"Coming up."

As she approached the tubhouse again, Quilla heard Jason say, "Think he's asked her yet?"

"I don't know. She'd have mentioned it."

"Maybe not. Quilla's a still one, Mish."

Quilla wet her lips. The beer steins felt cold in her hands.

"Think she'll say yes?" Mish said.

"You didn't," Jason said. "Is she any less stubborn than you are?"

"Not funny, Jase. That was a different thing. She's twenty-one already."

"Give her time."

Quilla walked back a few meters and leaned her forehead against a tree.

She put one of the steins to her cheek, then took a few deep breaths and went back to the tubhouse, letting her feet scuffle in the dirt. She handed her parents the beer, invented work at the house, and left. The barn was full of people putting up decorations; the Tor echoed with Laur's shouts and Mim's answering yells. Palen was in the distant fields. Quilla walked to the front of the house, glanced around, and scrambled into the halaea tree. The many feathery leaves screened her from the house and valley. She sat on a high branch, rested her cheek against the bark, and looked at the dappled light.

The serenity wouldn't come.

The barn doors stood open, and lamplight gleamed on the clean floors.

Quilla wanted to swing up the ropes and along the lofts to the quietness near the barn's rooftree, but instead stood with her family at the opened door, welcoming Aerans and kasirene as they rounded the hill. Crowds made her uncomfortable. Tabor took her hand and squeezed it. She nodded without looking at him and moved away.

"Meya, don't get so dirty so fast," she said. Meya put her hands behind her back and smiled. Jes was dressed in his finest, conscious of his status as official Aerie Hero. Hart stood beside his mother, his expression unreadable.

Quilla watched him, wondering why he had come. Hart had refused to participate in any celebrations before, not even attending the BeginningDay festivals, or the Year'sEnd parties. Yet here he was, distant and cool but present nonetheless. Quilla decided that he wished, finally, to be part of Aerie, part of its rituals and mythologies.

"Hetch isn't here," Ved said as he came in.

Jason shook his head. "Quilla got a com about three days ago. He said he'd be late."

"I know. I've amended the recitation to include Jes, although, frankly, I'd have preferred the captain's presence this evening. However, it is obvious that he will not participate by making a few short remarks if he fails to appear in order to do so, is it not? Have you any advice?"

"You're on your own, Judge," Jason said. "I'm sure you'll do a great job."

Ved pulled at his lower lip and went into the barn. Meya stuck her tongue out at him while he wasn't looking, and Laur threatened her with an upraised hand. Aerans poured through the barn doors, talking and carrying pots of food and jugs of homemade wine. Jes and Tabor climbed to one of the lower lofts and played duets. Their legs dangled over the loft's edge, and a number of Meya's friends pitched fruit at their feet, until Mim descended on them like a mute, vengeful Figure of Authority, and they fled to the ends of the barn, laughing. Jason sat beside Ved near the wine table, and they bent their heads over Ved's speech. The kasirene came last. Quilla, her hands full of cakes, nodded to Palen and put the cakes on the long table. The band arrived and tuned up. Jes and Tabor came down from the loft. Quilla stepped back into shadows and watched Tabor look around, then move toward Mish. Her mother and her lover stood talking beside the doors. Tabor touched Mish's shoulder. Mish put her hand over his and smiled. Quilla turned away.

Ved always wanted to speechify before the dancing, but was always voted down on the assumption that by the time he finished, the band would be asleep.

Hoku settled in a seat where she could observe the proceedings, and collared children as they passed; she soon had a steady flow of young ones moving between her seat and the wine and food tables. Jes lounged against a pillar among several other young men. Quilla could see the gleam of Taine's red hair over their shoulders. Mish danced with Jason, and Tabor watched her. Mish is forty-four this year, Quilla thought. And I'm twenty-one already. It doesn't seem to make much difference.

Hart came in from the night, took a jug of wine, and went to the door again. He stood drinking and watching the sky. For Hetch? Quilla doubted it.

She walked around the walls of the barn and stood beside him.

"Give me some," she said.

Hart looked at her and gave her the jug. She drank.

"Ugh. Why don't you drink kaea instead? It's better than this swill."

"I don't like kasirene shit," Hart said amiably. Quilla started to reply, then saw his smile and closed her mouth, confused. She'd had little to do with her brother over the past five years, and could no longer balance his statements, abstract the humor from the serious. She looked up. Two moons rode the sky, one at its zenith and the other rising above the eastern horizon.

Stars lay thick along the arms of The Spiral.

Hart touched her arm. "Look at that." He nodded into the barn.

