The Namura Stone (The Ammonite Galaxy, book 6)

Chapter 15

WHEN SIX GOT back to the Emerald Lake, the following day, he found everything organized. The house was spotless, Bennel had been dispatched to get more food and the children were playing quietly together by the lakeside. Sanjai was watching Raven's every move, immensely proud to have been allotted such responsibility. He seemed to have grown at least two inches overnight.

Raven was happily making little castles out of the sand beside the lake, but shouted out gleefully when she saw her father. She stretched out her hands, running towards him as fast as her small legs would take her.

Six swung her up above his head and smiled. There was so much of Diva in this little girl's face. She had Diva's eyebrows, mouth and nose, and her eyes seemed to examine you in exactly the same way, although the little girl's were a wonderful light glowing tawny brown which seemed to hold the sun inside them. Diva's had been bluer, sharper.

Six felt his heart miss a beat. He shouldn't think of Diva. He should think only of this small being, his daughter. He hugged her tight, before setting her down again and smiling towards Sanjai and Quenna, both staring up at him in awe.

"Good job, Sanjai. I see you are going to have your work cut out with these two on your hands!"

The thin boy flushed and looked at the sand.

Six put Raven down again. "Be good, poppet. Don't go too far into the water, and don't start any fights!"

He heard himself speak and felt a small twinge for a past life, one in which he himself had started fights, leapt fearlessly into water and looked forward to new adventures. That boy had vanished forever.

He gave a sigh and walked slowly back through the trees to the house. He didn't notice the wonderful vegetation, or the blue sky, or the hot sun which was shining down. He trudged through the long grass, walked into the house, made his way to the room which was to become his office, shut the door and picked up some papers.

Grace, who had visited Lannie to bring her some herbs she needed, stared as Six went past. There was little trace left of the insouciant boy she had known and loved, and her own heart curled in compassion for his loss. She wondered if she would ever see the boy she knew again. This stranger was a man – a cold, withdrawn man with no trace of laughter in his face or his mind. She closed her eyes for a moment before turning back to Lannie.

"I'm sorry, what was that you were saying? I ... I was thinking about something else."

SIX APPLIED HIMSELF to the new idea of a university for Xiantha. It needed a great deal of organization: something completely new to him. It also required thousands of hours of work, which was lucky; he had thousands of hours stretching out in front of him like a desert. He tried to calm his mind, and began the mammoth task.

Tallen dragged him out for combat practice during half an hour each morning. Six allowed himself to be coerced into it, but showed none of his usual ferocity in the fights. He practiced, but it was abundantly clear that his heart was not in it.

Grace came over once a day and insisted on taking him out for a ride on their canths. Six's dapple grey was now completely recovered from its ordeal on Kintara, although the once immaculate coat was criss-crossed with scars from the volcanic fragments which had showered down on them.

She made him put his face back to feel the sun on these rides. She tried to make him laugh. Sometimes she even succeeded; he was willing to try. Even when he laughed, though, his smile was brittle and lasted only fragments of a second. It was like a brief shadow of the real thing, a copy.