SEATED AS BEFORE, JUSTICE faced the Dustwalker. But she was still inside the Bambnua’s mind. She did not even dare to think. For she was certain that before she had fainted the Bambnua had mind-spoken to her.
Now the Bambnua was in contact with a group of Slakers from her kelm. Although the whole colony was on the move, this was the group that had stayed with her to investigate the source of the energy she had discovered. All of the group were females and loyal to the Bambnua. Being able to fly, they were not concerned about catching up with the colony again.
Cautiously the group had come nearer to Thomas’ imaginary cliff. They could see it now, absolutely clear and stark in the dust. They had not come upon the real watering hole yet, because the cliff image was too startling. But they could smell fresh water; it took all of their control not to rush to it. They were perpetually at the edge of maddening thirst. The Slakers waited upon the Bambnua’s consent. And they trusted her completely in matters of extrasensory and the protection of the colony.
Picture-thought. Commands from the Bambnua to the female Slakers: danger, wait.
The group halted for as long as was necessary. Justice sensed them—wings touching, and heads resting on one another’s shoulders. Like giant birds sleeping.
Apparently the Bambnua felt that grave danger was still present and she would hold back her females until she figured out what to do. She had not connected the danger in her mind to the energy still at rest across from her.
Justice knew she had severely frightened the Dustwalker by entering her thought with the question about worlmas. It had been dumb of her. She had indeed felt as if she were dying and had been happy, exhilarated when she came to again. But maybe what she had done wasn’t as dumb as she had first thought. That slight mind-touching might have paved the way. The next time the Bambnua might not respond with so much fear.
Oh, yes, I’ll do it again, Justice thought, careful to keep the thought confined to herself. That woman said something to me, I know she did, if I could just think what it was. All that sickness came on me so fast. And then that awful burning.
Now Justice realized she would have to work quickly before the Bambnua brought in the other females. Even with what had happened, she sensed that, given a proper preparation, this female and the others would not deliberately harm her.
I could be wrong, she thought. But it’s my guess that these poor women are more gentle than they want the male Slakers to find out. Well, I won’t ever tell on them!
The Bambnua’s mind was not powerful in the way that Justice’s was. Yet Justice had experienced force and might like nothing she had known. She knew what she had felt was mature and womanly, in the same way her mother was grown-up and womanly, and the way she herself would one day be a grown-up woman. With the Bambnua, that female force held a sense of agony and struggle of the very first dustwalker, as well as all others down through time. And, touching the Bambnua’s thoughts, Justice had in herself felt courageous and bold.
Justice had the power, was the Watcher. She would make contact with the Bambnua, letting it be understood that she could sense and project with greater strength than all of the dustwalkers together from the beginning of time. If her power was not clear to the Bambnua when the Bambnua realized her there in her thoughts, then it would be necessary for Justice to reveal it. The process would have to be undertaken with care, and slowly.
Slowly. Slowly, Justice thought. I do still hold the balance? I am still the Power? Yes. Yes, I will always be the Watcher.
Slowly she filtered the summer through the Bambnua’s mind. The sweet white light of her dear home, the same white light that had come when she thought she was dead.
The Bambnua surged and shuddered at Justice’s touch. She raged with fire, about to break out in welts again. But this time Justice held on in the Bambnua’s mind. With hard will, she fought down the Dustwalker’s alarm signals.
The Bambnua began to shake all over, but she did not surge or shudder. She was tight as a drum within. She shook. She watched within this new presence with a mixture of fear and glaring bravery.
The sweet white light was warm with the scent of clover.
All that Justice knew and loved. Her family. Her brothers. The town. Its people and animals. Vivid hopes and nightmares. The summer sun and sweltering nights—so little dust! The town pool. Kids shining in the clover surrounding the pool and browned to a burning dampness. Sweat running down backs and armpits. Truly sweet scent of chlorine. Bright and sudden image of the summer field in back of Justice’s home. Then, diving splashes in the pool. The wonderful weight of water as shoulders, heads, cut through the shimmering aqua. There is the wading pool and the squeals of babies delighting in the coolness.
Yuns. Baby-yuns, thought Justice.
The Bambnua quivered down her backbone and to the tips of her wings.
And came her supreme effort to mind-speak: YA HA NAS WHYYOU BHA HA BHA HEES
There it is. There it is!
