TEMAR WAS BACK on Xiantha after his scare, and they were sitting in a small group by the shore of the Emerald Lake, enjoying the peaceful scenery and still celebrating the recovery of Grace and Ledin too. Everything seemed calm, although Grace was finding it difficult to get back into her normal routine, even though a fortnight had gone by. She had been very shaken by the Enaran ability to find her and control her movements. Even when Arcan had explained what had happened, she was ashamed that she had not been able to counteract the threat. She felt impotent. She was terrified that they would do something like that again, despite Arcan's pointing out that they now had no need; they knew exactly how strong he was.
Six was floating on his back in the lake. He was in about two feet of water, so he touched the bottom fairly frequently, because he was pretending to be a submarine and the crew he was carrying weighed a lot more than they had a couple of months ago. It was amazing how much difference a few weeks made in children, he thought. In fact, he was rather worried that they might really convert him into a submarine and forget that he needed air to breathe.
Raven and Temar were perched on top of his chest, delighted, the one babbling his pleasure loudly and the other pummeling him with both feet and hands and shrieking with excitement. He felt more battered than he had when he had faced the Dessites, he thought. This had been Diva's idea. Why couldn't she pretend to be a boat, if she thought it was such a great activity? Hang it, he had swallowed more water than a sock hung in the petrifying well at the black peak on Kwaide. He had noticed recently that she came up with a lot of ideas for other people to implement. He frowned to himself. That would have to be remedied.
He pushed himself up on one hand and raised his shoulders out of the water, dislodging the smallest of the crew members, who was rescued by Ledin.
"Man overboard!" Six shouted. "—The last, brave heroine is being pounded by enemy shells!" He reached over with one hand and began to tickle the thin little belly in front of him. "The enemy will be merciless!"
As the last crew member finally toppled off in a fit of indignant giggles and was salvaged by Grace, Six looked around for Diva.
He soon found his target and splashed out of the water to where she was sitting, just where the shoreline mingled with the trees, where the sand was cooler. She was settled on a blanket to keep the sand out of her clothes, and she looked up at him guilelessly as he approached. The afternoon sun was blinding her, and so she missed the look of determination on his face which would otherwise have alerted her.
"Having fun?"
Six waited until he was within a foot and then pounced. "New game!" he shouted over his shoulder. "We wrap Mummy over and over in this blanket! It's called 'Roll the mole in the hole'."
A muffled shout of indignation was audible from inside the rug which was now heaving with a large amount of cross girl. Six sat on top of it with alacrity. "Hurry up, you lot, or the mole is going to get away!"
Raven came running up, and Temar was not far behind, carried quite willingly by Ledin. They threw themselves on top of the sackcloth blanket and began to try to roll Diva even more tightly into a cylinder, which they left open at the top to provide sufficient air for the occupant. Diva was tossing and turning, trying to unseat Six, but now taking care not to injure the children. Grace was telling them to stop, but couldn't hold back her own laughter, which was making Diva even crosser. Everybody was laughing and screaming at once.
They jumped up and down on top of her until Grace took pity on the victim, and made Six and Ledin stop.
The mole reappeared, looking distinctly disheveled and rather hot. She pressed her lips together firmly and gazed around her purposefully, eyes narrowed. "Right. Who's next?"
All heads followed the direction of her eyes. It was at that point that Six noticed who they were staring at and put his hands up in protest. "Here! Don't look at me! What have I done?"
It was too late. Already Ledin had moved in a cat-like manner to take up a position at Diva's left-hand side, and Bennel was looking businesslike on her right. Six turned on his heel and tracked along the beach at a high speed, throwing up thin streams of sand as his feet dug into the yielding surface. The rest threw themselves after him, yowling in glee. Raven was running on her own, and Ledin was bounding along with Temar on his shoulders, taking care not to jog the little boy too much.
Much to Raven's delight, it was she who finally managed to catch up with the new mole. The quarry appeared to get surprisingly confused at one stage and run back almost in her direction. She chortled and pushed with all her might to get the victim to fall on the blanket, insisting repeatedly when he resisted.
