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Cirocco was moved, but could not help being excited. April sounded as if she
was important in the angel community. Surely they would listen to her.
"It happens that I am up here to make peace," she said. "Don't go! Please
don't go."
April trembled, but stood her ground. "Peace is impossible."
"I can't believe that. Many of the Titanides are sick in their hearts, as you
are."
April shook her head. "Does a lamb negotiate with a lion? A bat with an
insect, a bird with a worm?"
"You're talking about predators and prey."
"Natural enemies. It's printed in our genes, killing the four- legs. I can ...
as April, I can see what you're thinking. Peace should he possible. We have to
fly impossible distances just to do battle. Many of us do not make it back.
The climb is too hard, and we fall into the sea."
Cirocco shook her head. ',I just think if I could get some representatives
together . . ."
"I tell you, it's impossible. We are Eagles. You cannot even get us to act as
a group, much less meet with the four-legs. There are other clans, some of
them sociable, but they don't live in this spoke. Perhaps you would have luck
there, but I doubt it."
The three of them were silent for a time. Cirocco felt heavy with defeat, and
Gaby put her hand on her shoulder.
"What do you think? Is she telling the truth?"
"I suspect she is. It sounds just like what Meistersinger told me. They have
no control over it."
She looked up, and spoke to April.
"You were saying that you tried to see Gaea. Why?"
"For peace. I wanted to ask her why the war had to be. I'm quite happy, but
for that. She did not hear my call."
Or she doesn't exist, Cirocco thought.
"Will you still go seek her?" April asked.
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"I don't know. What's the point? Why would this super- human being stop a way
just because I ask her to?"
"There are worse things to do in We than to have a quest to fulfill. If you
turned back now, what would you do?"
"I don't know that, either."
"You've come a long way. You must have overcome great difficulties. My people
say Gaea likes a good story, and she likes great heroes. Are you a hero?"
She thought of Gene spinning down into the blackness, of Panpipe n~ to his
doom, of the mudfish bearing down on her. Surely a hero would have done better
than that.
"She is," Gaby said, suddenly. "Of all of us, only Rocky has held to her
purpose. We'd still be sitting in mud shacks if she hadn't pushed us. She kept
us moving toward a goal. We may not reach it, but when that rescue ship comes,
I'll bet they find us still trying."
Cirocco was embarrassed, but strangely moved. She had been fighting a sense of
failure since the capture; it didn't hurt to know someone thought she was
doing well. But a hero? No, not hardly.
She had only done what had to be done.
"I think Gaea will be impressed," April said. "Go to her. Stand in her hub and
shout. Do not grovel or beg. Tell her you have a right to some answers, for
all of us. She will listen."
"Come with us, April."
The angel-woman edged away.
"My name is Ariel the Swift. I go with no one, and no one goes with me. I will
never see you again." She dived once more, and Cirocco knew she would keep her
word.
She looked at Gaby, who rolled her eyes upward with a slight twist of her
mouth.
"Up?"
"Why the hell not? There are a few things I'd like to ask."
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CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE
"I'm not a hero, you know."
"All right, heroine."
Cirocco chuckled. They were bedded down m the last day of their fourteenth
winter together, their eighth month in the spoke. There were now only ten
kilometers separating them from the hub. They could do it in their sleep, as
soon as the thaw started.
"Not even that. If there's a heroine here, it has to be you." Gaby shook her
head.
"I've helped out. This probably would have been a lot harder for you if I
hadn't been here."
Cirocco squeezed her hand.
"But I've just tagged along. I've helped you out of some messes, but I don't
qualify as a hero. A
hero wouldn't have tried to throw Gene over the side with no parachute. You
would have made it here by yourself. I wouldn't have."
They were silent, each with her own thoughts.
Cirocco was not sure what Gaby said was true. Part of it was accurate, though
she would never agree with it out loud. Gaby could not have brought them this
far. She was not a leader.
But am I? She wondered. She had certainly tried hard enough to he one. Could
she have made it alone? She doubted it.
"It's been fun, hasn't it?" Gaby asked, quietly.
Cirocco was genuinely surprised. Was it possible to call eight months,
struggle fun?
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"I don't think that's the word I would have used." "No, you're right. But you
know what I mean."
Oddly enough, she did. She was at last able to understand the depression that
had plagued her during the last weeks. The trip would soon be over. They would
discover the means to return to
Earth, or they would not.
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