Sean cast a sidelong glance at Fiske, though his own smile didn’t leave his face. He knew the doctor well enough to know he was on the side of Petaybee, but Whit Fiske was, nevertheless, an outsider in the employ of the opposition. If Clodagh had no problem with him, Yana hardly thought anyone else would object, but there was tension in the air that hadn’t been present before.
“Dr. Fiske,” Yana said, taking his arm, “I had no idea you were so handy.”
“We world builders are versatile men,” he said.
“There was a little matter I wanted to discuss with you privately,” she said.
“After the meeting then,” he told her, rather to her surprise. He patted her hand and disengaged her arm. “Clodagh asked me particularly to stay. If I am going to represent the company interest in utilizing Petaybee’s assets to the fullest while maintaining the integrity of the planet and the autonomy of the inhabitants, then I need to be working with the locals on every aspect of the operation.”
“Well, if Clodagh feels that it’s a good idea and you don’t think it’s a conflict of interests …” Yana said. “In that case, can you help secure enough fuel to get a plane to the southern pole?”
“I think I could do that, yes,he said, with a wink over his shoulder as he went to give Clodagh a hand to get to her feet.
Bunny and Diego cleared all the seedlings to the sides of the room just before people began steadily to arrive and crowd into Clodagh’s tiny house, twenty squeezing into a space that would comfortably accommodate about a dozen. Clodagh explained to the villagers what the cats had imparted to her. Nobody questioned her, being accustomed to Clodagh and knowing that her information tended to be reliable, however she got it.
“So,” she said. “I think maybe it would be good if we started off in big groups together. Then folks can break off as we reach the villages they want to get to. When we’ve done what we’ve set out to do, we can join up again on the way back. That way if anybody gets lost or gets into some kind of trouble, there’ll be somebody to notice.”
The crowd voiced assent.
Sinead said, “Aisling and I will take Shannonmouth, since there’s trading we want to do there anyway.”
“I can’t believe McGee’s Pass is going against us,” Bunny said. “Remember how grateful the Connellys were to you, Clodagh, when you sent them that medicine for their dogs? After the dogs got well, they drove all the way up here to bring you that parka Iva Connelly made for you.”
“That was a few years ago, Bunka, back before they got the new shanachie,” Clodagh reminded her.
“That shouldn’t change gratitude any! I promise I’ll be very respectful of the new shanachie, just like I was with old McConachie. I’d like Diego to meet the Connellys and, anyway, they’d be the best ones in McGee’s Pass to tell us what’s going on.”
Clodagh paused. Sending youngsters to one of the trouble spots worried her until Sean said, “Yana and I will go with them and then on to Harrison’s Fjord. I’d like Buneka to join us there, so she can see the place where Aoifa and Mala began their expedition.”
“Good.”
The other assignments were made. Liam Maloney agreed to go to Deadhorse, then chanted a new song about the death of his mother while she was away from the planet being questioned by Intergal.
“Dog-woman, snow-woman, run-with-the-wind-woman
Mother-woman with the steaming springs
Streaming in her veins
Woman to whom the birds sang
Woman whose voice was soft with snow
Woman so warm, so warm
No ice could freeze her
No avalanche stop her breath
“Her feet were stilled when they left the ground.
Her breath was stopped in closed rooms
Where the wind never blows
She turned cold in hot rooms
Her steaming blood all bubbled away
Her voice stilled where no birds sang
Only the croaking of carrion-crows.
Aijijai.”
During the recital Liam had looked straight ahead, his eyes closed, his mouth twisting around the words with a mixture of tenderness and bitterness. When he finished his song and his eyes opened, they were full of pain and defiance, and when his mouth closed, his jaw set tightly.