Quilla turned and saw Tabor sitting with Mish; they laughed, then Tabor bent his head as he talked and gestured. Telling some story. His cane lay beside him in the hay; his bad leg was stretched out comfortably. Mish's hand rested on his knee. Quilla looked at Hart and shrugged, and he smiled and turned his attention to the stars again.

"They were lovers," Hart said.

"No. I know that story. Tabor left because he felt uncomfortable. He didn't want to come between Jason and Mish. He couldn't. But they were never lovers."

"That's the story." Hart said and smiled.

"You don't change, do you? If there's ever anything to be twisted, you're ready to twist it."

Hart shrugged. "Even if they weren't lovers, even if they didn't fuck, he loved her enough to leave her. Think he still does?"

"Don't be an idiot," Quilla said sharply and turned to go inside.

Hart grabbed her shoulder. "Look! It's starting, look at that!"

As Quilla turned, Hart ran into the barn, shouting. She looked up. The sky to the north of The Spiral lightened. The music stopped, and she heard Hart's voice. People began to crowd through the barn door, looking up. Quilla turned and the sky filled with light. The people gasped. The light intensified, flooding the valley with color and a sudden feel of warmth. After the initial gasp a deep silence fell, and Hart's voice was loud and clear.

"You forgot the time, didn't you?" His voice was good-humored. "You all forgot how to count. That's NewHome's primary, ladies and gentlemen. That's your birthworld, going up in flames. Four standard years ago, friends and neighbors. And you all of you forgot."

"No," Mim said harshly.

Someone moaned. Someone wept. NewHome had driven them out, tried to kill them, murdered family and friends, yet it was their homeworld, and this was the light of its death. Hart sauntered past Quilla, winked, and disappeared around the corner of the barn. The people drew closer together, as though seeking warmth.

The Aerans went home. Quilla stood at the barn door and listened to the sound of their footsteps in the grass. Hoku, muttering about tranquilizers, patted Quilla's arm as she left. Ved was, for once, silent. Jason and Mish looked at the empty barn, the pile of food and drink, the cleared dance area, and went up the hill to the Tor. Quilla closed the barn doors. Tabor leaned against the outer wall, his face turned to the light. Quilla went to him and took his hand.

"There were mountains," Tabor said, "all white and green and brown, with streams running down their sides. And Mestican all made of white walls and gardens, and fountains, and singing birds. Valleys. The sea." He touched his flute. "I knew this four years ago. But somehow it didn't seem real until tonight."

Quilla waited, silent. After a long time his shoulders shook and he pressed his face against the wall. Later they went home.

Jason was up early, sitting in the kitchen having a cup of steaming tea while Laur complained of the kassies, the townspeople, the supplies, and Jes'

effect on Meya's language. Mim brought him a plate of hot meat pies. Jason tilted his chin toward Laur and raised an eyebrow. Mim rolled her eyes, shrugged, and smiled. Laur was all right then, just practicing her complaints.

He wondered what she'd do if she had nothing to complain of, and remembered the one time when, to her intense embarrassment, he had taken her grievances seriously and called a town meeting to discuss her comments about the merchants. Laur had refused to appear. Hoku claimed that as long as Laur had something to complain about, she'd live forever. Jason was inclined to agree.

The unseasonably hot weather had not broken, although the dawn light was spare and cool. Quilla came down, dressed in shorts and halter, and smiled as she poured herself a cup of tea and waved away Mim's offer of pies.

"If you don't eat, you'll fall over for sure," Laur predicted.

"Not hungry, Laur. Really. I'll take some along for lunch, though."

"You'll take more than pies," Laur said, and began listing the things Mim was to pack in Quilla's lunch. Mim, as usual, halved everything. Jason stood up.

"If you're not going to eat, how about showing me the farm?" he said.

"I've lost track of progress these past three weeks."

"Sure." Quilla finished her tea and stood.

"Quilla Kennerin, you're not leaving this house dressed like that,"

Laur said. "You're almost naked! You go on upstairs and put something on before everyone sees you like that."

"Laur. I love you dearly, but it's hot as sin out there during the day, and I'm not going to die of heat just because you don't like the way I'm dressed. It's for my health."

"And what about decency? What about my peace of mind? And you, Jason, you're no better, letting your children run around half naked. Savages, that's what you are. What would your grandmother say?"

"Nothing," Jason said. "She's been dead for fifty years, remember? Tell Mish that I'll be on the farm."

"Nothing but a walking message board," Laur said and turned back to the stove.

