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Aide. And there is one more place I can fill, that of Marrin's Aide. If you
wish it, Giulin, that place is yours."
His hands closed into fists, opened, closed again; he swallowed several times,
sat staring at the water, his shoulder turned to her, courtesy forgotten in
the intensity of his reaction. He swung round, stared at her. "Why me?"
She frowned at him, then spread her hands. "To be honest, the offer's to help
me sleep better."
"All that smik about my prints?"
"Not smik, Giulin, for me it's a pleasant extra, but you'll be doing the
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Kinravaly a service if you image the trip and the transfer through the
Stranger's Gate for her. Perhaps some images of the Other Side."
"The family knows about this offer?"
"Yes. The decision is yours, your parents insisted on that."
"How long do I have to think about it?"
"Ah. It'll take a while to get the volunteers and their gear on board. Hmm.
Take a senn't if you need it."
"Ah umm, how long will I be gone?"
"The aliens say a round trip will need a bit over half a year." Zelzony got to
her feet. "I'll leave you to your thinking, Giulin. All-Wise Bless."
Giulin got to his feet, looking shaken and uncertain. "Wait. A moment,
Zem-trallen. I want to talk to my parents. How long are you going to be in
Laby Youl?"
"I have to return to Kinravaly Reserve tonight, but I can spare another hour
here."
With a smile that came and went, excitement and uncertainty lighting his eyes,
Giulin edged closer to her, touched her arm briefly, hesitantly. "I want to
go. I think& I have to talk to my parents. Zem-trallen, you& I don't know& I
can't& " A nervous giggle, a flare of his nostrils. "Thank you. In an hour.
Please. I'll say for sure then. All-Wise Bless."
"Zem-trallen, yes yes yes. What do I do, what do I bring, when will I leave
here, how, will you come fetch me, can the family go too, what& " Giulin shut
his mouth and danced from foot to foot as Zelzony held up her hand.
"One at a time, tidal wave. Let me see if I can remember them. You don't have
to do a lot, fill a pack with a few things you'd like to have with you, put
something in it to amuse you, bookfiches, games, fancy work, whatever you can
fit in; the aliens tell me that starflight is rather like spending a long time
in a small room with nothing much to look at. Ahh, I'll send a skip for you
about a week from now. Perhaps two skips if I can talk the aliens into it, so
you can bring your family. If I can manage only one and they don't mind a
cramped ride, you can bring your parents but not the rest. The trip from Laby
Youl to the Kinravaly reserve lasts a little over three hours. Bring your
imagers, but don't bother about matrices, the Kinravaly will provide them.
When you get back we'll sit you down in the University labs and apply the whip
until you make history prints for every Gurn-set." She smiled at the excited
boy. "We're going to work the tail off you, Giulin."
"Ehh scuzza." Visibly containing an urge to whoop and run up the house tower
to do a soardance through the clouds, Giulin contented himself with a grin
that threatened to split his face in half.
"Anything else?"
"Ahhh, that Min woman, will she be around? I want images of her more than
anything."
"The observers will be on the transport, not on Picarefy. Ah, that's the alien
Skeen's starship. Picarefy tells me there's some danger Beyond-the-Veil and
Skeen wants to keep the Rallykx clear. Once we land, you'll most likely get
your images."
"Saa saa scuzzAH!"
"I hear you, Giulin. One week. All-Wise Bless."
The transport drifted downward, a long black teardrop; one moment it was no
more than a dark speck passing through the thin high clouds, the next moment
it was an immensity so awesome a sigh passed like the wind across the crowd.
Down and down, settling feather light on the lake's surface, nudging the water
aside with deceptive gentleness, down and down until it reached equilibrium
floating a handspan off the bottom. The water welled up with much the same
gentle inevitability, swallowing the lakeshore and the surrounding hillocks,
moving out and out with an eerie almost-silence, but Zelzony and her ortzin
had moved the watchers and waiters to higher ground and none of the Ykx got
their feet wet.
Breath caught in their throats, eyes wide. Saffron and Mauvi watched a round
section of the black skin blink away and light shine out of a sudden opening
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that seemed tiny, like a pin prick, until a dark figure stepped into it and
stood looking out at them. In an odd jarring switch, at first the lanky
hairless alien was a doll less than a hand high carved from the darkest brown
bitternut wood, then, abruptly, she was taller than most Ykx, and the pinprick
was a portal three wings high.
"Woo ow, Mau, do you believe that?"
"Have to, don't I." She shaded her eyes, then pointed. "Look, isn't that the
Kinravaly?" A gold Ykx shimmering in the sunlight rode a gilded glittering
wing soaring in high circles over the transport and the crowd.
"Must be."
The Kinravaly looked down over the vast throng, faces turned to her like
flowers to the sun. Her throat closed up and for several minutes she couldn't
speak. She swallowed and sighed, lifted the borrowed loud hailer. "Ykx of
Rallen, the starship is here, the time has come to know the names of those who
will leave us. The Talan fej Vosslar, servant of the All-Wise, will draw the
cards, I Kinravaly Rallen will call the names, those called will come into the
area set aside for them." She stopped talking a moment, feeling battered by
shuddering waves of hope and yearning, fear and excitement coming at her from
the crowd, it was like wingriding over the caldera of an active volcano.
"Begin, Talan fej, begin."
Jatsik, Sully Gather, Eggettak.
A massive brindle Ykx whooped and started pushing toward the roped off area.
Kulishka, Kevari and children, Lahusshin Gather, Oldieppe.
Weeping, laughing, dragging friends and kin with them, a family of browns with
a tiny gold daughter started from near the back of the crowd, hands patting
them as they passed other families.
Veratisca (poet), Laby Youl Gather, Yasyony. Slender russet Ykx, laughing and
crying at once, silence and a kind of mourning about her, sense of less
passing like a wind across the crowd when they heard her name.
Saffron and Mauvi (first pairing), Korika Gather, Itekkill.
Alazin, Elleret and children, Tikka Gather, Eggettak.
On and on the naming went; saturated by emotion, the crowd turned quiet and
sad, kin hugged and nuzzled departing kin, friends touched and patted and
hugged departing friends. Hour slid into hour, the Kinravaly sucked at a
squeeze bottle of cold iska as her voice went hoarser than usual. The drums
squealed and rustled as the Talan fej's acolytes turned their cranks. The
volunteers in the roped off area sat or walked about, a few talked, broken
bits of sentences, most were quiet, watching the Kinravaly, looking about with
eyes like sponges, soaking in sights they knew they'd never see again. At the
end of four hours, she called a halt for an hour's rest, retreated to the
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