Rillibee, who had tried to make himself inconspicuous during most of this, now asserted, “I will do for her what is best for her. From the moment I first saw her, I wanted only what was best for her. Right now there is only one good place left on Grass, and the Tree City is it. If there is trouble on Grass, it has not touched the trees.”
Rigo did not reply. Marjorie could not see his face. She wasn’t sure she wanted to see it, and she did not wish to argue it further with him. At the tell-me she reached Geraldria and Rowena, telling them of Rillibee’s offer and advising them to accept it. When she turned, Rigo was there, and she said impatiently, “Yes?”
“Yes,” he responded, as though granting a favor. “I’ll accept this for now. It may be the best place for her for a time.”
She tried to smile, not quite successfully. “I hope I am right about this, Rigo. I’d like to be right, a few times.”
He didn’t reply. Instead, he turned and left her, going back to his own room. Though she tried to get back to sleep, she could not. It was only hours later, near dawn, when the Seraph and his armed escort came for them, that she learned he had been as sleepless as herself.
They were given little time to dress. Perhaps it was only imagination, but it seemed they were treated with less courtesy than previously. When they were escorted into the Hierarch’s presence, two other persons were already there. Rigo’s hand tightened on Marjorie’s arm as he saw the first. Her face grew momentarily rigid as she saw the second.
“Admit!” she cried in what she hoped was a glad-sounding voice. “Rigo, it’s Admit Maukerden. I’m so glad you escaped the fires at Opal Hill. Sebastian and Persun went back time after time, but you weren’t among the people they brought in.”
“My name is AdmitbonMaukerden,” he said.
“A bon? Jerril bon Haunser told me he would provide a lateral,” she exclaimed.
“I was assigned to find out what you were doing on Grass,” he said. “The bons wanted to know what you were up to. As this one does, now.” He gestured through the glass at the Hierarch. “He wants to know what you were up to.”
“Well for heaven’s sake,” Marjorie cried, “tell him, Admit. Tell the Hierarch anything he wants to know.”
“I am more interested in what this other one tells me,” the Hierarch said silkily from behind his transparent partition.
The other one lounged on his chair like a lizard on a rock, his relaxed manner belied by his scratched and bruised face and arms. Highbones.
“Brother Flumzee?” Marjorie asked the Hierarch. her voice calm. “He and his friends intended to kill me in the swamp forest. What else does he tell you?” She looked at Highbones gravely.
He saw the look and remembered what it was he had forgotten about women. They pitied you sometimes. When you didn’t even know why.
The Hierarch said in a silky voice, “He tells me that you were well acquainted with one of the Brothers, Brother Mainoa. He says that Brother Mainoa was thought to be a backslider. And that he knew something about plague.”
“Did he really? What did he know, Brother Flumzee? Or do you still prefer to be called Highbones?”
“He knew something,” Highbones shouted, hating what he saw in her face. “Fuasoi wanted him killed.”
“What did he know?” asked the Hierarch. “It would be in your best interest, Lady Westriding, and you, Ambassador, to tell me everything the Brother knew, or thought he knew.”
“We’ll be glad to,” Rigo said. “Though he himself would be able to tell you much more than we can—“
“He’s alive?” The Heirarch snapped.
Marjorie replied calmly, “Well, of course. Highbones left his two friends to kill Mainoa and Brother Lourai, but they didn’t succeed. I think Highbones hated Brother Lourai. and that was the reason for it.”
“Fuasoi ordered Mainoa killed!” Highbones shouted.
“Well, I suppose that’s possible,” Marjorie continued, keeping her voice calm, though she was in a frenzy of concentration. “Since Brother Mainoa thought Fuasoi was a Moldy.” She turned her face toward Rigo, nodding. She had never mentioned Brother Mainoa’s speculation to him. She prayed Rigo would understand what she was trying to do.