“I want this city to live, Bel.”
“I know you, my friend. Kta t’Elas took good thought that it was honorable. And when Indras talk of honor, we always lose.”
“I understand your bitterness; I do not blame you. But I won you as much as I could win.”
“I know,” said Bel. “I know it for the truth. If I did not believe it, I would help them collect your head. Gods, my friend, my kinsman-by-marriage, of all our enemies, it has to
“be you to come tell me you have sold us out, and for friendship’s sake. Honorably. Because it was fated. Ai, Kta-”
“I am sorry, Bel.”
Bel laughed shortly, a sound of weeping. “Gods, they killed my house for staying by Elas. My people… I tried to persuade to reason, to the middle course. I argued with great eloquence, ai, yes, and most bitter of all, I knew-I knew when I heard the fleet had returned-I knew as sure as instinct what the Indras must have done to come back so soon. It was the reasonable course, was it not, the logical, the expedient, the conservative thing to do? But I did not know until you failed to come to Irain that you had been the one to do it to us.”
“T’Osanef,” said Kurt, “times change things, even in Indresul. No human would have left Tehal-methi’s hands alive. I was freed.”
“Have you met with Ylith-methi face to face?”
“Yes,” said Kta.
Bel shot him a yet more uneasy look. “Gods, I could almost believe… Did you run straight from here to Indresul? Was t’Tefur right about you?”
“Is that the rumor in the city?”
“A rumor I have denied until now.”
“Shan t’Tefur knows where we were,” said Kurt. “He tried to sink us in the vicinity of the Isles, but we were captured after that by the Indras, and that is the truth. Kta risked his life for your sake, t’Osanef. You could at least afford him the time to hear all the truth.”
Bel considered a moment. “I suppose I can do that,” he said. “There is little else I can do, is there?”
“Will you have more tea, gentlemen?” Aimu asked, when the silence lasted overlong among them.
“No,” said Bel at last, and gave his cup to her. He looked once more at Kta and Kurt. “Kta, I am at least able to understand. I am sorry… for the suffering you had.” ‘
“You are saying what is in your mind,” said Kta, “not what is in your heart.”
“I have listened to what you had to say. I do not blame you. What could you do? You are Indras. You chose the survival of your people and the destruction of mine. Is that so unnatural?”
“I will not let them harm the Sufaki,” Kta insisted, while Bel stared at him with that hard-eyed pain which would not admit of tears.
“Would you defy Ylith-methi for us,” asked Bel, “as you defied Djan?”
“Yes. You know I would.”
“Yes,” said Bel, “because Indras are madly honorable. You would die for me. That would satisfy your conscience. But you have already made the choice that matters. Gods, Kta, Kta, I love you as a brother; I understand you, and it hurts, Kta.”
“It grieves me too,” said Kta, “because I knew that it would hurt you personally. But I am doing what I can to prevent bloodshed among your people. I do not ask your help, only your silence.”
“I cannot promise that.”
“Bel,” Kurt said sharply when t’Osanef made to rise. “Listen to me. A people can still hope, so long as they live; even mine, low as they have fallen on this world. You can survive this.”
“As slaves again.”
“Even so, Sufaki ways would survive. If they survive, little by little, you gain. Fight them, spend lives, fall-in the end, the same result: Sufaki ways seep in among the Indras and theirs among you. Bow to good sense. Be patient.”
“My people would curse me for a traitor.”
“It is too late to do otherwise,” said Kurt.
“Are the Families agreed?” Bel asked Kta.
“A vote was taken in the fleet. Enough houses were present to bind the Families to the decision; the Upei’s vote would be a formality.”