Silent Dances (34 page)

of the deadly battle that had been fought hours ago.

But then she saw strange hatching cloaks attached to the
nest
shelter. They

must belong to Kills-the-Ripper, and the male that Weaver had beaten. Not

trophies, they were hung to mark the days of grief that Taller's family would

have to mourn for the members of their flock that they'd been forced to kill.

Taller set down in the water without a splash, as Tesa cautiously hovered

the sled beside the platform and stepped onto the slick reeds. She intended

to carry the lightweight sled up to the platform, but then a small, cinnamon-

colored head popped out from the slitted doorway. Tesa dropped the sled in

the mud, stretching out her arms.

Wings outstretched, Sailor hurled himself down the ramp with such abandon

that he tumbled right
into
Tesa's shins. He picked himself up to flutter

against her legs, imploring her to feed him, brood him, and never leave

again.

Tesa plopped down, cross-legged, letting the happy tears flow, as Sailor

clambered into her lap. When she looked up, Weaver and Taller were

standing near, their angular faces close to her and Sailor. It was wonderful to

be home.

When she finally stood to follow them into the nest shelter, she remembered

to pull the sled out of the mud. As she propped it against the shelter's tule

mat walls, she glanced back at the cliff. There,
sitting at
its edge, watching

the last shreds of the sunset, were Meg and Thorn, yet even at this distance

Tesa could tell that Thorn wasn't looking toward the

166

horizon.
He was watching her. Hesitantly
,
she held out her hand
,
as

she
'
d once done as a child
,
and made the ASL I-love-you sign
.
Then
she stepped into the nest shelter, leaving the humans behind.

167

Why do children grow so fast?
Tesa wondered, watching Sailor preen the

long, black primaries of his fully grown wings.
He's almost
as
tall as his

father,
she marveled, recalling the tiny cinnamon chick that cuddled in her

lap only six months ago.

His color was more golden now, with white feathers peeking through. His

eyes were a stunning aquamarine, as they changed from blue to golden

yellow and the long, dark rapierlike bill seemed outsized for his face.

Every day his movements were becoming more graceful, his flying more

powerful. Tesa watched him with both admiration and dread, knowing that

soon it would be time for him to leave on his "flyaway," his rite of passage

into adulthood.

When he comes back-will I even be here?
she wondered. The human crew

expected to receive confirmation of the _Grus' status any day now. By the

time Sailor took his flyaway, the first of his people to have a close

relationship with a human, Earth would have a successful First Contact and

would have been voted full membership in the Cooperative League of

Systems.

Tesa wanted to be happy, but she couldn't.

168

She felt guilty,
but her departure from T
ri
nity was looming too close for

her to celebrate any victo
ri
es
.
She found herself understanding Bruce

'
s feelings.

She noticed Sailor laying his head along his back,
looking at her like the

child he still was despite his incongruously adult
body
, and her conce

rn
s slid off like so many dream shadows.
"Let's
go flying
,"
he signed,
plaintively.

"Without
Taller and Weaver
?"
she asked
. "We
should wait."

"We'll
go by ourselves."

A month ago he wouldn't step into the reeds unless he could see one of

them,
but now he only wanted to be with Tesa. Soon
,
he'd go without

her, as well. He treated her sometimes as a pa
re
nt
,
sometimes as a

coho
rt,
because of her smaller size. Some nights, as they slept side by

side
,
and he
re
sted his long neck across her, she
'
d remember Szu-yi
'

s wa
rn
ing. She couldn
'
t imagine him leaving her behind, and not

loving her when he
re
tu
rn
ed
.
Or her not being there at all.

Sailor was distracted by something swimming around his legs. There was a

flash of blue and silver,
and the sudden jab of his sleek head
,
and then a

moment of wrestling with a fish that seemed much too big for him to

swallow
.
In a moment it was gobbled down
,
headfirst
. "I'll
go alone,"

he threatened, while the bulge in his throat slid downward.

"You'd better
not," she wa
rn
ed.

He gave her a one-eyed look,
then sta
rt
ed running
,
stretching his

wings
,
finally his legs lifted up
,
trailing water.

He's bluffing,
thought Tesa. No, this time he was really going, just

because he could
.
She tu
rn
ed her sled on so fast it almost left without
her, and flopping onto her stomach across the flat flyer
,
she quickly

pulled up beside him.
"Your
father will kill us," she signed
,
but he
couldn't answer in the air. All she could do was follow him-and enjoy

herself.

Tesa activated the shields that protected her from the wind, set up the

passive re
straint field
,
and called up her mapping g
ri
d, set flush on
the sled
.
She knew where they were headed.

Just as Thorn had predicted,
Sailor
'
s flights usually ended up in Black

Feather
'
s ter
ri
to
ry,
to see if his brother's group had retu
rn
ed from
their annual southe
rn
migration. Today was no different as they

banked over Black Feather
's river.

