Poul Anderson - The People of the Wind

To Edmond Hamilton and Leigh Brackett with thanks for many years of adventure.

You cant leave now, Daniel Holm told his son. Any day we may be at war. We may already be.

Thats just why I have to go, the young man answered. Theyre calling Khruaths about it around the curve of the planet. Where else should I fare than to my choth?

When he spoke thus, more than his wording became bird. The very accent changed. He was no longer using the Planha-influenced Anglic of Avalon pure vowels, rs trilled, ms and ns and ngs almost hummed, speech deepened and slowed and strongly cadenced; rather, it was as if he were trying to translate for a human listener the thought of an Ythrian brain.

The man whose image occupied the phone screen did not retort, You might consider staying with your own family, as once he would have. Instead Daniel Holm nodded, and said quietly, I see. Youre not Chris now, youre Arinnian, and all at once looked old.

That wrenched at the young man. He reached forth, but his fingers were stopped by the screen, Im always Chris, Dad, he blurted. Its only that Im Arinnian too. And, and, well, if war comes, the choths will need to be prepared for it, wont they? Im going to help shouldnt be gone long, really.

Sure. Good voyage.

Give Mother and everybody my love.

Why not call her yourself?

Well, uh, I do have to hurry and its not as if this were anything unusual, my heading off to the mountains, and oh

Sure, said Daniel Holm. Ill tell them. And you give my regards to your mates. The Second Marchwarden of the Lauran System blanked off.

Arinnian turned from the instrument. For a moment he winced and bit his lip. He hated hurting people who cared about him. But why couldnt they understand? Their kind called it going, bird, being received into a choth, as if in some fashion those who did were renouncing the race that begot them. He couldnt count how many hours he had tried to make his parents make any number of orthohumans see that he was widening and purifying his humanity.

A bit of dialogue ran through memory: Dad, look, two species cant inhabit the same globe for generations without pretty deep mutual consequences. Why do you go sky-hunting? Why does Ferune serve wine at his table? And thosere the most superficial symptoms.

I know that much: Credit me with some fair-mindedness, hm? Thing is, youre making a quantum jump.

Because Im to be a member of Stormgate? Listen, the choths have been accepting humans for the past hundred years.

Not in such flocks as lately. And my son wasnt one of them. Idve liked to see you carry on our traditions.

Who says I wont?

To start with, youll not be under human law any more, youll be under choth law and custom Hold on. Thats fine, if youre an Ythrian. Chris, you havent got the chromosomes. Those whove pretended they did, never fitted well into either race, ever again.

Damnation, Im not pretending!

Arinnian thrust the scene from him as if it were a physical thing. He was grateful for the prosaic necessities of preparation. To reach Lythrans aerie before dark, he must start soon. Of course, a car would cover the distance in less than an hour; but who wanted to fly caged in metal and plastic?

He was nude. More and more, those who lived like him were tending to discard clothes altogether and use skin paint for dress-up. But everybody sometimes needed garments. An Ythrian, too, was seldom without a belt and pouch. This trip would get chilly, and he lacked feathers. He crossed the tiny apartment to fetch coverall and boots.

Passing, he glanced at the desk whereon lay papers of his work and, in a heap, the texts and references he was currently employing, printouts from Library Central. Blast! he thought. I loathe quitting when Ive nearly seen how to prove that theorem.

In mathematics he could soar. He often imagined that then his mind knew the same clean ecstasy an Ythrian, aloft alone, must know in the flesh. Thus he had been willing to accept the compromise which reconciled him and his father. He would continue his studies, maintain his goal of becoming a professional mathematician. To this end, he would accept some financial help, though he would no longer be expected to live at home. The rest of what little income he required he would earn himself, as herdsman and hunter when he went off to be among the Ythrians.

Daniel Holm had growled, through the hint of a grin, You own a good mind, son. I didnt want to see it go to waste. At the same time, its too good. If twerent for your birding, youd be so netted in your books, when you arent drawing a picture or writing a poem, youd never get any exercise; at last your bottom would grow fast to your chair, and youd hardly notice. I spose I should feel a little grateful to your friends for making their kind of athlete out of you.

My chothmates, Arinnian corrected him. He had just been given his new name and was full of glory and earnestness. That was four years ago; today he could smile at himself. The guvnor had not been altogether wrong.

Thus at thirty Avalonian reckoning Christopher Holm was tall, slender, but wide-shouldered. In features as well as build, he took after his mother: long head, narrow face, thin nose and lips, blue eyes, mahogany hair (worn short in the style of those who do much gravbelt flying), and as yet not enough beard to be worth anything except regular applications of antigrowth enzyme. His complexion, naturally fair, was darkened by exposure. Laura, a G5 star, has only 72 percent the luminosity of Sol and less ultraviolet light in proportion; but Avalon, orbiting at a mean distance of 0.81 astronomical unit in a period of 0.724 Terran, gets 10 percent more total irradiation than man evolved under. He made the customary part-by-part inspection of his unit before he put arms through straps and secured buckle at waist. The twin cone-pointed cylinders on his back had better have fully charged accumulators and fully operating circuits. If not, he was dead. One Ythrian couldnt hold back a human from toppling out of the sky. A couple of times, several together had effected a rescue; but those were herders, carrying lassos which they could cast around their comrade and pull on without getting in each others way. You dared not count on such luck. O God, to have real wings!

He donned a leather helmet and lowered the goggles which were his poor substitute for a nictitating membrane. He sheathed knife and slugthrower at his hips. There would be nothing of danger no chance of a duel being provoked, since a Khruath was peace-holy not that deathpride quarrels ever happened often but the Stormgate folk were mostly hunters and didnt leave their tools behind. He had no need to carry provisions. Those would be supplied from the family stores, to which he contributed his regular share, and ferried to the rendezvous on a gravsled.

Going out the door, he found himself on ground level. Humans had ample room on Avalon about ten million of them; four million Ythrians and even here in Gray, the planets closest approximation to a real city, they built low-and widespread. A couple of highrises sufficed for resident or visiting ornithoids.