Staring, I realized-the traeki was vlen-budding before our eyes!

While the crevice widened, the Master of Mixes seemed to flutter. A complex gurgle of vaguely sickening noises accompanied something that began to emerge, slithering through the opening, then sliding down the traeki's sloping flank, trailing loose fibers behind it.

"Gosh-osh-osh-osh-osh . . ." Pincer repeated in turn from each leg-vent, his sensor strip spinning frantically. Urdonnol edged away nervously while Huck rolled back and forth, torn between curiosity and revulsion. I felt sharp, biting sensations as little Huphu, our noor beast mascot, scrambled up my back and onto my shoulder, growling anxiously. Half-consciously I stroked her sleek pelt, rumbling an umble that must have sounded more confident than I felt.

Glistening with slime, the thing landed on the floor with a plopping sound and lay almost still, ripples coursing around its quadruple torus of miniature rings. Meanwhile, realignments quivered under the flaccid skin of the traeki parent.

"Not to ... be concerned," a somewhat altered voice burbled from the oration peak of the old stack of rings, "i/we adjust . . . reconfigure."

Rea.s.suring words, but everyone knows vlenning is a dangerous time for a traeki, when the unity of the former stack is challenged and sometimes fails. For that reason, most of them reproduce externally, growing new rings singly, in pens, or buying them from expert breeders, exchanging and swapping for the full set of traits they want in an offspring. Still, vlenning has advantages, I hear. Mister Heinz claims to have witnessed several, but I bet he never saw a four-tier bud emerge like this, already stacked and moving on its own!

"This newly detached self may be addressed-for the time being-as Ziz. To that word-phrase it might answer, if engraved training patterns take hold. After performing its function with merit, it may then return for augmentation as a candidate for full life. Meanwhile, it is schooled ... to serve your quest, coming with traits you may require."

"I don't know." Ur-ronn's head swayed an oval of confusion. "Do you mean-"

Huck muttered, "Gybz, what are we supposed to-"

The traeki. cut in.

"i/we no longer answer to that name. Our rings vote among ourselves now. Please do not speak or interfere."

We fell silent, watching in awe as the creature literally wrestled with itself, within itself. A rippling seemed to rise from the base segment all the way up, terminating in a belch of yellow vapor. Waves flowed back and forth, crosswise as well as vertical. This went on for many duras, while we feared Gybz was about to tear erself apart.

Finally, the tremors lessened, then faded away. The traeki sensory organs refocused. Words bubbled from the puckered speech mouth, in a voice transformed.

"It is decided.

"Provisionally, you may call us/me Tyug and have good odds that this stack will answer.."

Another pulse of throbbing.

"That i will answer. Please inform Uriel that this thing is done. Furthermore, tell her that my/our major skill cores seem to be intact."

Only then did I realize what had been at risk during the vlenning. The Master of Mixes is a vital member of Uriel's team. If Gybz-if Tyug-failed to remember all of its tricks of the trade, Mount Guenn alloys might not shine or cut as well, or decay so completely with the pa.s.sage of time.

Foolish me. I'd been worried the whole time about the poor traeki's life.

Huphu slithered down my back and approached the new-formed traeki half-ent.i.ty, which was already gathering an array of flipperlike feet under its bottommost segment, waving clumsy tentacles from its stubby top ring. The noor sniffed suspiciously, then settled back with a satisfied trill.

Thus Huphu was first to welcome Ziz-newest member of our band.

Now if only we had a human kid, we'd be a true six.

Omens can be good things, as any sailor knows. Luck is uttergloss. Fickle, but a d.a.m.n sight better than the alternative.

I had a feeling we were going to need all of Ifni's help we could get.

X. THE BOOK OF THE SLOPE.

Legends Among qheuens it is said that fleeing to Jijo was not as much a matter of survival as of culture.

There is dispute among the legends that have been pa.s.sed down by the armored ones, since their landing on Jijo over a thousand years ago. Grays, blues, and reds each tell their own versions of events before and after their sneakship came.

Where they agree is that it all began in Galaxy One where the sept found itselt in trouble with its own alliance.