"Wait for us!" Ledin came to a thundering halt with Temar, who was so excited that he was flapping his arms. He looked like a Xianthan turkey bird unsuccessfully attempting to take off. Ledin picked him off his shoulders, lowered him to the ground and pushed his son's small hands against the mole, who teetered under such immense pressure and tumbled obligingly right into the centre of the sackcloth which Raven had laid out, causing Temar to shriek out in delight.
The others had reached them by then, and many hands helped to roll the mole in his hole. Everybody sat on the bundle when its contents showed signs of trying to escape.
Six, underneath three Coriolans and one Kwaidian, rolled his eyes. He felt particularly hard-done-to; his captors seemed to have forgotten about leaving a tubeway of air free above his head.
His muffled complaints percolated the blanket slowly, and it took quite some time before Diva realized that there was actually some basis in fact for the indignant voice. Giggling herself, she began to unwrap the package, a move which resulted in them all taking hold of one side and pulling.
Six shot out of the other side of the blanket, rolling over and over down towards the lake until a large rock stopped his progress. The children were clapping their hands with glee as he got to his feet and rubbed his side rather ruefully.
"Last time I ever suggest a game," he said, treating his wife to a you-haven't-heard-the-last-of-this look.
Raven didn't agree. "More! More! More!" She was jumping up and down on the spot, leaving a small dent in the beach, but Six shook his head.
"Not today, Raven. It's time to get something to eat."
That was acceptable, too. With general good humour, everybody made their way back along the beach to the cover of the tall trees, where they deployed the battle-scarred blanket in its more usual guise as a makeshift table. Tallen and Bennel went back along the track through the woods to bring the food out, their conversation carrying to the others only as small fragments. They were discussing the relative merits of their respective canths, the 14-year-old hotly defending his piebald as greatly superior. Bennel's gruff voice could be heard differing from this opinion before the two Coriolans walked out of range into the trees.
Six and Diva both looked down at the two children, who had quickly lost interest in the preparations for lunch and found other things to keep themselves busy.
Raven was building a spaceship out of sand. So far, she had only managed to make an oval-shaped hump, but that didn't appear to deter her. She was concentrating fiercely and making what she imagined were spaceship-type noises as she patted the sides of the vessel into submission. Temar was sitting upright nearby, wriggling his feet in the soft grains that made up the beach, crimping his toes up and down ecstatically and smiling his gap-toothed smile. He was sporting two front teeth at the bottom and the two top front teeth were just starting to peer through his gums.
Grace was watching the children too, a slight frown creasing her forehead. She looked up at Diva and a sudden stillness came over her; a certain widening of the eyes gave her thoughts away. Diva recognized them because she was thinking exactly the same: things were different now. Even at 20, having children dependent on you changed how you felt.
Ledin, unaware of this important moment of illumination, strode over to give Six a friendly thump on the back. The two Kwaidians exchanged air-punches for a couple of seconds, and then touched knuckles.
"I have to go." Ledin bent to stroke Temar's sparse hair from his widow's peak to the new scar on what was quite indisputably a tough Kwaidian scalp. "Arcan will be here soon to take me over to the space station. My shift is due to start."
Six grinned. "Don't forget to pack a couple of skin-stitchers. You might fall off another cliff."
"You be careful too. —A Tarbolean shark might paddle over and bite you."
"Not if you're there too. It would find you much tastier."
Ledin shook his head sagely. "Diva would be the great attraction. After all those Mesteta wine baths her skin must be pickled to perfection. They say a marinade always tenderizes meat."
"What?" Diva's eyebrows snapped together at being referred to as meat, her expression far from tender.
The two Kwaidians clutched at each other and mimicked being terrified.
Diva stamped a foot. "Stop it, both of you! How can you think this is funny? Don't you ever get tired of larking around?"
Six looked unrepentant. "Just having some fun, is all. We ambassadors need light relief."
"Oh, really?" She poured at least three seconds into the first syllable. "You don't think ambassadors should be dignified emissaries of their people?"
Six looked revolted. "NO! How old do you think I am?" He turned to Ledin. "You see? Now my own wife thinks I should act like an ambassador. This is all your fault. I told you that you should have taken the job."
Diva couldn't help smiling inwardly. It was no good; the sunlight was shining off Six's damp hair, which had been tousled into little peaks by the blanket. He looked more like a small boy than a diplomat. As she looked at him, her heart gave a tiny leap of recognition, as if to say: here is your home. She suppressed it sternly and went on. She wasn't about to let Ledin off easily for likening her to a piece of meat.
