Earthfall (Homecoming) Read Online Free PDF Page A

knew them all, of course, and could easily guess at what their work was like. A couple of them were husbands, and because their lady was married to them for life their sculptures were no longer in competition with the others. Some of them were young, like Kiti, offering sculptures for the first time—and from their slightly hangdog expressions, Kiti could tell that they hadn’t made the impression that they hoped for. Nevertheless, the clay fever was on all the males, and so they hardly looked at him or his sculpture; their eyes were on the ladies.
    The ladies stared in silence at his sculpture. Some of them moved, to study it from another angle. Kiti knew that the workmanship of his sculpture was exceptionally good, and that the sheer size of it was audacious. He felt the clay fever stirring within him, and all the ladies looked beautiful to him. He saw their skeptical expressions with dread—he longed now for them to choose him.
    Finally the silence was broken. “What is this supposed to be?” whispered a lady. Kiti looked for the voice. It was Upua, a lady who had never married and who, in some years, had not even mated. It gave her a reputation for being arrogant, the hardest of the ladies to please. Of course she would be the lady who would interrogate him in front of all the others.
    “It grew under my hands,” he said, not daring to tell them what it really was.
    “Everyone thought that you would do honor to your otherself,” said another lady, emboldened by Upua’s disdainful question.
    The hardest question. He dared not dodge it. Did he dare to tell the truth? “I meant to, but it was also my own face, and I wasn’t worthy to have my face sculpted in the clay.”
    There was a murmur at that. Some thought that was a stupid reason; some thought it was deceptive; some gave it thought.
    Finally the ladies began deciding. “Not for me.” “Ugly.” “Very odd.” “Interesting.” Whatever their comment, they took flight, rising up and circling, drifting toward the branches of the nearest trees. The men, no doubt feeling quite triumphant at the complete rejection of the supposedly talented Kiti, joined them there.
    At last only Kiti and Upua remained upon the riverbank.
    “I know what this is,” said Upua.
    Kiti dared not answer.
    “This is the head of an Old One,” she said.
    Her voice carried to the ladies and men in the branches. They heard her, and many gasped or whistled their astonishment.
    “Yes, Lady Upua,” said Kiti, ashamed at having his arrogance caught out. “But it was given to me under my hands. I never meant to sculpt such a thing.”
    Upua said nothing for a long time, walking around the sculpture, circling it again and again.
    “The day is short!” called one of the leading ladies from her perch in the trees.
    Upua looked up at her, startled. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I wanted to see this and remember it, because we have been given a great gift by the gods, to see the face of the Old Ones.”
    There was some laughter at this. Did she really think Kiti could somehow sculpt what no one had ever seen?
    She turned to Kiti, who was so filled with clay fever now that he could only barely keep himself from throwing himself at her feet and begging her to let him mate with her.
    “Marry me,” she said.
    Surely he had misunderstood.
    “Marry me,” she said again. “I want only your children from now on until I die.”
    “Yes,” he said.
    No other man had been so honored in a thousand years. On his first sculpting, to be offered marriage, and by a lady of such prestige? Many of the others, ladies and men alike, were outraged. “Nonsense, Lady Upua,” said another of the leading ladies. “You cheapen the institution of marriage by offering it to one so young, and for such a ridiculous sculpture.”
    “He has been given the face of an Old One by the gods. Let all of you come down here and study this sculpture again. We will not leave here for two songs, so that all of us will