"They're
not back yet
,"
Sailor signed as soon
as
they'd alighted on the
bank of the wide
ri
ver
.
The meande
ri
ng water

169

way, edged on its opposite bank by a dense forest
,
played host to

many avians
,
but, at the moment
,
no Grus. Sailor
'
s whole body spoke
of his disappointment.

"
Well, it was a nice flight
,"
Tesa signed consolingly.
"Look!"
Sailor
pointed to a group of squat
-
legged birds, who carried comical
,

flapping pouches on their long lower bills.
They
were "Travellers
,"

ungainly avians who were adventurous explorers
--
the Johnny

Appleseeds of Trinity
.
They carried genetic material in their pouches to

seed barren waters.

"Black Feather,"
Sailor signed admiringly
, "
follows the Travellers
.
They
know the best routes to
eve
ry
where
.
If they're here, it won
'
t be long
before he will be, too."

As Sailor grew,
Tesa had lea
rn
ed that the Grus could converse with

many of the World
'
s beings. Signs were involved, some body

movements or gestures, and occasionally vocalizations. She recorded

it all on her voder
,
but this cluttered up her files and slowed its ability to
translate the Aquila vocalizations she'd collected from her
"
study

nests."

Weaver felt that Sailor'
s aptitude for the World
'
s languages was greater

than her other children
'
s had been
,
because of Tesa
'
s influence
.
The
young woman taught Sailor some American Sign Language and Plains

Indian Sign
-
a language more adaptable for him since it required no

facial exp
re
ssions
.
Sailor eagerly lea
rn
ed those "un-Worldly signs."

"Well," Sailor signed cheerfully,
determined to make the best of their t
ri
p,

"we may as well get something to eat." Tesa g
ri
nned
. "
Anything
special in mind?"

"How about black nuts?"
he signed
. "
They grow at the edge of that
forest
."
He pointed farther west with his bill. Tesa was familiar with that
forest
.
The trees there dwarfed

Eart
h
'
s Sequoias and we
re
so wide that it took minutes to walk

around them
.
One of her Aquila study nests was located the
re
. Over

the months she
'
d watched the Aquila pair finish their
nest and lay a

single egg. As Sailor'
s adult feathers began to come in, that egg had

finally hatched
.
Unlike the Grus, this chick was helpless, its legs too

soft to even suppo
rt
its own weight
,
and its black-tipped predator's bill
was constantly open in endless screams whenever it was awake
.
Its

only activities seemed to be eating and sleeping in a bo
ri
ng, repetitive

cycle.

Even her translation program seemed redundant.
Eve
ry
thing the voder

repeated was either untranslatable or involved hunting or flying
.
It was

all becoming a sad letdown.

170

The only interesting thing that had happened re
garding Aquila while

Sailor was growing
-
or actually,
hadn't
happened-
was that ever since
the esco
rt
flock had been attacked, the Aquila had not been seen

again.

"This is the best season for black nuts."
Sailor
'
s signs snapped Tesa out
of her musings. "We could take some home."

Even though the big raptors nested in that forest, Tesa an
d Sailor would be

in less danger there
.
The Aquila preferred to attack in open areas near

water
,
since it was hard to maneuver those tremendous wings around

huge trees.

Tesa hopped up onto her sled. "
Let's go. I'm starved!" Miles from Black

Feather
'
s roost site, Sailor and Tesa found the heavily laden trees
.

Greedily Sailor wolfed down small, dark nuts, as Tesa easily cracked

the pape
ry
shells and enjoyed the rich
,
sweet ke
rn
els
.
They collected
four mesh bags of nuts while stuffing themselves on the delicious

nutmeats.

While they
were eating
,
several large animal shapes slipped in
an
d out
of the shadows
,
sharing the trees' bounty with them. There were blue-antlered
Leaf-
Eaters, some small c
an
is-form predators
, an
d the ever
-

present avians
.
Once, a flock of small, gold avi
an
s erupted from the
ground
,
sta
rt
ling the two f
ri
ends,
an
d they looked up quickly
.
Deep
within the copse of trees, ambling along the nut
-
strewn ground
,
was
the ominous red
an
d white ro
an
Tree Ripper.

"Rippers are
n't much for conversation," Tesa remembered Taller

saying as the two stood silently still while the ferocious, temperamental

killer lumbered by, sampling the nuts as she went
.
The great bearlike

omnivore would
'
ve dw
ar
fed the g
re
at Kodiak be
ar, an
d Tesa had
sta
re
d at it in awe and
terror,
wonde
ri
ng if even the monstrous cave
bears of Earth's past had ever been that big
,
with claws that long, or

teeth that sharp. The huge p
re
dator ate her fill
,
then shambled on.

"Are
n't you full yet?" Tesa finally complained, reclining on a mossy

spot free of nuts. She was watching the suns' rays slant through the

tops of the impossibly high t
re
es
,
wondering which one held her

study nest
.
She had a sudden, sharp memo
ry
of Dr
.
Rob saying
"

maybe you could tame one, like the old falconers did." She laughed
.

Wouldn't Taller love
that?

Sailor daintily wiped his face on his back. "
I'm full now. Maybe we c
an