"I was joking," Lars said.
"As you wish."Mashid tendered another bow.Sweat had appeared on his forehead, for he was bundled in furs and thick fur-topped boots.
"Lead on," Lars suggested, gesturing to the door.He and Killashandra had bought outerwear suitable to the mountain climate but, though it had been pricey in the spaceport shop, neither jacket was as lush as Mashid's apparel.They learned later that he had caught, tanned, and made his garments as most of the mountain people did.
Turning with yet another bow, Mashid led them outside to an animal-drawn sleigh, brightly painted in orange and black stripes with the name of their snotel blazoned in huge letters on its sides.A pair of antlered, rough-coated beasts were harnessed to it, stamping their cloven hooves in the snow.They were nearly as long as the sleigh.
Lars and Killashandra were gestured into the passenger seat, and an immense fur robe was deftly tucked about them.Mashid swung expertly up on to the driver's seat and flicked a whip at the rumps of the beasts.The speed of their departure nearly gave Lars and Killashandra whiplash.
The pace was exhilarating; so was the crisp air, and the unusual method of transportation.Killa laughed aloud in sheer delight.She couldn't remember ever seeing so much snow before.She almost asked Lars if they had and then, as abruptly, didn't want to know: she wanted less to know if she had seen snow than if Lars could remember if they had.Then he turned a happy smile to her and it didn't matter.She was here, with Lars, and they had months before they had to even think of crystal and Ballybran.She was totally distracted by the cold wind nipping at her ears and clamped gloved hands to protect them.
In their four months at the snotel, they attempted every single snow sport available, including races on single skis and on sno-bikes down almost vertical slopes.They missed being buried in an avalanche by the length of a ski; they skate-danced, snow-surfed and -planed, and went spelunking through ice and rock caverns of incredible beauty.They absorbed Mashid's instructions and improved on them, until eventually they surprised approval-even compliments-from the sturdy Nepalese, who began to view their near-indestructibility with awe.They doubted he had ever met crystal singers before or knew that their minor bruises, lacerations, and contusions healed overnight, leaving them fully able to cope with the new day's ordeals.They almost regretted leaving him behind in the mountains.
But they had done all they could of the snow sports, and so they moved from the mountains to the vast bowl of the internal plains of Nepal.There they did take to the water and acquired a new guide without the imperturbability of Mashid.With him, they canoed through tortuous canyons on flumes of water, shooting dire-toothed rapids.
Once in a while they checked in with Brendan, who informed them that he was quite content and they needn't hurry.So they hunted for two months in the lake districts with a party of mixed planetarials, and rode and camped along the coastline for a month with another, during which time Lars so pointedly said nothing about sailing that Killashandra was sure she would burst with not hearing the words he didn't speak.
"We've done everything else," Killashandra said the night before they would turn inland, back to the vicinity of the spaceport."We really can't leave Sherpa without sailing, can we?"
"Can we not?"Lars retorted placidly.
"If you wanted to, we could."
"Wrong," he said, and with his index finger pressed her nose in."If you wanted to, we could."
Perversely, she ducked away from him and rolled off the bed, unaccountably annoyed with his self-sacrifice.
"It was my turn to pick," she said in a savage tone.
"Hey, honey-love…" Lars sprang from the bed to catch her in his arms, his face anxious."Don't be like this.It was your turn to pick the place and activities, and I've enjoyed everything we've done together."
She struggled in his arms, furious with his acquiescence, even with his concern.
"Hey, hey…" He tried to gentle her, pulling him against his bare body."Need a radiant bath?"He stroked her to judge crystal resonance in her body.
"I don't need one.I don't need crystal that badly yet.Ahhhhh!"And her irascibility disappeared as she arched in his arms."Crystal!We didn't try crystal."
"Try crystal?Where?What are you talking about, Killa?"
"We never gave the Junk any crystal."
"It would have absorbed-Oh, I see what you mean!"He blinked in sudden comprehension."D'you really think Ballybran crystal wouldn't be absorbed by the Junk?" he asked, catching a bit of her excitement despite his skepticism."What good would that do?"
"Communication.A lot easier than rapping out rhythm.There'd be a useful link with it, if nothing else."Killashandra was as tense with eagerness as she had been with irritation.
"We've done our job," Lars argued in protest."We've acquitted the assignment…"
"But we didn't find out anything."
"We found out the Junk is not a Heptite concern."
"But we didn't try crystal!" she repeated, struggling to release his grip.
"Well, if it means that much to you, let's see what Brendan says about taking us back there-with crystal.There, there, love-heart."Lars soothed her with hand and voice until she relaxed against him again."Only where will we get some Ballybran crystal here?"
"They've black crystal…"
"Huh?You think they'll loan black for this escapade?"
Killa glared at him"It's not an escapade.It's a point of investigation we neglected to make."
"Well, if they use black crystal, they use others," Lars said, releasing her and marching to the comconsole."And if they use others, they also abuse them and there'll be sour crystal somewhere on this planet.We can offer to retune, and take the slivers as part of our fee."
"We can't give the Junk sour crystal."
"I don't think anything would give it indigestion," Lars remarked, pausing as he punched in Brendan's on-planet code."Any scraps large enough can be tuned to some sort of pitch.You know, it might be fun to tune crystal when we don't have to."
Brendan was willing enough to return to Opal, though Killashandra could hear the reservations in his tone.
"I can't hang about there too long," he said, "and get you back to Ballybran in time to collect Boira.She's doing splendidly in rehab and retraining."Pride in his partner's recuperation colored his pleasant voice.
"That's very good news indeed, Bren," Killa said, meaning it."We just want to see what effect our crystal might have on the Junk."
"It'll probably gulp it down like it did everything else and lick its chops at the taste."
"Only sound has any effect on Ballybran crystal," Killashandra said with considerable pride."And there's no sound on an airless planet."
"Possibly," Brendan said."And we didn't try diamond either."
"Ballybran crystal's tougher than any diamond ever compressed from carbon!"
"My, we are loyal!"Lars said facetiously.
Killashandra gave a sniff."Well, there isn't any substance like Ballybran crystal anywhere else in the universe."
"Except"-and Lars's eyes glinted with teasing-"possibly the Junk!"
Crystal resonance was beginning to get to Killashandra as Brendan took them back to the Opal system in one Singularity Jump.It had started when she and Lars retuned to a minor fifth the sour dominant midblue crystals that Penwyn had procured for them.As Lars had thought, there were quite a few soured crystals on the planet.Though Penwyn didn't ask them too, they tuned them all-the work of three days for such experienced singers-and he canceled Brendan's landing fees.But the sessions had an effect on Killashandra, and she spent a full day in the radiant-fluid tub.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," she insisted to Lars and Brendan when they were too solicitous of her."Being near black always does it."