His arrogance possessed Oelita with a stormy mixture of rage and fear. “I’ll poison the grail!” she said, not knowing what she was saying.
Joesai couldn’t contain his laughter. With Teenae back, his fear was gone. “It’s wrong to kill,” he chided. All this time he was appraising the hostile crowd. He gestured his group into a defensive formation and they moved out.
Kaiel men surrounded Teenae, fast-pacing along the quay from the angry mob. Far across the bay, the Mnankrei ship was blending darkly into the waves. Only now, as Teenae was beginning to be aware that she was alive and even safe, did she have time for rage.
“That shipleech Tonpa, may his scars turn to pus! I’ll never forgive him. Never.” She felt her nose. It was still there. “Kill him for me, Joesai. You can do it. I want a new pair of boots!”
Joesai’s mind was more on immediate survival. “First your feet will have to acquire a new set of calluses. Second you will have to row to the moon. Third…”
She was in no mood to be joshed. “Kill him for me tonight while my hatred is hot enough for me to enjoy it!”
Joesai laughed. “He’s just lucky he didn’t make the mistake of beating you at a game of kol!”
“You’ll have your chance to kill him at lownode!”
“How?”
“Cut his throat at lownode!”
“And what happens at midnight’s halfmoon?” he asked cautiously.
“A Mnankrei party is going to come ashore and burn down the peninsula granary.”
19
The Wheel of Strength has four spokes — loyalty to Self, loyalty to Family, loyalty to Clan, loyalty to Race.
It has been said that Self is the first loyalty, for if the Self is not whole can we build a Family? can we build a Clan? can we build a Race? But I say to you a selfish human is a one-spoke wheel soon broken, a fool trying to move the boulders of Mount Nae by himself.
It has been said that Family is the first loyalty, for if the women and children are not protected can there be men? But I say to you a Family of selfless humans, who stands against their Clan while exploiting the Race for the sake of their children, will not roll far.
It has been said that loyalty to Clan is the first loyalty, for is it not the Clan which moves mountains and brings its terrible force against evil? But I say to you a Clan dominated by loyalty to itself will destroy its Families and perish.
It has been said that loyalty to Race is the first loyalty, for without genetic purity can we hope to meet the Danger? But I say to you the Race is heartless without its Clans and Families and Selves.
The Wheel of Strength has four spokes — each equally weighted and balanced or there is no strength at all.
KATHEIN HAD NEVER MET Aesoe before. She did not know what he looked like, for whenever they had been within sight of each other — and once she had been as close as an arm’s reach — he had been gazing at her and she had dared not return the gaze. She could feel his fascination deep in her loins as a face can feel the sun that eyes must turn from. She did not know what to make of this summons to his country residence.
Two Ivieth from his personal livery came for her with a richly cushioned palanquin. A wet nurse met them at the carved doors to take the baby. Another woman led her to a hot tub where a male and female servant bathed her and attainted her with perfumes upon her ears and nipples before dressing her in soft robes resplendent enough for an audience with the Prime Predictor.
Kathein could not even look at him now as she made her entrance into his grandroom. It was with relief that she knelt in formal bow to touch her head upon the stone-cold floor of smooth granite. Music was playing — gentle strings, a reed. She had watched the musicians briefly with eyes that were avoiding his. The afterimage of these delicate women stayed with her.
They were of the Liethe, small beauties shrouded in fabric woven from the soft wings of the hoiela, blending unobtrusively into the tapestries of the room. Aesoe valued them for their rarity. Who knew where they bred? Perhaps on some forested island of the Drowned Hope Sea? Gossip had Liethe appearing from and disappearing into the islanded ocean.
They sold themselves for gold if the buyer was a priest, but they were not slaves. A Liethe would leave her master but another always came and took her place. Aesoe’s three had the same face and body. Rumor spoke of parthenogenesis. Rumor also spoke of varied physical types. Somebody far across the Itraiel Plain had once confided to a friend of Kathein that they garroted their sons. Veiled daughters came and vanished. It was said aloud that any man who was served by a Liethe became all-powerful. It was whispered that any man who kept one became a slave of the Liethe. Whatever their powers, they played enchanting music.
An iron-strong hand lifted Kathein’s chin. “I’ve wondered about the color of your eyes. I’ve only seen the length of the lashes.” She saw a man’s face wrinkled with laughter, his shirt opened to a foam of white hair. He was an old man but he had all the grace of a blacksmith in full swing. He was Prime Predictor because the prophesies he had registered in the Archives as a youth had been more accurate than the vision of any other Kaiel. That was how the Kaiel elected their leader. He would be Prime Predictor until he died or retired or was ousted by a man who had proved a clearer vision.
Aesoe awed Kathein. She, whose greatest skill was the making of predictions in the simple world of light and stone and bouncing atom, could not even approach his ability to see and control the future. Half of a prophet’s strength was his ability to monitor a prediction and make it come true. Aesoe was one of her gods. The God of the Sky was a comforting protector. Aesoe she feared.
He took her hand. “I’ve done you grievous harm,” he said, “but I have no regrets.”
“I am too close to my sadness to understand.”
“Sadness is a disease of youth.”
“You’re never sad?”
“Never.”
“I’m sad.”
“The maran-Kaiel family is expendable. You are not. That is the whole of it.”
“How can you say that about them! They’re wonderful people! I know. I’ve loved them!”
“Hoemei I would hate to lose. The sun may rise on the day he becomes Prime Predictor. I could manage to say pleasantries at Gaet’s funeral without gagging. And there is nothing I can do for Joesai. An impatient eater falls into the soup pot, goes the proverb. To lose Noe would cause a scandal in those circles where scandals are most quickly forgotten.”
“And my beloved Teenae?”
“I don’t know if I am fond of Teenae or not. I’ve never slept with her.”
“You’re callous!”
“I’m generous. I’m giving them Oelita. They can make use of that opportunity and be gloriously successful. Or they can fail. I see no alternate way of reaching the coast this generation. Yes, we have other mature families. But which of them is so impetuously foolhardy as the maran? You I dare not endanger. If our population was twice as large as it is, and twice as bright, I might ask you.”
“Then I can bargain.”
He smiled. “As long as it has to do with physics and not love.”
“There’s a machine I want built.”
He laughed. “A mere machine? I had intended to give you far more than that. How about leading your own clan?”
Was he jibing her? That was her greatest dream. As a child she had drawn her own clan cicatrice and even now wore it between her breasts. It was an impossible dream, but to hear Aesoe offer it made her heart pound, even if he was only cruelly jesting. “That is not yours to give,” she said with formal rebuff. Only a Gathering could create a new clan. As the Gathering of Ache had created the Kaiel.