According to our surviving copy of Basic Galactic Socio-Politics, by Smelt, most starfaring races are members of clans-a relationship based on the great chain of uplift. For example, Earthclan is among the smallest and simplest, consisting of humans and their two clients-neo-chimps and neo-dolphins. If the patrons who supposedly raised up h.o.m.o sapiens are ever found, it could link Earthlings to a vast family stretching back ages, possibly even as far back as the Progenitors, who began the uplift cycle a billion years ago.

With membership in such a clan, Earthlings might become much stronger.

They might also become liable for countless ancient debts and obligations. Another, quite separate network of allegiance seems to be based on philosophy. Any of the bitter feuds and ornate wars-of-honor dividing Galactic culture arose out of disputes no member of the Six can now recall or comprehend. Great alliances fought over arcane differences in theology, such as the nature of the long-vanished Progenitors.

It is said that when qheuens dwelled among the stars, they were members of the Awaiters Alliance-a fealty they inherited from their Zhosh patrons, who found and adopted primitive qheuens from sea-cliff hives, dominated by fierce gray queens.

Things might have been simpler had the Zhosh only uplifted the grays, but they gave the same expansion of wit and mind to the servant castes as well. Nor was this the end, for according to lore, the Awaiter philosophy is egalitarian and pragmatic. The alliance saw useful talents in the reds and blues. Rulings were made, insisting that the bonds of obeisance to the grays be loosened.

Certain qheuens fled this meddling, seeking a place to preserve their natural way in peace.

That, in brief, is why they came here.

On Jijo, the three types disagree to this day over who first betrayed whom. Grays claim their colony began in harmony, discipline, and love. All went well until urs and then humans stirred up blue discontent. Other historians, such as River-Knife and Cuts-Coral, forcefully dissent from this view.

Whatever the cause, all agree that Jijo's qheuenish culture is now even more untraditional than the one their ancestors fled.

Such are the ironies when children ignore their parents' wishes and start thinking for themselves.

Collected Fables of Jijo's Seven.

Third Edition. Department of Folklore and Language, Biblos. Year 1867 of Exile.

Asx SUDDENLY, THEIR QUESTIONS TAKE A NEW TURN. An edge of tension-not quite fear, but a cousin to that universal pa.s.sion-abruptly colors the invaders' speech.

Then, in a single night, their apprehension takes hasty physical form.

They have buried their black station!

Do you recall the surprise, my rings? At dusk there it was, serene, arrogantly uncaring of the open sky. A cubic shape, blatant in its artificiality.

When we returned at dawn, a great heap of dirt lay there instead. From the size of the mound, Lester surmised the station must have scooped a hole, dropped itself inside, and piled the detritus on top, like a borer-beetle fleeing a digbat.

Lester's guess is proven right when Rann, Kunn, and Besh emerge from below, ascending a smooth, dark tunnel to resume discussions under the canopy-of-negotiation. This time they choose to focus on machines. Specifically-what devices remain from Buyur days? They want to know if ancient relics still throb with vital force.

This happens on some fallow worlds, they say. Sloppy races leave countless servant drones behind when they depart, laying their worlds down for an aeon of rest. Near-perfect and self-repairing, the abandoned mechanisms can last a long time, wandering masterless across a terrain void of living voices.

They ask-have we seen any mechanical orphans?

We try to explain that the Buyur were meticulous. That their cities were dutifully sc.r.a.ped away, or crushed and seeded with deconstructors. Their machine servants were infected with meme-compulsions, driving those still mobile to seek nests in the deep trench we call the Midden. All this we believe, yet the sky-humans seem to doubt our word.

They ask (again!) about visitations. What clues have we seen of other ships coming stealthfully, for purposes vaguely hinted at but never said aloud?

As planned, we dissemble. In old human tales and books, it is a technique oft used by the weak when confronted by the strong.

Act stupid, the lore suggests. Meanwhile, watch and listen closely.

Ah, but how much longer can we get away with it? Already Besh questions those who come for healing. In their grat.i.tude, some will surely forget our injunctions.

The next stage will start soon, while our preparations are barely begun.

The fourth human forayer, Ling, returns from her research trip. Did.she not leave with the young heretic, Lark? Yet she comes back alone.

No, we tell her. We have not seen him. He did not come this way. Can you tell us why he abandoned you? Why he left you in the forest, his a.s.signed task undone?

We promise her another guide. The qheuen naturalist, Uthen. Meanwhile, we placate.

If only our rewq had not abandoned us! When i/we ask Lester about the woman's mood-what he can read from her demeanor-he only shudders and says he cannot say.