Daylight had faded the light of NewHome's dying, although two day-bright nights had confused the fourbirds. They gathered in the boughs of the trees. They looked hung over. Jason looked at them and shook his head.

"Is Tabor taking it badly?"

Quilla stiffened and shrugged. "Not too much. Bad enough. He remembers more than most, I guess. Nightmares."

"Light keeps him awake?"

Quilla nodded.

"Ved says it's responsible for this hot weather," Jason said.

"The weather was hot for a week before this. Ved's a fool. Come on, I want to show you the winter fields we're putting in. The new seeds Hetch brought last time are supposed to do well in our winters. I'm eager to try them."

The rich black soil was turned and tilled, waiting for the seeding.

Quilla talked about the contours of the land, compost, mulch, irrigation systems, and politicked for a pump to run the sprinklers that she wanted to put in. Jason took his shoes off and walked barefoot through the soft dirt.

The land seemed alive under his feet. Quilla talked about alkalinity and acidity. The sun rose higher. They walked through unharvested fields, where kasirene hoed and weeded. The land smelled dark and fertile and welcoming.

Jason wanted to sing.

"Do I get my pump?" Quilla said. They stopped under a stand of kaedos and sat, leaning against the trunks.

"Sure. I think it's a good idea. Can Dene make you one?"

"No. I've asked her. She says they've developed something over on Hogarth's Dump, something solid this and cross that and intersecting the other. The wiring's all from our sap. She says it should last forever. I want to ask Hetch to pick one up for me, he should be able to get it before next summer."

"If it's the right one, and not too expensive. Talk it over with Mish."

"All right."

He closed his eyes and wondered how he could bring up the subject of Tabor. He hadn't been pleased when he'd first discovered that she'd been sleeping with Tabor. She was his daughter, his firstborn, and he reserved the right to feel a loss at her gain. Yet Tabor seemed to make her happier, less discontent. Jason still felt guilty for what he considered to be his own neglect of Quilla, his assumption that everything in her life was rosy while he was busy with his own pursuits. Her flight had awakened him to a time of rough and miserable reappraisal of himself; his most serious weakness, he thought, was in not paying sufficient attention, in not taking care. If Tabor made some of it up to his daughter, he was content. But Mish wanted grandchildren, wanted Kennerins springing from the land like airflowers, covering Aerie. He didn't think that Mish had pushed Tabor into asking Quilla to marry him, but he wasn't sure. And there was always that old business, back during the first year. No jealousy there; what rough times he and Mish had lived through had bound them more closely together. But he wondered whether Mish wasn't pushing Quilla and Tabor together in order, in some complicated way, to recompense Tabor for his loss of Mish herself.

On the other hand, he often wondered whether he didn't invent complications just to keep his mind occupied. He opened his eyes again. Quilla held a dried kaedo leaf in her hand.

"Almost winter," she said. "things changing again."

"Always do, Quil." He laughed. "That was a dumb thing I said."

"At least with kaedos, I know what they're changing into. I know that they'll be back again. Other things..." She shrugged. "I sometimes feel as though I'm standing on a floor that might disappear at any second, leaving me without anything to hold onto." She looked at him. "Does that make any sense?"

"Yes. I haven't felt that way for years, though. I guess, you get older, you don't feel some of the changes as much. No, what I mean is, maybe you see the changes coming, or you're a bit more confident about what they mean and where they're leading."

"Seeing deeper into things?"

"No. Sometimes you've already looked deep into something, and you don't have to worry about it anymore. It makes life easier. Then it turns around and changes on you anyway. Mysterious stuff."

Quilla crushed the leaf in her hand, then brushed the fragments from her palm. "I think I want to go walking again with Palen. After the winter planting you won't need me for a while."

"If you want." Jason stared over the plowed fields. "Something bothering you, Quil? Something specific?"

"You know damned well what it is."

Jason tried to look innocent, but made a mess of it.

"Okay. Mish told me that Tabor said he was going to ask you to marry him. We met him on the way down. Did he tell you?"

Quilla shook her head.

"I'm sorry. He should have. We should have." Jason looked at his feet.

"Treating me like a child again," Quilla said. "Taking care of my life behind my back."

"It wasn't that way. I know it looks that way, but I really thought Tabor would tell you, and that you would tell us. I'm sorry, Quilla. I should have thought it out."

She touched his wrist. "Okay, Jase. Forgiven."

Jason wet his lips. "Are you going to marry him?"

"I don't know." Quilla rolled onto her stomach and poked at the dirt.

"People change. Things change. I don't know if I love him. Or maybe I do, but not enough to marry him. I don't know. Things change."