Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 Read Free Page A

pressed it a number of times with his fingers, and then waited. After about a minute, Grace was aware of an answer coming back through the bracelet.
    “He is fine,” said Ledin.
    “Then I don’t understand. This canth is locked to Arcan, and should only die when he does. It makes no sense …” The man broke off uncertainly.
    “Is there something else?” asked Grace.
    “… I just … The strange thing is …” The man who spoke to canths shook his head. “… I am not getting any feelings of fright or pain from this animal. It seems to be actually enjoying the process of dying. I have tended many canths as they cross over, and they have always seemed to need my comfort. But this poor thing …” he tenderly stroked the silky mane, “… is actually looking forward to dying. I can feel his eagerness, even through his suffering.”
    Grace wrinkled her brow, and squatted down beside the man who spoke to canths, putting her own hand solicitously on the sweating neck of the black canth. Then she looked up as the figure of Ledin momentarily blocked out Almagest. She held up her other hand, and he sank down beside her, a concerned expression on his face at the sight of the canth. He said nothing, however, simply laying one hand gently on the withers of the dying animal, and the other over Grace’s shoulder.
    “Maybe …” Grace began to speak, and then paused, unsure of her facts. Both the Xianthan and the Kwaidian looked at her expectantly. “… Maybe it is dying for one of the Arcan amorphs.” She gave the man who spoke to canths a very abridged version of what had happened up in the rarified atmosphere above Pictoria, when she had been forced to fire upon the visitor’s ship.
    He considered. “You think that this canth was linked to that particular part of Arcan, rather than the whole?” There was a silence as he thought about it. “I suppose it is possible. But surely – if that were the case – this animal would have died immediately? You say all this happened over seven months ago?”
    Grace shook her head. She had no idea, and she couldn’t go into more detailed explanations without mentioning the amorphs in much too much detail. It was not her secret to give away.
    The man who spoke to canths sighed. “The strange thing is that this is not the only canth to die today. There is another – an unlinked canth – who is dying in the exact same way. That is unheard-of.”
    Grace immediately thought of the visitor. But the visitor had no linked canth, surely?
    “Shall I go to it?” she asked the Xianthan.
    “Please. I try to help these creatures when they cross over, but to have two on the same day has never happened to me before.” He waved an arm in the direction of the furthest corral. “You will find it through that gate.”
    Grace and Ledin made their way over, climbed the gate and walked into the dry pastures beyond. The canth was lying in the shade of a tree, its legs sticking out at ninety degrees to its body, and its neck stretched out along the sand. As the two friends walked up, several other canths snorted, and rolled their eyes.
    They were allowed to pass, however, and Grace took the head of the dying animal in her lap, much as she had seen the Xianthan do, and began to stroke its neck slowly and gently. Ledin looked at the flecks of froth mixed in with the stains of sweat along its coat.
    “It has exactly the same thing as the black canth,” he said.
    “Do you think that Arcan could have been joined with more than one canth, without us knowing?”
    He gave a shrug. “I suppose he could have been. I mean, he—” He was forced to break off because his own yellow dun had found them, and was nudging at him impatiently. Grace looked around, and was delighted to see her own canth. The palomino gold had moved gently in to stand behind her.
    They both welcomed their own canths, and then dropped down again beside the dying animal. It was a blue roan, a dark grey colour tinged with a smoky