BHA HE BHES A deep struggle. Bravery over fear from the Bambnua.
Babies! And you said, Why You.
YOUWHYYOU BHA HEBHES
Oh, wait! Listen—oh, see the pictures!
The Bambnua, the Dustwalker, was no longer frightened. All of her defenses gave way to her extraordinary curiosity. Her desire to know was overwhelming and ingrained in her makeup. The more she was able to learn, the better the chance for the Quest to find the end. All thought-processes led finally to this ancient, urgent desire.
Justice began. Thought-pictures of her own, and as gentle as she could make them.
Lazy days. Lovely star-filled nights. No moon. The new moon. The passage of time. Time and Justice. Her brothers and time. Justice growing up with her brothers. The coming of their power. An unending sadness. Resignation.
We have come together, she pictured to the Bambnua. We are the first unit. We are joined, my brothers, the boy here called Dorian and I. As you are joined with your colony. We are the unit. Past. Time and travel. Out of our time, we come here to your time. We come from along-ago past time. We time-travel. We are powerful. Do not be afraid of us. But we are powerful. We can move things. We can move you. We can move almost anything. Greetings, Terrij, Bambnua-Walker.
A series of pictures in which Justice and her brothers learn to use the power. Dorian’s mother, the Sensitive, takes time in secret teaching them to fine-tune their energy. They form the unit at Justice’s direction. As the unit, the three boys and she use less power more efficiently. There is far less strain on the anatomy and mind of each of them with the same good effect.
Rambling scenes—pictures of life back home, which are surrounded by Justice’s mind at work. There comes a parade of these, Justice’s thoughts.
The Bambnua sights the rambling scenes and moves her mind-sensations through them. It’s as if she can walk through a moving-picture show. She focuses on the strange sounds coming from within the scenes.
Projecting her thoughts within the scenes Justice is thinking.
I figured out that my own folks are the last generation. But I don’t mean the last of people, just the last time people are born without some power. I figure that when my brothers and I and Dorian were born the way we were, others around the world were born the same. Had to be, don’t you think?
No longer did the Bambnua quiver or shake: She hummed within while holding herself still and fast. Tight as a high wire, humming, she saw through Justice’s pictures.
From -now on, Justice continued, each of the generations will bring more us of power. Just a few. Always only a few—like there’re always only a few dustwalkers, you.
You and me, tracing, we’re not so different. We are the few.
The Bambnua, filled with sensing, with feeling and waking. The hum was the machinery of her becoming. As one time Justice had become something more than herself, so the Dustwalker was becoming new.
The moving-picture scenes revealed clouds and hills. Greenery. Honeysuckle Lilac Winged creatures.
The Bambnua ceased to hum inside. She watched a flight of ducks winging against the dark swell of winter clouds. Saw their shape, heard the sound of their squawking. Admired the formation and their swiftness through air.
Justice felt a suffocating longing. It took her sense for a moment. Then the Bambnua hummed, stronger than ever. Justice fought back her own longing for home.
Someday, home, the few of us of power will find the way of sensing others like us and come together faster. And never again the long time it took the Sensitive to find me. Dorian’s mom, searching, taking months and months and not even sensing me. But finally, holding to this tiny, teeny scent of power off somewhere. That was me! A little bitty scent, almost lost forever in the wide old world!
YOUMVE YOUMVE.
The Bambnua, surging inside.
MVEMVE YOU
A wild siege of becoming.
MVEMVEMVE YOUYOU Screaming, a raging out of control.
Wha … what? Justice holding on.
MVEYOU
What? Like a whisper.
MVEYOUMVEYOUMVEYOU
Mve you? Move you?
Move you! Move you! I said it. I said we could move anything, the unit could. … You’ve been studying that while I ran my mouth.
Justice was stunned. So unexpected the Bambnua’s understanding was. It made her human, surely.
Move you, that’s what you want. I said it. With my power. Yes, sure. Sure! Dorian!
Swiftly, Justice removed her mind from the Bambnua’s. She was as before, seated across from the Dustwalker; this time her mind was where it was supposed to be.
Dorian came quickly beside her. The Bambnua felt this source of energy.
Justice mind-traced: She wants a demonstration.
