Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 (81 page)

Tallen looked across at Bennel, but Six couldn’t read his expression. Bennel, in turn, met Tallen’s gaze, before turning to Six with one of his rare smiles. “I should like that.”

Tallen was silent for a moment or two before he, too, inclined his head.

Grace cleared her throat.
“Ledin has to go back to Kwaide for now, of course, and Arcan needs me on Valhai for a while. But then we shall be coming to live on Xiantha too.” She was silent for a short time, and her eyes went to Tallen with a worried expression. She looked towards Ledin. “We want our children to be brought up there.”

There was a general nod of fairly disinterested agreement, until something about the stillness of Grace finally percolated through to the rest of those present. One by one, their heads turned in her direction.

“Grace!” said Diva. “You’re not ... that is ... I mean ...”

Both Grace and Ledin suddenly allowed themselves to look pleased, and they nodded simultaneously.

“Yes!”

“We are,” said Ledin. “I mean, she is. We just didn’t know when—” his eyes shifted to Tallen, and he looked apologetic, “—how to tell you. After Petra, I mean.”

Tallen shook his head. “Petra is gone, and perhaps the next generation will be able to make the changes we haven’t. Who knows?” He managed a thin smile. “I congratulate you both.” Then he stepped back out of their line of sight so that they could receive the felicitations of the others.

Arcan looked pleased. “I am happy for you, Grace,” he said softly.

“Thank you.”

Six touched knuckles with Ledin and then slapped him on the back.

Diva was hugging Grace tightly. “Congratulations! Do you know what you are having yet? Or is it too early?”

Grace touched her stomach lightly, and shook her head. “It is too early yet. But, whatever the baby is, I would like him or her to be Xianthan.”

“Then he or she will be a playmate for Raven.” Diva gave her friend another tight hug. “I am so glad for you both.”

The visitor spun. “How is the baby born?”

Arcan explained, and the visitor paled. “No!”

The orthogel nodded sagely. “I know. I could hardly believe it myself when I found out. Like something out of prehistory, isn’t it?”

The visitor shuddered and looked at Grace with extreme sympathy. “I am so sorry for your future distortion.”

Grace giggled. “Thank you, but all women give birth that way.”

The visitor puffed out. “No they don’t. Diva didn’t.”

Diva’s eyebrows met. “That wasn’t my choice,” she snapped.

“You mean you would have preferred to give birth like that?”

“Yes! No!”

Arcan shimmered. “And then they have to take care of the offspring for at least the following 12 years!”

“Twelve years!” The visitor sounded aghast. “I don’t know how they do it!”

Six narrowed his eyes. “And what do the Dessites do, Visitor?”

“They put out a bud, attach it to the sea floor, and leave it.”

Ledin raised one eyebrow. “That would certainly have its advantages,” he admitted. Then he gave a yelp. The woman he intended to spend the rest of his life with had just stepped on his foot. “Hey, Grace! What did you do that for?”

But both Grace and Diva were glaring at him. He looked alarmed.

Six stepped up bravely to defend his friend. “Never mind, Ledin. We Kwaidian warriors are used to adversity. A small baby will present no problem.”

Ledin winced as he tried to move two of his toes, and kept his eyes warily on his wife. “It’s not the baby I’m worried about.”

Six nodded with deep fellow-feeling. “Tell me about it,” he said, eyeing his own consort’s flashing eyes dubiously. A brilliant thought occurred to him. “You know what? They should cover this in combat training.”

Then he ducked hastily as a waterpack whizzed across the bridge. It impacted on the wall, about two feet to his right, narrowly missing Ledin.

“Hang it all, Diva!” Six exclaimed with an expression of disgust. “Can’t you do any better than that?”

There was the menacing, metallic sound of a sword being drawn from a scabbard, and Six withdrew from the bridge rather precipitously, holding his hands up in mock surrender, and grinning from ear to ear.

The End

That is the end of the
Ammonite Stars
Omnibus. The next to come in the series is
The Namura Stone
(Book 6).

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ISBN(mobi): 978-84-617-1202-1

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