“Federico,” said Aenea, setting her hand firmly but gently on the priest’s forearm. “It’s our wedding night.”
“Oh,” said the priest. He hugged her quickly, shook my hand, and stepped back. “May I make a suggestion, M. Aenea, M. Endymion?” said A. Bettik diffidently.
I looked up from sliding the sheath knife onto my belt. “Are you going to tell us what you folks on the other side of the Void Which Binds have planned for Earth in the years to come?” I said. “Or for finally saying hello to the human race in person?”
The android looked embarrassed. “Ah… no,” he said. “The suggestion was actually more in the line of a modest wedding present.” He handed both of us the leather case.
I recognized it at once. So did Aenea. We got down on our hands and knees to take the hawking mat out and unroll it on the grass.
It activated at first tap, hovering a meter above the ground. We piled and lashed our packs on the back, set the rifle in place, and still had room for the both of us—if I sat cross-legged and Aenea sat in the cusp of my arms and legs, her back against my chest.
“This should get us across the rivers and above the beasties,” said Aenea. “And we’re not going far tonight to find a campsite. Just across the river there, just out of earshot.”
“Out of earshot?” said the Jesuit. “But why stay so close if we can’t hear you if you call? What if you cried out for help and… oh.” He reddened.
Aenea hugged him. She shook Ket Rosteen’s hand and said, “In two weeks, I would be obliged if you would let Rachel and the others ’cast down or take the Consul’s ship down if they want to look around. We’ll meet them at Uncle Martin’s grave at high noon. They’re welcome to stay until sunset. In two years, anyone who can ’cast here on his or her own is welcome to explore to their heart’s content,” she said. “But they can only stay one month, no longer. And no permanent structures allowed. No buildings. No cities. No roads. No fences. Two years…” She grinned at me. “Some years down the road, the Lions and Tigers and Bears and I have made some interesting plans for this world. But for these two years, it’s ours… Raul’s and mine. So please, True Voice of the Tree, please post a big KEEP OUT sign on your way up to your treeship, would you?”
“We will do so,” said the Templar. He went back into the tower to ready his ergs for takeoff.
We settled onto the mat. My arms were around Aenea. I had no intention of letting her go for a very long time. One Earth year, eleven months, one week, and six hours can be an eternity if you allow it to be so. A day can be so. An hour.
Father de Soya gave us his benediction and said, “Is there anything I can do for you in the coming months? Any supplies you want sent down to Old Earth?”
I shook my head. “No thanks, Father. With our camping gear, ship’s medkit, inflatable raft, and this rifle, we should be all set. I wasn’t a hunting guide on Hyperion for nothing.”
“There is one thing,” Aenea said and I caught the slight twitch of muscle at the corner of her mouth that had always warned me that mischief was imminent.
“Anything,” said Father de Soya.
“If you can come back in about a year,” said Aenea, “I may have use for a good midwife. That should give you time to read up on the subject.”
Father de Soya blanched, started to speak, thought better of it, and nodded grimly.
Aenea laughed and touched his hand. “Just kidding,” she said. “The Dorje Phamo and Dem Loa have already agreed to freecast here if needed.” She looked back at me. “And they will be needed.”
Father de Soya let out a breath, set his strong hand on Aenea’s head in a final benediction, and walked slowly up onto the city slab and then up the ramp to the tower. We watched him blend with the shadows. “What’s going to happen to his Church?” I said softly to Aenea. She shook her head. “Whatever happens, it has a chance at a fresh start… to rediscover its soul.” She smiled over her shoulder at me. “And so do we.”
I felt my heart pounding with nervousness, but I spoke anyway. “Kiddo?”
Aenea turned her cheek against my chest and looked up at me.
“Boy or girl?” I said. “I never asked.”
“What?” said Aenea, confused.
“The reason you’ll need the Thunderbolt Sow and Dem Loa in a year or so?” I said, my voice thick. “Will it be a boy or girl?”
“Ahhh,” said Aenea, understanding me now. She turned her face away again, settled back against me, and set the curve of her skull under my jawline. I could feel the words through bone conduction as she spoke next. “I don’t know, Raul. I really don’t. This is one part of my life I’ve always avoided peeking at. Everything that happens next will be new. Oh… I know from glimpses of things beyond this that we will have a healthy child and that leaving the baby… and you… will be the hardest thing I ever do… much harder than when I have to let myself be caught in St. Peter’s Basilica and go to the Pax inquisitors. But I also know from those glimpses of myself after this period—when I am with you again on T’ien Shan, in my future and your past, and suffering because I am unable to tell you any of this—that I also will be consoled by the fact that in this future our baby is well and that you will be raising him or her. And I know that you will never let the child forget who I was or how much I loved the two of you.” She took a deep breath. “But as for knowing whether it will be a boy or girl, or what we name the baby… I have no clue, my darling. I have chosen not to look into the time, our time, but just to live it with you day to day. I am as blind to this future as you are.”
I lifted my arms across her chest and pulled her back tightly against me. There came an embarrassed cough and we looked up to realize that A. Bettik was still standing next to the hawking mat.
“Old friend,” said Aenea, gripping his hand while I still held her tight. “What words are there?”
The android shook his head, but then said, “Have you ever read your father’s sonnet “To Homer,” M. Aenea?”
My dear girl thought, frowned, and said, “I think I have, but I don’t remember it.”
“Perhaps part of it is relevant to M. Endymion’s query about the future of Father de Soya’s Church,” said the blue man. “And to other things as well. May I?”
“Please,” said Aenea. I could feel through the strong muscles in her back against me, and through the squeezing of her hand on my right thigh, that she was as eager as I to get away and find a camping spot. I hoped that A. Bettik’s recital would be short. The android quoted:
“Thank you,” said Aenea. “Thank you, dear friend.” She freed herself enough to kiss the android a final time.
“Hey,” I said, attempting the whine of an excluded child.
She kissed me a longer time. A much longer time. A very deep time.
We waved a final good-bye, I tapped the flight threads, and the centuries-old mat rose fifty meters, flew over the errant city slab and stone tower a final time, circled the Consul’s ebony spaceship, and carried us away westward. Already trusting the North Star as our guide, softly discussing a likely looking campsite on high ground some kilometers west, we passed over the old poet’s grave where the Shrike still stood silent guard, flew out over the river where the ripples and whirlpools caught the last glows of sunset, and gained altitude as we gazed down on the lush meadows and enticing forests of our new playground, our ancient world… our new world… our first and future and finest world.
THE END