The Integral Trees

"Then, it's going to work. I can't believe it."

The Grad gri

"I got these. We had to fight for them." Seven cassettes. "We couldn't find the reader."

"Maybe Kiance had it…it doesn't matter. Get into a chair. You too, Clave, Merril, strap down!" He looked into the displays. "In a few breaths we can…

"What?" Clave saw the displays floating in the bow window. "This place is too strange for me. Those pictures make my eyes cross! I

Grad, have you got anything to take out the silver man?"

"Not unless he crawls into a motor. That's a starman's pressure suit."

"Well, he's killing all our allies."

"That spitgun only puts you to sleep and makes you feel wonderful. Doesn't matter to us, though. They're still out of action. Anthon, good timing. Get into a chair."

Anthon was panting; his crossbow was on line with the Grad's eyes. "You waited too long! That goddam silver—"

"Get into a chair and strap down! And tell me how many we've got left." The Grad was trying to watch all the displays at once. Carthers were disappearing over the trunk's horizon. Too many floated limp; some were being towed by others who hadn't been hit. The man in the pressure suit was hovering over the carm, firing darts.

The glazed look left Anthon's eyes. He worked himself into a chair. "We can't hurt him. I was the only one who even got to the carrier. The rest won't come anyway. They're afraid of it."

"We can't leave them."

The silver man darted down at the doors. The Grad pinched his fingers together. The silver man shied back as the doors closed in his face, then moved back into view in the dorsal display. Now he was gripping the nets on the hull.

"He's on the carm," said the Grad.

"Take off," said Anthon.

"Leave?"

"We can leave my citizens if we take the silver man with us. I've got spare jet pods coming."

"Good enough." The Grad's fingers tapped. The silver man was still hanging on the nets when the carm backed away from the trunk and started down.

Chapter Nineteen

The Silver Man

THE LAUNDRY VAT WAS A TALL GLASS CYLINDER. IT HUNG from the underside of the branch, from lines pounded into the black bark over Minya's head. Around it ran an extensive wickerwork platform woven from live spine branches. A layer of rocks beneath the vat supported a bed of coals. A pipe ran all the way from the treemouth reservoir to supply the water: an impressive achievement, had Minya not been too tired to appreciate it.

Minya and Ilsa stirred dirty clothing in a matrix of foaming water with a paddle two meters long. It took skill and fine attention. Left to itself, the laundry-soup would have foamed right out of the vat, clothing and all. The supervisor Haryet kept popping out to see how they were doing.

Minya wasn't feeling awkward yet, but there was the sense of a guest building inside her. Ilsa's pregnancy looked ludicrous, a bulge on a straight-edge. Like the others, she seemed to have adjusted to her new status with little difficulty. Once she had told Minys, "We know all our lives that the copsik ru

A chain of huts ran along the underside of the branch. Moat of the women preferred to stay inside. They weren't all pregnant. Some were nursing their erstwhile guests. They all had work: knitting, sewing, preparation of food to be cooked at the treemouth.

The quiet was broken by a hurried rustling.

Then four people burst from the tu

"You're all right." He was gasping. "Good. Minya. Stay under the branch. Don't let anyone…anyone else go wandering."

"We don't tend to. We're too awkward. I thought men weren't allowed…

"I'm not staying. Minya, it's both elevators and at least one man, they're falling from thirty klomters up, and we don't know just where they'll hit. I've got to warn the children in the school complex." He pointed a finger at the tip of her nose. "Stay here!" And he sprinted for the tu

If something happens, the Grad had said. Something was happening all right, but what? Would Dloris know?

Minya guessed where the supervisor would be. She moved down the line of huts and entered the last one as Dloris came through with Haryet. 'We've been counting," Dloris said. "Gwen's missing. Have you seen her? Three meters tall and pale as a ghost, with a year-old guest?"

"Not lately. What's happening?"

"Get those clothes out and drying and then put the fire out. Do you have lines? Good. Keep them handy." The two supervisors moved on.

Minya turned to Jayan and Ji

"No. Karal looked scared stiff."

"Is it war'?"

"Better stick to our task till we're sure," Ilsa said.

They pulled the clothing from the vat in a geid mass, manipulating it with poles. Some water remained. They inverted the vat and moved back while the water-glob flowed sluggishly out onto the fire. Live steam didn't rise fast enough in London Tree's feeble tide. It tended to expand in an invisible globe, scalding hot.

Minys had never seen that fire go out. Dioris must be expecting something drastic!

They continued to work. They set the laundry in the press and cranked two great wooden slabs together. Water squeezed out around the edges of the wad of clothing, then began to slide downward.

Something smashed through foliage, somewhere nearby.

They from Then Minya plunged into the branchiets with Jmny and Ilsa behind. They made their way toward the sound. Minya angled above where she thought it had stopped.

There, a trail of broken branchlets. She followed it down to the broken and twisted rempins of what had been a Navy officer. The corpse wore a sword, scabbarded, and a quiver that was still full, though the bow was missing.

"Now it's war," Minya said.

"We'll have to kill the supervisors," Ilsa said.

Minya jumped. "What?" It was as if a stone had spoken. "Never mind, you're right. I thought you were…I thought you'd given up."

Ilsa only shook her head.

West takes you in. In takes you east. At first the Grad held the bow window pointed straight down. They dropped smoothly…faster he swung the cairn to point west and fired aft jets to correct as it drifted away from the trunk.

His passengers were rigid with terror, save for Lawri, who was rigid with fury.

They still had a passenger on the hull.

Anthon's voice wanted to stutter. He wouldn't let it. "I want to point out that we could go back to Carther States now. We've got the silver man and the cairn. These copsik ru

That actually sounded sensible. The Grad said, "Clave?"

"Feed it to the tree."

Anthon said, "You want to kill some copsik ru

"I want to rescue them myself! I am the Qui

They are entitled to my protection." Clave spat the word: "Trade! They attacked us, we attacked them. We've got the carm and we'll have our people too. All right, Grad-Scientist — have you got an opinion?"

They were dropping too fast. The Grad swung the carm nosedown and fired forward jets. He said, "Nice of you to ask. We've got the Scientist's Apprentice and the silver suit and the only man alive who can fit into it. Maybe they would trade. We keep the carm."

"Never," said Lawri. "Trade with copsiks!"

Anthon and Clave looked at each other. The Grad said, "Never mind," and they laughed. Lawri's tone of voice said it all.