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.The Aiueven s voice was horrible in its own shock and anger. Doyou (stigma/curse) me too? What (life-debt) must I owe you?Dion stared up from the ice.Her bloody hands clutched her belly. If you are my mother, then this is also your child. (Denial). But we are bonded I can feel you in my thoughts. (Affirmation/distress). I felt your grief; it was the same as mine, multiplied bythousands. (Grief/loss) cannot be replaced.The child-debt is my future.Without it, I am as one who is dead, but still in the land of theliving.Dion felt a deep shudder catch her.She had not stopped herbleeding.She tried to focus on her own tissues, but she didn t havethe strength. Feel me, she said hoarsely. Feel this child.It isyours now as much as mine. There can be no (love/future) like that between us. It is already there. (Denial)! Feel it.You are part of me now.I must love you as myself. (Denial)! This time it was stronger.The yellow, slitted eyesglared in the back of her head. Is it better to be without a child without a future for the sakeof empty pride? Generations cannot be shared. With us, that isn t true.The alien hesitated.One of its slender arms seemed to reach out,and Dion no longer knew if she saw it or if it was in her mind.Coldtouched her belly, and she knew that the shock was growing.Thenumbness spread faster now. My child, she cried out.She sank tothe ground.The alien mother seemed torn. You have a (choice/future): Liveor die. I want to live, Dion whispered.The Aiueven was silent for a moment. You (bind/condemn) usboth, she said finally, softly.The alien mother stretched out a wing, and a clawlike handtouched Dion s frigid skin.Then the alien mother made a sound,and some part of Dion s mind realized that the sound was real inher ears.Her mind began to blur.A hot vibration started deep inher bones, and crawled out to her muscles and skin.White fur brushed her face.Blue and gray tones washed throughher thoughts, and the sounds were loud without sound.Wolf mindsblended with alien thoughts; the howling became alien tones.Something shifted inside her, as though water rushing through abroken dam was suddenly slowed and stopped.Pain saggedmomentarily.Then it faded away.Dion stared at her (mother).She could hear the echo of Hishnand a hundred other wolves.She could feel the ice against herparka; she could feel the cold again in her guts.But the life of herchild was strong, and the numbness was gone.She touched herbelly.It was closed.There was an ache inside and along the gash,but the flesh was smoothly seamed.Whose-wings-make-the-grass-flow eyed her from the icy cave. The debt is paid, she said.Wait.Dion tried to speak.A shiver hit her, and it took a momentto realize that it was the cave, not herself, that shook. Wait, sheprojected. Take me back.Take me back to my(family/friends/barrier).Then, the debt is paid. I will not reach (next-home/den) in time.This den will collapseas the rock pressure releases, and the storm now gathers outside. Then take me as far as honor demands.The alien seemed to stare at her for eternity.The slender armshifted away from its wing to point at Dion s belly. This (child) ismine, as much as you are now mine. Aye, Dion breathed.Abruptly, the birdwoman clutched her.Automatically, it graspedher close to its body, then shivered and tried to hold her away sothat there was no body-to-body contact.But as its wings gatheredpower and it lifted from the cave, it had to draw Dion close again toAhhhfly through the icy opening.& It tried to hide itsloathing the mental voice was clear.But its horror mixed withsomething else, and the alien did not let go.Through the next cavern and the next, up into thicker ice& Thecaves grew cold, then frigid as the walls became solid ice, thenbegan to glow blue-green again with natural light instead ofglowing fungus.Massive icicles lay on the floors of thecaverns and more shook down as they flew through and thewalls blurred as the depths of the mountain collapsed.But the alienmother swept like a lance, driving toward the outside air till sheburst out into the sky between the ice spires.There was a momentof blinding glare, then the shades of white and gray that made upland and sky saturated her sight.Air sucked into Dion s mouth.She barely glimpsed the depthsthey dropped into before the wind caught the birdwoman s wingsand they swooped sickeningly to a more even flight.A jagged ridgerose up tike twisted teeth, then fell away as if it had snapped at,then missed, their feet.The slash in her parka hung open, and theblood there froze in seconds into a rock-hard slab.They swoopedsickeningly lower, across a steep expanse of snow, and the wind bitinto her body, then her frozen cheeks, like a hundred tiny mouths.In her mind, Dion could see the ring of light that seemed tosurround the Aiueven.She could feel the mental laboring of thecreature against the rising winds, and the rock-hard strength of itsphysical body as it hugged her to its breast.She could feel thestrain grow like grief.Her mind flashed to Aranur, to Danton, toHishn, and the gray tide in the back of her head swelled as itsensed her.Wolfwalker! The howl hit her, and she felt the dim strength oftheir bond.It was full and rich, even at that distance, and it madethe strain of the Aiueven seem thin.Tentatively, she touched thealien s mind. Mother? (Child-debt/youngling). But there was still horror in its voice,and it tried to keep its mental distance. You are straining.Take strength from me.From the wolves. (Denial).The alien swooped across a rounded shoulder of the mountain,and Dion swallowed against her stomach as it rose into her throat.The wind, which had seemed strong before, hit them like a sledge.The Aiueven strained, and Dion could feel its strength pouring outas it held her weight aloft.They flew back along a ridge where the clouds boiled on the otherside of the rock.Dion s weight dragged the alien down.TheAiueven s breath became labored, and the power that seemed tocling to its wings faded to a dull glow.As they dropped lower intothe edge of the glacier valley, the wind surged, then struckviolently.They were buffeted back up, then slammed down towardthe ice.The Aiueven mother was grim. I can go no farther, she said, stalling so that they fell quickly. You must go the rest of the way on your own [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]