Grandam had lived through much in her long life, but even the Khieevi attack on Vhiliinyar had not been this horrible. The people had escaped then. Now they were ambushed on their own world, their escape routes cut off, the ground quickly being bombed from beneath their feet.
The noise outside her head was no worse than the clamor inside. Her people were dying. Dying. Dead already, many in the tall grasses, and she could do nothing. The keening of death songs in the caves was as loud in its way as the bombing.
Not just bombing either, but ships falling from the sky, huge chunks of them plummeting everywhere, blazing comets of death.
She healed burns and fractures, crushing injuries and shock, all the time trying to exude calm and control, as all the other elders -were also doing. But never had she felt so keenly every year of her age. The Ancestors attempted to help, but their energy was older than her own and they were not immune to the chaos and tragedy thundering down upon them.
She felt a sudden jolt of alarm and looked up from the badly burned body of young Hiiri, who had been caught in the first grass fire. One of the Ancestors bolted from an adjoining cave and galloped across the charred stubble that remained of the tall grasses, easily, gracefully leaped the small river fed by an underground spring in the hills, and charged into a remaining stand of tall grasses on the other side. Grandam watched as the grasses parted, and a line of figures, much burdened with cases and cages, humbled through the grass to meet the Ancestor. (Aagroni lirtyef) Grandam called in thought-speak. (Your laboratory should have been among the first to be evacuated!)
(We could hardly leave all of the new younglings we’ve been growing from the remains of the animals from Vhiliinyar, could we?) the aagroni demanded indignantly. (It took a little time to pack them out but everything has gone very well indeed.)
The Ancestor had gone to offer her services as a pack animal. (Of course, you couldn’t,) Grandam replied. (I commend your dedication to your charges.) She turned back to the smoky den behind her to recruit some of the able bodied to assist with the bundles.
The ball of flame flashed across her eyes as she turned and when she whirled back to look, it had landed in the tall grass. She could no longer see the Ancestor or the aagroni but she heard the screams and the frantic whinnying of the Ancestor. An attendant ran from one of the caves but he had Grandam’s heels before him.
She tried to outrun the flame, circling around it to reach some of the scientists behind it, or the Ancestor. All of these precious beings must not die. So much had been lost in such a short time. This must not go too.
But she could see nothing but fire. She heard the roar of the flames and the screams and she saw the Ancestor leap from the fire with specimens upon her back, her mane and tail on fire before she leaped into the river. Grandam leaped into the river herself and soaked herself thoroughly and then gave a great leap of body and mind and plunged into the flames.
After countless hours of healing work, trying to soothe and sedate Neeva, Khaari, Melireenya, Miiri, and Kaarlye, Acorna was resting. Aari helped by holding the hands of his parents, speaking in a low voice to them of his boyhood, and also remembering some bits of Linyaari spiritual teachings, of how beloved souls returned with the new spirits of the young.
She had finally fallen asleep listening to him herself. His horn was not mature enough to use for healing, but what he was doing truly helped. More than Liriili, who wrung her hands and demanded that somebody <)o something. She seemed most distressed that all of these outsiders now knew the location of narhii-Vhilnnyar. Irrationally, she was somehow not understanding that the Khieevi had already found the planet. And something wo,) being done. The Khieevi bombardment of the Linyaari world was now meeting with resistance from the outside, from the darting mosquito-like attacks of MOO’s combined forces. Reports traveled back down the supply channels that the attacks were effective. Once a Khieevi vessel was sapped, it did not remain aloft for long.