You mean, you’ve been able to reach her by telepathy? Dorian traced.
What do you think I’ve been doing all this time? I gave her scenes from home. Brother! About made me cry, too, just remembering and picturing it all.
I know it, he traced. It happens to me here, too.
Anyway, she must’ve been studying the way I made the pictures because, the next thing I knew, she was speaking back at me, back to my thoughts.
Wow! And could you get any of her language? he wanted to know.
I guess I must’ve. I’m not sure. First I was in her picture-stream of things gone by, and then more recent memories. But if it’s language, it’s sure different from anything I’ve heard of. Is it language we think in? Or is it pictures put into words? But I’ve reached her. Dorian, we can get going with it.
What’s the demonstration to be? he traced.
She wants to be moved. A stunned silence from Dorian. She wants us to move her around. She can’t see us. But I had thought to her that we could move just anything, the unit could. And did she take that to heart! Now she wants us to move her!
Dorian made no answer, but prepared himself for the demonstration. He was bound to Justice with mutual strength held in common. Never was their mutuality as powerful as the binding of the unit when the four of them were joined. Yet it was force enough. Their combined effort could carry the Bambnua, Dustwalker.
What a name—such a sound it has, Dorian traced.
Then Justice closed down all tracings. The Watcher filled their intelligences. The two of them descended far within to deliver their irresistible strength to the surface of themselves. From the inner depths rose their force. They focussed it on the Bambnua. Divined that she wanted to move in one direction. Up.
The Terrij felt herself being moved. At once she reversed the process that had lowered her head on the neck vertebrae. Her head came up, and slowly her collapsed chin unfolded from under the roof of her mouth. Her flattened nose was prominent again. She had not lifted a wing. Still in a seated position on her retracted third leg, she rose. It might have been strong winds of Rollers that caused her to rise. But there was no wind. Yet she was lifted up and up.
MVE MVE YOUYOU MVE Thought spoken in rhythm with the pulse-beat of her brave and daring blood.
For the first time Dorian was in touch with the alien Slaker. All of her strange other-being, which Justice had known before him, he knew now. He would have faltered if not for the Watcher there. He was part of the Watcher as well as Justice. He was more closely tuned with It than when all of them were the unit. A clarity of light and knowledge was his senses. He heard the Bambnua mind-speak: MVE MVE And understood as Justice had.
She, the Bambnua-Walker, rose so high that other Slakers on the ground, waiting just out of sight, quickly lost her contact. They were lost to her. For one time in her life—her long, long life; its vigorous phase was longer than a century—she was adrift. And free of all her colony. No longer could she sense kelm or the female crew through her skin. She did not care to be their warning of danger, or their scout for food and water. The need to lead one more Slaker or to find one last watering hole was lost.
Because.
Above the Bambnua, dust grew bright. And brighter. The Dustwalker shook out her wings.
She had never hoped. She went through motions of searching for an end by instinct. What else did she live for in the dust of suffering? But now all that had changed. Since the moment she had sensed that trail of energy unlike anything anywhere in the dust place, she had dared to hope. And, at last coming upon that which remained invisible but powerful, she had sensed what it could do for her. Times, traveling the land, when she vaguely sensed its limits. Now she comprehended what this new, invisible energy might do for her.
MVE YOUYOU MVEMVEMVE
Now. Rise. Rise.
Suddenly she was blinded by light. Screeching with pain from the brilliant, warm light. She covered her cruddy eyes with her wings. And crouched on air so free of dust. Her eyes teared and burned until the moment came when she could bear the sharp, piercing pain. She peeked through her feathers. She was holding still on absolutely clear air.
Here. There. The enormous world of light. Blue above and beyond.
They gave the name to her. Sky.
She shuddered once, knowing the energy that had lifted her was also in her mind. It was one and the same. But she was brave. And soon she did not tremble. She did not move for ever so long a time. Until she mind-spoke.
SA KA SASA KAA A sigh of ancient yearnings. SAKA SAKA
Yes. Sky.
Throughout the vast light was the blue. All was clear and blue. Serene.
She need not bounce up on her third leg. She simply lifted her great wings and took off from the band of energy.
And soared.
On an immense silence of sky and light the Bambnua floated and glided until she had sailed down near the dust again. There she again rose on her wingpower, straight up. She gave off a deep and steady tone that vibrated with ageless feeling throughout the blue. It was a hawking swell. A Slaker song of praise, the first one ever.
