Power Play (27 page)

The admiral-general and his aides were the only members of CIS who did leave. But then they wouldn’t have understood how important today’s songs would be. The Hepatode and the Deglatite might not have been able to eat or drink, but they each found a corner from which to watch the curious antics of the Petaybeans.

Marmion had arrived sometime during the investiture and had much to regale her friends about certain “loose ends” she had seen were tied in appropriate knots prior to her return.

“Macci was all but skint, despite his excellent salary with Rothschild’s,” she told Yana, Diego, and Bunny. “Actually, it was Charmion, of all people, who found out that he’s a gambling addict. He gambles for and on anything that anyone will take book on. And you know how some species regard betting as the only honorable form of entertainment. He was so deeply in debt that when—oh dear, it was Dinah again who made the contact. How is she?”

“Much better. Remarkably so, in fact. Except for her hair, which she calls her new platinum-blond look, she looks as good as she did before the cave—better, in fact. Happier, certainly. Anyplace else, people would resent her, but apparently in Tanana Bay she’s a bit of a celebrity, and thoroughly enjoying it. Chumia says she is writing a great song about her pirating days and how Petaybee got the best of her. And men who want to replace Namid are turning up on the doorstep from as far away as Kathmandu, but Dinah doesn’t seem too eager to go rushing off. I think she enjoys having family near too much and having the chance to find out who she is without always having to scramble for something. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my word on the safe passage I guaranteed her and her crew, but I did tell her all along I couldn’t speak for the planet.”

“What happened to all of them was no fault of yours, Yana. It was a direct result of being who and what they were. In spite of everything, it was the good part of Dinah’s nature that preserved her.”

“The planet as the ultimate character-building experience, eh? I suppose so. Still, a bit rough at times,” Yana said. It wasn’t so much that she felt any remorse toward the pirates as that her own honor was important to her. Dinah seemed to bear no ill will, however, and Yana had quite forgiven her now that she was so changed. “Muktuk and Chumia are even letting her hunt on her own these days. So Macci was the victim of his own excesses?”

“And willing to clear a few debts by leading us into danger.” The set of Marmion’s lips suggested that she wasn’t quite as forgiving as Yana. “Ples, I’m relieved to say, was totally innocent. Her only sin was wanting to show him off without investigating his background thoroughly. Though how he managed to delude the Rothschild Personnel Bureau is a matter under the strictest scrutiny, I can assure you. Asian Esoteric and Exotic Company is having all their activities investigated to see if there have been other ecologically unsound ‘harvests.’ It’s been quite exciting, really. But I’m so glad to be back here!” She tightened her hand on Namid’s arm. “If you simply have to stay and talk every day to Petaybee, I guess I’ll just have to ask permission to immigrate.”

“Oh, we’ll have to inquire if that’s possible,” Sean said with a very serious expression.

“Sean!” his wife chided him. And then he laughed, giving her an affectionate kiss on the cheek, and grinned at Marmion and Namid.

“As if we dared take Namid away from his educational duties with Petaybee!” Then he pointed. “Ah, the best is about to begin.”

After the custom of latchkay singings on Petaybee, Buneka Rourke accompanied Diego Metaxos to the dais.

“Diego has a song to sing,” she said with more than her customary dignity, and the assembled Petaybeans settled down to listen.

Diego’s song was different from any other Petaybean song. It was neither a chant nor an old Irish melody with new words, but a tune all his own, with Irish influences and Spanish and the beat of the Inuit as well, but also hints of the music of the other peoples of Petaybee and parts beyond. It spoke of growth and change, pain and discovery, the pain that had accompanied the awakening of the planet, the near-death of his father, the actual deaths of others, the cost of too much change too quickly to Petaybee, but how good a thing the change could be if it altered someone as it had Dinah O’Neill. And lastly, it spoke of his fear of change if it meant losing Bunny. He concluded with a hope that he could be like the planet and let the changes awaken himself and his beloved to lives limitless in possibility for adventure and love.

There was a chorus to this song, with its repetitive theme of change and growth, and on every chorus, the voices of the people were joined by another voice, a big, melodious, joyous voice that contained all of theirs in a resonance of its own.

