“Is this creature good or evil, priest?”
“What is man, great Methi?”
“Man,” snapped the Methi impatiently, “is the child of Nae. Whose child is he, priest?”
“I do not know, great Methi.”
Ylith lowered her eyes then, flicked a glance toward Kurt and down and back again. “Priest, I charge you, debate this matter within the college of priests and return me an answer. Take him with you if it will be needful.”
“Methi, I will consult with them, and we will send for him if his presence seems helpful.”
“Then you are dismissed,” she said, and let the priest go.
Then she left too, and Kurt sank down again against his pillar, confused and mortally tired and embarrassed. He was alone and glad to be alone, so he did not have to be so treated before friends or familiar enemies.
He slumped against his aching joints and tried to will himself to sleep. In sleep the time passed. In sleep he did not need to think.
In sleep sometimes he remembered Mim, and thought himself in Elas, and that the morning bells would never ring.
Doors opened, boomed shut. People stirred around him, shuffling here and there, forcing him back to wakefulness.
The Methi had come back.
This time they brought Kta.
Kta saw him–relief touched his eyes-but he could say nothing. The Methi’s presence demanded his attention. Kta came and knelt before her, and went full to his face. His movements were not easy. He appeared to have been hard-used.
And she ignored him, looking above his prostrate form to the tall, stern man who bowed stiffly to his knees and rose again.
“Vel t’Elas,” said Ylith, “what has Elas-in-Indresul determined concerning this man Kta?”
Kta’s distant kinsman bowed again, straightened. He was of immense dignity, a man reminiscent of Nym. “We deliver him to the Methi for judgment, for life or for death.”
“How do you find concerning his dealings with Elas?”
“Let the Methi be gracious. He has kept our law and still honors our Ancestors, except in the offense for which we deliver him up to you: his dealings with this human, and that he is of Nephane.”
“Kta t’Elas u Nym,” said Ylith.
Kta lifted his face and sat back on his heels.
“Kta t’Elas, your people have chosen an alien to rule them. Why?”
“She was chosen by heaven, Methi, not by men, and it was a fair choosing, by the oracles.”
“Confirmed in proper fashion by the Upei and the Families?”
“Yes, Methi.”
“Then,” she said, looking about at the officers who had come into the room, “heaven has decided to deliver Nephane into our hands once more. And you, u Nym, who were born Indras, where is your allegiance now?”
“In my father’s land, Ylith-methi, and with my house-friends.”
“Do you then reject all allegiance to this house of Elas, which was father to your Ancestors?”
“Great Methi,” said Kta, and his voice broke, “I reverence you and the home of my Ancestors, but I am bound to Nephane by ties equally strong. I cannot dishonor myself and the Ancestors of Elas by turning against the city that gave me birth. Elas-in-Indresul would not understand me if 1 did so.”
“You equivocate.”
“No, Methi. It is my belief.”
“What was your mother’s name, U Nym? Was she Sufaki or was she Indras?”
“Methi, she was the lady Ptas t’Lei e Met sh’Nym.”
“Most honorable, the house of Lei. Then in both lines you are Indras and well descended, surely of an orthodox house. Yet you choose the company of Sufaki and humans. I find this exceedingly difficult of understanding, Kta t’Elas U Nym.”
Kta bowed his head and gave no answer.
“Vel t’Elas,” said the Methi, “is this son of your house in any way a follower of the Sufak heresy?”
“Great Methi, Elas finds that he has been educated ‘into the use of alien knowledge and errors, but his upbringing is orthodox.”
“Kta t’Elas,” said the Methi, “what is the origin of humans?”
“I do not know, Methi.”
“Do you say that they are possessed of a soul, and that they are equal to nemet?”
Kta lifted his head. “Yes, Methi,” he said firmly, “I believe so.”