Fledgling_ a novel Part 32

Sometime later, as we lay together, sated, but still taking pleasure in the feel of skin against skin, I said, "You're mine. Did you know that? You're scent is so enticing, and I've nibbled on you so often. You're mine."

He laughed softly-a contented, gentle sound. "I thought I might be," he said.

That afternoon, we were all awake and restless, so Celia suggested we get away from Punta Nublada for a while and take a drive, have a picnic-a meal to be eaten outside and away from so many strangers. I liked the idea. It was a chance for us to get to know one another a little better and a chance to think beyond the last Council night.

While I added my hooded jacket, gloves, and sungla.s.ses to my usual jeans and T-s.h.i.+rt, the four of them prepared a meal from the refrigerator. Celia told me I looked as though I were about to go out into the dead of winter.

"Aren't you hot?" she asked.

"I'm not," I said. "The weather is cool. I'll be fine." They felt changes in the weather more than I did.

They took me at my word and packed their food and some cold soda and beer in the Styrofoam cooler that we had bought for our night in the woods in Was.h.i.+ngton. They had made sandwiches from leftover turkey, roast beef, and cheddar cheese, and took along a few bananas, some red seedless grapes, and the remains of a German chocolate cake. We all fit comfortably in Celia and Brook's car, and Brook drove us out to the highway and then northward toward a place Joel knew about.

We chose a s.p.a.ce on the bluffs overlooking the ocean where there was a flat patch of gra.s.s and bare rock to sit on and from where we could watch the waves pounding the beach and the rocks below. Brook had thought ahead enough to bring along a blanket and a pair of large towels from the guest house linen closet. Now she spread them on the ground for us, sat down on one of the towels, and began eating a thick turkey-and-cheddar sandwich. The others took food from the cooler and sat around eating and drinking and speculating about whether the Silk symbionts hated their Ina.

"I think they do," Celia said. "They must. I would if I had to put up with those people."

"They don't," Brook said. "I met one of them when they first arrived. She's a historian. She writes books-novels under one name and popular history under another. She says she couldn't have found a better place to wind up. She says Russell's generation and even Milo help her get the little details right, especially in the fiction. She says she likes working with them. Maybe she's unusual, but I didn't get the feeling that she resented them."

Joel said, "I think that doctor who questioned Shori yesterday joined them so he could learn more about what they are and what makes them tick. I wonder what questions he would have asked if he'd had a choice."

"He's definitely hungry to know more," I said. "He wants to understand how we survive terrible injuries, how we heal."

Joel nodded and took a second roast-beef sandwich. "I wonder what he'd do if he discovered something, some combination of genes, say, that produced substances that caused rapid healing. Who would he tell?"

"No one," I said. "The Silks would never let him tell anyone."

"Maybe he just wants it for himself," Wright said. "Maybe he just wants to be able to heal the way Shori did."

I shook my head. "I don't believe anyone would want to go through a healing like that. I can't begin tell you what the pain was like."

They all looked at me, and I realized that the doctor wasn't the only one who wanted to heal the way I did.

I spread my hands. "I'm sharing the ability with you in the only way I can," I said. "You're already better at healing than you were."

They nodded and opened more food, soda, and tall brown bottles of beer.

After a while I said, "I have to ask you something, and I need you to think about the question and be honest." I paused and looked at each of them. "Have any of you had a problem with either of the Braithwaites or their symbionts?" I asked.

There was silence. Brook had lain down on her back on her towel and closed her eyes, but she was not dozing. Celia was sitting next to Joel, glancing at him now and then. Her scent let me know that she was very much attracted to him. He, on the other hand, was glancing at Wright who had sat down next to me, taken my gloved hand, kissed it, bit it a little as he looked at me, then held it between his own hands. He was showing off. And for the moment, I was letting him get away with it.

"The Braithwaites," Celia said. "Joan could cut gla.s.s with that tongue of hers, but I think she's really okay. She just says what she means."

"Are you thinking about moving in with the Braithwaites?" Joel asked.

"I am, yes, for a while ... if they'll have me. That's why I'm asking all of you whether you've seen anything or know anything against them. If you have reason to want to avoid them, tell me now."

"I like them," Joel said. "They're strong, decent people, not bigots like the Silks and the Dahlmans and a couple of the other Council members."

"I barely know the Braithwaites," Brook said. "I danced with one of their symbionts at a party." She smiled. "He was okay, and I got the impression he was happy, that he liked being their symbiont. That's usually a good sign."

I got the impression she thought the Braithwaite symbiont was more than just "okay." Brook might wind up enjoying our stay with the Braithwaites more than the rest of us-if the Braithwaites agreed to let me visit them for a while.

"So you're not thinking of trying to get them to adopt you?" Joel asked.