The kaleidoscope turns

The patterns change

All we learn

That once was strange

Some will go and some will stay

Some will cling, some turn away

Some will wither some will grow

New friends come and old friends go

Seeds and saplings, kit and pup

Some grow down and some grow up

Some fly away and some touch down

While Petaybee planet spins around . . .

The “around” echoed particularly long and happily throughout the rest of the latchkay.

EPILOGUE

Oddly enough, it was the word “come” invading her dreamless sleep as an undeniable imperative that woke Yana. And the rumbling purr of the orange cat, Marduk, unexpectedly sitting right beside her head on the pillow. She felt the muscles in her belly shifting, not painfully, but definitely contracting, and she woke Sean. The cat jumped off the bed and stood imperiously by the door—as if she hadn’t guessed what needed to be done.

“It’s time. I’ve been called,” she said.

He was up and half-dressed before she could swing her legs to the side of the bed. But then, advanced pregnancy had slowed her once-quick, precise movements to awkward fumblings, which she sometimes resented.

Sean grabbed up the fine polar-bear rug that Loncie had given her and threw it about her shoulders. He picked up the satchel that contained the necessary items and opened the door.

Nanook was there, and Clodagh had her foot on the bottom step.

“I wondered . . .” she began, smiling in the dawn light up at Yana.

When Yana and Sean reached the ground—the path to the cave well trampled in preparation for this moment—Clodagh moved to her other side. “Do you feel like walking?” Clodagh asked.

“It’s good for me.”

“Yes, but is it what you feel like doing?”

“Well, I have to walk as far as the cave, don’t I?”

“Yes,” Sean said. “That you must do.”

Looking sideways, Yana saw that Sean’s lips were tight against the anxiety he was feeling.

“It’s okay, Sean,” she said gently, patting his hand. “It’s really okay. Hell, we know I’ve never been fitter.”

“But you are
not,
so Sister Iggierock says, in your first youth.”

“Iggierock has learned a great deal,” Clodagh said with a chuckle.

And then they were in the cave, which began to glow, a soft lambent shine, welcoming, soothing, and the little twitch of apprehension that Yana had so vocally denied eased.

I believe in you,
she told the planet.
I believe in you.

“I believe in you,”
the planet echoed reassuringly.

“Oh, I believe,” Sean said beside her. He must have thought the planet was speaking to him, she reflected.

They reached the spot that had been previously picked, and the bedding and other necessities were there. They had no need of the extra lights, for the cavern was radiant.

Clodagh helped Yana slip out of her flannel nightgown, and then the first of the strong contractions caught her.

“Breathe as you’ve been taught,” Clodagh said, waiting until the contraction had eased before she led Yana to the water’s edge.

Sean dove in and broke the water as a selkie, coming to the two women, both of whom were now in the warm comfort of the water. Yana slipped down into it and found the ledge that seemingly had been created to cushion her, while Clodagh made herself secure just below Yana.

The mist began to rise then, but only on the ground behind them. Yana inhaled deeply of the scented, comforting moist air. The next contraction was harder, yet she didn’t feel it as “hard,” only as a working of muscles. She could relax. Petaybee was all around her, and her husband was as he wished to be at this propitious moment in his life, this miraculous moment of hers, and Clodagh would see to everything healing as she always did.

A furred face stroked hers from out of the mist and she laughed when she realized that it was Nanook—yes, and there was Marduk, too, and the gods knew how many more purring mightily in the cave, for it echoed of
purr
.

Another massive contraction came, which Yana, for one second apprehensive, thought much too soon in a normal delivery. Then she found herself wanting to push and panted as she’d been taught.

“It’s much too soon for this stage,” she said between pantings.

“Well, you never know,” Clodagh said comfortingly. “We’ve been here longer than you might realize.”

“But we—just—got—here.”

Clodagh chuckled again and then was very busy between Yana’s legs underwater. The water itself was bright, so Yana was able to view her upheld legs on Clodagh’s shoulders and know that the woman was submerged. Sean’s furred flipper hand was on her knee and then there was a mighty convulsion and Clodagh came up out of the water, holding her hands up, and Yana saw a silvery furred baby body in the capable palms.

