“What is? What have you to offer, t’Elas?”
“Reason.”
“Reaon. You love Nephane. Understandable. But they cast you out, murdered your house. I, on the other hand, would pardon you for your allegiance to them; I would take you as one of my own. Am I behaving as an enemy, Kta t’Elas?”
“You are the enemy of my people.”
“Surely,” said Ylith softly, “Nephane is cursed with madness, casting out such a man who loves her and honoring those who divide her. I would not need to destroy such a city, but I am forced. I want nothing of the things that happen there: of war, of human ways. I will not let the contagion spread.” She lifted her eyes to the chart and dismissed the woman, then directed her attention to them again. “You are already at war,” she told them. “I only intend to finish it.”
“What… war?” asked Kta, though Kurt knew in his own heart then what must have happened and he was sure that Kta did. The Methi’s answer was no surprise.
“Civil war,” answered Ylith. “The inevitable conflict. Though I am sure our help is less than desired, we are intervening, on the side of the Indras-descended.”
“You do not desire to help the Families,” said Kta. “You will treat them as you do us.”
“I will treat them as I am trying to treat you. I would welcome you as Indras, Kta t’Elas. I would make Elas-in-Nephane powerful again, as it ought to be, united with Elas-in-Indresul.”
“My sister,” said Kta, “is married to a Sufaki lord. My friend is a human. Many of the house-friends of Elas-in-Nephane have Sufaki blood. Will you command Elas-in-Indresul to honor our obligations?”
“A Methi,” she said, “cannot command within the affairs of a house.”
It was the legally correct answer.
“I could,” she said, “guarantee you the lives of these people. A Methi may always intervene on the side of life.”
“But you cannot command their acceptance.”
“No,” she said. “I could not do that.”
“Nephane,” said Kta, “is Indras and Sufaki and human.”
“When I am done,” said Ylith, “that problem will be resolved.”
“Attack them,” said Kta, “and they will unite against you.”
“What, Sufaki join the Indras?”
“It has happened once before,” said Kta, “when you hoped to take us.”
“That,” said Ylith, “was different. Then the Families were powerful, and wished greater freedom from the mother of cities. Now the Families have their power taken from them but I can restore it to all who will renounce the Sufak heresy. My honored father Tehal-methi was less mercifully inclined, but I am not my father. I have no wish to kill Indras.”
Kta made a brief obeisance. “Methi, turn back these ships then, and I will be your man without reservation.”
She set her hands on the arms of her chair and now her eyes went to Kurt and back again. “You do press me too far. You, t’Morgan, were born human, but you rise above that. I can almost love you for your determination; you try so hard to be nemet. But I do not understand the Sufaki, who were born nemet and deny the truth, who devote themselves to despoiling what we name as holy. Least of all”–her voice grew hard-“do I understand Indras-born such as you, t’Elas, who knowingly seek to save a way of life that aims at the destruction of Ind.”
“They do not aim at destroying us.”
“You will now tell me that the resurgence of old ways in Sufak is a false rumor, that the jafikn and the Robes of Color are not now common there, that prayers are not made in the Upei of Nephane that mention the cursed ones and blaspheme our religion. Mor t’Uset ul Orm is witness to these things. He saw one Nym t’Elas rise in the Upei to speak against the t’Tefuri and their blasphemies. Have you less than your father’s courage, or do you dishonor his wishes, t’Elas?”
Kurt looked quickly at Kta, knowing how that would affect him, almost ready to hold him if he was about to do something rash; but Kta bowed his head, knuckles white on his laced hands.