“HAWHAW! YA! HAWA! HAWHAW! YAWHA! WAWA! WA!”
On the ground, they pulled back their power. They traced to one another again.
She sure doesn’t need us now, came from Dorian.
They concentrated through the dust, upward, to where the Bambnua flew with grace all on her own.
Soon she’ll need us again, Justice traced.
You afraid she’s gonna fall? I don’t think she will, not the way—Dorian stopped, suddenly aware that the Slaker’s falling was not what concerned Justice. With their extrasensory, Justice held fast to the Bambnua.
For the Dustwalker was searching for the end to Dustland. She had taken off in a straight line, away from the point on the ground where Justice and Dorian waited. And, imperceptibly, her line was curving.
She’s turning, traced Dorian. Shouldn’t we do something—?
Justice was intent on the Bambnua far above. She listened, and saw.
The Dustwalker had her sensory locked on their energy still touching her. From it, she had headed straight away. As far as she knew, she was still headed straight away, with no inkling that gradually she was curving in a great arc to the left.
They were certain she had been near something, the edge, perhaps, of Dustland. But she had no idea how close she had come. To her mind, she was continuing in a straight line above the dust. And from her view, Dustland appeared to be without end.
Times when silence was a clearer sign than mind-tracing. And now Justice was utterly silent. The Watcher was with them; yet Dorian thought to shield his mind. He did not question why the need of shields. But, from Justice’s manner, he knew to close off his thought to himself. From within he gathered that the Bambnua slowly turned and did not know it. She meant to go straight to find the end, but she could not, or would not. He assumed she would willingly go straight to the end if she could.
Not even with shields in place and from deep within would Dorian think the next thought.
The Bambnua-Walker was flying faster and faster. Frantic, she searched for the end. No longer did it occur to her that the end would be the way out for all Slakers. Her total strength was concentrated on the effort of flying.
The power of Dorian and Justice combined with the Watcher stayed close by her, but out of her way. She grew tired. Slowly her body sagged downward toward the dust. Her wings flapped, but with less force, until at last they could no longer move at all.
She plummeted. The extrasensory of the two of them was there to ease her way. She drifted down through the dust. Choking and gagging. So clean had been her breathing awhile ago. Always she would remember the blue, although she could not name it.
I am the Watcher, spoke in the Bambnua. The color is blue. Do not lose hope now that you’ve found it. Perhaps someday you will have the blue again.
The Bambnua could not comprehend all of it. Yet she felt a warmth of sympathy. But again she despaired. Exhausted, she hugged the hardened, dusty earth as Justice and Dorian let her gently down.
She was a heap of feathers from which came ragged breaths of “Ah-unnah … hunn-ah.” She spun on the ground and was on her back, both wings extended.
Fallen angel, Dorian traced as the Watcher dimmed from his and Justice’s eyes.
They watched as welts rose on the Bambnua’s skin. She summoned her crew. She did not make a move. She lay there, a forlorn and absurd sort of bird, Justice observed. An ugly, pathetic, beached bird.
Yes, a fallen one, Justice suddenly traced to Dorian. I think she’s awfully brave to work so hard.
Now there came the Slakers who had waited out of sight the whole time because the Terrij had commanded them to. She had called them and they came. They feared the unseen power. They felt it mightily, but they came on.
Justice and Dorian watched as the female creatures crept to the Bambnua in burst of being in one place, then the next. Justice noted how light on their feet they seemed, when she knew the difficulty they had keeping their balance. Not a sound did they make as their huge wings caressed the air in fear. Each one swayed on three legs, coming forth with no visible change of space. They surrounded the Bambnua. They were seated. Were lying down. Stretched out on their backs, as was their Terrij. They positioned themselves however the Bambnua did. She was stretched out. They stretched out. In a flick of an eye she was standing. They were standing.
Dorian had had no premonition that the Bambnua was about to stand. He sensed no change of space or position.
The first of anything I haven’t been able to mind-read all along, Justice traced.
I think it’s real spooky, Dorian traced back. I can’t get a fix on when any one of them will move.
That’s the only thing you can’t read about them? Justice wanted to know. I mean, now that I’ve told you all I know and you’ve been in contact?
