Fire Time by Poul Anderson Page B

this planet can be trusted, she can. She should’ve been invited to sit in on the conference. Though that would’ve roused jealousies, and distracted me
–
or inspired me– Throttle that nonsense!
he ordered himself.
You old fool!
    ‘As for how I knew where to wait,’ Jill told him, ‘why, I know you. Campbell to Riverside and on home. Right?’
    He attempted a smile. ‘Am I that transparent?’
    ‘No.’ She regarded his gaunt features carefully. ‘No, you’re a mighty private person. However, chances were you’d leave early; you’re never much for polite banalities. You’d choose a route which avoided people. At this hour, it has to be this way. Primavera isn’t exactly a labyrinth.’ Her voice snapped: ‘You know my methods, Watson. Apply them!’
    He couldn’t but chuckle and shake his head. ‘Why not loosen your collar?’ Jill suggested. ‘You don’t have to choke any more to impress the Navy with our earnestness. Besides, that cowlick of yours spoils the effect.’
    ‘Well – okay.’ When he had done, she took his arm again, tucked hers beneath, and started them off in the free-swinging stride they both favored.
    ‘What happened?’ she asked after a while.
    ‘I’m not supposed to–’
    ‘Yeh, yeh, yeh. You’re not under oath of secrecy, are you? I’ll give you my promise if you like, not to let anything go any further.’ She was silent for a space, during which he heard their boots thud and felt her touch. When she spoke anew, it was most softly. ‘Yes, Ian, I am presuming, I am begging for a privilege. But I’ve got a brother in the Navy. And Larreka’s always been like a second father to me. The night he stayed at my house … hardest to take was the way he kept working to crack jokes, tell anecdotes, whatever he hoped might amuse me. I wanted to cry. Except naturally he’d’ve known what that meant, and soldiers’ daughters don’t show grief.’
    ‘The legionary tradition,’ he said for lack of better words. ‘It’d be dangerous to morale if allowed. We’re different, we humans.’
    ‘Not that different. And if I knew what– The sooner I know, the sooner I can start thinking about something real to do, not sit inside myself and gnaw my guts.’
    He must look at her then, less far downward than a man of his height need do with the run of women. Her blue gaze was steady, yet she smiled no more and the level sunbeams caught sparks in her lashes.
    ‘You win,’ he rasped. ‘Though you won’t like the news.’
    ‘I didn’t expect to. Oh, Ian, you’re such a laren!’ The word meant, approximately, ‘good trooper’, overtones of kindliness as well as strength and fidelity. She let go his arm and took his hand. He checked a wish to squeeze back. No use, worse than useless, to let her guess how she had altogether gripped him. But he could keep a very gentle hold, couldn’t he?
    They reached the landing and turned north into Riverside, a road cut from the left bank of the Jayin. On their right, trees screened them from view of town, a long row of deep-rooted swordleaf, preserved amidst this terrestrializedecology to be a windbreak when tornados whirled out of the west. Opposite, the stream flowed broad, murmurous, evening ablaze upon it. Snags and shoals made ripples; an ichthy would leap in a gleam of silver and a clear splash; rocket flies darted brilliant. On the farther shore, native pastureland rolled into blue remoteness – tawny turf of lia, scarlet firebloom, scattered trees crowned with copper or brass. In the middle distance a flock of owas grazed, and the larger els individually, six-legged kine in a peacefulness that Sparling wished Constable could have painted.
    Here the air was cooler still, damp, breezy, many-scented. Westward under sinking Bel, a few clouds glowed orange. Elsewhere the sky stood unutterably clear. A ghostly, waning Caelestia drew eastward. Beneath, so high as to be only a pair of wings, hovered a saru. It did not stoop on any of the