Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 by Gillian Andrews Page A

think alike? I mean, do you both think like Arcan, or do the canths come into your characters too?”
    The trimorph went a beautiful shade of brilliant white. “The canths are part of us. They help us shine. We have Arcan’s brain – though with limited potential, of course – but their sense of emotion, and the lost animas of Xiantha give us the most wonderful memories and feelings, too. It is marvelous – we can be happy!”
    “Is Arcan never happy, then?”
    The first trimorph – Six thought it was the first – went momentarily dark. “No. He doesn’t have it in him to be happy, exactly. He is … alone.”
    The second one twittered alongside his twin. “Alone,” he agreed. “He can never feel like we do. But we—” he spun and spun until he lit up the cavern, “—we have each other. We are never alone.”
    “But you don’t know where the visitor bimorph is? You haven’t seen him?”
    “He isn’t here. We can feel him, because we have the quantum non-locality of the lost animas – but he is so far away that it is only the slightest touch. We have been waiting for you all to come, because the visitor is trapped.”
    “Trapped? Where?”
    “On Dessia.”
    “DESSIA? How? What? When?”
    The two twins spun around each other and Six lost any hope of telling them apart.
    “You are so slow, Six. Can’t you get your mind to work any more quickly?”
    “My mind works quicker than most.”
    They seemed to titter amongst themselves. “Relative to what? A monkey? A vaniven?”
    Six glared. “Do you mind?”
    “Not at all,” they chorused politely. “Not if you don’t. Though it is hard to see how you couldn’t.”
    “Are you just going to hover there insulting me all day, or are you going to help me get out of here?”
    “How did you get here?”
    Six told them about the lake, and that Diva was back in the original cavern, probably worried.
    The twins didn’t seem able to grasp the concept of worried. “She knows where she is,” one of them told Six.
    “Yes, but she doesn’t know where I am,” he pointed out.
    “And that will make her sad?”
    Six wasn’t too sure. “It might .” Even he could hear the rather wistful tone to his voice. “She will be … uncomfortable. She might be scared.”
    “ Diva ? Scared ?” they chorused.
    “Well, she might be worried about me.”
    They consulted silently with each other, a series of flashes traveling through both of them. They didn’t appear to find that very likely. Then they turned to Six. “All right,” one of them told him. “Would you like us to visit her now?”
    “Yes, well. Girls, you know. There is something about dank dark caverns that seems to upset them.”
    “You do not mind the dark yourself?”
    Six gave a rather false laugh. “Me? I am used to the dark. But Diva is bound to be wondering where I am, so I suppose I will have to stop sitting around having so much fun, and get myself out of here. She will need somebody to haul her up the last part. Grace came down to Pictoria in the other shuttle with Ledin. She won’t be much use – not the way her hands are now, but Ledin ought to be able to help Diva up that last shaft. You will have to transport to the top of the butte, too, and tell them what has happened.”
    “You think you can manage on your own?”
    Six looked miserably upwards. The walls of this cavern looked particularly vertical; he had no rope and no light. He gave a sigh.
    “You might like to check back on me from time to time.”
    “We will come back to you as soon as we can.”
    “I will tell my butler to admit you.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “No. It doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about it.”
    “Very well. Be careful with your ascent.”
    “ That advice is definitely superfluous.”
    DIVA STOOD FOR a few minutes, looking around with dismay. There was no sign of Six anywhere. He had obviously been taken to another cavern, or left up at the top of the butte. She wondered what she should do. It