"I don't believe I want to be adopted," I said. "I can't remember my female family at all, but I'm part of them. I can learn about them and see that their memory is continued by continuing their family. If I'm adopted, my female family vanishes into history just like my male family did. And I've promised to mate with the Gordons." I thought of Daniel and almost smiled. "I don't know whether that will happen, but I hope it will, and I'm not going to do anything to prevent it."

"So you'll wind up having six or eight children all by yourself," Wright said. "Is that the way it will be?"

"Eventually," I said. "But I'm thinking about doing what Hayden said last night-adopting a relative, a young girl from a family with too many girls. That way there will be two of us. Preston says I can't do that until I'm an adult myself, although I can look around. I hope to be able to live with several different families and learn what they can teach me. I'll read their books, listen to their elders."

"You're trying to get yourself an education," Joel said.

I nodded. "I have to re-educate myself. Right now, you probably know more about Ina history and about being Ina than I do. I have to learn. Problem is, I don't know what my re-education will cost."

He smiled. "Better ask," he said. "Although, actually, I think Joan will tell you whether you ask or not. Learning is good, though. My father made sure I picked up as much education as I could even before I went off to college. From what Hayden has told me, I'm one of maybe a few hundred humans in the world who can speak and read Ina."

And Theodora would have been another, I thought.

"It will be a while before we have a home," I said. "But as my families' affairs are sorted out, and we begin to have more money, you'll be able to have the things you want and do what you want to do. Maybe one of you wants to write books or learn another language or learn woodworking or real estate." I smiled. "Whatever you like. And there will be more of you. At least three more, eventually."

"Seven people," Wright said. "I understand the need, but I don't like it."

"I like the idea of moving around for a while," Brook said. "When I was with losif, we didn't travel much at all. Except for elders going to Councils of one kind or another, most adult Ina do very little traveling, probably because traveling is such a production, with so many people needing to travel together. I'm definitely ready to do some traveling."

"Once you've traveled for a while, you'll probably be ready to settle down again pretty fast," Celia said. "My father was in the army while I was growing up. We moved all the time. As soon as I made friends or began to like a school, we were gone again. This sounds as though it will be like that. Meet a friend, spot a nice guy, start a project, then you're on your way somewhere else."

"We'll be staying mostly with female families, won't we?" Wright asked.

"We will," I said. "If it doesn't cause trouble, we'll pay short visits to the Gordons and the Leontyevs, but as I understand it, my pheromones are going to give males more and more trouble as I approach adulthood."

"Bound to be true," Wright growled into my ear. The growl made my whole body tingle.

"Stop that," I said, laughing, and he laughed, too.

"So all we have to do," Celia said, "is get through tonight. Then we can get on with our lives."

I talked with Margaret Braithwaite that evening. I went to her office-bedroom before the third night of the Council could begin.

"Shori, you shouldn't ask me about this now," she said. "You should have waited until judgment was pa.s.sed and the Council had concluded its business."

I had found her looking through a book she'd borrowed from Hayden. I hadn't seen her borrow it, but the book smelled deeply of him and only a little of her. One of his older Ina histories.

"Why should I have waited?" I asked. "Have I broken some rule?"

"Oh, no. No rule. It's just that ... It's just that you might not want to come to us once you hear the judgment."

I thought about that. It seemed impossible that anyone had failed to hear the lies that the Silks and Katharine Dahlman had told. The elders were much more experienced than I was in reading the signs.

"Is it possible that the Council members will fail to see what the Silks have done?" I asked.

"It is not possible," she said. "The problem isn't their guilt and Katharine's. The problem is what to do about it. What punishment to impose?"

"They killed twelve Ina-all of my male and female families-and nearly a hundred symbionts. From what I've heard, none of the people they killed had ever harmed them. How can they be allowed to get away with what they've done?"

"You want them to die."

"I want them to die."

"Would you help kill them?"

I stared back at her. "I would."

She sighed. "They'll die, Shori, but not in the quick satisfying way you probably hope for. That won't happen-except, perhaps, in Katharine's case. She and her family haven't been good about maintaining friends.h.i.+ps and alliances. Very stupid of them. But the Silk family will not be killed today."

"Why?"

"Because as terrible as their crimes are, I don't believe the Council vote will be unanimous. Understand, I'm telling you what I believe, not what I know. I might be wrong, although I doubt it. The Council won't want to wipe out an ancient and once-respected family. They'll want to give them a chance to survive."

I didn't say anything for a while. I hated Katharine Dahlman. I would see her dead sooner or later, no matter what anyone said. I hated the Silks, too, but it was a different, less immediate hate. They had killed people I no longer knew, and they had killed without knowing me. I wanted to see the Silks dead, but I didn't need need to see them dead in the way that I needed to see Katharine dead. That wasn't the way I should have felt, but it was the way I did feel. to see them dead in the way that I needed to see Katharine dead. That wasn't the way I should have felt, but it was the way I did feel.

