Pictoria (The Ammonite Galaxy Series, Book 4)

Chapter 1

SOME EIGHT MONTHS after her previous visit to Xiantha, Grace walked out of the Xianthan spaceport and smiled around at the dry landscape waiting for her. She took in a deep breath of air, and then turned to stare for a moment to the north. Her head moved up as she tracked the towering spike of the dark Xianthe which was soaring up to lose itself in the clouds. She was caught for many long seconds, reliving part of the fall which had nearly killed her, remembering what had happened in the cage at Lightning Corner. She sighed, and found herself looking down at her mangled hands. All these months later, they were smooth and tanned instead of black and covered with blisters. But nothing could hide the ugly stumps which truncated her fingers. Nothing could take away the fact that she had lost three whole digits and the top joints of another two.

Then her eye caught sight of a small band of rexelene which was nestling on her right ring finger. As a Kwaidian friendship ring, it should have been on the ring finger of her left hand, but that was one of the missing digits. So she had been obliged to slip it over the shortened tip of the right ring finger. Now it shone gently in the sunlight of Xiantha, and the sight of it calmed her down. It was a reminder of a warm and generous loyalty, of a protective shield of care which enveloped her and kept her safe wherever she went.

She wondered how Ledin was. He had been called back to Kwaide. He had been needed to run the orbital station there. They had only had three weeks together on Valhai; three weeks to make plans and to decide their future together. Not that it mattered, he was with her wherever she went. Sometimes she thought it was a solid physical presence, and not just an imagined mental link.

Grace twisted the plain ring with the thumb and index finger of her left hand, and looked back up again at the jagged peaks of the two Xianthes. She gave a slow smile, and then walked out into what served as a street.

"Grace! Over here! Hurry up, will you!" Diva was jumping up and down, waving her hands, and clearly excited to see her friend again. "We brought your canth too! We can go straight back to the lake! It is going to be like old times again! I came over from Coriolis two days ago, but was stuck on my own until now – Six has only just arrived from Kwaide today, too."

"I can't believe the babies have been born! You and Six are parents! That sounds really strange." Grace's face was illuminated by a smile. None of the three friends had seen each other for months, and they were anxious to catch up. Grace herself had been too busy on Valhai trying to sort out Arcan's foundation. She gave the Coriolan girl a huge hug, and then turned to Six, who was standing behind Diva, and put her arms around his neck.

"Tell me about it! Here, Grace, no need to suffocate me! If you do that to Ledin I'm not surprised he's gone back to Kwaide."

She gave him a fake punch on his shoulder. "He's coming over next week. He has a month's vacation. New Kwaide has implemented a system of regular rest periods now."

"Are you going to spend all of it here, on Xiantha?"

Grace shook her head. "Only the first half. I really need to get back to Valhai after that. Aracely gets a bit nervous if I am not around to take most of the decisions. We'll spend the other two weeks on Valhai. Have you seen the children yet?"

Six shook his head. "We have to wait for them to send a magsled for us. They want to be sure all the babies are doing well first. They thought sometime this week."

As they left Grace caught sight of the same vaniven cart which they had used on previous occasions. Its driver was staring at them with a strong measure of disappointment. It seemed that someone, at least, was not too pleased that they now had canths they could ride around on.

BACK BY THE Emerald Lake on Xiantha, the days were perfect. Although only eight months had passed since those first therapeutic swims in the lake, Grace knew that she had recovered much of her strength. She was able to swim fairly well now, and though she had to use both hands to hold her catana when they practiced hand-to-hand combat, she had much more skill than before. It was a slow process, but she was finally coming to terms with her disability.