Nicole nodded. "I will be there."
"Excellent. And now I must return to work." She heard Tora Soam’s voice change direction. "Baadek?"
"Yes, Ovjetah?"
"When Kia is quite recovered, send my child to me. I shall be in the library all evening."
"Yes, Ovjetah."
Tora Soam’s footsteps faded away and Baadek took Nicole’s arm and led her through a maze of corridors. As they were walking, Nicole let the fingers of her left hand trail along the wall’s cut stone surface, trying to place and memorize all of the twists and turns. "Baadek?"
"Yes, Joanne Nicole?"
"Why is this building made of cut stone?"
"It must have been the desire of Tora Kia-the founder, Kia; not the one you know."
"This building is as old as the founding of Draco?"
"Yes; almost. It is a very beautiful building. The stone is of many kinds and colors."
Nicole thought for a moment as they walked down still another corridor. "Baadek, why would a race that can use metals, plastics, and freeform masonry put up a mansion of quarried stone?"
Baadek walked in silence for a moment then pulled her to a stop. "I have searched your words for a meaning beyond the apparent, Joanne Nicole, but I can find no such meaning. Do you truly find it difficult to understand?"
"Yes. The time, the expense that must have been involved hardly seems rational with the construction alternatives that must have been available."
"I repeat, Joanne Nicole: it is a very beautiful building." Baadek leaned away from her and she heard a door open. "This is the entrance to your apartments."
ELEVEN
Maltak Di drew upon the slate a circle and a square, and then it connected the two figures with two lines. Of the first student. Maltak Di asked: "Nyath, how many different paths are there from the circle to the square?"
"There are two paths, Jetah."
"Nyath, you may not stay; you cannot learn." Maltak Di faced the second student. "Oura, how many different paths are there from the circle to the square?"
"Jetah, if the two paths are repeated turn-in-turn. there can be many."
"Oura, you may stay; perhaps you can learn." Maltak Di faced the third student. "Irrisa, how many different paths are there from the circle to the square?"
"A number without finite limit, Jetah."
"Irissa, you must stay. Perhaps one day you can teach."
After taking her on a tour of the greeting, entertainment, toilet, bathing, sleeping, and meditation rooms, Baadek left Nicole to her own devices until the night repast. As it was taking its leave, Baadek again thanked her for not reporting Kia’s behavior to Tora Soam.
With some difficulty, she bathed and rested. When she reached for her robe, she found another in its place. The fabric was as light and smooth as cobwebs; and when she placed it on it felt as though a warm, gentle film caressed her body. Instead of the open sandals, there were soft, lined slipper-boots. Tora Soam’s castle might have been beautiful, but it was chilly. Joanne Nicole gathered that the Toras dressed accordingly.
While she waited for Baadek’s call to dinner, she walked the walls of her apartments, beginning the task of memorizing the floorplan and the placement of each piece of furniture.
The apartment was a circle divided up into six equal segments-each segment being a room that opened onto a central circular accessway. Each segment was shaped like an orange slice truncated on both ends. The only flat surface was the floor. The center of each room contained the article or articles that served the room’s name. The central accessway had six doors that could be opened in any combination.
There were some enigmatic Drac phrases that began to make some sense. "Greeted with all doors open" and "Greeted with all doors closed" described the degree of trust and intimacy a host extends to a visitor. The greeting room was bare, providing nothing more than a place to stand and talk. The entertainment room had deep, soft chairs and couches. The central door of the greeting room, and the door to the entertainment room being open was an invitation for a longer stay. A still longer stay was invited by the toilet room being open. Bathing, sleeping, and meditation rooms being open described more intimate invitations about which she could only speculate.
After her initial inspection, she entered the meditation room, closed the door, and settled on the cushions in the center of the room to await the call to the night repast.
She had been sitting for a few minutes, quietly trying to relax, when the room seemed to fill with a dim green light marbled with blacks and lighter greens. Her hands immediately went to her eyes, but her hands could not block out the light. The light was inside her head.
Again she relaxed and allowed the lights to move at random. There was a slightly drugged feeling, then a feeling of all-encompassing calm. One-by-one she could feel tense muscles relax, her body going limp…
…There were the happy moments with Mallik, seen through a lens that would admit no pain. She opened to it and her being was flooded with love.
And their child swelling in her abdomen.
Mallik’s head against the swelling, listening.
"You can’t hear anything yet, Mallik; it’s too soon."
His head burrowed his ear more deeply into her abdomen while his hand stole between her legs.
"If this is Mallik Nicole’s child, it will be an early riser."
She laughed as she reached down to touch his face…
…there was a moment at Storm Mountain; a moment of love, pride, fierce unshackled joy.
Death covered the slopes, but the Tsien Denvedah was falling back. Her command hadn’t a prayer of getting relief; they knew that another attack was coming that would crush them; they knew that most of them would be dead before the next two hours elapsed-
-but the Tsien Denvedah was falling back.
The hoots and catcalls started in the emplacements to her left. In seconds all of Storm Mountain was shouting insults at the retreating Dracs; her own voice joining the tumult.
The Tsien Denvedah was falling back!
It was another-a stronger-form of love than that between a man and woman. They were a blood and mud spattered brotherhood that had met the enemy and had turned them back. They had been dipped in fire and had survived to see the Drac Infantry pulling back.
Morio Taiseido collapsed beside her, his voice hoarse.
"Major, I could die content at this moment. We whipped them! Holy son of a bitch, we whipped them!"
…The lights came back and part of Joanne Nicole’s brain asked another part if this joy was the appeal to battle; to war. If it was the truth, it would be an impossible motivation to treat rationally.
The rules were out; the ultimate consequences were out; nothing was in mind except the fact that the Dracs were falling back. In that minuscule particle of time, they were victorious…
…And then, as though it were being played before her upon a stage, she remembered The Story of Lita in the Koda Ovsinda.
Lita had invented a game for the students to play. One of the students was selected by chance to begin the game, and its first move was to invent the first three rules of the game. And the game-the rules-could be anything.