"Weren't you about to leave, Ledin? Or are you planning to throw yourself off another cliff just because Six thinks it might be fun?"
Ledin nodded quite unperturbedly and waved at Grace and the baby. "Would if there were any cliffs around here. Be good, Temar!"
Diva shook her head in disgust, but since Ledin disappeared in the direction of the house at that moment, on his way to change, was unable to respond. Baulked of her prey, she was left only with Six, who was looking unrepentant and quite ready to dispute the matter.
"I would have thought," he said with pursed lips, "that you are about the last person to talk about not taking risks, madam 'I-can-fly-this-shuttle-through-the-needle-rock', madam 'Just-a-moment-while-I-blow-up-this-space-trader'."
"Tsskk! Not at all the same thing."
Six grinned. "And Mesteta is made of butter."
Diva sighed. "I have no idea why I married you."
He looked surprised. "I'm irresistible."
Grace laughed so much at the expression on Diva's face that she had to sink down into the sand. Her son looked up at her and his own face became wreathed in smiles in response. "aa-da-ba-aa-aa," he pointed out sagely.
"See?" Six grinned down at the baby. "Even Temar agrees."
Diva gave another sigh.
THEY WERE ALMOST finishing the al fresco meal when there was a swirling of air around them. It took them a few moments even to register the appearance of the morphics. When they did, though, one look at them was enough to make the sensation of calm turn to a thump of adrenaline, to make the happiness vanish into the bright sunlight.
Six scrambled up from the sand, reaching down with his hand to help his wife up. Even the children had gone completely quiet. Grace's hand had moved automatically to her throat.
Diva stared at the visitor. "What is it? What's the matter?"
"It is Arcan. He is being pulled across to Dessia." All the morphics were spinning in great agitation. "The canths can only slow the process down; you have to do something. Fast!"
"ARCAN!" They stared at each other. "But ... how did they find him? How did they get to the binary system? How did they get the strength to attack him here?"
The visitor turned black. "We don't know. I suspect that they were somehow directed here by the Ammonites – we know from the attack on Grace that they have no trouble finding us here. It may be their way of trying to eliminate Arcan without actually intervening themselves. All we know is that Arcan is being attacked, that part of him has already been physically pulled over to that floating island – the one where I was held. The canths say that they have managed to hold the rest of Arcan here, and they will be able to continue doing that for some time, but that you have to help him, otherwise the Dessites will cut him to pieces and experiment on him until they find a way to make use of his ability to transport quantically. They believe he would make the perfect spaceship."
"Of course we will help!" Six grabbed Diva's hand. "We are ready. But how can we get there?"
"The part of Arcan which is still conscious here" —Six and Diva exchanged quick glances; that sounded terrible— "says he thinks he can put the New Independence in orbit around the moon. But he asks that you hurry; his strength is already failing."
Six nodded and his fingers tightened even more on Diva's hand. "You know what will happen if Arcan gets trapped on the planet – he wouldn't be able to escape, and the Dessites could destroy him totally."
Diva nodded. "Then we should get started. We can take the morphics, can't we?"
The visitor shimmered. "I cannot go, of course," —he sounded mortified— "but the twins are reasonably immune to the Dessites. They will meet you behind the moon; they are monitoring the situation for us. But they can't get anywhere near Arcan at the moment; the nanographite would trap them too if they went onto the surface of the planet. You will have to take the two shuttles down on your own."
"Two shuttles?" questioned Six.
The visitor shimmered. "One for you and Diva to share with Bennel; one for Grace, Ledin and Tallen."
Six nodded, but looked over at the girl who had once saved him from her own brother. "That will be better. But, Grace, are you fit enough to go with us?"
"Of course I am. I will leave Temar with the man who contrives children." Grace had coloured and was now staring crossly around at them. "Arcan is going to need us all. Of course I must go. Don't ... don't even think about leaving me behind!"
Six looked at Diva, a question in his eyes.
Diva was remembering that shared moment of recognition only a short while ago, but she also knew that neither she nor Grace could possibly leave Arcan to his fate, whatever the cost. The Coriolan girl shook her head. "No. If Grace says she is ready, then she is. And it sounds as if we should all go. If the Dessites really have got their fronds on some part of Arcan it's odds on to a vaniven that they will slice him up to help them on their travels. They have to be stopped!"
