The Integral Trees

Minya stopped and looked out through a screen of branchiets.

The supervisors had found Gwen. Haryet was scolding her as they led her toward the huts. Haryet was second-generation copsik, shorter than Minya; she looked tiny beside her very pregnant captive.

They'll have heard us coming Minya thought. Ji

Minya emerged behind Haryet and stabbed her.

Gwen turned with her baby in her arms and shrieked. Dloris whirled and stared. Perhaps this place of mothers and babies had given the supervisor a false sense of safety. She reacted slowly. Before she could reach her truncheon, Ji

Dioris flipped forward. Ji

"Wait," she said. "Wait."

"My child will not be born a copsik!" Minya screamed and lunged.

Dloris danced backward. The tu

Dioris dropped her truncheon. "Don't kill me. Please."

"Dioris, tell us what's happening."

"Carther States is all over the trunk. I don't know who's wi

"Have they got the carm?"

"The cairn?" Dioris showed nothing but astonishment.

They tied her with line. Ilsa wanted to do more; Minya knew Dioris too well to allow it. She wouldn't have killed Haryet either, if…if.

Gavving watched the carm descend in fire. Patry was talking to his box, too far away for Gavving to hear; but the Navy officer looked furious and frightened.

He caught Gavving watching him. "You! All of you! Stay where you are! Move and you'll be shot. Do you understand? Amy, take cover."

The two Navy men disappeared into the foliage. Presently Alfin said,

"We're bait."

"There's only two."

Horse asked, "Do you really think your friends have the carm? What will they do with it?"

"Rescue us," Gavving said with more assurance than he felt. "Alfin, when it comes down, jump for the doors and hope they open."

Alfin snorted. "You've got to be out of your mind. Look at that thing, you want to ride in it?"

"I'll ride anything to get out of here, if I can take Minya."

"You don't have Minya. Listen, Gavving. I remember you with your eyes red and half-closed and crying in rivers. They make their own weather here! Nobody starves, nobody goes thirsty. It's a good, healthy tree with a good crop of earthilfe. I've got a responsible position—"

"You like it here?"

"Oh…treefodder. Maybe I don't really like it anywhere. I took orders in Dalton-Qui

"I do." It was Horse who bad spoken. "Gavving, cede me Alfin's place."

The carm was falling straight at them. Those had better be friends aboard! He could only die fighting if they were not. He told Horse, "It's not my decision. Just do what I do, and we'll see what Clave says."

"Done."

"Alfin. Last chance—"

"Why?"

Alfin met his eyes. "There's tide here."

Gwen's shriek of terror had started her baby screaming. He was quieter now. Gwen's awareness was in the hands that stroked and patted the child. There was none in her eyes.

The conspirators ignored Gwen as she ignored them. Ilsa led her back, once, when she tried to return to the huts. They didn't want Gwen talking to the others.

Jayan asked, "Ilsa, are you sure you want in on this?"

Ji

The branch shuddered with the force of a tremendous blow. Ilsa said,

"The second elevator. Karal said two."

Jayan said, "Minya, you've talked to the Grad. What did he say?"

"The Grad said to go up. He'll try to capture the carm. If he can't get the carm—"

"Then he's dead," Ilsa concluded, "and all the Carther States warriors are going to die, and we'll never get loose at all. So he's got to have the carm. He's got the carm and as many Carther States warriors as he can get aboard, and he's trying to reach us. Who goes with us?"

Nobody suggested a name. Jayan said, "We're the only new copsiks. Let the rest run their own revolt."

"You can't go up."

They turned, surprised. Dloris's eyes shied from their potentially lethal attention. She repeated doggedly, "You can't go up. The tu

"Then what?"

"Stay here till your friends come for you."

Ilsa shook her head. "The children's complex? Karal must have the upper reaches evacuated by now."

"Ilsa, it's big and complicated and it doesn't co

"What's your stake in this, Dloris?"

"Let me live. Don't tell anyone I helped."

"Why?"

"I wanted to escape once myself. Now I've been a supervisor too long. Somebody would be sure to want me dead. But you can't go up. Stay here and wait."

They looked at each other. Minya said, "You did that. For thirty years? No. I think I know what we have to do."

The Grad tapped at the motor controls…tricky. They had to be used in pairs and clusters or they'd spin the carm. He dropped into the foliage several meters from the platform, with a horrendous crashing, and opened the doors at once.

Three men jumped toward the door. Gavving gripped an older man's arm. The third man wore blue, and he was swinging a sword. Debby took careful aim and put a crossbow bolt through him.

Gavving and the stranger pulled themselves inside. The older man was gasping. "Get us moving," Gavving said. "This is Horse. He wants to join Qui

A feathered harpoon ricocheted through the doors. The Grad closed them. He said, "I left Minya and Jayan in the pregnant women's compound—"

"What? Minya?"

"She's carrying a guest, Gavving. Your child. And men aren't permitted there." Later the Grad would tell bim the truth…part of it. For now, for witnesses and the record, Minya is carrying her husband's child. "Ilsa's there too, Anthon. I told Minya to gather them all and go up. We'll have to wait for them."

Clave nodded. Gavving stared with open mouth. He said, "Grad, don't you know the men's tu

"What?"

"They'd have to go all the way to the fin or the treemouth, and back!

Or break trail-Grad, they're sure to be captured!"

Clave had a hand on Gavving's shoulder. "Calm down, boy. Grad, where would they go?"

The Grad tried to think. It was Horse who spoke. "Not the fin. That's Navy. Maybe nobody would notice some extra women at the Commons or the schools. Or maybe they'd just stay where they are and wait."

"Ji

The carm lifted tail-first from the tuft, leaving fires in its wake. Lawri screamed, "You're setting the tree on fire!"