Silent Dances (45 page)

Good Eyes eased onto her knees,
coming alarmingly close to the

fledgling
. "
I wouldn
'
t keep you from your mother, Thunder
.
When you
can fly
,
we'll
re
tu
rn
to your fo
re
st, we'll find her
,
and she
'
ll teach you
what you need to know."

Sailor'
s head lifted in surp
ri
se
.
Did she mean that?

"All I ask,"
Good Eyes signed
, "
is that you help us communicate with
your people
.
That
'
s all I've ever wanted. Your mother wants it, too.

She's t
ri
ed to talk to me, but I couldn
'
t understand her. Now
,
you can
tr
anslate for us. If you will."

The chick seemed to consider this for a moment,
then tu
rn
ed her back

and consumed the fish.

"Thunder will take to the air any day now," Sailor signed as the

fledgling stood on the lake
'
s sho
re,
beating her wings.

"I know,"
Tesa replied wea
ri
ly
. "
I know
."
She sat at the mouth of the
cave
,
obse
rv
ing the young avian
'
s powerful wings, wings that would
car
ry
the raptor away either today or tomorrow.

"
What have you decided
?"
Sailor asked.

Mostly, I've decided that this was no summer tipi camp. It's been the toughest

six weeks I can ever remember,
Tesa thought. Her clothes were in

tatters
.
Being in the water now meant bone chilling cold
.
She'd lost so
much weight on their wild, low fat diet that she was never warm

enough
.
Thunder took so

220

much effort to feed, there just wasn't time to take better care of herself, or the

things she needed.

It was getting colder every day and there'd been a light dusting of snow this

morning. They'd have to leave soon, one way or another, or risk getting

caught by blizzards.

"Will you kill her?" Sailor asked bluntly.

Tesa winced. Once Thunder took to the air, they could very well be her first

hot-blooded meal.
Would she do that, now?
Tesa wondered.
And why not?

That was no obedient falconer's bird flexing her muscles, but a massive

killing machine with a mind of her own.
But what kind of mind?
Tesa asked

herself. Sure, the avian could communicate. She could even sign when she

wanted to. More and more, Tesa found herself wondering if things would've

gone differently if only she could hear, if she could communicate with

Thunder in her own speech. She'd begun to doubt herself, and all the

decisions she'd made that had brought her to this moment.

Of course, since Tesa had promised to return Thunder to her avian mother,

the chick had seemed less angry. Yet there was still no love among them,

just a sullen tolerance that had done little to give Tesa hope for their

unorthodox "pair project."

Should she kill Thunder? How could she, believing as she did that Thunder

was a fully intelligent creature? How could she not, knowing Thunder might

kill and devour Sailor and her? She felt hot tears building up in her eyes and

blinked furiously to drive them back. She couldn't risk Sailor. She cared little

about herself, but felt a bitter amusement at the sentiment that could only be

a true mother's.

"Well, will you?" Sailor prodded her again.

At times the young Grus seemed to fear the Aquila, yet at others, he almost

seemed to care for her. Tesa squeezed her eyes shut. This was getting her

nowhere.

"Yes," she signed abruptly, and walked to the cave. Their little home was no

example of good housekeeping. Remnants of past meals were scattered on

the floor, which Tesa found disturbing. Of all things she'd let slide, this was

the most dangerous. Food scraps drew predators, and the last thing they

needed was to call down more trouble on themselves.

Tesa reached for her Clovis-point spear.

She'd made the point in an early tool-making class back

221

home, and had taken it to StarBridge as a link to her ancient heritage on
that

all
-too-modern
campus.
After they'd arrived here, Tesa had taken the tough, rubbery skin of a circle-swimmer and used it to lash the Clovis point to a

well-balanced wooden shaft. She'd taken her eagle and Aquila feathers and

tied them to the shaft. The spear had a good feel in her hands. This was the

kind of work it was designed to do, to kill large
animals
quickly, efficiently.

The Clovis people had been expert hunters.

She swallowed hard. Thunder had seen her handling this and the leister as

well. She had no fear of these things, so Tesa would be able to surprise the

avian with it. Kill her before she knew what was happening. Mercifully.

Quickly. A hot tear coursed down the woman's dirty cheek and she brushed

it away.

She held the spear by her side, and the eagle feathers brushed her fingers.
It

wasn
't fair that it should come to this,
it wasn't
right. Her grandfather had told her she'd been touched by the Great Mystery. She had followed her

dreams, her
heyoka
dreams, and for what? To raise a child that hated her, so

she could kill her or be killed by her? How contrary could her life become on

this
crazy, backward-
spinning
planet?

Another tear betrayed her. She swallowed and watched loose pumice roll in

front of the cave's entrance from the steep outside walls. The gleaners were

always starting mini-rock slides with their constant burrowing.

More pumice rolled and bounced in front of the cave mouth as Tesa started

to leave, straightening her shoulders resolutely. Then a dark shadow filled

the entrance, and startled, she stepped back, raising the spear.

The looming bulk of an adult, male Tree Ripper filled the cave's mouth. He

entered as confidently as a landlord, his nose working to decipher the

strange new odors. His beady green eyes blinked as his great body blocked

the light.

Oh, shit,
thought Tesa, barely daring to breathe as she pressed herself

against the darkest nook of the back wall, her skin erupting in cold sweat.

Maybe he won't see me?
Her grip on the spear shaft tightened until her

knuckles were white.

