"WhendoeeriveBellephon?" Kite asked.
Ara blinked as she straightened this out. "We arrive at Bellerophon in about an hour, I think. This is one of our faster slipships. We’ll get you settled in right away."
And maybe, Kendi thought suddenly, I can find Mom-in the Dream.
CHAPTER FIVE
We need to learn to speak through Silence. Even the dead have something to say.
Mother Araceil Rymar do Salman Reza dropped her bags on the foyer floor with a sigh. It was a relief to be home again. The windows in the house were open, letting a pleasant summer breeze waft through the screens. Outside, the deep green leaves of the talltree that supported the house rustled, and far below came the roar of a dinosaur. The newly-rescued slaves were in the capable hands of Brother Manny, who would get them settled in for the night and thereby free Ara to go home for the evening.
Then she heard it-a strange metallic clank. She frowned and stepped over her suitcases, following the noise. It came again and again in a rhythm that echoed off the hardwood floors and walls. Ara followed the sound, mystified, until she came to her son Ben’s room. The noise came from behind the closed door. She knocked once.
"Ben?" she called. "I’m home."
The noise stopped for a moment, then resumed. "Come in."
Ara opened the door. Ben was lying flat on his back on a narrow bench amid a series of levers and pulleys. He was pushing a curved horizontal lever straight up. Behind him, a short stack of black metal weights rose into the air, then descended with a clank. Ben’s freckled face was shiny with sweat, and his flame-red hair was darkened with it. The veins stood out on his arms as he struggled to lift the bar again.
"Hey, Mom," he grunted. "Good trip?"
"Ben, what in the world?" Ara said. "What are you doing?"
"What’s it look like I’m doing?" Clank. His voice carried a hint of annoyance.
Ara’s gaze wandered about the room. As usual, the place looked like something had exploded inside a computer store. To make room for the weight machine, Ben had shoved his unmade bed to one side, crowding it against his desk. The overflowing boxes of computer parts that usually lined the walls were piled into an unsteady mountain in the corner. Ara was thankful to see that Ben had at least put rugs underneath the weight machine so it wouldn’t scratch the floor. The room smelled of sweat despite the open windows.
"I meant, where did you get this from?" she said.
Clank. "Bought it," Ben grunted. Clank.
Ara suppressed a sigh and felt tired. Talking to Ben lately was like trying to roll a square rock. He had always been reticent as a child, but lately things had gotten worse. Maybe it was a function of being fifteen. She was glad to see him, but a certain amount of exasperation was overtaking the feeling. Things had been so much simpler when he ran up to give her a hug whenever she picked him up from her sister and brother-in-law’s house after a recruiting mission. Ara had recently decided he was old enough to stay by himself during her shorter trips-with someone checking on him from time to time-but now she questioned the wisdom of that idea.
"Who did you buy it from?" she asked. "And how did you get the money?"
"Computer work," Ben said, referring to the occasional odd jobs he did on the networks. "Found a guy on the nets …" Clank. "who had a gravity machine and was selling this one cheap." Clank. Sweat rolled off him and he paused long enough to wipe his face on his shoulder.
"Well," Ara said uncertainly. "Don’t hurt yourself. Did you have dinner?"
Ben shook his head, straining heavily to lift the bar one more time. His arms trembled and Ara was seized with the sudden impulse to help him lift it. At last he managed to straighten his arms and hold the weight stack in place for a moment before all but dropping them with a crash. Ara was about to suggest he end the workout and take a shower when the computer chimed.
"Attention! Attention!" it said. "Incoming call for Mother Araceil Rymar."
"Put it through to my office," Ara said. She nodded at Ben and went up the hall.
Ara’s office was done in the same decor as the house, with pale hardwood floors, wood paneling, and large rugs covering the floor. A leafy branch shaded one window while the other looked out over the long drop to the forest floor below. Outside, the sun shone in a golden summer haze. Ara’s desk was a moderate mess, but nothing like the sty in Ben’s room. That was another change. Ben had always been tidy as a child, but in the last year he hadn’t cleaned a thing unless Ara stood over him. She dreaded seeing the kitchen.
"Eliza," Ara addressed the house computer, "open call."
One wall blinked into a view screen. A silver-haired man with a kind, worried face appeared. He wore a soft brown robe. "Araceil. I’m glad you’re back."
"Grandfather Melthine," Ara said warmly. "If you’re looking for a report on my trip, I just got back. I can-"
"There’s been another death, Araceil," Melthine interrupted. "Like the others."
She stiffened. "Oh no."
"We need you to recreate the scene, and we have to move quickly," Melthine continued. "Before the echoes die away from the Dream. How soon can you be here?" He recited a monastery address which appeared across the bottom of the screen. The place was within walking distance.
"Give me ten minutes, maybe fifteen." Ara was already reaching for a computer pad from her desk. She also snatched up one of her dermosprays and checked to make sure the drug chamber was full.
"Every moment counts," Melthine said. "I’ll watch for you." The wall went blank.
Ara dashed out of her office and poked her head into Ben’s room. He was sitting up holding a free weight, elbow braced on the bench between his knees.
"Emergency investigation," she said. "Order supper if I’m not back soon, all right?"
Ben grunted and lifted the weight, biceps straining. Ara didn’t know if he meant the sound as assent or if it was a general noise, but she turned anyway and rushed toward the door.
Outside, she clattered up a set of wooden stairs to a walkway that ran above the house. Tiny flying lizards chirped and croaked in the leaves and the air was warm where the talltree shade didn’t reach. The overhead sky was clear and blue, and the breeze remained pleasant. Ara, however, was covered with goosebumps. Another murder, and she had been called to investigate.
Ara hurried up the walkway which connected her neighborhood’s talltree to the next talltree over. The entire monastery-and the city that surrounded it-was built into the canopy of the massive forest. Each talltree was over a hundred meters high, with thick, spreading branches that made ideal foundations for houses safely above the pods of saurians-dubbed dinosaurs by the original Bellerophon colonists-that stomped over the forest floor. Each tree could support half a dozen houses or more, and flexible walkways made of board and cable connected them to each other. Fine polymer netting covered the space between the cable railing and the floor of the walkway to prevent people from falling through, though the netting was hidden from view by a thick growth of ivy. Ara moved quickly from one tree to another, passing several other people with only the barest of nods until she came to the address Melthine had given her.
It was a small house, with a wide front deck and a gently-sloping roof that blended neatly into the talltree. A police officer in a blue tunic stood guard at the door, and a holographic stripe of blue light ringed the house at waist level. The words Do not cross by order of the Guardians were etched on the ring in yellow. Ara crossed the ring-it beeped at her in alarm-and held up the gold medallion that marked her a Child of Irfan.