“Sir,” the kamethi acknowledged his courtesy, bowing at once.
“And that third person?”
“’I am here,’” said Daniel through Aiela’s lips. Trouble, Aiela? What does a nas want with us at this hour?
Be calm. If Chimele meant harm, she would do that harm for herself, with no intermediary. Aiela compelled his asuthi to silence and kept his eyes on Rakhi’s so the nasith should not know that communication flickered back and forth: this three-way communication bemused one to a point that it was hard not to appear to drift.
“Is the asuthithekkhe pleasant?” Rakhi wondered, with the nearest thing to wistfulness they had ever heard in an iduve.
“It has its difficulties,” Aiela answered, ignoring the feedback from his asuthi. “But I would not choose otherwise.”
“The silence,” said Rakhi, “is awesome—without. For us the experience is not altogether pleasant. But being severed— makes a great silence.”
Aiela understood then, and pitied him. It was safe to pity Rakhi, whose m’melakhia was not so fierce. “Is Chaikhe well, sir?”
“She is content She is inward now—altogether. Dhisaisei grow more and more that way. I have felt it.” Rakhi silenced himself with an embarrassed glance toward the viewport. The body of Ashanome passed under the holding arm. For a moment all was dark. Their reflections, pale kallia and dusky iduve, stared back out of the viewport. “There is a small amaut who mentioned you with honor. His name is Kleph. Ashakh bade me say so: arastiethe forbids the first of Navigators should carry messages. This person was greatly joyed by the sight of the gardens of Ashanome. Ashakh procured him this assignment. Arastiethe forbade—“
“—that Ashakh should admit to gratitude.”
Rakhi frowned, even he a little nettled to be thus interrupted by a m’metane. “It was not chanokhia for this amaut to have delivered Ashakh in a helpless condition aboard the base ship. This being could not appreciate vaikka in any reasonable sense, save to be disadvantaged in this way. Has Ashakh erred?”
“No,” said Aiela, “and Ashakh knows he has not.”
The ghost of a smile touched the nasith’s face, and Aiela frowned, suspecting he himself had just been the victim of a bit of iduve humor, straightfaced in delivery. Perhaps, he thought, the iduve had puzzled out the ways of m’metanei more than the iduve chose to admit. Yet not even this most gentle of iduve was to be provoked: one had to remember that they studied gratitude, could perhaps practice it for humor’s sake. Whether anything then stirred the cold of their dark hearts was worthy of debate.
Let be with him, Isande advised. Even Rakhi has his limits.
“M’metanei,” said Rakhi, “I should advise that you go soft of step and well-nigh invisible about the paredre for the next few days. Should Chimele summon you, as she will, be most agreeable.”
“Why, sir?” asked Isande, which was evidently the desired question.
“Because Chimele has determined a vaikka upon Tashavodh that the Orithanhe and its ban cannot deny her.” The iduve grinned despite himself. “Kharxanen’s m’melakhia for a bond with the dynasty of Ashanome is of long standing—indeed, the origin of all these matters. It will go frustrated. The Orithanhe itself has compelled Kharxanen and Tejef to deny they are sra to each other; so Kharxanen cannot claim any bond at all when Chimele chooses Tejef for the kataberihe of Ashanome. Purifications will begin. One child will there be; and then this nas Tejef will have a ship and as many of the okkitani-as and kamethi as Chimele chooses to send with him.”
“She is creating a vra-nasul?” asked Isande, amazed. “After all the grief he has caused?” Resentment flared in her, stifled by Daniel’s gladness; and Aiela fended one from the other.
“They are takkhe,” said Rakhi. “M’metane, I know your minds somewhat. You have long memories for anger. But we are not a spiteful folk; we fight no wars. Chimele has taken vaikka, for his sra as a vra-nasul serve Ashanome forever; but the sra she will take from him under her own name as her heir will forever be greater than the dynasty he will found. Vra-nasul in mating can put no bond on orith-nasul So Tejef will make submission and both will keep their honor. It is a reasonable solution—one of your own working, m’metanei. So I advise you keep secret that small vaikka of yours lest Chimele be compelled to notice it. She is amused by your chanokhia: she has struggled greatly to attain that attitude—for if you know us, you know that we are frequently at a loss to determine any rationality for your behavior. We make an effort. We have acquired the wisdom to observe and wait upon what we do not understand: it is an antidote for the discord of impulses which govern our various species. I recommend the practice to you too, kamethi.”
And with a nod of his head he went his way, mounted into the lift, and vanished from sight.
Aiela, came Isande’s thought, Chimele sent him.
We have been honored, he replied, and expected argument from Daniel.
But Daniel’s consciousness when it returned to them dismissed all thoughts but his own for the moment, for he had suddenly recognized across the concourse a human child and a red-haired woman.
He began, quickly, to thread his way through the traffic; his asuthi in this moment gave him his privacy.
Glossary of Foreign Terms
I
THE KALLIRAN LANGUAGE: like human speech in its division of noun and verb concepts. There is, however, a fossilized Ethical from the time of the Orithain Domination. Although the Ethical corresponds to the Verb of Orithain speech, it has been made an Adjective in the kalliran language.
arethme: (ah-RETH-may) city-deme of kalliran political structure: on the home world, equal to a city and all its land and trade rights; in the colonies, often equal to a hemisphere or an entire world, with its attendant rights.
ehs, pl. ehsim: (ACE) cubed measurement approximately 10 inches.
elethia: (el-eh-THEE-ya) honor, gentility, sensitivity to proper behavior; faithfulness to duty.
Esliph: (EHS-lif) the Seven Stars: a heavily planeted region lying between the metrosi and human space.
giyre: (GIU-rey) recognition of one’s proper place in the cosmic Order of things; also, one’s proper duty toward another. It is ideally mutual.
Halliran Idai: (hah-lee-HRAN ee-DYE) the Free Union, the political structure of the metrosi, the capital of which is Aus Qao, the fifth of Qao.
ikas: (EE-kas) disregarding of giyre and kastien: presumptuous.
kallia (KAL-lee-ah) man, woman; men, women.
kamesule: (kah-MAY-soo-leh) to associate with the iduve; to be servile of manner.
kastien: (KAHS-tee-yen) being oneself; virtue, wisdom; observing harmony with others and the universe by perfect centering in one’s giyre toward all persons and things.
marithe: (mah-REE-theh) a pale-pink wine.
men, pl. meis: (MEN, MACE) a linear measurement of approximately 10 inches.
metrosi: (MAY-tro-see) the Civilized Worlds, those within the original area of kalliran-amaut colonization.
Orithain: (o-rih-THAIN) mistakenly used as generic term for the iduve.
parome: (PAHR-ohm) governor of an arethme
Qao: (KHUA-o) the Sun; home star of the kalliran species.
II
THE IDUVE LANGUAGE: differs from both kalliran and human speech to such a degree that translation cannot be made literally if it is to be understandable. Paraphrase is the best that can be done.
First, there is no clear distinction between the concepts of noun and verb, between solid and action. Reality consists instead of the situational combination of Tangibles and Ethicals; but an Ethical may be converted to a Tangible and vice versa. Most ideas are grammatically complete in two words: an Ethical is affixed to the Tangible. Meanings may be altered or augmented by Prefix, Infix, or Suffix upon either Ethical or Tangible. The nature of these added particles may be: Negative, Intensitive, Honorific, Hypothetical, Interrogative, Imperative, Directional, Futuritive or Historical, Relational or Descriptive.