as quick as we did this sled. I'll grab a few things and we'll
all
go."

He was just following regulations, she knew. Szu-yi had really

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tightened them, following the lone expedition last year that had resulted in the appearance of Tesa's death. Frustrated, the woman peered over her shoulder at the receding flyers.

Bruce had to touch her to get her attention. "I can't believe the Singers will hurt him, Tesa."

She met his eyes, remembering all at once that she was the only one who knew about the possibility of Jib's having TSS. Finally, she signed, "We don't know that. They didn't have much trouble dropping Thunder, did they?

Let's
hurry!"

It seemed like hours before they were finally in the
Demoiselle
and airborne.

The Suns were bright now as two humans and a Simiu traveled west along the River, farther inland. The remaining five cohort members surrounded Tesa on her sled, as if protecting her, but all they managed to do was limit her visibility. She could feel their calls as they responded to the faint sounds of their friends, who were now miles away.

Finally, she could see Thunder wheeling above the River, the Grus circling in a wider arc below her. The Singers had stopped, gathering with others of their kind in a wide bend where orange- leafed water plants bloomed thickly.

Even from the air, Tesa was impressed by the size of the great herd as they grazed among the lovely purple flowers. In the midst of the huge gray creatures Tesa spied Jib's bobbing head.

She pointed him out to Bruce and K'heera, signaled for her cohort to stay behind, then dropped out of formation. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to be calm, and projected mental images of the same kind of parental concern for Jib she'd received from the young Singer's parents. She couldn't afford to have them affect her judgment while she flew.

Hovering low over the herd, she was startled by their numbers, as she watched them watching her. Jib never even noticed her. He was treading water, turning this way and that, touching the massive beings and being touched by them in return, grinning rapturously. She might as well have been invisible.

Tesa opened her mind as Doctor Blanket had taught her, and the music came to her again, only now it was lighthearted tunes ringing with gladness and curiosity. The herd was fascinated by Jib, the novelty of communicating with a noncompetitive, nonpredatory creature completely charming them.

Each of the large beasts impatiently waited his or her turn to touch Jib's mind, to have a chance to say "hello" to the unusual stranger.

Tesa's heart sank. If Jib
did
have TSS, this was like dropping an alcoholic into a wine vat.

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She brought the sled up beside him slowly, just inches above the water.

She'd seen how frantic the calf could get when startled, and didn't want to risk having Jib crushed in a panic.

Finally, she caught his attention.

"Tesa!" he cried aloud, grinning like a fool.
"E hoa!
Come on in, the water's fine! I'll introduce you!"

He can't even remember to sign to me,
she thought. The water
was
warm, but it wasn't body temperature. Jib's lips were blue. She glanced up, saw the
Demoiselle
hovering nearby. Ever the scientist, Bruce was filming their interaction with the herd. K'heera gazed around, amazed.

Tesa leaned over the edge of her sled. "Jib, come on. You've been in the water too long. You'll get hypothermia if you don't come out now." He hesitated, his expression confused. She realized he was having trouble with the concept, probably because the Singers couldn't understand it. Her jaw clenched. "You'll get sick if you don't come out, Jib. You need some warm food and time to dry off. You can go back in later. Come on!" She offered him her hand, and finally, he took it.

Once he was beside her on the sled, she slapped on the force- field to ensure that he couldn't leave. She signaled to Bruce, and they gained altitude until they'd rejoined the cohort. Then they turned east, back to their camp. The whole time, Jib leaned over the side, waving at the Singers, completely ignoring her.

Some of the Singers followed them for a while but, reluctant to leave their food, eventually returned to the herd. Jib visibly deflated as the distance between them grew.

When they landed on the white sand beach by their camp, Tesa handed Jib the blanket she'd brought. He wrapped it around his shivering shoulders with casual disinterest, even as the long, curling tendrils of his hair dripped over it. Tesa's eyes flared with frustration and anger, though she couldn't say exactly who or what she was angry at. "Are you all right?"

He nodded quickly, looking out over the River, watching for Singers. She stood stock-still in front of him, waiting for him to really
see
her, remember she was there. Finally, his expression cleared. He blinked, meeting her eyes.

"I didn't mean to frighten you," he signed, at last, "but if I said I was sorry, it'd be a bloody lie and you'd know it. Being pulled through the water by that young pup, communicating with him and his people ... this has been the most incredible thing I've ever experienced. I'm hardly sorry."

Tesa did not respond. Thunder's shadow crisscrossed over her,

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and Jib looked up, hearing her cries. His eyes returned to the River more slowly this time.

"To them, that's the River of Life," he signed. "This time of year, the sea starts to grow cold. The River stays warm, feeds them, nurtures their children. It's their River."

Bruce came up behind him, carrying out dry clothes. "Better put these on, son," he signed. "They've got warmers in them. You're pretty blue."

Jib nodded gratefully and began stripping the wet clothes off from under his blanket, and redonning the dry ones. The warmers would engage

immediately on contact with his chil ed skin. Glancing around, Tesa realized that K'heera was still sitting in the
Demoiselle
where Bruce had parked it near the shelters. The Simiu was not watching them, as though completely disinterested in anything the humans might be doing.

The cohort suddenly parachuted to a landing around Tesa, blowing sand against her legs. She could feel no vibrations and realized they'd curtailed their normally raucous landing in deference to the serious talk she was having with Jib. As soon as they were on the ground, the Aquila joined them.

The young avians stared at Jib until finally Lightning stepped forward.

"Good Eyes' Brother Jib, you are the only being on the World that has ever willingly swum with the River Spirits! Do you still have your soul?"

Looking into Jib's eyes, Tesa wondered about that herself.

"Yes, Lightning," Jib signed respectfully. "My soul's completely intact. These Singers aren't Spirits; they're just people who sing mind-to-mind. They mean no one harm. They only want to protect their River, even as you protect your own territories. They protect it differently, that's all. You don't have to fear them, just respect their River."