The only thing, Dorian traced. And that’s because, I swear, because the moves happen in another dimension.
Wish they were, Justice traced. Then we’d never know everything about them.
What do you mean by that?
I mean, I’m glad not to know it all—don’t we always know too much? And it’s not another dimension.
What makes you so sure? No sooner had Dorian asked than he had the answer. She divined it—read it, sensed it, as was her way.
It’s their power, she traced lightly, like the softest mental touch. Oh, they must’ve had it all along, from the time the first one of them came up from underground. Maybe something down there could harm them if it saw them moving—ooh!—I’m not sure about that part. I can’t find that part anywhere, so I’m figuring it out. Making it up is what I’m doing, I guess. Anyway, they have it. That little amount of mind-control. Nothing can see them move. They blanket the whole area with that quick, sharpened force. Thought I felt an instant of something funny every time she ended up in another place. It was movement I felt but couldn’t see. So quick and smooth I almost missed it. Did miss it all of this time.
Wow!
But I’m glad they have something to themselves.
Sounds like you’re tired of what we have, he traced.
I’m weary of it right now, I think. Never had to know some souls as sad as these Slaker folks right there in front of us.
The females had gathered in around their Bambnua. All laid their bald heads on one another’s shoulders. Each standing on three legs, not one of them displaced. But the whole crew of them swayed in a slow, somber sweep to and fro. They jibbered in peculiar bursts of sounds. Once spoken, the sounds slid heavily down to the dust, as if the weight of utterances brought them down.
Quickly the crew knew that their Terrij had risen and flown above the dust. Knew that she had searched and found that the miserable land had no end.
But that new energy which had moved the Bambnua on high—it could move all of them above the dust, could it not? They wanted to know.
Their Terrij did not have the answer to that. And what did it matter, since the dust had no end?
At this moment of deepest lament, Justice entered again the mind of the Terrij and the minds of her crew.
I am the Watcher. Trust the Bambnua. She knows. The Bambnua trusts me. I know what she does not. We will help you find the end.
Slakers lifted their heads and turned simultaneously to stare at the empty space in front of them. They watched it for a long, long time.
And through the silence came noise from far away. It grew, bringing heavy waves of dust. The air blew in a wind before Justice and Dorian realized a Roller was coming.
Must be one! traced Dorian. But where to hide?
Wait. Justice watched the Slakers.
They had not moved. But they were shorter. Leaning backward on their third legs, they became shorter. The third legs were being driven, jammed into the ground as anchors. Wedged deep below the dust, twisted in and jammed so they could not be moved by Rollers.
A Jam people—that’s what it means!
Sure, traced Justice. They’ve had plenty of time to find ways of keeping safe from Rollers. But wait.
She listened. The thick dust lightened as it had high above when the Bambnua had risen. It was thinning, Justice was quick to note. The air around them became nearly clear. The ground grew bare. Off at a distance came a black sheet of dust higher and higher through the air. Then a pulling at her began, like a suction. It let up before it could move her or Dorian.
The Slakers stayed still, anchored as they were, with chins resting on one another’s shoulders. Silent, rheumy eyes closed—how old could they be? The Bambnua-Walker had welted again, contacting the rest of her kelm.
A crashing swoosh came from within the wall of dust. The sound took them by surprise. Dorian leaped up in a run in the opposite direction.
Wait! Justice warned. It can’t hurt our minds.
Well, it sure looks like it can. And as long as I’ve got this body, I’m getting out of here.
Dorian, you come right back!
Reluctantly he came back, and they waited as the booming dust commenced to fall in shrouds. A sheet of it spread out over the ground in ripples. Dust rose around them, as murky as it had been before the Roller came.
Out of the dust where the Roller had been stepped Miacis. Standing upright, she was taller than Justice would have dared imagine. She half-dragged Thomas and half-carried Levi. Justice didn’t have a moment even to be stunned. For Miacis opened her muzzle and began speaking.
“Greetings, Master Lady!” Her brand-new voice had the gentle resonance of a harp. “I bring you two good old boys, ain’t got no better sense. Oh, yes!”
Speechless, Justice stared at the giant golden animal. Suddenly she grinned and nodded her satisfaction. But Levi was still on her mind, and she hurried over to him.
