27: Rayjo Tau

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The Green Hills hiveheart is made up of ten people, and as Tyk, Smon and Toi walk into the room, it’s immediately obvious that a slim, delicate-shelled woman named Hahn and the man who’d summoned them, who turns out to be called Kegalt, are the two real influences in the room.

The hiveheart don’t waste any time with long formalities, and get straight to the matter. “Smon,” Kegalt says, “I must pass on to you the apology of your hivemates for their early departure. While it certainly would have been safer – and, to be perfectly straightforward, far less costly in terms of resources – to wait for several of your kind to arrive and send you in larger parties, after the wingsong stream came down they became very insistent on the urgency of their mission. They didn’t want to wait about if they were uncertain whether any of you were even still coming; they said that time was a critical factor and decided to go on ahead.”

“Mission?” Smon asks, after getting Tyk to explain the meaning of the word.

“They claimed that it was their duty to travel to the Starspire and construct a site called Rayjo Tau. You are familiar?”

“Rayjo Tau.” Smon tries the words out in her mouth a few times, then shakes her head. “I don’t understand.”

“They said that you were important to its success,” Hahn adds.

“Me, specifically?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Metal. They said that no master metalsmiths were among the fourteen survivors of your hive. You are… what did they say?”

“‘Closest best thing’,” Kegalt says. “Rayjo Tau needs a lot of metal and you’re the closest best thing to get it.”

“Metal.”

Hahn clicks her mandibles affirmatively. “They said that Rayjo Tau would bring your people together, but they would need a lot of metal to do it.”

“Oh! Rayjo Tau. Yes, yes; I understand. And they say that the Starspire is the best location? It’s quite far North. They didn’t want to build it closer?”

“They said that the height was important. And something about metal up North, even though everyone knows that metal has to be made down South. And asked a lot about what was North of the Starspire.”

“What is North of the Starspire?”

“Just ocean, so far as we know. The mountains are too tall for the currents of the wingsong stream to reach past them, so there’s little communication unless somebody actually goes around the mountains. There is another continent a great distance North, but the ocean and lack of wingsong makes trade with them impractical.”

Smon asks Tyk about the word ‘impractical’, then nods. “But you know that this continent exists.”

“Master lorekeepers from the North arrive at the Glittergem Hive once every few generations or so to exchange lore. Is it important?”

“No,” Smon says. “I’m just trying to figure out why they want Rayjo Tau to be built at the Starspire. If Haidn says it’s the best location, I trust her. And they’re right, time is important. The sooner we complete it, the better.”

‘We,’ Tyk can’t help but notice. Of course it’s ‘we’. Over the course of the brief conversation, she’s watched Smon’s demeanour change from worry to confusion to determination, watched her move to fully understand and fully support this Rayjo Tau mission.

“We’ve prepared a second caravan, in case more of your kind showed up before the wet season. If we move quickly, we can send you over the river in a few days, before the journey becomes dangerous, and have a group of people escort you to Rayjo Tau.”

“Thank you deeply for your assistance. You honour me greatly. I will need to speak to my caravan.”

“Its very unlikely that any of the caravan will go with you,” Toi says. “I’m sorry, Smon, but it’s a very long and dangerous journey, and we’re all eager to get home. Except maybe Bette; grief makes her even more unpredictable than normal. But I doubt she’d be an asset, for the same reason.”

“Yes, I understand. Thank you for bringing me this far, Toi.”

“No further sacrifice from the Redstone River Hive is necessary,” Hahn says. “If they wish to accompany you, then of course they are free to do so, but we have enough people to escort you if they decide to go home.”

Toi and the hiveheart are right, of course. Tyk already knows that asking anyone in the caravan to make the dangerous journey across the sleeplands to the Starspire is a waste of time. Back when they thought that there might be a serious risk to keeping Smon’s people nearby, back when sending them to the Starspire seemed like a clear mission, when the communication towers worked and the hives could talk to each other, when they could trust traders to be moving… back then, the mission had seemed feasible, with no better options available. But now? Unless Smon has an unbelievably good explanation why this Rayjo Tau, which she’s never even mentioned before, is suddenly absolutely critical and needs to be built as quickly as possible, the whole mission sounds like the ravings of a lonewoman. And even if it is that important, it seems that the Green Hills Hive are much better prepared and have the issue on their horns. There is simply no way that anyone in the Redstone River Hive caravan would make that journey.

And no way that Tyk would be allowed to especially, even if she wanted to. Which she doesn’t. Because while it’s no trouble to get back to the Redstone River Hive before Ketyk will be born, the same is not true of the long, dangerous mission to the Starspire.

