"This was five breaths ago. My heart grew sick, and I feu it will never heal."
Cirocco dared not break the silence as Meistersinger turned from her. He stood and walked to the door, faced the darkness while Cirocco watched the candle flicker on the table. He made sounds that were certainly the sounds of weeping, though they did not sound like human weeping. After a time, he came back to her and sat, looking very tired.
"We fight when the rage takes us. We do not stop lighting until the angels are all dead or gone back to their home."
"You speak of Gaea's breath. I am a stranger to it."
"You have heard it wailing. It is a raging gale from the heavenly towers; cold from the west and hot from the east."
"Have you ever tried to talk to the angels? Will they not listen to your song?"
He shrugged again. "Who can sing to an angel, and what angel would listen?"
"I'm still bothered that no one has tried ... to negotiate with them." That word was difficult. The one she finally settled on meant "surrender," or "turn tail" in a literal sense. "If you could sit down and hear each other's songs, perhaps you could have peace."
His brow wrinkled. "How can there be the feeling-of-harmony-among siblings when they are angels?" The word he used was the same one Cirocco had picked as the best of an inadequate lot. "Peace" among Titanides was a universal condition, hardly worth comment. Between Titanides and angels, peace was a concept the language could not embrace.
"My people have no enemies of other races, but fight among ourselves," Cirocco said. "We have evolved ways of resolving these conflicts "
"This is not a problem for us. We deal well with hostility among our own kind.,,
"Maybe you could teach us about that. But for my part, I could wish that I might show you the ways We have learned. Sometimes both parties are too hostile to sit down and talk. In that case, we use a third party to sit between the enemies."
He raised one eyebrow, then lowered them both suspiciously. "If this works, why do you have need of so many weapons?"
She had to smile. it was not easy to put something over on the Titanides.
"Because it doesn't always work. Then our warriors try to destroy each other. But our weapons have grown so fearsome that no one has used them in a long time. We have become better at peace, and I offer as proof that while having been able to destroy our entire planet for at least ... make it sixty myriareys, we have not done so."
"That is the blink of an eye as Gaea turns," he sang.
"I'm not bragging. It is a terrible thing to live with the knowledge that not only your ... your hindmother and friends and neighbors can be wiped out, but every one of your kind down to the smallest stripling."
Meistersinger nodded gravely, looking impressed.
"It is up to you. Our kind can offer you more war, or the possibility of peace."
"I see that," he sang preoccupied. "It is a grave decision to make."
Cirocco decided to shut up. Meistersinger knew it was within his power to learn of the weaponry Gene offered to give.
The candle in the wall holder guttered to darkness; only the one between them survived to cast dancing light across his feminine features.
"Where could I find this one to stand in the middle? It seems to me that such a one would be hit by spears thrown from both sides."
Cirocco spread her hands. "I am willing to offer my services as an authorized representative of the United Nations."
Meistersinger studied her. "Meaning no disrespect to the you-nigh-ted-naish-uns, we have never heard of them. Why would they be interested in our wars?
"The United Nations is always interested in wars. Frankly, they are no better than we are as a whole, which is to say far from perfect."
He shrugged, as if he had assumed that from the start. "Why would you do this for us?"
"I'm going through the territory of the angels anyway, on my way to see Gaea. And I hate war."
For the first time Meistersinger looked impressed. It was plain that his opinion of her had gone up significantly.
"You did not say you were a pilgrim. This puts a new light on matters. I fear you are a fool but it is a holy foolishness." He reached across the table and took her head in his big hands, leaned over, and kissed her forehead. it was the most ritualistic thing she had seen a Titanide do, and it touched her.
"Go, then," he said. "I will think no more of new weapons. Things are fearsome enough, without taking a road that must lead to destruction. "
He paused, seeming to draw in on himself.
"If by some happenstance you should actually see Gaea, I wish you would ask her for me why my hinddaughter had to die. If she will not answer you, slap her face and tell her it's from Meistersinger. "
"I'll do that." She got up, strangely exhilarated, somehow less worried about the future than she had been in two months. She started to leave, but was curious about something,
"What was the kiss for?" she asked. He looked up.
"It was the kiss for the dead. When you leave, I will never see you again."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Hornpipe had assumed the role of guide and source of information for the human party. She said her hindmother approved, and felt it would he a good learning experience. The humans were the most exciting things to happen in Titantown for many a myriarev.
When Cirocco expressed a desire to see the place of winds outside town, Hornpipe packed a picnic lunch and two full wineskins,. Calvin and Gaby volunteered to go, but August just sat looking out the window, something she did often. Gene could not be found. Cirocco reminded Calvin he had pledged to stay with Bill.
Bill told her to wait until he was healed. She was forced to remind him that she was still in charge. He had been forgetting that as confinement made him peevish and petty. Cirocco understood, but liked him least when he turned protective.
"Nice day for a picnic," Hornpipe sang as Cirocco and Gaby joined her on the edge of town. "The ground is dry. We should make it there and back in four or five revs. "
Cirocco knelt and tied the shoelaces of the soft leather moccasins that Titanides had made for her, then stood and looked out over the brown land to where the west central Rhea cable--the place of winds--loomed in the clear air.
"I hate to disappoint you," she sang, "but it will take me and my friend a decarev to get there, and the same coming back. We plan to camp at the base and take the false death."
Hornpipe shivered. "I wish you would not do that. It frightens me. How do the worms know not to eat you?"
Cirocco laughed. The Titanides did not sleep, ever. They found it even more disturbing than the odd knack of balancing forever on two legs.
"There's an alternative. I hesitate to suggest it for fear of offending you. On Earth we have animals-not people-that are built something like you. We ride upon their backs."
"On their backs?" She looked puzzled, then her face lit up as she made the connection. "You mean with one of your legs on each ... of course, I see! Do you think it would work?"
"I'm willing to try it if you are. Hold out your hand. No, turn it ... that's it. I'm going to put my foot on it ... " She did so, grabbed Hornpipe's shoulder, and swung herself up and over. She sat on the broad back with a cinch strap under her and a saddlebag behind each leg. "Is that comfortable?"
"I hardly know you're there. But how will you stay on?