Unaware they were doing so, they cringed at the sight. Farther up the hill, Leely stood unmoved, staring up at all the colors, waving his hands and singing, “Dananana, Dananana.”
Then the great circle fell apart. Rottens sluggishly sagged away toward the sea, pieces of themselves bulging, almost detaching, then being tugged back with lurching effort. These were the ones Leely had touched, now barely coherent as they bobbled awkwardly down the valley. Some barely made it past the beach; some went a little farther out before they fell and floated, amorphous balloons, black bulges against the bright sky and brighter sea. The shaggies took no notice as the Rottens moved out like sinking ships, wallowing out under their own erratic power, out and down, lower and lower, the waves breaking over them at last.
Those few Rottens that had severed their tentacles moved in quite another direction, straight up, dwindling in distance, vanishing at the zenith….
And beneath the watching humans, the world trembled, shivered, rang like a gigantic bell, the vibration dying away to leave them sprawled, deafened, only half-conscious.
Silence, then. A long, disapproving silence.
Who? What? They could not tell. Over the sea, the grid of shaggies remained quiet, all tentacles withdrawn. All around, the moor was soundless, no branch quivering in even the slightest breeze. No seabird cried. No fish splashed. They looked at one another, themselves silent, mouths open, eyes wide. Nothing.
“Dananana.” A fretful cry.
Lutha staggered toward Leely where he spun on his bare feet, staring at the sky, still calling, “Dananana.” His mouth pushed out, pouting. He had liked all those pretty colors. He had been having fun. Lutha watched him, possessed by a sudden and terrible disorientation. Who was he? What was he?
And she stumbled to a halt, hand to mouth to muffle the sound she felt boiling from her throat. She knew what he was! She knew who he was!
Snark stumbled past her, knife in hand, single-mindedly set on taking samples of dropped tentacles. Lutha saw her sawing away at the great, lumpy coils while beyond her Leely danced in and out of the furze, waving, giggling. Lutha didn’t follow him. She was incapable of motion. After a few moments he tired of playing hide-and-seek by himself and came to put his hand in hers. She made herself close her hand, turning like an automaton to follow Snark as she rejoined the others.
They approached Leelson where he stood leaning against a stone, the glasses at his eyes, searching the land around them.
“What was that?” Leelson asked Snark. “That earthquake?”
“Like what’s happened before,” she said softly. “Only closer. Angrier. Something here’s not liking us much.”
Everything here didn’t like them, Lutha thought. The whole world was arrayed against them, and with good reason.
“How…how did Leely get out there?” she demanded, barely able to speak over her sick certainty.
“I sent him,” said Leelson with a level look. “And I would do the same again.”
It had not occurred to her that he would simply admit it.
“He could have been killed,” she said. “He could have been…” This was foolishness, and she knew it, but her tongue went on making words her heart did not believe!
“I thought it unlikely,” he replied.
“You had no right—”
“Saluez is in labor. She would have died had this siege continued. She may die regardless. And her child.”
Lutha opened her mouth, but nothing came out. He would have sent Leely out if there had been no Saluez. Saluez was only an excuse, but she was a good excuse, one Lutha could not argue now.
“Dananana.” Unhelpfully.
“I’ll go to her,” Lutha said stiffly. Later she would deal with Leelson. When she had more time to tell him a terrible thing. When he had time to hear.
“I’ll go with you,” said Snark, with a glance at the zenith, where the Rottens had vanished. “I guess they’re gone! Who’ll take this sample down and put it in the analyzer?”
The ex-king took the packet from her and trudged off toward the camp.
“Come on,” she said, nudging Lutha. “I know a bit about baby taking.”
“I didn’t know shadows—” Lutha murmured.
“Before I was a shadow,” she interrupted with an exasperated look. “When I was a street rat. Street rats get pregnant like real people. But they don’t have responsible sponsors to sign for their babies. Who’d sign for a street rat’s kid? So they can’t go to a registered birther. They have ’em unofficial, like.” She shook her head. “Street rats don’t eat too good, they get beat on a lot. Sometimes they have a hard time! Let’s hope Saluez won’t.”
They scrambled back into the cavern, where Lutha harnessed Leely to his pillar once more, fastening the latches of the tether, making a sound she was surprised to hear coming from her own throat, half a snarl, half a moan.
“What?” demanded Snark, turning a surprised face.
Lutha pressed her eyes with her fingers, shutting down the frenzied, ugly thoughts that possessed her. “Not now,” she said. “We have other things to do now.”
Besides, she told herself, trying to calm her frantic mind, the matter didn’t concern Snark. It concerned Leelson. Leelson and Limia, and their damned posterity!
Snark didn’t pursue the matter, for one look at Saluez was enough to push other concerns aside. Saluez’s labor was proceeding without her, so to speak. Her body heaved and pushed, but her mind had gone elsewhere.
“Jiacare,” said Snark. “She’s filthy. So are we. We’ll need some wash water.”
He picked up a bucket and went out. Snark knelt beside Saluez, a strange expression on her face. “Dinadhi,” she said, as though to herself. “It’s her first birth and she’s Dinadhi.”
“Of course she is,” Lutha said impatiently.
Snark nodded to herself, rubbing her forehead fretfully, then went across the cavern to busy herself among the emergency kits.
“What are you doing?” Lutha asked.
“Making a catch bucket.”
“What in…?”
Snark stopped, staring at the wall as though puzzled at Lutha’s question. “Saluez is Dinadhi. My mother, she … said, have a catch bucket, with a lid.”
Lutha pursed
