She sat on Scar’s shoulders and stared out to sea, or at the river, or vented her moodishness on the Weirds, who said nothing and only did those services for Scar she was too tired to do.
And then one day MaGee was there–on the beach, watching her.
“MaGee,” Elai said, riding up to her, trying not to sound as if it mattered. She slid down from Scar–trying not to limp, but she did.
“How is that leg?” MaGee asked.
“Oh, not so bad.”
It was not what she wanted to discuss with MaGee. It was the world that mattered, and every question in it. Elai sat and Patterned idly while she asked and answered–she got very little, but that little she stored away, building and building.
“Help me make a ship,” she asked MaGee.
But MaGee smiled and said no. That was always the way of it.
And the days passed. Sometimes MaGee was there and sometimes not.
And then, day after bitter day, Magee was not there at all.
She rode Scar as far as the Wire, a great long distance, and slid down at the gate through which star‑folk came and went, in sight of a Styx‑tower in the far distance, which reminded her that there were those who rivaled the Cloud Towers to gain star‑brought secrets.
“I want to see MaGee,” she said to the guard at the gate, and all the while she was comparing the Cloud‑towers and this place, and thinking how strong and disturbingly regular it was. On the other side of the Wire, ships landed, and she hoped to see one, looking beyond the guard without seeming to stare–but there was none.
The guard wrote… wroteon a paper, at which performance Elai could not help but wonder. He sent his companion inside with that message, and she must stand and wait…trying in her discomfiture to talk to the guard, who looked down at her through the Wire, who talked to her in a strange accent worse than MaGee’s, and who made little of her, as if she was a child.
“My name’s Elai,” she said, pointing loftily back toward the Towers. “From First Tower.”
The guard refused to be impressed. Her face burned.
“Tell MaGee to hurry,” she said, but the man stood where he was.
Eventually the message came back, and the guard waved his hand at her, dismissing her. “The Director says no,” the guard said.
Elai mounted Scar and rode away. She had surrendered enough of her dignity, and it hurt. It hurt enough that she cried on the way home, but she was dry‑eyed and temperful when she came among her own, and never admitted where she had been, not to all the anxious questions.
viii
Memo, Base Director to staff member Elizabeth McGee
…commends you for excellent observations and requests you write up your reports in detail for transmission and publication. The Director feels that further investigation should extend in other directions and requests you hold yourself ready…
Memo, E. McGee to Base Director in the offices of Gehenna Base
…The Styxsiders have turned reluctant for contact. Genley’s report on my desk indicates a team member suffered injury as the team retreated from a caliban within the permitted zone of observation. The team is anxious to return to the Styx; I would discourage this while the Calibans show reluctance.
Report, R. Genley to Base Director transmitted from field
Dr. McGee is overcautious. The incident involved a sprained wrist as the team cleared the immediate vicinity of a caliban engaged in mound‑building. No Styxsider was present.
Message, E. McGee to R. Genley Copy to Base Director
The cooperation between calibans and humans is close enough to warrant alarm at this attack.
Message, R. Genley to Base Director transmitted from field
I do not agree with Dr. McGee’s hypothesis. We are under observation by Styxsiders. Retreat now would give an impression of fear. I object to McGee’s treatment of the data we transmit.
Base Director to R. Genley in field
Continue with caution. Measured risk seems justified.
Memo, E. McGee to Base Director
I am applying for a return to the field. We are losing an opportunity. We already have sufficient observations of calibans. Genley’s approach is producing no useful results. We should use the approaches we do have on the Cloud and draw the Styx into contact on their own initiative. The Styx is notpeaceful. This very silence is a danger signal. I am sending another personal advisement to Genley. All others have been disregarded. I am concerned. I urge the Board to act quickly to recall this mission before some serious incident occurs.
Message, E. McGee to R. Genley
Pull back. Conduct your investigations on this side. The Calibans’ moundbuilding is the equivalent of a wall. They are telling you you are not wanted there.
Message, R. Genley to Base Director
I have received another communication from Dr. McGee. Her theories are based on communication with a single minor child, and earnest as I am sure her concern is, and not based on any eagerness to advance her own studies, I do not feel that her theories, preliminary as they are, and drawn from such a source, ought to become the official standard for dealing with this culture. Independent assessment and cross‑check of observations is essential to this mission. Dr. McGee is making a basic error in applying her Cloud River study to the Styx: she assumes that the development here is the same, when by all evidence of dwelling‑patterns it is not.
I am frankly concerned that the Board has assigned Dr. McGee to the writing of reports based on my data. I would like to see these before they are sent.
Message, E. McGee to R. Genley transmitted from Base
You are committing a basic error in the assumption that calibans do not themselves constitute a single culture which lies at the foundations of both Cloud and Styx.
As for the reports, be assured that they will be written up with more professionalism than your suggestion contained.
Message, Base Director to R. Genley in the field
The Board will make assignments by its own consensus. The Board has every confidence in Dr. McGee.
Memo, Base Director to E. McGee
You are more valuable in your present assignment inside the Base. The Board will assess and determine the proper assignment of personnel. Where is the write‑up on the Styxside data? Documents is complaining about short schedules.
We have a shuttle due to make that Document pickup in four days.
ix
The Cloud Towers
She designed ships in her mind, great ones, which she intended to build when she was in Ellai’s place. She gave orders to the Weirds and experimented with her stick‑and‑leaf fliers off the very top of the First Tower.
Her tiny constructions wrecked themselves at the base of the Tower. And some of the fishers had the bad grace to laugh, while Ellai looked at her askance–not reprimanding her: Ellai never reprimanded her in things that might do her harm.
Her mother hoped, Elai thought obscurely, for accidents–to her person or to her pride. Sometimes she caught her mother with that look in her eyes. Like Twig, bluffing and blustering and making way for Scar because Scar had the power and all the world knew it.