I said, "Daniel told me that the Silks' unmated sons might be taken from them and adopted by other families."

Joan nodded. "I think that will happen. If it does, the word will be spread tonight by mail, by phone, and by e-mail to all the world's Ina communities. I'm glad Daniel let you know what could happen."

"What if the Silks decide to come after me again? I was their main target all along because I was the one in whom the human genetic mix worked best. They killed so many just to get to me."

"They have the possibility of rebuilding their family if Russell's sons' generation can convince their mates to try to have more children. They will lose that opportunity if they make another attempt on your life or on the lives of your people-even if they fail. If they try again, they will be killed."

I looked at her for several seconds. "You truly believe this will stop them from secretly trying kill me or perhaps trying to kill my children in the future?"

"Ina are linked worldwide, Shori. If the Silks give their word-and they must give it if they are to leave here alive-and then break it, they will all be killed and any new sons adopted away. Their family will vanish. They know this."

"Then ... will you permit me to come to you with my symbionts, learn from you for a while, work for you to pay our way?"

She sighed. "For how long?"

I hesitated. "One year. Perhaps two."

"Come back to me when the Council has finished with its business. I believe that we will welcome you, but I can't answer until I've spoken with my sister."

There was a formal feel to all this-as though we had spoken ritual words. Had we? I would find out eventually.

"What about Katharine?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I don't know."

"I don't believe I could let her go."

"Wait and see."

"Theodora wasn't even a person to Katharine. She was just something Katharine could s.n.a.t.c.h away from me to make me weaker."

"I know. Don't give her what she wants. Wait, Shori. Wait and see."

Twenty-eight.

There were no parties on the night of the third Council session. The hall was so full that there was not enough seating for everyone. People stood or brought chairs from the houses. No one seemed to want to sit on the concrete floor. Seats had been roped off for my symbionts in front, as had seats on the opposite side of the hall for the Silks and their symbionts.

The members of the Council seated themselves as usual, in the same order, and when they were all settled, Preston stood up. This was everyone's signal to be quiet and pay attention. Preston waited until silence had worked its way from the front to the back of the room. Then he said, "Russell Silk, do you have anything further to say or any more questions to ask of Shori Matthews or of anyone that you or she has asked to speak to this Council?"

This was Russell's last chance to speak, to defend his family, and to make me look bad. Of course, anyone he called, I could question, too.

Russell stood up. "I have no one else to call," he said, holding his microphone, looking out toward the audience. Then he turned and faced the Council. "I suppose in a sense, I call on all of you to remember that my family has maintained good and honorable friends.h.i.+ps with many of you. Remember that the Silk family helped some of you immigrate to this country in times of war or political chaos in your former homes. Remember that in all the time you've known us, we have not lied to you or cheated you.

"What matters most to us, to every member of the Silk family, is the welfare of the Ina people. We Ina are vastly outnumbered by the human beings of this world. And how many of us have been butchered in their wars? They destroy one another by the millions, and it makes no difference to their numbers. They breed and breed and breed, while we live long and breed slowly. Their lives are brief and, without us, riddled with disease and violence. And yet, we need them. We take them into our families, and with our help, they are able to live longer, stay free of disease, and get along with one another. We could not live without them.

"But we are not them!

"We are not them!

"Children of the great G.o.ddess, we are not them!"

He shook with the intensity of his feeling. He had to take several breaths before he could continue. "We are not them," he whispered. "Nor should we try to be them. Ever. Not for any reason. Not even to gain the day; the cost is too great."

He stood for a second longer in silence, then sat down and put his microphone back on its stand. The room had gone completely silent.

Once he sat down, Preston broke the silence. "Shori, is there anyone you would like to question or anything you would like to say?"

"I have questions," I said, standing up with my microphone. I had thought of something as Russell spoke-something prompted by what he had said and by my having seen Joan Braithwaite reading a history book just a short while ago. It seemed to me that Russell had just admitted that his family had killed my families. He wanted us to believe that he had done it for a good reason. I said to Preston, "I want to ask you a few questions, if that's all right."

Preston looked surprised. "All right. Russell questioned me so I do qualify as someone you can question now."

I nodded. "I ask this because of my limited knowledge of Ina law. Preston, is there a legal, nonlethal way of questioning someone's behavior? I mean, if I believed that you were doing something that could be harmful to other Ina, would I be able to bring it to the attention of a council of some kind or some other group?"

Preston did not smile, did not change expression at all, but I got the impression he was pleased with me. "There is," he said. "If you believed I were doing something to the detriment of the Ina, something that was not exactly against law, but that you seriously believed was harmful, you could ask for a Council of the G.o.ddess."

Russell s.n.a.t.c.hed up his microphone and protested. "Council of the ... That hasn't been done for at least twenty-five hundred years."

"You are aware of it, then?" I asked him.

"It wouldn't have been taken seriously. No one's done it for two thousand-"