The visitor shone brightly. "That is what I thought. I am happy you do not think I am mistaken."
Six stared at the bimorph. He didn't usually sound so humble.
"Are you feeling all right?" he asked.
"Certainly. Why?"
"No, nothing. Only you don't usually admit that you might be wrong."
"I have never excluded the possibility. It is unlikely, because I am now nearly a category 1 species, but that doesn't mean it could never happen."
"Hmm. Wonders will never cease!"
"Why not?"
"Why not what?"
"I'm sorry? Why should wonders never cease? I believe, with the expansion of the universe, that everything will eventually freeze into isolation and become lifeless. At that time, one might reasonably be able to say that wonders have ceased, do you not think?"
"I expect you will still be droning on, though," said Six.
"I believe it to be bees who drone. I do not think I am capable of such a sound."
"You amaze me," said Six, trying to look polite and failing spectacularly. Diva grinned, but gave him a look to tell him to shut up. He indicated that it had been the visitor who had started it all, but she signaled her doubt of the veracity of that statement, and the scene deteriorated into a tense silence.
"Anyway," said Six in a bright tone. "I suppose, if we have to go back to Dessia, we should get ready."
"Ledin is already on the Kwaide Orbital Space Station, he knows to make sure that the shuttles and the New Independence are sufficiently well stocked," the visitor told him. "The rest of you can join him there in two hours, at first light on Dessia."
Six grunted. "It would have been better to wait for the night."
"If we had had enough time, we would have." He found Six always irritating and generally obtuse, but suspected that Diva would become inflamed if he mentioned this.
"Then we will be ready," Diva told the small entity. "In any case, the 100% humidity will make it hard for them to see us. It is bound to be either raining or foggy there. What do you suggest we do when we get to the planet?"
The morphic seemed to be consulting with the distant trimorphs, judging from the flashes coming from him, and there was a pause before the visitor answered.
"We think that, if you can find the orthogel on the floating island, you will have to eliminate it."
Diva's head lifted quickly at that. "Eliminate it? Kill Arcan? How?"
"You would be killing part of Arcan, but not all. He insists on the necessity. This time you will have to take explosives down with you. It may be the only way. There is a small chance that you can help Arcan to gain control back inside the island, but it is a very slim one. The trimorphs say that it would be impossible for Arcan to escape the confines of the trap on his own, and they already have over ten tons of him trapped; so there is no way you could carry him out physically. If you can, bring part of the orthogel with you when you leave. If you can't ... it may be necessary to destroy it completely. Arcan tells us that the part of him still left on Valhai will probably survive, provided all links between it and the trapped portion of him are severed."
"Probably? PROBABLY? Arcan is our friend! We can't allow this to happen!"
"Whatever happens, the Dessites now know about the orthogel and how to drag it over to their homeland; they may simply go back to Valhai and harvest more," pointed out Six.
"That is true. Though they would have to have room for it on Dessia." Diva went white. "We will not allow that." She stretched her neck, making her look a bit like one of the tall trees. Six looked sideways at his wife with pride. The beach had faded; she had already transformed back into the fierce warrior that was always close to the surface.
"They don't know what they are up against," he said, with a pleased nod.
"If they get control of the ortholiquid network, too," said the visitor, "they can control all of us as well." He spun on his axis and turned a horrid grey colour. "They will take me over again; I know they will!"
"No, they won't!" said Six. "You know that the canths can protect us all, Visitor; they did on Pictoria. We will manage to sort something out."
But nothing they could say could quieten the little being. He spun around and around on his axis, making them all dizzy. It wasn't until Diva threw a spread over him angrily that he was persuaded to stop. Then Six and Diva were finally left alone to make their preparations.
Diva turned to Six. "Do you think we should tell Raven that we are leaving the planet?"
He shook his head. "No. Raven can go back to her old adoptive parents for a couple of weeks; we promised she would visit periodically, remember? We should just leave. The only person who needs to know about this is the man who speaks to canths. We must tell him where we are going, and why we are going there. Come on; we have a lot to do and only a little time to do it in."