The Smoke Ring

Minya said, “We worked so hard to make this our home. Gavving knows how close we came to dying. How can he risk what we’ve got?”

“We seem to be agreed,” Clave said briskly. “Well? What do we do about it?”

Lawri and Jeffer were missing di

Resting, relaxed for the first time in many days, Lawri plucked foliage and put it in Jeffer’s mouth. He talked around it, indistinctly. “Does this remind you of being young?”

She lost her smile. “No.”

He leered. “Little London Tree boys and girls never snuck off into the foliage — ?”

She shook her head violently. “It isn’t like that for a girl in London Tree. When boys get old enough, they don’t need us. They go to the in tuft. Copsik women belong to any male citizen. Jeffer, you know that much!”

“I should. That’s how Mark got Minya pregnant, before we got loose.”

She changed position to lie along his length. “If he did. Any man can father a dwarf.”

“Even Rather doesn’t believe that.”

“Bother him?”

“Yeah…But women had children in London Tree, didn’t they? And married?”

“Yes, if we were willing to act like copsiks ourselves. How else could we compete? I would’ve been some man’s copsik if I wanted to make babies. So I never made babies.”

Jeffer looked into her eyes as if seeing her for the first time. “Are you glad I came?”

She nodded. Perhaps he couldn’t see her blushing in the near-darkness.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

That was a stupid question. Knowing how she needed him, he’d use his advantage to win arguments! “This wasn’t what we came to talk about.”

“Did we come to talk?”

“What did you find on the burned tree?”

“We didn’t keep any secrets. — That’s right, you weren’t there when Booce was telling us what we had. Well, we got a pot full of charred stuff — honey, he said — and a metal thing for cutting wood, and hooks…miscellaneous stuff. And the metal pipe. Everything else that burned — I’ve forgotten what he called it all, but it can all be replaced, except the — what did Booce call it? The sikenwire.”

“I want to go to the Clump,” Lawri said.

“Me too. Clave would never let both Scientists go.”

Jeffer kissed her cheek. “Let’s wait till the last minute and then fight about it.”

“What about the sikenwire?”

“We’ll think of something. Do you think Clave will let us take the CARM?”

“…No.”

She felt him shrug. “Okay. We go as loggers?” She nodded (their foreheads brushed) and he said, “I’d guess Clump citizens will all look like jungle giants. We should have a few. Anthon and Debby’ll come. A couple of the Serjents for guides. Defenses…we wouldn’t want to risk the CARM in the Clump, but we could take the silver suit.”

“Wrong. A lot of citizens don’t want anything changed. Clave thinks we’re too close to the Clump already. He wants to take us farther west. Mark agrees with him.”

“Yeah, I’ve talked to Mark. Treefodder. Without him we can’t use the silver suit…Lawri? Clave wants to move us west?”

“What are you thinking?”

“We don’t know enough yet. Forget it. Look what you missed when you were a little girl…”

Whatever the disagreements now roiling through Citizens Tree, there was at least this bone of consensus: they all wanted to fly.

The Serjent girls were willing. From branchwood sticks and from cloth that was made on the looms below the branch, they made wings. Karilly worked quietly and skillfully and without words. Mishael and Carlot explained as they went, and corrected the mistakes of the children who emulated them. The work went fast. Citizens would wear their old tunics and pants for half a year longer, for cloth was not made quickly; but twenty-four wings were ready within twelve days.

Jeffer took Mishael, Minya, Gawing, and eight of the older children to the midpoint via the lift. Other children ran with zeal in the treadmill, knowing that theirs would be the next flight.

Jeffer had chosen with some care. These were the children who had not shied back from crossing to the pond on the day of the firetree. Yet there had been lines to cling to then. Today there was only bark, and some of them clung to that.

Rather flew, and was instantly in love with wings. Jill looked like she was facing death, but when wings were bound to her ankles and Rather was already in the sky, she flew. Mishael served as instructor. Jeffer learned how to kick, how to turn. When the sky was filled with winged adults and children, the rest gulped hard and loosed their hold on the bark and flew.

They were in the sky for one full circle of the sun. The adults had their hands full herding them back to the lift.

Arth made a game of it, fleeing across the sky until Jeffer and Gawing closed in on him and pulled his wings off.

The sun was rising up the east before they had the children rounded up.

Then Jeffer sent the others down without him. He told Minya, “I want to do some maintenance. Start the lift again after you’re down.”

“Kendy for the State. Hello, Scientist.”

“Hello, Kendy.”

“How are your refugees?”

“Four of the Serjents recovered. One of the girls, Karilly, looks okay but she doesn’t talk.”

“Shock. She may recover. When may I see them?”

“Kendy, I wanted to give Mishael a tour of the CARM. The Chairman vetoed that. He’s afraid they’ll try to steal the CARM.”

“Nonsense. What do the rest of your tribe think?”

“We’re split down the middle. Half of us want to go see what’s in the Clump. They’ve got a place…the Market?…where we could get anything we want. The Serjents told us about it.”

“And?”

“The Chairman is scared spitless of the Clump. He thinks we’re too close now. Some of the others feel the same way. Jayan and Ji

“Good. How do you feel about this, Jeffer?”

“I want to see the Clump. Booce told me they’ve got something they call the Library, but it sounds like a CARM autopilot. I want to scan their cassettes. Kendy, I’m doing what I can. I just took some of them flying. They like that. Maybe they’ll start wondering what else they’re missing.”

“I remember Clave. He leads his citizens where they want to go. Call a council. Force your citizens to make a decision.”

“What good does that do us?”

“If you lose the vote, you’ll know where you stand. Then make Clave set a date for moving the tree. Decide what you need and who you need. Is there any chance you can talk Mark around?”

“None.”

“The Serjents told you how to go about setting up a logging enterprise. Tell me.”

The children slept on, exhausted by their flying. Gavving was making an early breakfast on a slice of smoked dumbo meat. He said, “The Admiralty has earthlife plants.”

“We’ve lived without them for fourteen years,” Minya said sleepily.

“We lived without lifts and the CARM for longer than that. It was because we didn’t know.”

“The Admiralty has never touched us. We wouldn’t know it exists, except that Booce tells us so. But you want to know more. Aren’t these matters more properly discussed in council?”

Gavving looked closely at his wife. “You looked like this fourteen years ago, when you were trying to kill me. The whole tuft is like that. There hasn’t been fighting like this since the War of London Tree!”

“I haven’t forgotten London Tree. We made a home here. Any change is for the worse.”

“Dear, are you sorry they came?”

“No!” Minya said with some force. She was fully awake now. “There aren’t enough of us. We all feel that.”

“Lawri the Scientist talks about the gene pool being too small—”