“At least it seems we won’t have to worry about destroying innocent children when we sap the nest,” Acorna said.
“No,” Mac said. “But you had better sap them fast and leave. The Khieevi ships behind are gaining on us.”
“Khieevi ships to your starboard stern,” Calum said. “We’ll cover you, Condor.”
“No!” Acorna said. “Take the children out of here, Calum. Now. You can’t risk them.”
“This is Wing Command Ifrit,” Nadhari’s crisp and authoritative voice came through. “You heard the lady, Acaoecki. Move smartly from the field at once.”
“Do it,” Becker’s voice seconded the motion. “We got ‘em in our crosshairs, Calum. Vamoose and don’t let any salvage hit you in the stern on your way out.”
The rest “was a bit anticlimactic for Acorna and Aari. The squad from the MOO fleet closed rapidly on the few survivors from the horde’s self-destruction and demolished them with a combination of conventional fire and sap shells.
The majority of the sap shells were saved for the nestworld, where the Young had already begun to die from the sap oozing out of Fourteen Klaclu and Two Klick.
“Dimitri, Glen, and Giloglie each keep your wing here until you’re sure it’s over,” Nadhari commanded.
“Don’t worry, Nadhari,” Andina Dimitri said, “I’ve just the cleanser to take care of this mess.”
“Acorna? Aari?” Becker asked plaintively. “I don’t suppose you could pick up any of this salvage on your way back to MOO, could you?”
For the first time since the Linyaari inhabited narhiiVhiliinyar, hordes of people of other species joined with the Linyaari and the Ancestors.
It had taken much imagination and very precise navigational memory to find the site of Grandfather Niicari’s grave. It had once been marked by being located a few steps from the back flap of Grandam Naadiina’s pavilion but now all pavilions were little more than pools of molten ash in the lake of such ash that had once been Kubiilikhan.
Neeva swallowed hard and spoke, “Friends and clankin, we are gathered to lay our beloved Grandam, mother, protectress, and wise counselor to our many generations of Linyaari, friend to the outsiders, to rest beside her lifemate, our Grandfather.”
Maati was weeping quietly, supported on one side by Aari and Acorna and on the other by a dry-eyed but solemn-faced Thariinye. Miiri and Kaarlye stood behind their youngest, Miiri’s hands resting lightly on her shoulders.
Grandam looked so beautiful lying there. The char had been cleaned from her silvery mane, the lines were smoothed on her face, her hands resting peacefully, naturally at her waist. And her mouth was curved in a firm and exultant smile. She had not died in the fire, as it seemed when Maati and the other Linyaari felt first the fire and then the extinguishment of Grandam’s life force.
Grandam’s leap at the fire had been a complete act involving not only her body, but also her extraordinary strength of heart, mind, and will, as she dragged the river waters from their bed to flood the fires threatening the scientists and the precious new species they had risked their own lives to save.
Never had anyone done such a thing in Linyaari history or fable, as long as any of them could remember. But Grandam Naadiina had lived longer than any two-footed Linyaari and had grown in -wisdom and skill with every ghaanyi of her life. Unfortunately, her heart, which had grown in the strength of its love and kindness, had not improved structurally, and the strain of her final telepathic struggle to save others had been too much for it.
“Those who -were with Grandam at the end said she wore the same smile you see here. Aagroni lirtye, do you wish to add something?”
“I do,” he said. His mane was very short and irregular where the char had been chopped off, and he had no brows or lashes. His skin was reddened and peeling, as was that of several people around him. “Grandam died as you were just told, saving me, my staff, and most important, the young we have been growing from cells of species lost with our own beloved Vhiliinyar. I understand that her passing was felt by her foster daughter Maati and Spacefarer Thariinye across several galaxies. I was privileged to be nearest to her at her death and received her last thoughts. They were of you, Maati, full of pride for your bravery in risking your life to save your family and friends, and for all of us, her other children, and most of all, for Vhiliinyar. Just as Grandam knew, somehow, that we would be saved, she also knew that the destruction of narhii Vhiliinyar was not the end of a Linyaari homeworld. Viife<)haanye-feriilt Neeva?”