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Ribbon Dance Hill


Dressed again, and hair neatly braided, Padi and Tekelia stepped out onto the deck. Tekelia was carrying the basket from their picnic, now refilled.

Padi went to the rail, looking out over the trees. There was still a smear of light on the horizon, but overhead the Ribbons were brilliant.

“Shall we walk?” she asked.

“One does not walk to a Ribbon Dance,” Tekelia said, holding out a hand. “Will you allow me to bring you, as my guest?”

“Surely, I’m nothing else, if not your guest,” Padi said willingly. Tekelia’s hand was warm, and she felt a frisson of excitement as their fingers met.

“So, we go,” Tekelia said softly.

Fog swirled; there was a moment of chill airlessness, and an eruption of sound and color as Ribbon Dance Hill snapped into being around her.

“So, we arrive,” Tekelia said, and Padi stood very still, feeling an unfamiliar fizzing in her blood.

“Tekelia!” The shout was from somewhere nearby, but Padi did not see who of the many dancers crowding the hilltop had called.

Tekelia lifted the basket high, possibly an answer to that welcome, and moved off at an angle to the dancing, to a group of tables, each groaning under a burden of baskets, plates, trays, tins, bottles and jugs.

Tekelia found a place to put their basket, then turned to face her.

“Are you all right? One’s first Ribbon Dance can be a bit overwhelming. No shame, if you’d rather we go back—”

“No,” Padi said. “I hadn’t quite expected—but I want to stay, at least for a while.” She took a breath, listening to the sound of voices, woven round with music, that seemed not all to quite come from the musicians she could see at the center of an exuberant circle of dancers.

“Keep hold of me, do,” she said, around the effervescence in her blood. “I feel that I might rise into the sky.”

“I’ll hold you close if you have no need to fly,” Tekelia promised. “Let’s go ’round and find who’s here.”

“Tekelia!” Another shout, this produced by three persons, arm-linked, swaying toward them from out among the dancers.

“Tekelia, well-come! Who is this—somebody in from Visalee?”

“Padi, I make you known to Kencia, Stiletta, and Klem, as mad a threesome as ever you’ll find, and Ribbon-drunk to boot.”

“Untrue!” protested the one Padi thought was Stiletta. “The Ribbons are barely risen! Even Klem can keep a cool head this early.”

Tekelia moved a hand.

“If you say it, Cousin. Now attend me: Here is Padi yos’Galan, trader attached to the Tree-and-Dragon Trade Mission, and my guest.”

“Oho! In from the port!” Kencia said wisely. “It’s a wilder wind blows here than ever ventures under the Grid, Trader.”

“So I’ve noticed,” Padi said, squeezing Tekelia’s hand.

Stiletta caught that motion, and hooted. “I expect the trader could teach you three or six things, Kenny, if you were able to learn them!”

But Kencia was leaning forward, straining against his companions’ arms, brow knit, squinting at Padi as if he were trying to see her through fog, or from a very great distance.

Not Haosa,” he said, definitively.

“Not Haosa,” Padi agreed. “Korval.”

“Is that it? Not something you see every day, in any case.” Kencia straightened with a grin, still arm-linked to his companions. “Welcome and good dancing! If Tekelia gets tired, you come and find us, eh? We’ll see you merry as never was!”

“I’ll bear that in mind,” Padi said politely, as the three wove away toward the laden tables.

“Ribbon-drunk?” she murmured, as Tekelia led her toward the cluster from which the music she heard with—with your ears, Padi thought. Which was an absurd thing to say, only she was hearing that other music, on another level altogether, that transcended mere hearing.

You’re hearing with your Inner Ears, she told herself. Priscilla said that you could hear ambient noise. And certainly the ambient was noisy in this locality!

The dance snaked in and out, crossing itself, pulling tighter to the musicians, then dancing away again. The dancers were hand-linked, some laughing, some singing, and some, Padi noticed, not quite touching the ground.

Hand-in-hand with Tekelia, she drifted closer, her feet taking up the rhythm, as the dancers swept past, their gaiety contagious. She laughed aloud, dancing forward, Tekelia her willing partner. The line swept past, quite close now, and several of the dancers crying, “Join in! Join us!” so that Padi laughed in answer. The last of the line swung out, grasping her free hand, crying, “Dance with us, lady!”

Perforce, Padi danced, Tekelia’s hand warm in hers, buoyed by the music and the excitement in the air.

