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“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’melakhiais 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. Arastietheforbids I should abandon them.”
Chimele met his eyes a moment, then fumed aside and reached for Aiela’s arm. Her incredibly strong fingers numbed his hand, but it was not an act of anger.
“When we deal with m’metanei,” she wondered softly, “are we bound by the kastienyou observe? I protest we are akita, m’metane.”
“I do not understand,” Aiela said.
“We are takkhe,” she said to Ashakh then, and walked away into the i
One did not often see the nasithi-katasakkeon 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 nasithgreeting them in passing. Beside them the great viewport showed starry space, no longer the sphere of Priamos. Ashanomewas free and ru
“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 anas 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 nasithshould 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 asuthithekkhepleasant?” 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’melakhiawas not so fierce. “Is Chaikhe well, sir?”
“She is content. She is inward now—altogether. Dhisaiseigrow more and more that way. I have felt it.” Rakhi silenced himself with an embarrassed glance toward the viewport. The body of Ashanomepassed 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: arastietheforbids 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. Arastietheforbade—”
“—that Ashakh should admit to gratitude.”
Rakhi frowned, even he a little nettled to be thus interrupted by a m’metane.“It was not chanokhiafor this amaut to have delivered Ashakh in a helpless condition aboard the base ship. This being could not appreciate vaikkain 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’sface, 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’metaneimore than the iduve chose to admit. Yet not even this most gentle of iduve was to be provoked: one had to remember that they studiedgratitude, 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 paredrefor 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 vaikkaupon Tashavodhthat the Orithanhe and its ban ca
“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 sraas a vra-nasulwill serve Ashanomeforever; but the srashe will take from him under her own name as her heir will forever be greater than the dynasty he will found. Vra-nasulin 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 vaikkaof 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 of 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.
II
THE IDUVE LANGUAGE: differs from both kalliran and human speech to such a degree that translation ca