Helliconia Spring by Brian W Aldiss

Author:Brian W Aldiss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Published: 1981-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

“The glossies that sleep

When the snowdrifts are deep

Will wake up to eddre-filling rain,

And then hoxneys will spread

With their high-stepping tread

Across the plain, across the flower-thrilling plain.”

“You are in a good humour! Is Oyre being nice to you?”

“Oyre’s always nice.”

They went their different ways, Vry heading for her ruined tower, where she showed her present to Shay Tal. Shay Tal examined the little crystalline animal.

“It’s not good to eat at this stage of its life. The flesh may be poisonous.”

“I don’t plan to eat it. I want to guard it till it wakes.”

“Life is serious, my dear. We may have to go hungry if Aoz Roon sets himself firmly against us.” She contemplated Vry for a while without speaking, as was increasingly her habit. “I shall fast and defy him. I need no material things. I can be as ruthless with myself as he can be with me.”

“But really he…” Words failed Vry. She could utter no reassurance to the older woman, who continued determinedly.

“As I told you, I have two immediate intentions. First, I shall conduct a scientific experiment to determine my powers. Then I shall descend into the world of the gossies, to hold concourse with Loilanun. She must now know much that I don’t. Depending on what I learn from these things, I may decide to leave Oldorando entirely.”

“Oh, don’t leave, please, ma’am. Are you sure that’s the right thing to do? I’ll go with you if you go, I swear!”

“We’ll see about that. Leave me now, please.”

Feeling deflated, Vry climbed the ladder to her ruinous room. She flung herself down on her couch.

“I want a lover, that’s what I want. A lover…Life’s so empty….”

But after a while, she roused herself and looked out of the window at the sky, where clouds and birds sailed. At least it was better to be here than in the world below, where Shay Tal planned to go.

She recalled Laintal Ay’s song. The woman who had written the song—if it was a woman—had known that the snow would eventually disappear and that flowers and animals would emerge. Perhaps it would happen.

From her nighttime observations, she knew that there were changes in the sky. The stars were not fessups but fires, fires burning not in rock but air. Imagine a great fire burning in outer darkness. As it came nearer, its warmth would be felt. Perhaps the two sentinels would draw nearer, and warm the world.

Then the glossies would come back to life, turning into hoxneys with high-stepping tread, just as the song had it.

She determined to concentrate on her astronomy. The stars knew more than the gossies, for all that Shay Tal said, though it was shocking to find that one disagreed with such a majestic person.

She tucked the glossy into a warm corner by her couch, wrapping the pathetic little thing in fur so that only its face showed. Day by day, she willed it to come alive. She whispered to it and encouraged it. She longed to see it grow and skip about her room.

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