“Ah,” said Marjorie. “So.”
The Brother nodded, looking long into her eyes. “Yes, Lady West-riding. So.”
“You mean the Hippae?” Tony asked, appalled. “Surely not!”
“Tony!” Marjorie said emphatically. “Let him say.”
“I have nothing to say.” Brother Mainoa shook his head. “Nothing at all. I would not offend unwilling ears, young sir.”
“Offend my willing ones,” cried Marjorie.
He gave Tony a look which said volumes before turning to Marjorie. The boy flushed.
“To you, madam, then I say this. Look at these poor creatures dead all these centuries. Observe their wounds. Then look among the aristocrats at those who no longer hunt. Look at their artificial hands and arms and legs. And tell me, then, whether that which did the one thing has not also done the other.”
“But the Hippae are herbivores,” Tony protested still, thinking of his father. “Behemoths. Why would they—“
“Who knows what the Hippae do, or are?” offered Brother Mainoa. “They stay far from us, except to watch us. And when they watch us—“
“We see contempt,” breathed Marjorie so quietly that Tony was not sure he had heard her correctly. “We see malice.”
“Malice,” agreed Brother Mainoa. “Oh, at the very least, malice.”
“Oh, come, come,” said Father Sandoval doubtfully, almost angrily. “Malice, Marjorie?”
“I have seen it,” she said, putting her arm around Tony’s slender shoulders “I have seen it, Father. There was no mistake.” She confronted his scolding look with a fierce one of her own. Father Sandoval had always maintained the spiritual supremacy of man. He did not like discussion of other intelligence.
“Malice? In an animal?” asked Father James.
“Why do you say ‘animal’?” asked Brother Mainoa. “Why do you say that, Father?”
“Why … why, because that is what they are.”
“How do you know?”
Father James did not reply. Instead he reached out to help Father Sandoval, who was angrily wiping his brow and looking around him for a place to sit down.
“Over here, Fathers.” Brother Lourai beckoned. “We have made our home in this house of the Arbai. I have something here for us to drink.”
They sat, grateful for the refreshment and the chairs, somewhat disconcerted at the proportions of them. The Arbai had been a long-thighed race. Their chairs did not fit man. At least not these men. They perched, as on stools.
Father James returned to their conversation. “You asked why I thought the Hippae are animals? Well. I have seen them. They show no signs of being more than animals, do they?”
“What kind of sign would you accept?” Brother Mainoa asked. “Tool-making? Burial of the dead? Verbal communication?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it. Since we’ve been here, I’ve heard no one suggest that the Hippae or the hounds or … or any other animal on Grass was any more than just that.”
Brother Mainoa shrugged “Think about it, Father. Ma’am. I do. It’s an interesting exercise, leading to much fascinating conjecture.”
They shared lunch together, the Brothers’ rations plus the plenty that Marjorie had packed. Then they walked again, down other streets. into other rooms. They saw artifacts. They saw books, endless books, pages covered with curvilinear lines. They came back past the thing on the dais that might be a machine but was definitely represented on at least one door carving, and they went on to see other things that might or might not be machines.
The light began to slant across the trenches, throwing them into shadow. Marjorie shivered as she asked, “Brother, would you come to Opal Hill to meet my husband? He is Roderigo Yrarier, ambassador from Sanctity to this place.”
Brother Lourai looked up, suddenly attentive. “But I have met him!” he exclaimed. “He came to Sanctity. The Hierarch was his uncle. We spoke about the plague. The Hierarch said he must go—come here, that is—because of the horses!”
Tony turned, mouth open, not sure what he had heard.
Brother Mainoa faced Marjorie, reached out to her. “My young colleague has been indiscreet. Acceptable Doctrine denies that plague exists.”
“Mother?”
“Wait. Tony.” She brought herself under control. So. He had found out. Better he than Stella. She turned to the nearest of them, Rillibee. “Brother, what do you know about the plague?”