The Integral Trees

Glory: "Me too."

"Did you hear groaning?"

"Clave and Jayan, I think, and believe me, they're feeling no pain."

"Oh. Good for them. Glory, why are you talking to me?"

"I was hoping we could be friends."

"Just don't climb near me, all right?"

"All right."

"I'm afraid you'll knock me off."

"Alfin, aren't you afraid to be so high?"

"I am."

Pause. "I'm afraid of falling off. I'd be crazy not to be." There was quiet for a time. Gavving began to notice his own aching muscles and joints. They must be keeping him awake…but he was dozing when Alfin spoke again.

"The Chairman knew it."

"Knew what?"

"He knows I'm afraid of falling. That's why the copsik bastard kept sending me under the branch on hunts. Nothing solid under me, trying to hang on and throw a harpoon too…I got even, though."

"How?" Glory asked while Gavving thought, So did the Chairman.

"Never mind. Glory, will you lie with me?"

A strained whisper. "No. Alfin, we can't be alone!"

"Did you have a lover, back in the tuft?"

"Most of us didn't. Nobody to protect us when the Chairman thought this up."

A pause, as for thought. "I still can't. Not here."

Alfin's voice rose to a shout. "Clave! Clave, you should have brought a masseuse!"

Clave answered from the darkness. "I brought two."

"Treefodder," Alfin said without heat, perhaps with amusement.

Presently there was quiet.

Chapter Four

Flashers and Fan Fungus

IN THE MORNING THEY HURT. SOME SHOWED IT MORE THAN others. Alfin tried to move, grunted in pain, curled up with his face buried in his arms. Merril's face was blank and stoic as she flexed her arms, then rose onto her hands. Jayan and Ji

From Glory, wild-eyed panic. Gavving tapped her shoulder blade (and flinched at his own agony-signals). "We all hurt. Can't you tell? What are you worried about? You won't be left behind. Nobody's got the strength."

Her eyes turned sane. She whispered, "I wasn't thinking that. I was thinking I hurt. That's normal, isn't it?"

"Sure. You're not crippled, though."

"Thank you for taking care of me yesterday. I'm really grateful. I'm going to get better at this, I promise."

The Grad spoke without trying to move. "We'll all get better. The higher we get, the less we weigh. Pretty soon we'll be floating."

Clave trod carefully among citizens who were awake but not mobile. Gavvmg felt a stab of envy/anger. Clove didn't hurt. From the back of the nose-arm's burrow he selected a slab of smoked. meat ragged with harpoon wounds. "Take your time over breakfast," he instructed them.

"Eat. It's the easiest way to carry provisions—"

"And we burned a lot of energy yesterday," the Grad said. He moved like a cripple to join Clave and began tearing into a meter's length of what had been the nose-arm's rib. It made sense to Gavving, and he joined them. The meat had an odd, rank flavor. You could get used to it, he thought, if your life depended on it.

Clave moved among them, gnawing at his huge slab of meat. He sliced a piece off and made Merril take it. He listened to Jiovan describing his symptoms, then interrupted with, "You've got your wind back.

That's good. Now eat," handing him more of the steak. He cut the rest in half for Jayan and Ji

Presently, when all had eaten something, Clave looked around at his team. "We'll circle to the east and get water half a day after we start. There's no room in here to do warm-up exercises; we'll just have to start moving. So saddle up, citizens. We'll have to 'feed the tree' in the open, and whether you actually feed the tree is up to the tide and the wind. Alfin, take the lead."

Alfin led them on an upward spiral, counterclockwise. Gavving found his aches easing as they climbed. He noticed that Alfin never looked down. Not surprising if Alfin didn't give a damn for those following him-but he never looked down.

Gavving did, and marveled at their progress. Two extended hands would have covered all of Qui

They delayed to repair the Q in a 1x_ mark. The sun had been horizontal in the east when they started. It was approaching Voy before they reached water-smoothed wood.

A rivulet flowed down a meandering groove. This time there was no natural perch. Nine thirsty citizens pounded spikes into the wood and hung by their lines to drink, wash, soak their tunics, and wring them out.

Gavving noticed Clave speaking to Alfin a little way below. He didn't hear what was said. He only saw what Alfin did.

"And suppose I don't?"

"Then you don't." Clave gestured upward, where the rest of them hung. "Look at them. I didn't choose them. What do I do if one of my citizens turns out to be a coward? I live with it. But I have to know."

Alfin looked white with rage. Not red with fury. There isn't any "white with rage"; white means fear, as Clave had learned long ago. A frightened man can kill…but Alfin's hands were clenched on his line, and Clave's harpoon was over his shoulder, easily reached.

"I have to know. I can't put you in the lead if you can't make yourself look down to see how they're doing. See? I'll have to put you where you don't hurt anyone else if you funk it. Tail-end Chancy. And if you freeze, I want to be sure nobody—"

"All right." Alfin dug in his pack, produced a spike and a rock. He pounded the spike in beside the one he was hanging from.

"Make sure you can depend on it. It's your life."

The second spike was in deeper than the first. Alfin tied the loose end of his line to both spikes and knotted it again. "And I leave you next to it?"

"You take that chance too. Or you don't. I have to know."

Aim leapt straight outward, trailing loops of line. He thrashed, then threw his arms over his face.

He fell slowly. We're all lighter, Gavving realized. It's real. I thought I was just feeling better, but we're lifting less-And Alfin was still falling, but now he'd uncovered his face. His arms windmilled to turn him on his back. Gavving noticed Clave's hand covering the spikes that moored Alfin's line. The line pulled taut and swung Alfin in against the tree.

Gavvmg watched him climb up. And watched him jump again, limbs splayed out as if he were trying to fly. It seemed he might make it, he fell so slowly; but presently the tide was pulling him down against the tree again.

"That actually looks like fun," Jayan said.

Ji

Alfin didn't jump again. When he had climbed back up to Clave's position, and both had climbed to rejoin the team, Ji

Alfin sent her a look like a harpoon. Clave said, "No, time to get moving. Saddle up."

Alfin was in the lead again when they set out. He made a point of pausing frequently to look back. And Gavving wondered.

Yesterday Alfin had swarmed all over the nose-arm, hacking like a berserker maniac, like Gavving himself. It was hard to believe that Allin was afraid of Clave, or of heights, or of anything.

The sun circled the sky, behind Voy and back to zenith, before they came to lee again. The water-smoothed wood was soft here, soft enough that they could cross with a spike in each hand, jab and yank and jab. They veered down to avoid scores of birds clustered on the wood. Scarlet-tailed, the birds were otherwise the grayish-brown of the wood itself.