The Burning Ground

5. The Holy Child

The sound of the door shutting woke Thann from troubled dreams. Xe’s anyalit wriggled protest as xe sat up, so xe pushed a finger into xe’s pouch for the infant to gum on. The babbit’s eggteeth had fallen out and the new set wouldn’t come in until the sixth month of the pouch year.

Isaho was gone, her covers thrown back, her clothes still folded on the stool at the foot of her bed. Sleepwalking again? Out wandering around somewhere wearing nothing but one of the starchy white nightgowns that Mercy Fisalin brought her clean each. night? Thann rubbed the heel of xe’s hand against xe’s right eye, then the left, then drew xe’s palm across xe’s face, trying to wake up enough to decide what xe should do.

With a sigh, xe gave a last rub to the babbit’s gums and freed xe’s hand. Xe forced xeself up, pushed xe’s feet into xe’s sandals and pulled on the hatchry robe, fingers fumbling at the buttons that closed the neck opening. Xe couldn’t count on the Mercys to notice Isaho and bring her back; they were asleep or busy at their prayers and meditations. If Isaho got outside… Xe could thin the Pilgrims out there, hundreds of them, marching in endless circles about the House, chanting the shimbils, muttering blessings on the Holy Child. They frightened xe. The walls were too thick, and they were too far from the hospitality wing of the House for xe to hear them, but even so xe couldn’t escape the terrible intensity of their yearning. If Isaho got outside and they saw her…

Xe thinta searched, touched Isaho, and started after her, as close to running as xe dared, the slap slap of xe’s sandals loud and intrusive in the empty corridors. Dark corridors, lit by tiny oil lamps set a maximum distance apart.

Light flared ahead of xe.

Xe could thin Isaho coming toward xe. And Mercys. Dozens of them. As if the House were emptying itself. Xe pressed against the wall and waited.

Isaho came round the corner, one of her hands nestling inside the Grand Mercy’s. In the other she held a glass candle lamp, the flame of the candle casting odd upside down shadows on her face. Her eyes had that stony sheen that terrified Thann whenever xe saw it, and her lips were curved in a tight triumphant smile.

The other Mercys followed, two columns of them, hands gliding through the Praise Songs, the shadows they cast dancing across the walls, dancing across Thann as they swept past xe.

Xe followed them from the House and into the street.

Isaho started singing, her voice cutting through the noise from the crowd of Pilgrims. “God has told me,” she sang. “God has spoken, God has promised, the Fence will fall, it falls tonight.”

When xe heard that, Thann’s stomachs turned to ice. Watching Isaho search faces everywhere for Mam, Baba, and Keleen after they passed through the Gate that first day was sad and troubling, and when her daughter began prophesying for the Mercys and the Pilgrims as if she were denying her grief again by using God as a shield, that was even harder to bear. But this…

Xe didn’t know which would be more terrible for Isaho-if the Fence stayed right where it was, or if it fell. And xe had no idea what xe could do.

The, procession swept up Bond Sisters as it passed their House, sucked in more and more Pilgrims as it moved down to Progress Way. Prophet Speakers came to swell the mix as they moved past the Seminary and the Tent. Brothers poured from the Grand Yeson as they circled around it and headed down the, wide avenue toward the Fish Gate and the seafront.

Thann’s anyalit picked up the excitement around them and needed constant minding as xe tried to crawl out of the pouch and go scurrying up the handholds sewn into the front of the robe so xe could sit with xe’s head out the neck opening and see what was happening. Xe walked with both hands pushed through the side slits in the hatchry robe so xe could catch the little wriggler and shove the questing head back past the pouch sphincter. It was a rather welcome distraction from xe’s worry about Isaho, because all this activity meant the babbit was not only healthy but bright beyond xe’s age.

As the procession reached the wharf, Thann tried to get closer to Isaho, but the press of the throng about her pushed xe aside. Afraid for xe’s babbit, xe gave up the struggle and moved away until she came to a double bitt. Xe settled xeself with xe’s legs hanging over the edge of the wharf, xe’s back and side pressed against the bitts. Though xe couldn’t see xe’s daughter, xe could hear her as she sang the shimbil litany, the crowd of watchers answering her.

The golden glow of the Fence flickered on, constant as the beat of Thann’s heart. Xe stroked the babbit’s small head until xe went soft against xe’s palm and withdrew into the pouch to curl up with the nipple in xe’s mouth.

An hour passed.

Another.

The shimmer at the edge of the sky vanished.

Even the most fervent watchers were silent, even they didn’t believe what they were seeing. They waited for the glow to come back. A soughing like the wind rising before a storm passed across the wharves as the thousands out here drew in a collective breath and held it.

Thann stared into the darkness and wondered about the offworlder who’d rescued them; it seemed a logical connection. Who else would know how to’bring the Fence down?

“Praised be God, the Fence has fallen.” Isaho’s voice rang out, broke the spell that was holding the watchers silent.

A mal somewhere in the middle of the press shouted, “Miracle!”

More shouts.

Holy Child.

Messenger of God.

Bless us, Child.

Touch my hand.

Heal me.

Bless me.

Thann huddled against the bitts and tried to keep from being stepped on as xe watched two Brothers lift Isaho onto their shoulders.

Surrounded by Mercys and Bond. Sisters and Brothers and Prophet Speakers, Isaho and the mals holding her pushed through the crowd toward the gate, chanting the Praises.’Xe watched xe’s daughter accept this adulation as her due, then xe leaned xe’s head against the bitts, closed xe’s eyes and mourned. Xe’s daughter was gone; the Holy Child was a stranger with the same face. 6. Plotting the road to Change and a New Balance

Wintshikan closed her hand around Zell’s as the Fence vanished. “They did it. I didn’t believe they could, but they’ve done it.”

She watched Zaro and Kanilli grab hold of Xaca’s hand and the three of them join the rest of the Pixa hohekil on the beach in a wheeling, shouting, laughing dance. “I don’t think my knees will hold out for that.”

Zell waggled xe’s hand in anya laughter.

They sat on the side of an abandoned boat and watched the celebration develop along the sands, merchants bringing out bottles of shwala and injyjy, hot meat pies, and roasted tatas. A drummer, a fiddler, and a flutemal met on the raised porch of a house a short distance off and started playing. Others were doing the same farther along the beach. Bonfires bloomed on the sand.

Wintshikan looked out to sea once again, rejoicing at the darkness at the edge of the sky-a darkness that meant the Fence was still down. She took a deep breath, let it out as she turned to her anya. “Zizi, I’m thinking that I want to stand in new mountains and watch the sun go down over land I haven’t seen before.”

Zell smiled. These damp lowlands hadn’t been good for xe; breathing was difficult and the pain in xe’s hip never left xe. +Where there’s no war.+ Xe stroked xe’s hand along Wintshikan’s arm. +Where hate is a personal thing and not visited on strangers.+

Wintshikan sat silent as a long line of femlits, mallits and anyalits snaked past them, laughing and stomping the sand as they moved. When they were by, she said, “We’ll wait a few days for Luca and the others. If they come back. If they’re all right. But if we wait too long, the price may move beyond what we can pay.”

+We can leave word where we’re going if the time comes before they do. We should think of Zaro and Kanilli. And Xaca. The Coranthim Remnant might meld with us to make a new ixis; they’ve got young orals but not much coin. We’ve got coin.+

“Speaking of coin, I’m hungry. You?”

+I could swallow a tam or two.+ Xe used Wintshikan’s arm as a brace and pushed onto xe’s feet. +Ahh, Wintashi, what a night. I truly didn’t think I’d live to see this.+