Lamarchos by Jo Clayton Page B

started the climb at sunup, that’s not so long.”
    â€œIt’s just seeing the thing so close and not being about to get there.” She frowned and jerked her head toward the caravan behind. “Maissa. How’s she taking the crawl?”
    â€œShe’s a cat in her fastidiousness but she can take anything she has to when it helps her get what she wants. Her temper won’t be at its best.” He chuckled. “Not that it’s ever much to depend on.”
    Aleytys frowned at the bobbing tails of the horses. “I understand now, Miks, what you meant about not knowing what she’d do next. She’s crazy.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œHuh?”
    â€œShe functions. Her values are skewed at a wide angle from ours. In some societies that’s the definition of insanity. But …”
    â€œI should think so.”
    Stavver shook his head. “On Immat’kri the children kill their elders when the old ones reach a certain age and eat them with tenderness and love.”
    â€œTenderness!”
    His eyes were narrowed on her, his spine curved in an indolent arc as he leaned against the seat back. “It’s their way. If you judged sanity by social norms, would you be the sane one there?” He nodded at the dusty anonymous forms crowding in around them. “Even here. If you weren’t gikena, you’d be crazy to expect a man to take notice of what you thought. Maissa functions with a measure of success causing minimal damage in the society she chooses. What more do you want?”
    â€œAhai, Miks, it makes me dizzy.”
    He smiled. “You’ll get used to it, Lee. Besides it’s not too likely you’ll have to spend much time on any one world. But when you set foot off Star Street, you play by groundlings’ rules if you’re smart. Otherwise you’ll be dead. Fast.”
    Aleytys sighed. “Complicated.”
    He wrapped long fingers around her hands, the warmth of his flesh comforting on hers. An angry wail came from behind the curtains. Stavver took the reins from her. “Your master calls.”
    She stood and stretched, keeping her balance with the ease two weeks of riding had developed in her. Then she slipped around the seat and through the curtain.
    A fine layer of dust lay over every flat surface. Aleytys pulled a clean rag from a drawer and dabbed at her breasts with it. Dropping the rag over her shoulder she picked up the baby and settled cross-legged on the bunk, back against the wall.
    â€œDirty face,” she murmured affectionately. She wiped the red and angry face with firm fingers. “Hungry, Sharli, Sharl-mi? One minute, one minute. Don’t rush me, dirty face. There. That’s better.” She lifted him to her breast, smiling dreamily as he began a vigorous sucking, hands and feet kneading at her body. She ran caressing fingers over the small head regretting briefly the shimmering coppery red of his natural hair, chuckling softly at his intense concentration on filling his belly. “You’re going to be a survivor too, tough guy. Like your mother. Only better, you won’t have the kinks in your soul.”
    â€œYou finished in there?” Stavver’s muffled voice interrupted her musing. “We’re getting to the gate.”
    Aleytys slid off the mattress and removed her breast from Sharl. Holding his protesting squirming body against her shoulder, she worked her way around to the driving seat. When she was settled, she scrubbed her other breast and put him to suck. “That was fast.”
    â€œFaster than I expected.”
    Presenting this calm domestic image the caravan rolled unhurriedly past the hidden scanners. They were in Karkys. Minutes later Miassa’s caravan rumbled onto the pavement inside the gates. Aleytys sighed. “So we made it. It’s a little hard to believe.”
    â€œMy admiration for the Vrya grows every day. I wonder what Maissa peddled for