It looked from every angle like a perfectly symmetrical high hill. Once it was airborne, it would be spherical. Its shell plates would slide around and lock?three layers of them?and nothing would get in or out.
?Akin.?
He looked around without moving his body and saw Ahajas coming from the direction of Lo. Everyone else made some noise when they walked, but Ahajas, larger, taller than almost everyone else, seemed to flow along, sixteen-toed feet hardly seeming to touch the ground. If she did not want to be heard, no one heard her. Females had to be able to hide if possible and to fight if hiding was impossible or useless. Nikanj had said that.
He would not see Nikanj for a year. Perhaps longer.
She came towering over him, then folded herself into a sitting position opposite him the way some Humans used to stoop or kneel to talk to him when he was younger. Now his head and hers were at the same level.
?I wanted to see you before you left. You might not still be a child when you come back.?
?I will be.? He put his hand in among her head tentacles and felt them grasp and penetrate. ?I?m still years away from changing.?
?Your body can change faster than you think. The stress of having to adjust to a new environment could make things go more quickly. You should see everyone now.?
?I don?t want to.?
?I know. You don?t want to leave so you don?t want to say goodbye. You didn?t even go to your resister friends.?
She didn?t smell them on him. He had been particularly embarrassed to realize that she and others knew by scent when he had been with a woman. He washed, of course, but still they knew.
?You should have gone to them. You might change a great deal during your metamorphosis. Humans don?t accept that easily.?
?Lilith??
?You know better. In spite of the things she says, I?ve never seen her reject one of her children. But would you want to leave without seeing her??
Silence.
?Come on, Eka.? She released his hand and stood up.
He followed her back to the village, feeling resentful and manipulated.
3
An outdoor feast was arranged for him. The people stopped their activities and came together in the center of the village for him and for Tiikuchahk. Tiikuchahk seemed to enjoy the party, but Akin simply endured it. Margit, who was known to be on the verge of her metamorphosis, came to sit beside him. She was still his favorite sibling, although she spent more time with her own paired sibling. She held out a gray hand to him, and he almost took it between his own before he noticed what she was showing him. She had always had too many fingers for a Human-born child?seven on each hand. But the hand she held out to him now had only five long, slender, gray fingers.
He stared at her, then carefully took the offered hand and examined it. There was no wound, no scars.
?How
?? he asked.
?I woke up this morning, and they were gone. Nothing left but the nail and some shriveled, dead skin.?
?Did your hand hurt??
?It felt fine. It still does. I?m sleepy, but that?s all so far.? She hesitated. ?You?re the first person I?ve told.?
He hugged her and was barely able to stop himself from crying. ?I won?t even know you when I come back. You?ll be someone else, probably mated and pregnant.?
?I may be mated and pregnant, but you?ll know me. I?ll see to that!?
He only looked at her. Everyone changed, but, irrationally, he did not want her to change.
?What is it?? Tiikuchahk asked.
Akin did not understand why he did it, but after looking to see that it was all right with Margit, he took her hand and showed it to Tiikuchahk.
Tiikuchahk, who looked a great deal more Human than Margit did in spite of being Oankali-born, began to cry. It kissed her hand and let it go sadly. ?Things are going to change too much while we?re gone,? it said, silent tears sliding down its gray face. ?We?ll be strangers when we come back.? Its few small sensory tentacles tightened into lumps against its body, making it look the way Akin felt.
Now others wanted to know what was wrong, and Lilith came to them, looking as though she already knew.
?Margit?? she said softly.
Margit held up her hands and smiled. ?I thought so,? Lilith said. ?Now this is your party, too. Come on.? She led Margit away to show others.
Akin and Tiikuchahk got up together without speaking. They did sometimes act in unison in the way of paired siblings, but the phenomenon always startled them and somehow never gave the comfort it seemed to give to sibling pairs who had bonded properly in infancy. Now, though, they moved together toward Ayre, their oldest sister. She was a construct adult?the oldest construct adult in Lo?and she had been watching them, training several head tentacles on them as she sat talking to one of Leah?s Oankali-born sons. She had been born in Chkahichdahk. She had passed her metamorphosis on Earth, mated, and borne several children. The things that they still faced, she had already survived.
