“Thann, you’re going to have to hold Isaho in your lap. I’ll strap the two of you together. Hm. It’s a warm night, but there’ll be some wind where we are. Tell you what, I’ll lift the femlit, you wrap the quilt around you and get yourself settled in back saddle. Put your feet in those stirrups there and signal me when you’re as comfortable as you can get. Remember, you’ll be spending six, seven hours seated because I’ll not be stopping unless we absolutely have to. T’k, that’s another thing. If you have to relieve yourself, you’d better do it now.”
Shadith fed power to the lifters and took the miniskip up slowly. She could feel the anya’s fear as the earth dropped away, but the darkness helped and the soft hum of the lifters was soothing, so xe’s jags of anxiety rapidly smoothed out. She stopped the rise when they were a few feet above the tallest trees and sent the skip humming along the curve of the river, avoiding the farmlands and the ranches with their grazing stock.
When Thann’s fear had simmered to a slight uneasiness, Shadith twisted her head around and smiled at the dark blotch so close behind her. “There, it’s not so bad, is it? If you need something, give a whistle and we’ll see what we can do, otherwise I’ll keep on till near dawn.”
Thann whistled a pair of notes to signify xe understood, modified the last into a soft warble that went on and on, a wordless lullaby, the anya singing in the only way xe could to xe’s sleeping daughter.
Shadith began thinking about the muteness of the anyas in this species, what it meant in terms of languages and things that voiced beings never had to think about. When she read about it in Digby’s file, it seemed an interesting twist on the things that life got up to and the sign language itself was fascinating, a language that could be translated to a degree but never fully into spoken words. Whistles like birdcalls for times of danger and times of need. Whistles for song like that lullaby. For the quick exchange of complex thoughts, though, anyas needed light and proximity so their gestures could be seen. Odd that the Impix had clung to the radio for the transmission of words, but had never developed or had forgotten coded transmission. Perhaps it was a reflection of the anya’s role in this society, the expectation that xes would not work outside the home except as religious and in that case did not need more than the occasional letter to their kin or clans.
That lullaby was lovely, though; it really crept under the skin, so much tenderness in it that words really seemed unnecessary.
Toward dawn she slowed until the skip was barely moving, swept her mindsearch as far as she could, hunting the bite of a thinking brain.
Horizon to horizon, the world seemed empty of everything but fur and feathers. With a weary sigh she chose a clump of trees where they could camp, kicked the landing struts into place, and put the miniskip on the ground beside the river.
5. Hatching
The child’s eyes were open and aware, watching Shadith as she unbuckled the straps that bound her and her anya into the seat. When Shadith reached under her to lift her from Thann’s lap, she was stiff and afraid at first, then that fear suddenly vanished and she relaxed, smiling and sleepy.
Shadith shook her head and settled the child on the blanket she’d spread beside the skip.
Thann didn’t move through all this; xe sat hunched over, eyes squeezed shut. Shadith touched xe’s cold, clammy skin, then quickly got xe off the seat and onto the blanket beside Isaho. She snapped the quilt out, transferred xe onto that, and got out the medkit.
As she knelt beside the anya, she looked over her shoulder at Isaho. “What’s wrong? Do you know?”
The femlit stared at her a moment, then she spoke with an odd and troubling calmness. “Xe’s in egg. I think the babbit hatched when we were flying. Sometimes hatchlings use their eggteeth to bite before they start sucking. Thann and Main talked about it when they didn’t know I was listening. They said I did, bite, I mean, but it was just skin I got: Sometimes they bite the wrong place, and there’s lots of blood.”
“Oh, shays! Can I take the babbit out of the pouch? Will it drown if I don’t?”
Isaho shrugged. “Main and Thann, they didn’t talk much about that.”
Thann’s eyes opened to crusted slits. Xe’s hands moved. +Please… my babbit… please+ A hand moved down xe’s body, pressed against the swollen pouch, and a gout of blood came rushing through the cloth of xe’s trousers.
“Isaho, come help me. Quick.” Shadith began working on the ties to the anya’s trousers, the sodden cloth resisting her fingers. With an impatient exclamation, she cut the tie with her belt knife, and with Isaho’s help, rolled the trousers away from the pouch.
“Your hand is smaller than mine, Isaho.” Shadith spoke quickly, reached out, caught hold of the femlit’s wrist. “See if you can catch the hatchling and get it out of there.” Isaho tried to draw back, the smell of fear sharp in her, so Shadith put more urgency in her voice. “I have to stop the bleeding, but I don’t dare while the babbit’s in pouch.”
Shaking, eyes squeezed almost shut, Isaho forced a hand through the pulsing sphincter of the pouch. She squeaked suddenly, snatched her hand back, a dark wormlike thing attached to it, teeth sunk in the flesh of her smallest finger; it was slightly larger than her hand, with eye bulges sealed shut and a stubby tail. Silent and determined, Isaho cuddled the anyalit against her chest and squatted, watching as Shadith worked over Thann.
“Good femlit,” Shadith said. She drew on a glove, worked her hand into the pouch, watching a readout as the sensors on the fingertips sent data back. “With a little luck, we’ll… ah, got you. Looks like it isn’t as bad as I thought, Isaho. It’s only a nick in a small vein. It’s been leaking quite a while, that’s all. I wish… ah, lie still, Thann. This may hurt a bit. I’m going to cauterize the wound, and I don’t think I’d better give you any drugs, not if you’re going to be feeding the baby. Let’s see, slide the tube in… right, right… good! In position. Stay as still as you can. Wait, just a moment. Isaho, there’s a bit of wood beside you… tight, that one… wipe it off… yes, that’s good… now, set it in your anya’s mouth so xe can bite down on it… yes, that’s right… get a good grip, Thann… bite down! Now! Good… I think… yes, that got it. Now a little blind gluing… what do you think about that, hm? Glued together like a nice little cabinet. Now we suck the blood out, get things neat and tidy in the nursery… now comes the really bad part, you’re going to have to eat a tube of hipro every hour till you’ve replaced that blood and gotten your strength back. Isaho, slip the babbit back home and I’ll have a look at that bite.”
Isaho watched as Shadith painted antiseptic over the wound and sprayed it with faux skin. Her eyes opened wider as Shadith set the pharmacopoeia’s spray nozzle against the inside of her elbow and touched the sensor. “Oh! That tickles.”
“What it does is keep you from getting infection in the bite.”
“Oh.” She smoothed her finger across the faux skin. “Is this what you put inside Thanny?”
“No. That was something else. Does the same job, though. How are you feeling otherwise?”
Isaho’s eyes went suddenly blank, then she looked away, her gaze shifting rapidly from point to point until she’d forced herself to forget the question. Only then did she turn back and smile at Shadith. “We’re going to Linojin. Mam and Baba and my brother Keleen, they’re waiting for us there.” Her eyes flickered again, then her smile brightened like a sheet of ice concealing the turmoil in an undertow. “Did God send you to take us to Linojin?”