“Your son, Shongili,” Clodagh cried, and the cats gave voice to the most musical caterwaul possible.

“Oh my God!” Yana’s body wanted to repeat its previous confusion.

A naked furry wet body was thrust into Yana’s hands as Clodagh ducked under the water again while Yana, consumed with a second mighty pushing, realized she was delivering a second selkie child.

“How did that happen?” she exclaimed as Clodagh surfaced with yet another squirming baby, this one already squalling at its lack of precedence.

“You’ve a fine family all in the one go,” Clodagh said, water sheeting off her smiling face.

“Did you know I’d be having twins?” Yana exclaimed, half of her appalled that that information had been withheld, while the other half of her was marveling at the perfection of her selkie son, who, minutes old as he was, was already altering his form to human now that he was out of the water.

Clodagh gave a snort, hauling herself and the baby out of the water. “And you as big as a whale and didn’t guess?”

“How could I guess? I’ve never been around pregnant women. Oh, he’s gorgeous . . . oh, oh . . .” Suddenly Yana realized her son was completing his alteration to a totally human baby. Then Clodagh was holding her selkie daughter out of the water and the same phenomenon was occurring on that precious body. Sean Selkie was embracing her and the children, his silver eyes wide with wonder and blinking water.

They made a tableau then, mother, father, children, and midwife, selkie and human. Then all were totally human as Sean lifted himself out of the water. Now Yana realized why the planet had insisted on this birthplace and how easy it had made what could have been a very difficult session for her. Petaybee was learning, too. Namid said the thing to remember about a planet only a bit over two hundred years old was that it, too, was a baby. Every time it had a conversation or experience, it learned, grew, expanded its potential. As he probed for its secrets, it had questions of its own for him on the nature of what lay beyond it.

By the time the afterbirth had been expelled, Yana was able to emerge from the water, flat-bellied and lithe again.

Holding both arms out in gratitude, she thanked Petaybee, her words coming out almost as a latchkay song:

“Thank you for the birthing. It was painless.

Thank you for my strong son and my fine daughter.

Thank you for their changing.

Thank you for everything.”

“You are welcome, Yanaba. You are welcome.”

Yana couldn’t help grinning. Twice welcome for bearing twins? This planet moved in mysterious ways— and what had it in mind for her children?

“Welcome!”

Books by Anne McCaffrey

Decision at Doona

Dinosaur Planet

Dinosaur Planet Survivors

Get Off the Unicorn

The Lady

Pegasus in Flight

Restorree

The Ship Who Sang

To Ride Pegasus

Nimisha’s Ship

Pegasus in Space

THE CRYSTAL SINGER BOOKS

Crystal Singer

Killashandra

Crystal Line

THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN
^®
BOOKS

Dragonflight

Dragonquest

The White Dragon

Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern

Nerilka’s Story

Dragonsdawn

The Renegades of Pern

All the Weyrs of Pern

The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall

The Dolphins of Pern

Dragonseye

The Masterharper of Pern

The Skies of Pern

By Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough:

Powers that Be

Power Lines

Power Play

With Jody Lynn Nye:

The Dragonlover’s Guide to Pern

Edited by Anne McCaffrey:

Alchemy and Academe

Curious, ’Cita watched the newcomers climb out of the shuttle. All of them were much too warmly dressed in layers and layers of fur and down, mittens, boots, coats, mufflers, and hats.

One of them pointed at ’Cita. “There’s one! An aboriginal Petaybean!” He slogged forward while the others hung back. “You there! You are an indigenous native of this glorious being upon which we stand?”

“Well,” ’Cita began, “I guess so.”

The man’s nervous smile broadened into a wide grin and he beckoned to his companions. “She is! Come along, it’s all right.”

“Brother Shale, you’ve been too hasty, as usual, and frightened her.” The speaker pulled back her hood to reveal a shaven head. She stuck out a hand. “Hello, honey. I’m Sister Igneous Rock. Take us to your leader.”