“May I please go up and stay with Margaret too, sir?”
“Later. I promise this.” The prospect did not please him, having her outside the dhis,but the illusions must cease, for both their sakes: the child was human, and there was no one left in the dhisto care for her. The time was fast running out, and it was not right that the child should be alone in this great place to die. She should be near adults, who would show her chanokhiain their own example.
“Are you going there now?” Arle asked.
“Yes,” he conceded. He looked back at her standing there, fingers still clenched together. “Come,” he said then, holding out his hand. “Come, now. With me.”
Most of the lights in the paredreof Ashanomewere out save the ones above the desk, but Chimele knew well the shadowy figure that opened the hall door, a smallish and somewhat heavy iduve who crossed the carpets on silent feet. She straightened and lifted her chin from her hand to gaze on Rakhi’s plump, earnest face.
“You were to sleep,” he chided. “Chimele, you must sleep.”
“I shall. I wanted to know how you fared. Sit, Rakhi. How is Chaikhe?”
“Well enough, and bound for Weissmouth. We considered, and decided it would be best to pursue this adjustment long-distance.”
“But is the asuthithekkhebearable, Rakhi?”
The nasithgave a weak grin and massaged his freshly scarred temple. “Chaikhe bids your affairs prosper, Chimele-Orithain. She is very much with me at this moment.”
“I bid hers prosper, most earnestly. But now you must close down that contact. We two must talk a moment. Can you do so?”
“I am learning,” he replied, and leaned back with a sigh. “Done. Done. Au,Chimele, this is a fearsome closeness. It is embarrassing.”
“O my Rakhi,” said Chimele in distress, “Khasif is gone. Now I have sent Ashakh in his place, and to risk you and Chaikhe at once—”
“Why, it is a light thing,” he said. “Do not mere m’metaneiadjust to this? Is our intelligence not equal to it? Is our self-control not more than theirs?”
She smiled dutifully at his spirit. It was not as easy as Rakhi said, and she did not miss the trembling of his hands, the pain in his eyes; and for Chaikhe, katasathe,such proximity to a half sramale must be torment indeed. But of the three remaining nasithi-katasakkethis pairing had seemed best, for Ashakh’s essentially solitary nature would have made asuthithekkhemore painful still.
“Chaikhe is really bearing up rather well,” said Rakhi, “but I fear I shall have Ashakh to deal with when he sees her on Priamos and knows that I have—in a manner—touched her. I really do not see how we will keep this from him if he is still to direct Weissmouth operations. He will sense something amiss a decad of lioidistant.”
“Well, you must advise Chaikhe to avoid harachia.Ashakh must remain ignorant of this arrangement, for I fear he could complicate matters beyond redemption. And do not you fail me, Rakhi. I have been confounded by one dhisaismale human, and if you develop any symptoms I insist you warn me immediately.”
Rakhi laughed outright, although he flushed dark with embarrassment. “Truly, Chimele, asuthithekkheis not so impossible for iduve as it was always supposed to be. Chaikhe and I—we maintain a discreet distance in our minds. We leave one another’s emotions alone, and I suppose it has helped that I am a very lazy fellow and that Chaikhe’s m’melakhiais directed toward her songs and the child she carries.”
“Rakhi, Rakhi, you are always deprecating yourself, and that is a metanetrait.”
“But it is true,” Rakhi exclaimed. “Quite true. I have a very profound theory about it. Chaikhe and I would be at each other’s throats otherwise. Could you imagine the result of an asuthithekkhebetween Ashakh and myself? I shudder at the thought. His arastiethewould devour me. But the direction of m’melakhiais the essential thing. Chaikhe and I have no m’melakhiatoward each other. In truth,” he added upon a thought, “the m’metaneimisinformed us, for they said strong m’melakhiaone for the other is essential. I shall make a detailed record of this experience. I think it is unique.”
“I shall find it of great interest,” Chimele assured him. “But it would be a great bitterness to me if harm comes to you or to her.”
“The novelty of the experience is exhilarating, but it is a great strain. I wonder if the m’metaneipredict correctly when they say that the strain grows less in time. Perhaps the converse will occur for iduve there too. I surely hope not.”
“As do I, nasith.Will you go rest now?”
“I will, yes.”
“Only do this: advise Chaikhe that Ashakh will be within Weissmouth itself, and she must remain in isolation and wait for my orders. I am summoning up all ships save the two that will remain in port. Mejakh has cost us. I fear the cost may run higher still.”
“Ashakh?”
She ignored the question. “May your sleep be secure, o nas.”
“Honor be yours, Chimele.”
She watched him go, heard the door close, and rested her forehead once more on her hands, restoring her composure. Rakhi was the last, the last of all her brave nasithi,and it was lonely knowing that others had the direction of Ashanome,that for the first time in nine thousand years the controls were not even under the nominal management of one of her sra.She bore the guilt for that. Of the fierceness of her own arastiethe,she had postponed bearing the necessary heir until it was too late for the long ceremonies of kataberihe,and vaikkahad taken heavy toll of those about her. Mejakh was gone, her sraon the point of extinction: Khasif and Tejef together. Tamnakh’s srawas in imminent danger: Ashakh and Chaikhe and the unborn child in her; and if Rakhi sra-Khuretekh suffered madness and died, then the orith-sraof Ashanomecame down to her alone.
She felt a keen sense of m’melakhiafor Tejef, for the adversary he had been, a deep and fierce appreciation. He had run them a fine chase indeed, off the edge of the charts and into likatisand tomesunknown to iduve. And Ashanome’s victory would be bitter indeed to Tashavodh,dangerously bitter.
Perhaps to ease the sting of it a nas-katasakkeof Kharxanen could be requested for kataberihe,for Tashavodh’s m’melakhiato gain srawithin the orith-sraof Ashanomewas of long standing. Chaxal her predecessor had refused it, and Chimele bristled at the thought: she would bear the heir Ashanomeneeded, perhaps two for safety’s sake, as rapidly as her health could bear. Then she could declare dissatisfaction with her mate and send him packing to his own nasulin dishonor; that would not be a proper vaikka—the Orithanhe forbade—but it would be pleasant.
But defeat—at the hands of Tejef and Tashavodh—to see him welcomed in triumph—was unthinkable. She would not bear it.