“Ashakh,” said Chimele in a terrible voice, “it has not been the matter of the kamethi alone in which you have said no.”
“I do not oppose you, Chimele.”
“I perceive otherwise. I perceive that you are not takkhe with us in the matter of Tejef, that someone lends him support.”
“Then you perceive amiss. My m’melakhia has always been for the well-being of Ashanome. We have been able to compose our differences before, nasith-tak.”
“And they have been many,” said Chimele, “and too frequent. No!” she said sharply as Tejef moved. He came no closer, for there were the dhis-guardians between, and Khasif and Ashakh moved to shield her as reflexively as they always had. The closeness was heavy in the air again: oppressive, hostile, and then a curiously perturbing fierceness. Chimele glanced at Rakhi in alarm.
“You do not belong here,” she said, but her anger seemed smothered by fright, and it was not clear to whom she spoke.
Tejef moved nearer, as near as the ghiakai would permit. “Chimele-Orithain. You cast me out; but Mejakh’s takkhenois is gone and the touch of the nasul is easier for that, Chimele sra-Chaxal. I have always had m’melakhia for this nasul, and not alone for the nasul. I was nas, Chimele.”
Chimele’s breath was an audible hiss. “And your life in the nasul was always on scant tolerance and we have hunted you back again. Your m’melakhia is e-takkhe—e-takkhe and unspeakably offensive to me.”
A fierce grin came to Tejef’s face. He seemed to grow, and set hands on knees as he fell to kneel on the carpets. His gesture of submission was itself insolence; slowly he inclined his body toward the floor and as slowly straightened.
Arle cried out, a tiny sound, piercing the intolerable heaviness in the air. Isande hugged her tightly, silencing her, for Ashakh sent a staccato message to the three idoikkhei simultaneously: Do not move!
“Go!” Chimele exploded. “If you survive in the nasul, I will perhaps not seek to kill you. But there is vaikka you have yet to pay, o Tejef no-one’s-getting.”
“My sra” answered Tejef with cold deliberation, “will have honor.” But he backed carefully from her when he had risen.
“You are dismissed,” Chimele said, and her angry glance swept the hall, so that Tejef had no more than cleared the door before others began to disperse in haste, projections to wink out in great numbers, the concourse clearing backwards as the iduve departed into that part of the ship that was theirs.
“Stay,” she said to the nasithi-katasakke when they would as gladly have withdrawn; and she ignored them when they had frozen into waiting, and bent a fierce frown on Aiela. The idoikkhe sent a signal that made him wince.
M’metane, it is your doing that I bear this disadvantage. It is your doing, that gave this being arastiethe to defy me, to draw aid from others. Your ignorance has begun what you cannot begin to comprehend. You have disadvantaged me, divided the nasul, and some of us may die for it. What are you•willing to pay for that, m’metane that I honored, what vaikka can you perceive that would be adequate?
He stared at her, pain washing upward from the idoikkhe, and was stricken to realize that not only might he lose his life, he might in truth deserve it. He had Isande’s misery to his account; now he had Chimele’s as well.
And in the disadvantaging of an Orithain, he had threatened the existence of Ashanome itself.
“I did what was in me to do,” he protested.
Ashakh saved him. He realized that when the pain cleared and he heard Isande and Daniel’s faint, terrified presences in his mind, and felt the iduve’s viselike grip holding on his feet.
“Chimele,” said Ashakh, “that was not disrespect in him: it was very plain kalliran logic. And perhaps there is merit in his reasoning: after all, you found chanokhia in him, and chose him, so his decisions are, in a manner of speaking, yours. Perhaps when one deals with outsiders, outsider-logic prevails, and events occur which would not occur in an iduve system.”
“I perceive your m’melakhia for these beings, Ashakh, and I am astounded. I find it altogether excessive.”
The tall iduve glanced aside, embarrassed. “I comprehend the chanokhia that Tejef found in these beings, both human and kallia.”
“You were responsible for swinging the takkhenes of Ashanome toward Tejef—your vaikka for Chaikhe.”
Again he had looked toward her, and now bowed his head slightly. “Chaikhe is dhisais—as Rakhi can tell you: beyond vaikka and no longer appropriate for my protection. I understand what you did, since you did not spare Rakhi, for whom you have most regard, and I admire the strength and chanokhia of your action, o Chimele. You disadvantaged me repeatedly in your maneuvering, but it was in the interests of Ashanome.”
“Is it in our interests—what you have done?”
“Chimele,” said Rakhi softly, and such a look went between them that it seemed more than Rakhi might have spoken to her in that word, for Chimele seemed much disquieted.
“Khasif,” said Chimele suddenly, “can you be takkhe with this matter as it is?”
Khasif bowed. “I have brought you Tejef; and that vaikka is enough. He is sra to me, Chimele, as you are. Do not ask me questions.”
“Chaikhe—“ Chimele said.
“Orithain,” said Rakhi, “she has followed your orders amazingly welclass="underline" but remember that she was scarcely out of the dhis when she acquired Tejef’s interest.”
Her lips tightened. “Indeed,” she said, and after a moment: “Aiela, the harachia of yourself and your asuthi is a disturbance for the moment. You did serve me and I rejoice in the honor of your efforts. You are dismissed, but you still owe me a vaikka for your presumption today.”
He owed her at least the same risk he had taken for Tejef, to restore what he had stolen from her, though every instinct screamed run! “Chimele,” he said, “we honor you—from the heart, we honor you.”
Chimele looked full into his eyes. “M’metane,” she said, “I have a m’melakhia for the peculiarity that is Aiela Lyailleue. Curiosity impels me to inquire further and to refrain from dealing with you as you have so well deserved. You are the only m’metane I have seen who has not feared to be m’metane among us. You are Ashanome’s greatest living curiosity—and so you are free with us, and you are getting into the perilous habit of taking liberties with Ashanome. The contagion has spread to your asuthi, I do perceive. In moderation, it has been of service to me.”
“I am honored by your interest, Chimele.”
Her attention turned then to Ashakh. By some impulse that passed between them, Ashakh bowed very low, hands upon his thighs, and remained in that posture until Chimele’s agitation had passed. He seemed to receive that too, for he straightened without looking up before, and slowly lifted his face.
“Chimele, I protest I am takkhe.”
“I perceive your approval of these outrageous beings.”
“And I,” said Ashakh, “feel your disapproval of me. I am disadvantaged, Chimele, for I do honor you. If you insist, I shall go arrhei-nasul, for my m’melakhia is not adequate to challenge you, certainly not at the peril of the dynasty itself. You are essential and I am not. Only permit me to take these kamethi with me. Arastiethe forbids I should abandon them.”
Chimele met his eyes a moment, then turned aside and reached for Aiela’s arm. Her incredibly strong fingers numbed his hand, but it was not an act of anger.
One did not often see the nasithi-katasakke on the kamethi level; and the presence of Rakhi caused a mild stir—only mild, for even the kamethi knew the eccentricity of this iduve. So it was not a great shock for Aiela and Isande to find the nasith greeting them in passing. Beside them the great viewport showed starry space, no longer the sphere of Priamos. Ashanome was free and running again.