Smon will go, and Tyk can’t. She’ll lose her friend, and not be able to free herself from the wanderer expectations placed on her. Worst of both worlds. And she might not know whether Smon is still alive for a really long time – even if the wingsong stream is up again right away, she won’t have any updates until Smon makes it to the Glittergem Hive. If the wingsong stream doesn’t recover, it could be years.

The meeting quickly moves to discussion of supplies and travel logistics, and Smon focuses on not fidgeting or looking bored. When it moves onto the value negotiation of trade goods, Tyk and Smon are, mercifully, able to leave. They meet up with San, Ohta and their truebrothers, relay the basic facts of the meeting, and make their way out of the hive for the trader burrow, Smon eager to check on her farm and the others eager to continue the conversation not surrounded by listening strangers.

“What were the hiveheart like?” San asks as the hive disappears behind them.

“Hard to say,” Tyk says. “Only two of them spoke. There was no discussion or debate or anything; they’d clearly decided on all of their positions before we got there, so it’s a little hard to know what they’re actually like.”

“Unfortunate,” Kesan says, “but we expected as much.”

“I think their relationship to their sky people is a bit different than ours to Smon,” Tyk continues. “Which Smon will need to understand before taking a dangerous journey with a bunch of them.”

“Different how?” San asks.

“Apparently, most of the hive didn’t have much to do with Haidn and Myn. And a girl called them ‘godlings’, which might just be what they decided to call them, or…”

“Or it might suggest that new information about them was pretty restricted,” Kesan says. He hums a low tone of stress under his words.

“I don’t think it will be a problem,” Smon says, “if we don’t cause any problems. They’ll probably keep an eye on me for the next few days, until we leave for the Starspire; I just won’t talk to anyone I’m not supposed to.”

“Can we stay an extra few days to see Smon off?” Tyk asks. “I know everyone wants to get back on the road again, but – ”

“Of course,” San says.

“Wait, really?”

“We didn’t come all this way,” Ohta says, “to leave before the end. The very least we can do is see her safely across the river. The rest of the hive will be so mad at us for making them worry about her if we don’t.”

“But you wouldn’t be worried at all,” Smon says, smiling.

“Of course not,” Ohta says affectionately. “You’re a pain behind my horns and I’ll be relieved to have it gone.”

Smon rolls her eyes. “Anyway, not getting involved in the hive is no problem. More important is why. I think that Haidn and Myn were living in the hive itself instead of their boat, but they kept to themselves and to the hiveheart? Why?”

“Is that unusual for them?” Tyk asks.

“I do not know. I only knew them for a short while before we fell.”

“Weren’t you on a really long journey through the sky together?”

“We were asleep. A special sleep, a deep and long sleep where we would not need very much food. Only the… the boat caravan leaders were awake. It was the only way for so many people to travel on such a small boat.”

Hibernation, she must mean hibernation. Smon’s people hibernate. That’s interesting.

“I wake up when we are coming to your Earth,” Smon continues. “The boat caravan leaders tell us what went wrong and where we are and what we must do. There were many of us; I know Haidn and Myn only a small amount. I do not know what they did here.” She screws her face up. “I am a little worried.”

“Why?” Kehta asks. “They seem pretty well-received here, if the Green Hills Hive was willing to help them and help you travel so far for this project.”

“Which is interesting,” Smon says. “The Redstone River Hive did not want me coming even this far. Moving us around is complicated. But Haidn and Myn… I think they lived in the hive. The hiveheart mentioned their burrow a bit when we were talking about the journey; they want me to check their boat for supplies before we go, and made it sound like their boat and their burrow are different places. Also, they locked the boat before leaving, just like I did, but the hive have lots of my people food. Maybe Haidn and Myn moved it there before locking the boat, for other sky people like me, but I think it was there because they were living there. But they talk mostly to the hiveheart? Who share so little information about us with the hive that they call us godlings? They lived there and talked very little to anyone else? And Myn and Haidn want to build Rayjo Tau at the Starspire, which is a very good plan, a very important place, but also a very big and long and complicated plan, and the hive want to help? And the way the hiveheart talk to us is very… trade-thinking.”

“We brought trade goods,” Ohta points out.

“Yes, but to me for the journey also. I think Hiadn and Myn must have traded something big with them, made very big promise, probably about Rayjo Tau. Something big enough to make them want it to succeed even with all the big travel risk and cost.”

“What?” Tyk asks. “What could they promise them?”

“That is scary part. I have absolutely no idea.”

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