Sara A CONCERT WAS ARRANGED BY AN IMPROMPTU group of pa.s.sengers and crew, on the fantail of the Hauph-woa, to welcome the Stranger back among the living.

Ulgor would play the violus, a stringed instrument based on the Earthling violin, modified to suit deft, ur-rish fingers. While Ulgor tuned, Blade squatted his blue-green carapace over a mirliton-drum, stroking its taut membrane with his ma.s.sive, complex tongue, causing it to rumble and growl. Meanwhile, all five legs held jugs filled to varied levels with water. Tentative puffs from his speech vents blew notes across each opening.

Pzora, the traeki pharmacist, modestly renounced any claim to musical talent but agreed to take up some metal and ceramic chimes. The hoonish helmsman would sing, while the professional scriven-dancer honored the makeshift group by agreeing to accompany them in the g'Kek manner, with graceful motions of his eyestalks and those famous dancing arms, calling to mind the swaying of trees, or wind-driven rain, or birds in flight.

They had asked Sara to round out a six, but she declined. The only instrument she played was her father's piano, back in Nelo's house by the great dam, and even at that her proficiency was unremarkable. So much for the supposed correlation between music and mathematics, she thought ironically. Anyway, she wanted to keep an eye on the Stranger, in case events threw him into another hysterical fit. He seemed calm so far, watching through dark eyes that seemed pleasantly surprised by nearly everything.

Was this a symptom? Head injuries sometimes caused loss of memory-or even ability to make memories-so everything was forever new.

At least he can feel some joy, she thought. Take the way he beamed, every time she approached. It felt strange and sweet for someone to be so reliably happy to see her. Perhaps if she were prettier, it wouldn't be so befuddling. But the handsome dark outlander was a sick man, she recalled. Out of his proper mind.

And yet, she pondered further, what is the past but a fiction, invented by a mind in order to go on functioning? She had spent a year fleeing memory, for reasons that had seemed important then.

Now it just doesn't amount to much.

She worried about what was going on up in the Rim-mers. Her brothers stayed close to her thoughts.

If you'd accepted Taine's original proposal of marriage, you might have had little ones by now, and their future to fret about, as well.

Refusing the august gray-headed sage had caused a stir. How many other offers would there be for the hand of a shy papermaker's daughter without much figure, a young woman with more pa.s.sion for symbols on a page than dancing or the other arts of dalliance? Soon after turning Taine down, Joshu's attentions had seemed to ratify her decision, till she realized the young bookbinder might only be using her as a diversion during his journeyman year in Biblos, nothing more.

Ironic, isn't it? Lark could have his pick of young women on the Slope, yet his philosophy makes him choose celibacy. My conclusions about Jijo and the Six are the opposite to his. Yet I'm alone too.

Different highways, arriving at the same solitary dead end.

And now come G.o.ds from s.p.a.ce, diverting us all onto a road whose markings we can't see.

They still lacked a sixth for the concert. Despite having introduced string instruments to Jijo, humans traditionally played flute in a mixed s.e.xtet. Jop was an adept, but the farmer declined, preferring to pore over his book of scrolls. Finally, young Jomah agreed to sit in for luck, equipped with a pair of spoons.

So much for the vaunted contribution of Earthlings to musical life on Jijo.

Hidden under Blade's heavy sh.e.l.l, the mirliton groaned a low, rumbling note, soon joined by a mournful sigh from one of the jugs under Blade's left-front leg. The qheuen's seeing-band winked at Ulgor, and the urs took her cue to lift the violus, laying the double bow across the strings, drawing twin wavering notes, embellishing the mirliton's ba.s.so moan. A multilevel chord was struck. It held. . . .

The moment of duet harmony seemed to stretch on and on. Sara stopped breathing, lest any other sound break the extraordinary consonance. Even Fakoon rolled forward, visibly moved.

If the rest is anything like this . . .

Pzora chose the next instant to pile in, disrupting the aching sweetness with an eager clangor of bells and cymbals. The Dolo pharmacist seemed zealously unaware of what er had shattered, rushing ahead of the beat, halting, then pushing on again. After a stunned instant, members of the hoonish crew roared with laughter. Noor on the masts chittered as Ulgor and Blade shared looks that needed no rewq to interpret- equivalents to a shrug and a wink. They played on, incorporating Pzora's enthusiasm in a catchy four-part rhythm.