“He not so happy,” Miacis said, releasing Levi. “He a pretty sick runaway from home.”
“Thomas made him run,” Justice said. “Levi would never have done it!”
She and Dorian took hold of Levi between them. He was conscious and happy to see them.
Justice traced to him, Don’t you worry. We’re leaving right away.
Miacis still had hold of Thomas. She let him slide to the ground. Looking at Justice, she chuckled, as only a talking beast full of surprise knew how.
“This here is some character brother, Master,” she purred. “This escaper better take a tip from me.” Her hind leg nudged Thomas toward the Slakers.
He hadn’t taken his eyes from the monstrous winged things before him. He crawled back toward Miacis. Never had Thomas dreamed of such huge, ugly shapes—with wings, no less—could you beat that? And crusted over with dirt and filth. He scooted to Miacis. She was easier to take than the winged monsters.
“Boy, you runaway is sure some chickenshit!” Miacis yelled.
“Miacis,” Justice said.
Miacis had her gleaming blind eyes on the Slakers, recognizing their scent. She had come in contact with them all of her life. Her fur bristled with contempt.
“Hi you was, dusty roaders?” she said.
Slakers stared, listening to her animal voice.
“You creeps!” Miacis smirked. “Ain’t never goin’ find way home. Might as well fly away, Jammers. Ain’t no home. Who need it? Not me, boy. Me got dust and rolling. Fine place, this disaster. Good ole’ city. Fine master, too.”
“Miacis, be still!” This time the Watcher echoed through Justice’s voice.
Miacis lowered herself from her height and lay down before Justice. “Yes, Master.” She simpered.
“Call me Justice!”
Miacis stayed quiet. She blinked her fiery eyes and wondered for the thousandth time if the master was Star.
But Star never say anything to Miacis, she thought. This Master commanding any minute. Nope. Don’t think this one be Star. Master always tell me how. She going to take off for her city now.
Let’s get out of here, traced Dorian.
Thomas. Levi, Justice traced. There was no hesitation from either one of them. Quickly all of them joined minds. All felt the strength and order of being the unit. The depth of it was even to all.
i am the Watcher.
The unit was all and i. It fixed its gaze on Miacis , who sat still and serene before it. Its watching was a resplendent glowing.
i leave you now, great Miacis.
Miacis blinked at the infeeling of no-sound and no-voice. She held still, purring. Stillness, silence was her way at the time of parting.
You will return, First Unit? she traced easily.
i will return. Join with me tighter now to the moment of Crossover.
The unit locked in tighter the mind-to-mind it kept with Miacis. It knew and reckoned the pulse of her animal being. i am the Watcher.
It turned its whelm of watching on the Slakers, who now stood on all three legs, as the danger of Rollers had passed. Such power as was the unit had force against which they could rest their heavy bulk. They leaned into the energy. And it flowed over them.
Your Quest is nearly over, Bambnua, Dustwalker, i will return.
The Bambnua keened, uttering harsh cries. Her old eyes searched upward through the dust as the energy, the great power flowed away until it had disappeared out of the land.
She had lost the mighty force for now. This she jabbered to her crew. Swiftly she shifted her thoughts and told the females to drink from the pool of fresh water. At once the females were beside the pool. They were wading in. They were drinking. They had drunk. The Bambnua drank. She lay on the water, wings spread. She sank. A long moment and she was back on top of the water. She was out of it.
The Terrij, the Bambnua, welted, calling her kelm. The kelm was on the range with the colony. They would note the whereabouts of such splendid liquid.
She had taken notice that the cliff and rock had faded the moment the great unseen power had vanished. She stared at nothing, jibbering to herself, sounds falling at her feet. All of the crew followed her lead, jibbering. The Dustwalker leaned back on her third leg. She flew. They all flew. And, flying, they were gone.
The unit hung suspended on the seam between future and the Crossover. In a lightning probe, it was aware of turbulence ahead where commenced the Crossover. It felt Miacis about to pull back her mind, leaving the unit.
I await your return, First Unit. Mind-tracing in the last instant with a delicate purring.
i am the Watcher, i will return.
Miacis was detached from the unit. Master!
Miacis was gone.
The unit left the future and plunged into the Crossover. It was a writhing, spiraling condition between times. It was not yet a present event.