They didn't ask. They wouldn't ask. They were being proper with uncle Denys and not interrupting, but she knew they were confused and they were upset, because they had both gone completely azi, paying real close attention.
She couldn't even reach to Florian to squeeze his hand, it was the side with the cast.
"Do you recognize them?" uncle Denys asked.
"Who are they?" Ari asked, angry, terribly angry of a sudden, because it was not making sense, and she was scared, she knew Florian and Catlin were scared, everything was inside out.
"You're not the only one who's come back," Denys said very softly. "There was one other Catlin and one other Florian: they belonged to that other Ari Emory. They protected her all their lives. Do you understand me, Florian? Do you, Catlin?"
"No, ser," Florian said; and: "No, ser," Catlin said. "But it makes sense."
"Why does it make sense?" uncle Denys asked.
"We're azi," Catlin said, the most obvious thing in the world. "There could be a lot of us."
But I'm a CIT,Ari thought, upset all the way through. Aren't I?
"You're Alphas," uncle Denys said, "and, no, it's not ordinary with Alphas. You're too difficult to keep track of. You change so fast. But you're still a lot easier to duplicate than a CIT, you're right, because azi start with very specific tape. Teaching Ari has been—ever so much harder."
Teaching me. Teaching me—what? Why?
But she knew that. She understood all across the far and wide of it, that uncle Denys was saying what she was, and not saying it to her, but to Florian and Catlin, because it was something she could not understand as easily as her azi could.
Do you know,maman had asked her, the day she saw the babies, the difference between a CIT and an azi?
I only thought I did.
Denys left that page open a long time. "Ari," he said. "Do you understand me?"
She said nothing. When you were confused, it was better to let somebody else be a fool, unless you were the only one who knew the question.
And uncle Denys knew. Uncle Denys was trying to tell her what he knew, in this book, in these pictures that weren't her.
''Your maman taught you," uncle Denys said, "and now I do. You're definitely a CIT. Don't mistake that. You're you,Ari, you're very exactly you,exactly the way Florian is Florian and Catlin is Catlin, and that's hard to do. It was ever so hard to get this far. Ari was a very, very special little girl, and you're taking up everything she had, everything she could do, everything she held and owned, which is a very great deal, Ari. That you hold Florian and Catlin's contracts is all part of that, because you all belong together, you always have, and it wouldn't be right to leave them out. You own a major share of Reseune itself, you own property enough to make you very, very rich, and you've already proved to us who you are, we haven't any doubt at all. But remember that I told you Reseune has enemies. Now some of those enemies want to come in here and take things that belong to you—they don't even know there is an Ari, you understand. They think she died, and that was all of her, and they can just move in and take everything that belonged to her—that belongs to you,Ari. Do you know what a lawsuit is? Do you know what it means to sue somebody in court?"
She shook her head, muddled and scared by what uncle Denys said, getting too much, far too much from every direction.
"You know what judges are?"
"Like in a court. They get all the records and stuff. They can send you to hospital." ,
"A civil suit, Ari: that's different than a criminal case. They don't send you to hospital, but they can say what's so and who owns what. We've lodged a
"That's stupid!"
"How do they know you're not just some little girl all made up and telling a lie?"
"I know who I am!"
"How do you prove it to people who've never seen you?"
She sat there trying to think. She had the shivers. "You tell them."
"Then they'll say we're lying. We can send the genetic records, that can prove it, beyond any doubt. But they could say we just got that out of the lab, because of course the Ari geneset is there, isn't it, because you were born out of the lab. They could say there isn't any little girl alive, and she hasn't got any right to anything. That's what could happen. That's why you have to go, and stand in that court, and tell the judges that's your genetic record, and you're you, Ariane Emory, and you own all that stuff these people in the Council want to take."
She looked at her right, at Florian and Catlin, at two pale, very azi faces. And back at uncle Denys. "Could they take Florian and Catlin?"
"If you don't exist, you can't hold a contract, can you?"
"That's stupid,uncle Denys! They're stupid!"
"You just have to prove that, don't you? Dear, I wish to hell I could have saved this till you felt better. But there isn't any time. These people are moving fast, and there's going to be a law passed in Council to take everything, everythingthat belongs to you, because they don't know about you. You've got to go to Novgorod and tell the judges it does belong to you and they can't do that."
"When?"
"In a few days. A very few days. There's more to it, Ari. Becauseyou've been a secret, your enemies haven't known about you either. If you go to Novgorod they will know. And you'll be in very real danger from then on. Most of them would sue you in court and try to take what you've got, thatkind of enemy; but some of them would kill you if they could. Even if you're a little girl. They're that kind."
"Ser," Catlin said, "who?"
"A man named Rocher, for one. And a few random crazy people we don't know the names of. We wish we did. If Ari goes to Novgorod she'll have a lot of Security with her. Armed Security. They can stop that kind of thing. But you have to watch out for it, you have to watch very closely, and for God's sake, leave any maneuvering to the senior Security people, you two. Just cover Ari."
"Do we have weapons, ser?"
"I don't think Novgorod would understand that. No. Just cover Ari. Watch around you. Keep her safe. That's all."
Ari drew a deep breath. "What am I supposed to do?"
"You talk to the judges. You go in front of the court, you answer their questions about when you were born, and where, and what your name and number are. Uncle Giraud will be there. Giraud knows how to argue with them."
She went cold and clammy all over. "I don't want Giraud! I want youto come."
"Dear, uncle Giraud is especially good at this. He'll show them all the records, and they won't have any trouble believing you. They may take a little cell sample. That'll sting a little if they do that, but you're a brave girl, you won't mind that. You know what that's for. It proves you're not lying. Everyone in the world has seen pictures of Ari Emory—you won't have any trouble with that. But there willbe other people to deal with. People not in the court. Newspeople. Reporters. There'll be a lot of that. But you're a little girl, and they can't be nasty, they'd better not be, or your uncle Giraud will know exactly what to do with them."
She had never thought it could be a good thing to have uncle Giraud. But uncle Denys was right, uncle Giraud would be a lot better at that.