Sara recalled being taught piano by her mother, from music that was actually written down, now a nearly forgotten art. Jijoan s.e.xtets weaved their impromptu harmonies out of separate threads, merging and diverging through one congenial coincidence after another. Human music used to work that way in most pre-Contact cultures, before the Euro-West hit on symphonies and other more rigorous forms. Or so Sara had read.

Overcoming shyness, Jomah started rattling his spoons as Blade puffed a calliope of breathy notes. The hoonish helmsman inflated his air sac to answer the mirliton's rumble, singing an improvisation, without words in any known language.

Then Fakoon wheeled forward, arms swaying delicately, reminding Sara of gently rising smoke.

What had been exquisite, then humorous, soon took on a quality even more highly prized.

Unity.

She glanced at the Stranger, his face overcome with emotion, eyes delighting in Fakoon's opening moves. The left hand thumped his blanket happily, beating time.

You can tell what kind of man he used to be, she mused. Even horribly mutilated, in awful pain, he spends his waking time enthralled by good things.

The thought seemed to catch in her throat. Taken by surprise, Sara turned away, hiding a choking wave of sadness that abruptly blurred her vision.

Tarek Town appeared soon after, perched between the merging rivers Roney and Bibur.

From afar it seemed no more than a greenish knoll, like any other hill. Grayish shapes studded the mound, as if boulders lay strewn over the slopes. Then the , Hauph-woa rounded one last oxbow turn, and what had seemed solid from a distance now spread open-a huge, nearly hollow erection of webbing, festooned with greenery. The "boulders" were the protruding tips of ma.s.sive towers, enmeshed in a maze of cables, conduits, rope bridges, netting, ramps, and sloping ladders, all draped under lush, flowing foliage.

The air filled with a humid redolence, the scent of countless flowers.

Sara liked to squint and imagine Tarek in other days, back when it was but a hamlet to the mighty Buyur, yet a place of true civilization, humming with faithful machines, vibrant with the footsteps of visitors from far star systems, thronging with sky-craft that settled gracefully on rooftop landing pads. A city lively with aspirations that she, a forest primitive, might never imagine.

But then, as the noon crew poled the Hauph-woa toward a concealed dock, no amount of squinting could mask how far Tarek had fallen. Out of a mult.i.tude of windows, only a few still shone with million-year-old glazing. Others featured crude chimneys, staining once-smooth walls with the soot of cook fires. Wide ledges where floating aircraft once landed now supported miniature orchards or coops for noisy herd chicks. Instead of self-propelled machines, the streets swarmed with commerce carried on the backs of tinkers and traders, or animal-drawn carts.

High up a nearby tower, some young g'Kek sped around a rail-less ramp, heedless of the drop, their spokes blurry with speed. Urban life suited the wheeled sept. Rare elsewhere, g'Kek made up the town's largest group.

Northward, crossing Tarek's link to the mainland, lay a "recent" ruin of stone blocks-the thousand-year-old city wall, erected by the Gray Queens who long ruled here, until a great siege ended their reign, back when the Dolo paper mill was new. Scorch marks still smeared the fallen bulwark, testimony to the violent birth of the Commons-of-Six.

However many times she pa.s.sed through Tarek Town, it remained a marvel. Jijo's closest thing to a cosmopolitan place, where all races mixed as equals.

Along with hoon-crewed vessels, countless smaller boats skimmed under lacy, arching bridges, rowed by human trapper-traders, bringing hides and wares to market. River-traeki, with amphibious basal segments, churned along the narrow ca.n.a.ls, much faster than their land-bound cousins managed ash.o.r.e.

Near the river confluence, a special port sheltered two hissing steam-ferries, linking forest freeholds on the north bank to southern gra.s.slands where urrish hordes galloped. But on a sloping beach nearby, Sara saw some blue qheuens climb ash.o.r.e, avoiding ferry tolls by walking across the river bottom, a talent useful long ago, when blue rebels toppled the Queens' tyranny-helped by an army of men, traeki, and hoon.

In all the tales about that battle, none credits the insurgents with a weapon I think crucial-that of language.

It took some time for the Hauph-woa to weave through a crowd of boats and tie up at a cramped wharf.

The jammed harbor helped explain the lack of upstream traffic.