Even now, the Lords of the dronon Swarms were hunting for Gallen and Maggie, and perhaps might soon be searching this planet. But Tremonthin was a big planet, easy to hide in.
So they headed home at a leisurely pace, while the fall grew steadily colder. A week later, when they crossed the Telgoods in their travels north, there was snow on the peaks, and a bitter nip in the air.
All during their journey home, they found peace in the land, and a new sense of brotherhood among the people of Babel. Where before they had received distrustful stares when they drove through a town, now they found merchants smiling and alehouses full of people who laughed and were quick to joke or sing or tell some outlandish story.
Indeed, Maggie found herself falling more and more deeply in love with the land, and one night, when she and Gallen had snuggled in a cozy bed at an inn, and a fire was burning in their hearth, she asked him as she had once before, “Gallen, if we ever escape the dronon completely, would you want to live here?”
“We’ve already lived in Babel for more than seven thousand years,” he whispered, and she saw that strange new peace in his eyes. “It’s my home. Yes, I could live here ten thousand more.”
And Maggie curled tighter against him, and felt that one thing at least had been settled. Now, if only she could figure a way to escape those damned dronon. But she feared that she would never be rid of the threat, not until they’d killed her.
And on their journey, though Maggie and Gallen continued to fall more and more deeply in love, and Maggie found greater contentment, she worried for Orick. In all of their travels, they had not found a single bear who could speak. Oh, on the trip home they once saw a bear walking along a lightly forested ridge in the wilderness, but when Orick called out to it, the creature growled stupidly and ran away, for it was only a simple animal, without Orick’s genetic upgrades.
A month later, when they reached the city of Queekusaw on the ocean shores, the whole land was blanketed in white, and snow was pounding the land. They left Babel on a slow freighter in the afternoon, on dark and wild seas, and Maggie watched the gray city fade behind a blanket of soft white.
They had a rough sea voyage, and Maggie took sick, vomiting every day. Five days later she was glad to be in Northland, where muddy roads were the greatest inconvenience a traveler had to contend with.
When they landed, they bought a new wagon, and that night, as they headed north, Orick, who had been very quiet for several days, came to Gallen and Maggie.
“Once we get to the City of Life and petition the judges there to give Tallea the rebirth, what is your heart set to do?”
“I don’t know,” Gallen said honestly. “Everynne has warned us that the Lords of the Swarms are searching for us, so no place is safe. And some of the servants of the Inhuman escaped in that starship during the battle at Moree. They might tell the dronon where we are-if Thomas doesn’t. For a while, anyway, we’ll have to keep moving, search for safer worlds. Why do you ask?”
“Well,” Orick growled, plainly very troubled, “you’ve been a good friend to me, Gallen. But I’m starting to wonder. I’m thinking maybe I should go home, to my own kind.”
“But Orick,” Maggie whispered, “I’m not sure there are more bears like you.”
Orick sniffed, and Maggie petted his snout, rubbed the thick black fur behind his ears. It was a cruel thing to have to say to him, but Maggie knew that Orick was terribly lonely, and she knew that the she-bears in Tihrglas would never give him the companionship he deserved.
“Still,” Orick grumbled, “I need to go back home.”
“Then I will take you there, my best and dearest friend,” Gallen said, and Gallen took the huge bear by the ears and kissed his forehead.
It was a long and lonely drive northward. The seasickness didn’t seem to leave Maggie for several days after they landed, yet soon things got back to normal and they arrived in the City of Life near mid-winter. It was a vast city, with great bubbles rising up at the spaceport on its edge. Tall white buildings with lofty spires gleamed against the mountains. A wide and deep river poured through the city, and white snow geese swam, mirrored in its black waters.
There, the group checked into an inn more like something they would find on Fale, a stately building with fountains at its feet, with vast clean rooms and a beautifully constructed hearth where the fire was already laid.
Maggie said goodbye to the Harvester, who had kept her distance and never really become a close friend all during this trip. “Perhaps I will see you sometime,” the Harvester said, surprising Maggie with the sentiment.
“Where will you go now?” Maggie asked.
The Harvester pointed east to the mountains. “I have friends in the Vale of the Bock. Ceravanne gave me a seed from my friend, so that at least he will bear offspring, though he will never be reborn. I will raise his child as if it too were my son.”
“Then may you find peace,” Maggie said, and she gave the woman a hug, then the Harvester drove off alone in the wagon toward the snow-covered mountains.
Straightaway, Maggie, Gallen, and Orick took Tallea’s hair sample along with the gem of memories from Gallen’s mantle and sought out the Hall of Rebirth-a vast building made of crystal that held more than three hundred thousand workers. There, they presented the items to the judges, along with their petition for Tallea’s rebirth.
Because of the unseasonable weather, there were few travelers in the city, and three judges, an ageless man and two women, each dressed in white and wearing the platinum mantles of their profession, said they would be able to consider the petition that very evening.
“You can come back in the morning, and hear our decision,” one of the judges said.
“Fine,” Orick grumbled. “But I’ll be waiting out on the steps to hear your word tonight, if you don’t mind. I’ll come in just when I see that you’re closing your doors.”
The judges glanced at one another, as if considering the propriety of this inconvenience, and Maggie went back to the inn with Gallen for a bit.
At sunset they returned to the Hall of Rebirth and found Orick waiting. A light snow had begun to fall again, powdering the streets, and the weather seemed only cool. Orick, with his thick pelt, didn’t fret about the weather, but after a bit, Maggie found herself stamping her feet, trying to keep them warm.
After an hour, one of the judges came running from the building in his thin white gown, came and took Maggie by the hand, then bent low and put one hand on Orick’s shoulder. “Why did you not tell us who you were?” the judge said.
“Would it have made a difference in our petition?” Gallen asked.
“No,” the judge said, “but at the very least, I would not have had you standing out here in the snow. Twice these past two weeks, the Vanquishers from the Seventh Swarm came to search the city for you. Apparently, the Dronon are scouring the worlds for news of you. Right now, they’ve headed farther south, to a warmer clime. Still, I expect that they will return. You are in grave danger!”
“We know that they’re hunting us,” Orick grumbled, “and we’re getting damned tired of it! Now, what about Tallea?”
“We have reviewed her memories, and I am happy to report that she will be reborn.”
“How soon?” Gallen asked. “We don’t want to leave the city without saying good-bye.”
“Just as I am equally sure that she will want you to wait for her,” the judge said. “Still, she poses a problem for us. She seeks a new body, one that will have to be modified to meet her desires, and then we will have to force-grow it in the vats for a week.”
“Yes,” Maggie said, “she wanted to be a Roamer.”
“How soon?” Orick urged the man.
The judge breathed heavily. “Eight days, maybe ten. I will have the technicians begin within the hour, but it cannot be hurried any faster.” Maggie knew from her mantle that, indeed, the judge was offering to perform a near-miracle.