The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers #4)(46)

‘Oh,’ Tupo said. Xe thought. ‘Do you not like this song? We can change it.’

‘No, it’s not this song, it’s … music. I don’t understand music. Not like you do.’

Speaker caught this, and turned the volume down. ‘Does your implant not register music?’

‘Oh, it does,’ Pei said. ‘I’m aware of the sounds. But it doesn’t mean anything to me. It doesn’t make me feel anything. My brain understands language; it doesn’t understand music.’

Roveg looked at her now. ‘What?’

‘It’s just … sound. Like if I’m walking through a marketplace, I can hear talking, movement, and machinery. If I go to … I don’t know, to a park, I might hear insects, or a fountain, or whatever. I know what those sounds are. I can identify them. So, right now …’ She paused, angling her forehead toward one of the speakers, colours swimming as she concentrated. ‘I know there are drums. Flutes. Singing. I can tell that it’s complicated. I could make you a list of everything I’m processing, as I process it. But that’s as far as it goes for me. You’re feeling something, right? This makes you feel something?’

‘Stars, yes,’ Speaker said. She closed her eyes. ‘It gets way down in my bones. It makes me feel … triumphant. Powerful. I want to swing back and forth as fast as I can. And it makes me ache, too, in a way I can’t possibly explain. Like … like the way you feel when you’re saying goodbye to someone, and you’re so excited for where you’re going, but you don’t want to leave, either.’

‘See,’ Pei said. ‘That’s where you lose me.’

‘But rhythm,’ Roveg said. ‘This, I know you understand. I’ve seen Aeluons dance at festivals. That stomping thing you do.’

‘Okay, but that’s – that’s different.’

‘How so?’

‘Well …’ She thought hard. She knew exactly how to explain this in colour; less so in words. ‘I can follow a beat, and I can make one happen. But that’s not about sound, to us. That’s about sight and touch. When we dance, we can feel the vibrations through the bottoms of our feet, and the larger the group is, the more intense the feeling. And you can see the … the call and response, I suppose. I move one way, you move another way, we move together.’

‘That must make you feel something.’

‘Absolutely. It feels …’ She flashed understanding blue at Speaker. ‘Triumphant. Powerful. I’ve worn myself out doing it, and I wake up sore, and I never regret it.’

Speaker seemed to warm to this. ‘That’s pretty close to what music is.’

‘Can you show me?’ Tupo said. ‘Can you dance?’

Pei hesitated. ‘It’d be really weird doing it by myself. There’s this whole back and forth to it. We don’t dance alone.’

‘So show me!’ Tupo said. ‘Look, I can be two Aeluons.’ Xe laughed as xe stomped both sets of legs.

‘I can be twenty-two,’ Roveg said, deadpan. Everybody laughed at that.

Pei looked at the pleading kid for a moment, her cheeks speckling amused green. ‘Okay, sure,’ she said. ‘Why not.’ She began to unstrap her boots.

‘Would you like the music off?’ Speaker asked.

‘If you wouldn’t mind,’ Pei said.

Speaker tapped her scrib, and the noise stopped.

‘What are you doing?’ Tupo asked.

‘I’m taking off my shoes,’ Pei said. ‘Dancing’s best done barefoot.’

Tupo watched her actions intensely. ‘Shoes are so weird,’ xe said. ‘I can’t imagine wearing shoes all day.’

‘Same,’ Roveg said.

‘Same,’ Speaker said.

Pei looked around at the group. ‘They’re just clothes for your feet.’

‘I also can’t imagine wearing clothes,’ Roveg said.

‘Same.’ Tupo giggled.

‘Fair,’ Pei said. She pulled her foot free and set it in the bare grass. She couldn’t help but wiggle her toes in it. Stars, it felt good. She did the same with her other foot. ‘Ouloo, you joining us?’

Ouloo was in the middle of fussing over some icing that had gone askew. ‘You go on, I’m content watching.’

Pei stood up, gripping the grass between her toes indulgently. The others faced her, falling into an informal line. ‘All right, let me think.’ She knew herself to be a good dancer – very good, to be honest, but she’d never boast about that – and she had dozens of options at her disposal. There were festival dances, funeral dances, dances that were playful, serious, sexy, sweet. But selecting something for a group of beginners who all had different types of limbs was a trick she’d never attempted before. She mentally dug around for something easy that wouldn’t scare them off. ‘Okay, this is a cute dance you learn as a kid. It’s called …’ She paused. There was no translating this. She thought for a moment, then gave up and pointed at her cheeks as she flashed the name of the dance. ‘That. It’s called that.’

‘Green Blue White Spots,’ Roveg said. ‘Marvellous. Teach us Green Blue White Spots.’

Pei laughed. ‘Okay, to start, I’m going to slide my left foot forward.’ She demonstrated. Tupo hopped up on xyr back legs and started to mimic. ‘No – no, don’t do what I’m doing. I’m the leader. Your job is to respond to me, not copy me. I slide my left foot, and now you – you slide your right foot back. Like this.’ She turned her back to them, performed the correct response, then turned back around.