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.Phrased differently.What you are, what you were supposed to be, I don't think that makes adifference at the core.And the Zimmer.”Anga snorted, she hadn't heard him approach.“A white petal fallen in thesnow,” he said in a gruff voice.Hic'lic raised his head, his mouth working.Another lead followed the last analysis as Cayse set new commands throughthe linking sphere then let it balance on her lap.A story, the old tongue forms floating before her even when she shook her head to get rid of them.Garm, shewas sure, even if he wouldn't have written it.Then wasn't as sure that he hadn't, and with the thought felt a wrenching sense of displacement.A white petal.The sense of displacement was getting worse.Holding the linking sphere closewith one hand, Eunni pulled herself around so that she was sitting next to Hic'lic, her other arm around him.“We go to the sun,” she said to him, seeing theLaurel Hickeywww.2morrow.bc.caEye of the Ocean – Book 1: Ji’Jin Stationfaceted eyes darken as she repeated his words to him.“The real sun.” And toCayse, “If someone asked you what you wanted, what would you say to them?”His need was immediate and simple and he didn't have to speak.Poss a'ltic.“Anga? And you?”“I've made that plain.”So he had.She nodded.The ti'Linn Salin.“Va'lin'si,” she said, recalling its name.The Salin moved in a circling path so as not to come closer.Pincers shaped orders to the othersnearby.“Service,” it said in High formal but without any qualifiers as to her rank.And in ti'Linn-native, the sphere giving the translation, “The eye, the ocean, to own the shape of what we are by the words we use.” And in plain tongue, added,“An ordinary life.”Cayse stood, watching the ti'Linn a moment, then signed both dismissal andordered privacy with his hands and turned back to her without waiting to see if he would be obeyed.It didn't matter, the ti'Linn were already here, she thought.Op'ki'na - andGe'on'ni, somewhere.The guard frozen mid-step.And the Zimmer? Their threeand she couldn't give a damn about the Clan Zimmer.Maybe they were thequestion too, Clan and freeborn.Who else? The Spann? Their problem, shedecided.Besides, it wasn't as though she had to do anything; this place wasfalling apart around her.“I don't know what will happen.Peecit was praying.” She remembered thesmell of paper burning.One of her drawings from the leather book perhaps, Eunni had been busy with Garm and hadn't been paying any attention, the words werelike the smoke, an indistinct haze in her mind.She hadn't been the only onemaking a request; they all might have been in one way or another, prayers oractions.Only, she had been the one with a close tie to Rit and Garm.Hic'lic was half in her lap, white against the blood red of her lace robe.Thelinking sphere rolled until she caught it between her knees.It sizzled and Eunni yelped as she brushed it away from her.Noise was growing in the corridoroutside; people were bunching up, crowding the door.Cayse ordered them toclear; there were shouts in a dozen languages.If there was a Net out there anylonger, she couldn't sense it.She kept Hic'lic in her arms as she struggled to get up, her robe catching ather efforts.“Get the door closed,” she said, finding a strong hand helping her up.Cayse.“Will it make any difference?” he said.His look of amusement surprised her.Then the Clan Zimmer after all, she heard Zimmer-native and High formal both,with orders being given in an accent different than she'd heard from Peecit, more like Kori but with the expectation of obedience inherent in the words.CayseLaurel Hickeywww.2morrow.bc.caEye of the Ocean – Book 1: Ji’Jin Stationbowed to the pair as they stopped at the entrance.“May I present the Zimmer-priest Tu'pin and Commander Oimit of the Spann Be'li'kini.Their servants.”“Close the door,” she said.- 37 -Ulanda woke up with the feeling that someone had been calling her.Her feetwere silent on the packed dirt floor as she walked to the porch, taking the heavy shawl she used as an extra blanket across the end of the bed and putting it over her arms against the chill.The thick earthen walls, so welcome in the summer,kept the cold of winter well into spring, but she saved the dried brush shegathered for the coldest nights and for cooking.Night still, but a faint glowbrightened the horizon, just enough to dim the starlight and darken the branches against the sky.The moon had set.An hour to sunrise, the world was silent,hushed as though it waited with her for the call to happen again.A rustle in the bushes at the side of the yard and Ulanda smiled to herself.Just the birds.Springtime and the sharp trill of their song would start before the light was bright enough to see them by.Sitting on the wood stoop with the overhangof the thatch roof above her, she hugged her knees, preferring what she saw here to the chance that waited if she tried to go back to sleep
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