The Integral Trees

There had been tens of days of sleep merging into pain. He'd seen spindly, impossibly tall near-human forms flitting about him at all angles, green shapes fading like ghosts into a dark green background, quiet voices blurred in the eternal whisper of the foliage. He had thought he was still dreaming.

But Merril was real. Homely, legless Merril was entirely familiRr, entirely real, and mad as hell. The copsik ru

He had taken little notice, in the pain of a healing bone and the sharperacheofhisfailure. Ahuntleaderwhobadlost histeam, a Chairman who had lost his tribe. Qui

Merril tried to talk to him. Things weren't that bad. The Grad had impressed the Carthers. Merril and Clave were welcome in the tribe though as copsiks.

Once he woke to find Merril jubilant. "They'll let me fight!" she said, and Clave learned that the Carthers were pla

Over the following days he grew to know tjie jungle people. Of around two hundred Carthers, half were copsiks. It didn't seem to carry any onus. Copsiks here lacked for nothing save a voice in the council.

He saw many children and many pregnancies and no starvation. The jungle people were healthy and happy…and better armed than Qui

He was questioned at a gathering of the tribe. Carther States' Commons was a mere widening in a tu

"How can you even reach London Tree?" he had asked, but only once. That information was "classified"; spies would not be tolerated. But he could watch the preparations. He was sure these fires were part of it.

He had been flapping wind at the coals for half a day now. His leg was holding up. Soon he would have to shift position.

Kara the Sharman came skimming toward him. She dipped her grapnd into the foliage and stopped herself next to Clave. "How are you doing?"

"You tell me. Does the fire look right?"

She looked. "Keep it that way. Feed it another branch a few hundred breaths from now. How's the leg?"

"Fine. Can we talk?"

"I've other fires to check."

The Sharman was Carther States' equivalent to the Scientist. Maybe the word had meant Chair,nan once. She seemed to have more power than the political boss, the Comlink, who spent most of his time finding out what everybody else wanted. Getting her attention was worth a try. Clave said, "Sharman, I'm a tree dweller. We're going to attack a tree. Shouldn't you be using what I know?"

She considered that. "What can you tell me?"

"Tides. You're not used to tides. I am, and so are these copsik ru

Her smile was twisted. 'Put you in charge of our own warriors?"

"Not what I meant. Attack the middle of the tree. Make them come to us there. I saw them fighting in free-fall, and you're better."

"We thought of that—" She saw his grimace. "No, don't stop. I'm glad you agree. We've watched London Tree for decades now, and two of us did escape once. We know that the copsiks live in the i

Science at the level of the carrier, the flying box, made Clave uneasy. He tried to set the feeling aside…"I saw how they use that thing.

They put their own warriors where they want them and leave yours floundering in air. Yes. Get the carrier first, even if you can't fly it."

"All right."

"Sharman, I don't know how you plan to attack. If you'll tell me more, I can give you better answers." He'd said it before. It was like talking to the tree.

Kara freed her grapnel with a snap of the snag line. She was moving on. Theefodder! Clave added, "One thing. If I know the Grad, he knows how to fly the carrier by now, if be's had any kind of a chance at it. Or

Gavving might have seen something and told the Grad."

"There's no way we'll learn that."

Clave shrugged.

"We'll go for the carrier and try for the Grad."

Clave pushed a dead spine branch into the coals and resumed flapping his blanket.

Kara said, "You call yourself Sharman…Chairman of a destroyed people. I trust you know how to be a leader. If you learn things thatshouldnotbeknown toourenemies…if you rideto warinthe first gust of warriors…what would you tell my citizens, if you were me?"

That was clear enough. "Clave must not live to be captured and questioned.' Sharman, I have little to lose. If I can't rescue my people, I'll kill copsik ru

"Merril?"

"She'll fight with me. Not under tides, though. And…don't tell her anything. I won't kill Merril if she's captured."

"Fair enough. You called the fu

"I was wrong, wasn't I? The jungle can't feed itself that way. There's not enough wind. What is it?"

"It's what makes the jungle move. The petals are part of it too. Whatever side of the jungle is most dry, there the fu

"You talk like the jungle is a whole creature, that thinks."

She smiled. "It's not very smart. We're fooling it now. The fires are to make the jungle dry on one side."

"There are tens of life forms in the jungle. One of them is a kind of spine for the whole thing. Its life is deep down, and it lives off the dead stuff that drifts toward the center. Everything in the jungle contributes something. The foliage is various plants that root in what the jungle-heart collects, but they rot and feed the jungle-heart and shield the jungle-heart if something big hits the jungle. We do our part too. We transport fertilizer down — dead leaves and garbage and our own dead-and we kill burrowing parasites."

"How does a jungle move? The Grad didn't know."

"The silver petals turn the jungle to put the fu

"Clave, it's time to put the fires out. I must tell the others. I'll be back."

Minya followed Dloris through twisting, branching tu

The way the tu

The mouth of a woven hut showed ahead. Dloris stopped. "Minya. If anyone asks…you and Ji

They had reached the hut. Dloris shooed them in. Two men waited inside, one in Navy blue, the other—"Who are you?" Dioris demanded.

"Madam Supervisor? I'm Jeffer, the Scientist's Apprentice…other apprentice. Lawri is otherwise engaged."

To meet both Minya and Ji

He introduced his Navy escort to the women; Ordon was clearly interested. Ordon and Dloris stayed while the Grad questioned Ji