Страница 66 из 84
And in another: You don’t care, McGee. This is real. The dark. This place. It’s a womb for growing in.
So grow, McGee.
She scrambled along the earthen walls, found the food left for her and ate, raw fish, which had become a neutral taste to her, something she had learned to abide. Something light skittered over her knees and she knew it was an ariel begging scraps. She gave it the head and bit by bit, the offal and the bones.
God knows what disease I’ll take, the civilized part of her had thought, of muddy hands and raw fish. I’m stronger than I thought, she reckoned now. She had not reckoned a great deal about herself lately, here in the dark. I’m wiser than I was.
The ariel slithered away with a flick of its tail. That presaged something.
A gray came then. She heard it moving. She drew to the side of the passage in case it wanted through. It arrived with a whispering of its leathery hide against the earth, a caliban in quiet approach. It nosed at her; she patted the huge head and it kept nudging. Move, move. So she must.
She went with it, this caliban‑shepherd, up and up.
This was different. There had been no such ascent in her other wanderings. They were going out to the light. Have I failed? she wondered. Am I being turned out? But no Weird had tutored her, none had been near her in–she had lost track of the time.
Daylight was ahead, a round source of sun. She went more slowly now, to accustom her eyes, and the gray went before her, a sinuous shape moving like a shadow into what proved twilight, a riot of color in the sky.
But we have left the Towers, McGee thought, rubbing at her eyes. The river was before her. Somehow they had come out by the river, where caliban mounds were, beside the fisher nets.
I should find Elai, call the Base. How many days?
Something overshadowed her, on the ridge. She looked about, blinking in the light, with tears ru
Her gray had stayed. It offered her a stone, laying it near. She saw a nest of ariels, a dozen dragon‑shapes curled up in a niche in the bank, where stones had been laid. It was a strange moment, a stillness in the air. “Here I am,” she said, and the sound of her own voice dismayed her, who had not heard a voice in days. It intruded on the stillness.
An ariel wriggled out and offered her a stone. It stayed, flicking collar fringes, lifting its tiny spines.
She, squatted, took the stone and laid it down again.
It brought another, manic in its haste.
xxxix
204 CR, day 300
Message, R. Genley from transStyx, to Base Director’s office.
I am not receiving McGee’s regular reports. Should I come in?
Message, Base Director to R. Genley
Negative. Dr. McGee is still on special assignment.
Memo, Base Director to Security Chief
Refer all inquiries about Dr. McGee to me.
I am more than a little concerned about this prolonged silence from McGee. Prepare a list of options in this case.
Message, Base Director to Gehe
Request close surveillance of the Cloud River settlement. Relay materials to this office…
transStyx: Green Tower
“My father,” Jin said, in the sunlight, in the winter sun, when the wide fields of Green Tower lay plowed and vacant. Forest stretched about them to the east, the marsh to the west. The wind lifted Jin’s dark hair, blew it in webs; the light shone on him, on Thorn, lazy beside the downward access. “My father.” His voice was low and warm and his hand that had rested on the walls rested on Genley’s shoulder, drew him close, faced him outward as he pointed, a sweep about the land. “This is mine. This is mine. All the fields. All the people. All they make. And do you know, my father, when I took it into my hands I had one tower. This one. Look at it now. Look, Gen‑ley. Tell me what you see.”
There was a craziness in Jin sometimes. Jin played on its uncertainties, u
“Would you think,” Jin said, “that a man has tried to kill me today?”
It was not a joke. Genley saw that and the humor fell from his face. “When? Who?”
“Mes Younger sent this man. This was a mistake. Mes will learn.” Jin set both his hands on the rim of the wall, fists clenched. “It’s this woman, Gen‑ley. This woman.”
“Elai.”
“ MaGee.” Jin rounded on him, looked up at him, his face flushed with rage. “This co
Genley took in his breath. “I’ve warned Base about this.”
“They don’t listen to you.”
“I’ll file a complaint with them if you’ve got something definite I can say to them. I’ll make them understand.”
Jin stared up at him, a shorter man. His veins swelled; his nostrils were white. “What would they like to hear?”
“What she’s doing. They don’t know where she is right now. Do you?”
“They don’t know where she is. She’s with Elai. That’s where she is.”
“Tell me what she’s doing and I’ll tell them.”
“ No!” Jin flung his arm in a gesture half a blow, strode off toward Thorn. The caliban had risen, his collar erect. Jin turned back again, thrust out his arm. “No more com, Gen‑ley. My father, who gives me advice. I’m sending you to Parm. You. This Ma
“Let’s talk about this.”
“No talk.” He flung the arm northward, an extravagant gesture. “I’m going north to kill this man. This man who thinks I’m a fool. You go to Parm Tower. You think, you think, Genley, what this woman costs.”
He disappeared down the access. Thorn delayed, a cold, caliban eye turned to the object of the anger, then whipped after Jin.
Genley stood there drawing deep breaths, one after the other.
xl
204 CR, day 321
Cloud Towers
“MaGee,” said Elai.
The star‑man looked at her, met her eyes, and Elai felt the stillness there. The stillness spread over all the room and into her bones. Her people were there. There were calibans. They brought MaGee to her, this thin, hard stranger with loose, tangled hair, who wore robes and not the clothes she had worn, who could have worn nothing and lost none of that force she had.
But MaGee was not MaGee of the seashore, of the summer; and she was not the child.
“Go,” Elai said, to the roomful of her people. “All but MaGee. Go.”
They went, quietly, excepting Din.
“Out,” said Elai, “boy.”
Din went out. His caliban followed. Only Scar remained. And the grays.
“A man came from behind the wire,” said Elai. “Four days ago. We sent him away. He asked how you were.”
“I’ll have to call the Base,” MaGee said.
“And tell them about Calibans?”
MaGee was silent a long while. It became clear she would not answer. Elai opened her hand, dismissing the matter, trusting the silence more than assurances.
“No words,” said MaGee finally, in a hoarse, strange voice. “You knew that.”
Elai gestured yes, a steadiness of the eyes.
And MaGee picked it up. Every tiny movement. Or at least–enough of them.
“I want to go back to my room,” MaGee said. “There’s too much here.”
Go, Elai signed in mercy. In tenderness. MaGee left, quietly, alone.
204 CR, day 323
Message, E. McGee to Base Director
Call off the dogs. Reports of my death greatly exaggerated. Am writing report on data. Will transmit when complete.
204 CR, day 323
Message, Base Director to E. McGee