“But they don’t communicate by what they see,” Liriili said, and for once she -was using a reasonable, if impatient, tone that only slightly hid the fact that she was as puzzled as any of the rest of them. “They communicate by smell.”
“But they convey a thought, sort of,” -Maati argued. Acorna thought the girl had matured a great deal since she had stopped being Liriili’s messenger. She was much more confident now.
(Showing off for her parents,) Thariinye, catching Acorna’s thought, -whispered to her uncharitably. But Aan scowled at him, as if he read the thought too, and Thariinye looked away as if the thought had been sent by someone else.
“Yes,” Acorna agreed with Maati. “It is a thought form, however they express it and who knows? Maybe to the vines, we exude a scent too when we are thinking certain things. Only we’d be a lot more complicated for them to read, maybe, than they are for us. Let’s try to simplify it for them. Everyone spread apart and concentrate, as we do so, that we are spreading apart.”
“Our essential apartness,” intoned Karina.
(Move gently, spread wide,) Acorna whispered. “Karina, think, ‘Move gently, spread wide.’ “
“A mantra! I love it!” Karina squealed. “Move gently, spread wide. Move gently, spread wide,”
“Softly,” Acorna said. “In fact, don’t say it, think it.”
Karina nodded gravely and only moved her lips to the words.
The whisper was taken up by the others, in unison, (Move gently, spread wide). Their line spread until they could not touch outspread hands. As they moved at first the plants only parted to let each individual pass but gradually, as the people kept whispering, the vines softly lay themselves down upon each other until there was a large rectangular area open around the Linyaari and Karina.
When this concept seemed to be understood, Acorna said softly to Karina, who was on her right, while whispering to the others, (Close up, gather together, twining, tangling, plaiting).
The others took it up and gently came together, then pressed themselves in closer, Joining hands, lacing fingers, wrapping knees and feet around legs, hips, and waists as tightly as possible-and then more tightly as the vines locked in around them, squeezing until Acorna gasped, “Move gently, spread wide” again and the others picked up the thought. It took the vines a breathtaking moment to realize that this time, they must spread first, but their scent lightened from the suffocatingly close aroma it had become while holding the Linyaari, and the vines spread once more.
“These plants are definitely sapient beings,” Neeva said approvingly-and apparently somewhat fragrantly. The vines swayed gently back and forth, as if pleased, and emitted a light, sweet aroma.
“Good,” Acorna said, “Because now we have to tell them about the Khieevi.”
“Why?” Thariinye asked.
“And how,” added JVlaati.
“Because,” Aari said. “We are bringing the Khieevi among them to be killed, but the Khieevi may also kill many of the vine people. When we thought they -were not possessed of intelligence, then it seemed good to let the Khieevi graze here and be killed by the sap. But now that we bring this evil upon these beings, the least we can do is -warn them.”
“Where are they going to go if they object?” Liriili asked archly.
“That is not the point,” Neeva said. “Now that we know they are beings who would suffer from the Khieevi as we would, we naturally will continue Captain Becker’s plan only with their cooperation.”
“Which we will obtain how?” Liriili demanded with the same archness.
“My collection bag!” Miiri said suddenly. “Where is it?”
“There-among the vines,” Kaarlye said. “Mine too. They’re open. Do you suppose the plants mind that we are taking the sap?”
“Perhaps they don’t mind so much as-wonder -what we are doing with it,” Acorna ventured. “After all, they know what function it serves for them, but it must be hard for them to understand why we would wish to take some away.”
“Mother, Father,” Aari said, “I know of one smell that is very evocative-that might demonstrate to them exactly what we are trying to convey. Do you have anything with you that smells like the Khieevi?”