In Solitary by Garry Kilworth Read Free Book Online Page B

police them for any humans that might be forming bands. Like the Soal, humans had an inherent magnetism that drew them together.
    The main item on the agenda for the conference was the fracture of one of the spars on the Ostraylean mushroom tower. The Klees of Ostraylea required consent to gather humans to repair the damage. Asked why the humans were needed he said that though much of the work could be carried out by machines, certain tasks required the dexterity, strength and intelligence of a human. In the network of towers which maintained a fairly constant temperature over the surface of the Earth, a single tower was highly important; Soal could live for only a short time in varying temperatures. As part of a network, each tower was in itself a keystone, but they also did another job – a far more important one which was revealed only to Soal of a certain rank. Like humans the Soal placed little trust in each other as individuals. Endrod had proved untrustworthy in once giving the secret to a human in the hope that the human would have to die. Instead the knowledge was wipedclean from both their minds and Endrod was left with an intense hatred for the humans who he knew had been responsible for his demotion.

9
Tangiia
    …
I see only life climbing on life
…
    There was a sail, a long way off on the horizon,cutting across the blue water like the dorsal fin of a giant fish. We watched it, running with the wind, and envied its helmsman the freedom and joy of reckless speed.
    This was a different ocean from the one we had known – the water was of a blue glass and seemed as if it would shatter when a stone was tossed onto its surface. There was a tide but no mud – just a bed of jagged rocks and sand.
    When the water was full, up to the lip of the island, we could bathe in it and watch the fish – fish of many shapes and colours – darting about amongst a hard, multi-hued rock which grew like a plant beneath the water.
    Stella was enthralled with our new environment and I could see that Fridjt did not dislike it either. We still had to dodge the Soal whenever they came near to the island, but it was so easy to hide amongst the foliage which covered the land. In any case, the Soal did not seem to be interested in thorough searches for they never went overhead at all; they just skirted the beaches. There was evidence of human occupation on the island, but the owner of the house and other human artifacts was not present. We suspected that since the possessions appeared to have been recently in use that the owner was away – probably it was the mating period in this part of the world.
    There was one particular type of tree, the most prevalent variety, which fascinated me. It grew large nuts which contained a liquid that was delicious to drink; Stella called the tree a palm. (Stella, I had since learned, was quite knowledgeable about the Old World before the Soal. Thewomen, it seemed, passed on stories of the Old World to their daughters and in this way retained a small amount of our history. There would have been no point in telling the stories to a son – men had no one to whom they could retell the tale, since it was the mothers that kept the children.)
    Fridjt continually remarked that the air was clean and fresh on the island, something that did nothing to enhance the place as far as I, a breather of what Stella called ‘the foul atmospheres of the Soal muck pits’, was concerned. Once, she caught me deeply inhaling the delightful fumes from a rotting fish that I had found on the beach, and she became quite angry, abusing my mother and calling me a ‘Soal shitsmeller.’ She terminated her vicious verbal attack with a slap. After that episode I tried to cure myself of the habit.
    After a time it became obvious to the three of us that the sailing craft, a very sleek vehicle that seemed to ride the air some two or three centimetres above the water, was heading towards the island. Man is at his most beautiful cutting