On the other hand, another odd rumor was reaching the vine world. Many of the Khieevi ships that had not been hit, in fact, even before the MOO ships began their attack, were falling out of orbit and crashing onto the surface of narhiiVhiliinyar. Direct communication with the front wings was infrequent and terse, so Acorna had not been able to speak to any of the actual combatants about this, but she suspected that some of the Khieevi swarm had been infected with the sap from the swarm’s previous attack on the vine -world.
The MOO forces had actually been firing a relatively short time-less than forty-eight hours-but the psychic damage from the telepathic bonds between the Linyaari on narhii-Vhilimyar and Aari’s parents and the Balakiire’s crew had been occurring since the first Khieevi bomb struck the planet’s surface.
Acorna’s dreams were fitful and troubled, she was running, hiding, ducking, while the world fell apart all around her. Some part of her mind knew that this was not only a dream. Nevertheless, the bonds of empathy that tied her to her own friends and kin were beginning to drag her into the morass of emotion experienced by the Linyaari under attack.
Suddenly, screams shattered her fragile rest and her eyes flew open. All of the Linyaari, including Liriili and Aari, cried out.
“What is it?” she asked, struggling to her feet.
“Grandam,” Neeva cried.
“Grandam,” Kaarlye and Miiri echoed.
Aari added, with wonder in his voice. “And Maati.”
At the moment Grandam leaped into the flames, Maati was also sleeping. She and Thariinye had their hands full calming children, trying to heal them of fears they shared. It didn’t help that Hafiz and Karina were so obviously frightened.
“Look,” Maati had told the others. “I think the Khieevi really like it when they scare us. They get some sort of special kick out of it. So the scareder we are, the more they like it. Can we try not to give them the satisfaction?”
Jana nodded her understanding, “Some of the overseers at the mines were like that. And-Kheti said that some of the clients in the pleasure houses -were like that, too. They enjoyed scaring and hurting the girls because that was what they wanted really, not the sex.”
“I can’t help it,” Chiura said, cuddling close to Jana. “I’m scared.”
Karina Harakamian stopped trembling and tried to rally them. “I know what. We could group sing. Does anyone know the song ‘Kum-bye-ya?’ It’s from an ancient Earth culture and very hypnotic.”
Nobody did. Karina sang it with them. It -was slow and everybody swayed to it like she showed them to, but it was repetitious. It didn’t change their mood or lighten their fears.
Calum Baird, who now had nothing to do, finally said, “That’s a nice wee song, Karina, but we’ve sung it twenty times. Shall we try something else? I know a few. I learned this one from Giloglie one time when -we were drunk as skunks. His people were great ones for songs. We used to sing this one and some of the others to Acorna when she’-was little.”
While he taught them, “The Rocky Road to Dublin” and they were all shouting, “One, two, three, four, five! Hunt the hare and turn her on the rocky road all the way to Dub-uh-lin one, two, three, four, five!” Maati and Thariinye were finally able to fall into an exhausted sleep.
And then she felt the flames and heard, for the first time ever, Grandam shriek, and she woke up shrieking too. Thariinye was screeching right back at her. Then Grandam was gone, somehow, but someone else was there, in her mind with her.
“Maati? Maati, where are you? It’s Aari. Keep sending. I’m coming to get you.”
Maati’s thought was loud and clear and If Aari and Acorna both heard it, though Miiri and Kaarlye almost immediately lapsed back into their telepathic nightmares. (There’s Khieevi ships all around us. They’re taking us somewhere.)
(Can you read them, Maati?) Aari asked her.
(A-a little. I know they want to hurt us, but I scared one of them by rubbing sap on the screen.)
(That’s good,) Aari told her. (You kept them from taking you off the ship.)