A Forest of Stars - Kevin J. Anderson [82]
“To me, it is amazing that all humans look so similar. How can you keep track of yourselves?”
Anton picked up a stick and prodded the glowing coals in the middle of the bonfire. “You just need to get used to us, Vao’sh.”
The rememberer gestured toward the swimmers carrying cargo nets to dock structures, where landbound workers met them to retrieve the day’s catch. “I know a story about swimmers from the Saga of Seven Suns. ”
“Is it a ghost story, a frightening tale best told around the campfire?”
The rememberer’s face flickered through a palette of colors. “It is a love story…of a sort. We have a kith that lives and works in our driest deserts, arid-born and lizardlike. The scalies are able to go for months with only minimal moisture.” Vao’sh smiled. “Thus, you can imagine that the love between the scaly worker Tre’c and the swimmer Kri’l was doomed to tragedy.”
Anton furrowed his brow. “I thought Ildiran kiths were welcome to interbreed?”
Vao’sh made a dismissive gesture. “Oh, we have no prejudice against mixed bloodlines. Even so, the romance between a scaly and a swimmer was ill-fated by its very nature. No one can now say what attracted them to each other. Tre’c and Kri’l must have known the difficulties they would face, but still they would not be pulled apart. Tre’c could not tolerate the salt water of the ocean, and Kri’l could not survive in the dry desert.
“So, Tre’c built his home on a rocky beach, high enough from the closest approach of the tides. Kri’l tethered her raft inside a cove near the beach. They could call to each other and talk. And though they could tolerate each other’s environment for only an hour each day, that hour together was more joyous than a lifetime spent with anyone else.
“Tre’c and Kri’l had several years of happiness, until one day a great storm came into the cove, tore up the beach, and cast Kri’l‘s raft up onto the rocks, destroying Tre’c’s shelter and washing it away. The two of them clung together as the rains poured down and the waves battered them. The cliffs crumbled; the sand and rocks slid down in an avalanche; the ocean hurled them against the beach. The land and the sea swallowed them up.
“Their bodies were never found, but sometimes…” Vao’sh said, colors streaming like sunrise across his face, “Ildirans come upon empty stretches of beach where the water laps against the dry sand, places where few people ever go and no one watches. There, we sometimes encounter two sets of footprints, a swimmer and a scaly walking alone on the deserted strand, one set of footprints in the moist mud, the other on the dry beach.”
The bonfire continued to crackle, and Anton leaned back with his hands on the soft, mossy groundcover. “That’s a wonderful story, Vao’sh.” He tried to think of how he could match the tale before the campfire burned down. “And now I have one for you.”
41
NIRA
Because Ildirans liked to live in close quarters, where they could sense the crowded presence of others, they had designed and constructed the sleeping barracks of the human prisoners along similar lines. Nira’s home was a large building with numerous bunks, tables, and common areas. Here the people cooked, slept, and played games—whenever they weren’t required for other duties. It was like a giant extended family all crowded under one roof.
Nira lived quietly among them, sharing meals, sleeping when they slept; for years, though, she had felt separate, walled off because she was so different. The people did not ostracize her consciously, yet she had found it difficult to let herself fit in. She cared about her fellow captives, but could never quite escape the feeling of loneliness, even when surrounded by them.
Now, during Dobro’s dark night outside, she sat quietly, listening to the chatter around her. In her own space, Nira kept several plants in makeshift pots, nurturing flowers, a small bush, some sweet-smelling herbs. Plants were a comfort to her.
She remembered how Father Idriss and Mother Alexa held so many colorful celebrations and festivals in the huge fungus-reef city on