Then the huge predator's nose wrinkled, and his tiny eyes focused on the

human. His thick red and white coat glistened with
its lush winter
's growth

as he slowly pulled himself up

222

on his hind limbs.
Tesa felt her legs go weak as the predator opened his

mouth in what had to be a tremendous roar, then faced her with an

incongruous grin.

It was the gri
n of a laughing bear
,
full of long, white teeth
an
d saliva.

The Ripper moved toward Tesa
,
his arms out as though he w
an
ted

nothing mo
re
th
an
a friendly embrace.

223

Tesa's voice welled up and rushed from her throat in a fullblown scream.

She was trapped-pinned against the back of the cave, with only Thunder's

perch and her Clovis-point spear between her and the Ripper. She'd only

get one chance with her weapon; she didn't dare risk a careless jab.

Wounded, he'd

be more dangerous. The thought made her giddy.
More
dangerous?

Suddenly something landed on the Ripper's back, knocking

him forward. Almost grazing Tesa with his claws, he fell across the log

perch. She blinked as the sunlight hit her eyes-and realized Thunder had

buried her talons in the predator's thick shoulders. The Ripper shook and

spun around in the cave, crashing into Tesa and sending her sprawling, but

he could not free himself of the raptor clinging to his back like a crazed

bronco rider. Dazedly Tesa saw Sailor also attacking the pain-stricken

animal, kicking and jabbing at the huge creature's rear as Thunder worried

the front. The Ripper wheeled and swiped at Sailor, but Thunder bit into his

short, rounded ear.

The beast re
ared up, crashing back against a white
-coated

224

wal , smashing the Aquila against it.
Tesa c
ri
ed out, scrambling to her

feet
.
The Ripper spun on the raptor
,
who now lay dazed and helpless

on the cave floor. Then Sailor was between Thunder
an
d the Ripper
,

his rapid
-
fire kicks
an
d slapping wings sta
rt
ling the predator so
much that he stepped back.

Dazed,
Tesa felt for a wild moment that she had done this before
,
back

on Ea
rt
h
,
thousands of years ago. G
ri
pping her spear
,
she lunged
between her child and the massive predator and slid the point

smoothly between the flat
ri
bs
,
deep into the beast's chest.

His great,
shaggy head lifted in a ro
ar
that Tesa could feel along the

wood
,
then he swung his paw, shatte
ri
ng the shaft. But the Clovis

point stayed whe
re
she'd planted it, and the creatu
re'
s red blood

mingled with the roan patches on his coat. He sagged
,
then re
ar
ed

back
an
d ch
ar
ged
.
Tesa gasped, helpless.

But, somehow,
Sailor w
as
there
.
The young avian leaped, d
ri
ving his
long bill deep into the Ripper
'
s
ri
ght eye
,
impaling his brain
.
The
monster shuddered, then collapsed so quickly that his body ne
ar
ly

pinned Tesa to the ground.

Tesa'
s legs suddenly shook, then all her muscles went limp and she

fell
.
Stunned
an
d f
ri
ghtened, she looked for Sailor. The young Grus
was bending solicitously over Thunder. Tesa crawled over to them on

her hands and knees
. "
Is she okay
?"
she asked Sailor.

"I don'
t know
,"
he answered, obviously worried. "Are you?"

"I think so," Tesa signed. "
You saved my
life.
.. Sailor ... you killed a Tree
Ripper."

"
Only because you weakened him," he insisted.

"Well, neither of us could'
ve done a damned thing if Thunder hadn
'
t

pulled him off me
.
Do Aquila often attack Rippers?"

"
No, never
,"
he told her
. "
Rippers
ar
e not the hunted. In fact
,
they
ar
e
the only person on the World that Death fears."

Thunder,
dazed and shaken
,
began cautiously stretching her wings.

Then she gazed, first with one eye, then the other, at the huge
,
dead
an
imal filling the cave. She tottered
ar
ound the corpse
.
Finally
,
she
signed haltingly
, "
We-killed him?"

"Yes," Tesa signed.

The Aquila peere
d at the ragged eye socket
,
then at Sailor's

225

SILENT DANCES 225 bloody bill. "You kept him away from me, though he

could've easily maimed you."

"Not so easily," Sailor signed testily.

"He could have just as easily maimed you," Tesa told Thunder. "Why did

you attack him?"

The Aquila hunched her head into her shoulders. "When I heard your

scream ... I couldn't let you come to harm. Not
after what you said about

my mother."

The Aquila stared at Tesa full-faced. "I knew you'd fight for each other, but I

was surprised when you kept the Ripper from killing me. You could've taken

that time to escape. That's
something I'd like to tell my mother."

Then Thunder climbed onto the Ripper's shoulders and threw her head back

in what was, no doubt, the high-pitched call of her people.
So,
Tesa thought

with a spark of grim satisfaction,
we're no longer merely "the hunted." Well,
that's fine.

Thunder looked at her from her furry perch and signed, "Do you think we can

eat him, Good Eyes?"

Thorn hovered over the terminal screen, using one of Peter's computer pens

to manipulate the data. This was like playing one of those old computer

games--only in this game there were no points, and you could actually win.

Or lose,
he thought grimly. He'd already lost, hadn't he? A good researcher

in Scott, a good friend in Peter, and ...

Don't get mad,
he reminded himself,
get even.
Peter's program had been damned hard to install-especially since Thorn kept hearing his friend's voice