A probing touch found his consciousness and his stomach turned over at foreknowledge of the pain. He tried to screen against it, but his sympathy made him vulnerable.
“Daniel is conscious.” Isande spoke, for at the moment he had not yet measured the extent of the pain and his mind was busy with that. “He is hearing the amaut talk. The child Arle is beside him. He is concerned for her.”
“Dispense with his concern for her. Tell him you want a report.”
Aiela tried. Tears welled in his eyes, an excess of misery and weariness; the pain of the wounds blurred his senses. Daniel was half-conscious, sending nonsense, babble mixed with vague impressions of his surroundings. He was back on the amaut freighter. There was wire all about. Aiela, Aiela, Aiela,the single thread of consciousness ran, begging help.
I’m here,he sent furiously. So is Chimele. Report.
“‘I,’” Aiela heard and said aloud for Chimele, “ ‘I’m afraid I have—penetrated Tejef’s defenses—in a somewhat different way than she had planned. We’re coming down, I think. Stay with me—please, stay with me, if you can stand it. I’ll send you what I—what I can learn.’ ”
“And he will tell Tejef what Tejef asks, and promise him anything. A creature that so values his own life is dangerous.” Chimele laced her fingers and stared at the backs of them as if she had forgotten the kamethi or dismissed the problem for another. Then she looked up. “ Vaikka.Tejef has won a small victory. I have regarded your arguments. Now I cannot intervene without using Ashanome’s heavy armament to pierce his defenses—a quick death to Tejef, ruin to Priamos, and damage to my honor. This is a bitterness to me.”
“Daniel still has resources left,” Aiela insisted. “I can advise him.”
“You are not being reasonable. You are fatigued: your limbs shake, your voice is not natural. Your judgment is becoming highly suspect. I have indeed erred to listen to you.” Chimele gathered the now-useless position report together and put it aside, pushed a button on the desk console, and frowned. “Ashakh: come to the paredreat once. Rakhi: contact Ghiavre is the lab and have him prepare to receive two kamethi for enforced rest.”
Rakhi acknowledged instantly, to Aiela’s intense dismay. He leaned upon the desk, holding himself up. “No,” he said, “no, I am not going to accept this.”
Chimele pressed her lips together. “If you were rational, you would recognize that you are exceeding your limit in several regards. Since you are not—”
“Send me down to Priamos, if you’re afraid I’ll leak information to Daniel. Set me out down there. I’ll take my chances with the deadline.”
Chimele considered, looked him up and down, estimating. “Break contact with Daniel,” she said. “Shut him out completely.”
He did so. The effort it needed was a great one. Daniel screamed into the back of his mind, his distrust of Chimele finding echo in Aiela’s own thoughts.
“Very well, you may have your chance,” said Chimele. “But you will sleep first, and you will be transported to Priamos under sedation—both of you. Isande is likewise a risk now.”
He opened his mouth again to protest: but Isande’s strong will otherwise silenced him. She was afraid, but she was willing to do this for him. No harm will come to us,she insisted. Chimele will not permit it. Kallia can hardly operate in secrecy on a human world, so we shall go underAshanome’ s protection. Besides, you have already pressed her to the limit of her patience.
He silently acknowledged the force of that argument, and to Chimele he bowed in respect. “Thank you,” he said, meaning it.
Chimele waved a hand in dismissal. “I know this kalliran insanity of joy in being disadvantaged. But it would be improper to let you assume I do this solely to give you pleasure. Do not begin to act rashly or carelessly, as if I were freeing you of bond to Ashanomeor responsibility to me. Be circumspect. Maintain our honor.”
“Will we receive orders from you?”
“No.” Again her violet nail touched the button, this time forcefully, “Ashakh! Wherever you are, acknowledge and report to the paredreat once.” She was becoming annoyed; and for Ashakh to be dilatory in a response was not usual.
The door from the corridor opened and Ashakh joined them; he closed the door manually, and looked to have been running.
“There was a problem,” he said, when Chimele’s expression commanded an explanation. “Mejakh is in an argumentative mood.”
“Indeed.”
“Rakhi has now made it clear to her that she is also barred from the control center. What was it you wanted of me?”
“Take Aiela and Isande to their quarters and let them collect what they need for their comfort on Priamos. Then escort them to the lab; I will give Ghiavre his instructions while you are at that. Then arrange their transport down to Priamos; and it would not be amiss to provide them arms.”
“I have my own weapon,” said Aiela, “if I have your leave to collect it from storage.”
“Armament can provide you one more effective, I am sure.”
“I am kallia. I’m afraid if I had a lethal weapon in my hands I couldn’t fire it. Give me my own. Otherwise I can’t defend myself as I may need to.”
“Your logic is peculiar to your people, I know, but I perceive your reasoning. Take it, then. And as for instruction, kamethi—I provide you none. I am sure your knowledge of Priamos and of Daniel is thorough, and I trust you to remember your responsibility to Ashanome.One thing I forbid you: do not go to Khasif and do not expect him to compromise himself to aid you. You are dismissed.”
Aiela bowed a final thanks, waited for Isande, and walked as steadily as he could after Ashakh. Isande held his arm. Her mind tried to occupy his, washing it clean of the pain and the weakness. He forbade that furiously, for it hurt her as well.
In his other consciousness he was being handled roughly down a ramp, provided a dizzying view of a daylit sky: he dreaded to think what could happen to Daniel while he was helpless to advise him, and he imagined what Daniel must think, abandoned as he had been without explanation. We’ll be there,Aiela sent, defying orders; hold on, we’re coming;but Daniel was fainting. He stumbled, and Isande hauled up against him with all her strength.
“Ashakh!”
The tall iduve stopped abruptly at the corridor intersection a pace ahead of them and roughly shoved them back. Mejakh confronted them, disheveled and with a look of wildness in her eyes.
“They are killing me!” she cried hoarsely and lurched at Ashakh. “O nas,they are killing me—”
“Put yourself to order, nasith,” said Ashakh coldly, thrusting off her hands. “There are witnesses.”
Mejakh’s violet eyes rolled aside to Aiela and back again, showing whites at the corners, her lips parted upon her serrate teeth. “What is Chimele up to?” she demanded. “What insanity is she plotting, that she keeps me from controls? Why will no one realize what she is doing to the nasul? O nas,do you not see why she has sent Khasif away? She has attacked me; Khasif is gone. And you have opposed her—do you not see? All that dispute her—all that protest against her intentions—die.”
“Get back,” Ashakh hissed, barring the corridor to her with his arm.
Aiela felt the idoikkheand doubled; but Ashakh’s will held that off too, and he shouted at the both of them to run for their lives.
Aiela stumbled aside, Isande’s hand in his, Mejakh’s harsh voice pursuing them. He saw only closed doors ahead, a monitor panel at the corner such as there was at every turning. He reached it and hit the emergency button.