* * *

The musicians had put their instruments down and gone off to the tables, as the line broke apart into separate dancers, and followed, laughing still, and some still floating.

Padi sighed, and turned to smile at Tekelia.

“That was splendid,” she said. “Thank you.”

“No, surely I should thank you,” Tekelia said earnestly.

“Whatever for?”

“For my first time link-dancing.”

Padi stared.

“Have you never—” she began, and then stopped herself, remembering—

“We should eat,” Tekelia said, tugging her toward the tables.

She blinked.

“Already?”

“Already.” Tekelia smiled. “Is your blood fizzing?”

“It is! And yours?”

“Of course. It’s a Ribbon Dance.”

Padi approached a tray of sliced cheese and bread, and hesitated.

“Try something else, if that’s not to your liking.”

“No, it’s only that I really feel that I must be anchored or rocket into the sky.”

“I can eat one-handed, can’t you?”

“I suppose I’ll find out,” Padi said, spying the next tray, full of small sandwiches. She had one of those up with her free hand, and devoured it in two bites, suddenly ravenous.

A second sandwich quickly followed the first, and she might have been astonished at herself, if she had not seen Tekelia reach for a third and positively gobble it down.

“Tekelia!”

That shout was accompanied by such a bolt of joy, Padi felt her eyes tear with it.

Tekelia turned, and Padi, too. A small boy was running toward them, pulling away from another child, and a woman, who were not going to catch him before he careened into Tekelia, and—

A large plush shadow leapt from the right, between Tekelia and the onrushing child. The boy shouted, wordless. Padi saw him try to stop, but his momentum was such that he stumbled, grabbing onto the cat’s broad shoulders to save himself from the fall.

“Dosent!” he cried, lifting a face quite red with laughter. “You got in my way!”

“And well that she did so,” Tekelia said calmly. “Good dancing to you, Vaiza.”

“And to you,” the child gasped, half undone with speed and with laughter.

“Vaiza!” The second child had arrived. “You were going to hug Tekelia! You know that’s not allowed!”

“But that lady is holding Tekelia’s hand!” Vaiza countered, just as the woman arrived, round cheeks pink, and her hair coming down from what had been a knot at the top of her head.

“She is holding my hand,” Tekelia said. “But it doesn’t follow that you can do the same. All our Gifts are different.”

Padi felt a tug on her hand and stepped forward.

“Padi, this is Vaiza xinRood, Torin xinRood, Geritsi slentAlin, and Dosent.”

“Good dancing, all,” Padi said politely.

“This is Padi yos’Galan, of the Tree-and-Dragon Trade Mission,” Tekelia finished.

“Good dancing, Trader,” Geritsi said with a broad and generous smile. “I would like to stay and talk with you, but I fear I’d better get these scamps home and in bed. Ribbon-drunk, indeed.”

It seemed to Padi that this was only half-true. Vaiza was quite merry, but Torin was positively wilting, her eyes heavy and her shoulders slumped.

She was not the only one who had noticed.

“Have you sampled any of Emit’s sandwiches?” Tekelia asked the twins. “I’ve just eaten three, and Padi matching me. I recommend you have some before we finish the whole plate.”

“That’s right,” Geritsi said, putting a hand on Torin’s shoulder. “You’ll feel better, when you’ve eaten something.”

Tekelia slipped to one side. Dosent the cat yawned, and Vaiza ducked under her chin to reach the table.

“They look good, Torin. You should have one.”

“And you,” said Geritsi, coming to his side.

“I will in a minute,” Vaiza said, dodging past her to stand in front of Tekelia.

“Tekelia, Warden Bentamin says he will be taking us to a Healer, to see how we are faring.”

“That’s very kind of Warden Bentamin.”

Vaiza paused, as if he might argue that point, then blurted, “Warden Bentamin said we could have someone from the village with us. Will you come?”

“I would be honored. Do we know when this event will occur?”

“Not yet. He needs to find the right Healer and talk with her.”

“Well, then, how’s this for a plan? As soon as Warden Bentamin lets you know the day and time he has set for the meeting, send to me, so that I can be sure to be there with you. Will you be asking anyone else from the village to go with you?”

“Geritsi and Dosent,” Torin said, her voice surprisingly strong.

Tekelia looked over Vaiza’s head to Geritsi. Padi saw her incline her head. “Of course, we’ll go.”

“Then that seems fairly settled,” Tekelia said. “You will now eat something, please.”

“Yes!” Vaiza said exuberantly, and lunged for the sandwich plate.


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