she and Trigger had dinner, then settled down in the room Gilas Amberdon used as a study when he was in the house. Its main attraction was a fine fireplace. They’d talk about this and that; meanwhile the Siren’s unshielded container stood on a table in a corner of the room, and Telzey’s thoughts drifted about the alien strangeness, not probing in any way but picking up whatever was to be learned easily. She soon stopped getting anything new in that manner; what was to be learned easily about the Siren remained limited. Some time before midnight, they’d restore the psi block, and Telzey went off to Pehanron.
But before she left, they turned on the lights in the grounds outside for a while. The very first night, the day Trigger and the Siren moved in, they’d had a rather startling experience. They were in the study when they began to hear sounds outside. It might have been tree branches beating against the wall in the wind, except that no tree grew so close to the house there. It might even have been an unseasonable, irregular spattering of hail. The study had no window, but the adjoining room had two, so they went in, opened a window and looked out.
At once, something came up over the sill with a great wet flap of wings and tail and drove into the room between them, bowling Telzey over. Trigger yelped and slammed the window shut as another pair of wings boomed in from the windy dusk with more shadowy shapes behind it. When she looked around, Telzey was getting to her feet and the intruder had disappeared into the house. They could hear it flapping about somewhere.
“Are you hurt, Telzey?”
“No.”
“What in the world is that thing? There’s a whole mess of them outside!”
“Eveers. They’re on spring migration. A flock was probably settling to the lake and got in range of the Siren.”
“Good Lord, yes! The Siren! We should have realized—what’ll we do with the one in the house?”
“The first thing we’d better do is get the Siren shielded,” said Telzey.
Trigger cocked her head, listening. “The, uh, eveer is in the study!”
Telzey laughed. “They’re not very dangerous. Come on!”
The eveer might not have been a vicious creature normally, but it had strong objections to being evicted from the study and put up a determined fight. They both collected beak nips and scratches, were knocked about by solid wing strokes and thoroughly muddied by the eveer’s wet hide, before they finally got it pinned down under a blanket. Then Trigger crouched on the
But before she left, they turned on the lights in the grounds outside for a while. The very first night, the day Trigger and the Siren moved in, they’d had a rather startling experience. They were in the study when they began to hear sounds outside. It might have been tree branches beating against the wall in the wind, except that no tree grew so close to the house there. It might even have been an unseasonable, irregular spattering of hail. The study had no window, but the adjoining room had two, so they went in, opened a window and looked out.
At once, something came up over the sill with a great wet flap of wings and tail and drove into the room between them, bowling Telzey over. Trigger yelped and slammed the window shut as another pair of wings boomed in from the windy dusk with more shadowy shapes behind it. When she looked around, Telzey was getting to her feet and the intruder had disappeared into the house. They could hear it flapping about somewhere.
“Are you hurt, Telzey?”
“No.”
“What in the world is that thing? There’s a whole mess of them outside!”
“Eveers. They’re on spring migration. A flock was probably settling to the lake and got in range of the Siren.”
“Good Lord, yes! The Siren! We should have realized—what’ll we do with the one in the house?”
“The first thing we’d better do is get the Siren shielded,” said Telzey.
Trigger cocked her head, listening. “The, uh, eveer is in the study!”
Telzey laughed. “They’re not very dangerous. Come on!”
The eveer might not have been a vicious creature normally, but it had strong objections to being evicted from the study and put up a determined fight. They both collected beak nips and scratches, were knocked about by solid wing strokes and thoroughly muddied by the eveer’s wet hide, before they finally got it pinned down under a blanket. Then Trigger crouched on the