Well, Ambassador Yrarier had been on Grass only a short time. Jhamlees Zoe had heard nothing about plague yet. He thought it unlikely that he would hear anything about plague. Still, he would mention to his subordinate, Noazee Fuasoi, that he wanted to be informed of any unusual rumors. That should be vague enough.
So musing, Jhamlees Zoe wrapped the packet, the letter, and the itinerary once more and hid the resultant bundle in his files.
For a time, Rillibee spent his days in required prayer, in morning song and evening song, in special services now and again, with routine duties taking up all the time between. There was gardening to do in the sun-blessed springs and summers and falls, when crop succeeded crop endlessly under the light-handed benison of rain. Though the long, elliptical orbit of the planet brought it almost under the sun’s eyelids during midsummer, this far north the heat was lessened to an almost tolerable level. There were pigs to care for and slaughter and chickens to feed and kill. There was food to put up for wintertime. They would keep him busy, they told him. Soon he would be assigned to his permanent job
When that day came, Rillibee in his guise as Brother Lourai sneaked off to hide among the grasses with Brother Mainoa and talk about Rillibee’s future. He had decided again, only that morning, not to die just yet, but that decision was not sufficient for the purposes of the Friary.
“They want to know what I want to do,” Rillibee said in an aggrieved voice. “I have to tell them this afternoon.”
“That’s right,” answered Brother Mainoa comfortably. “Now that you’ve settled down and it’s known that the climbing apes aren’t going to kill you—and that Brother Flumzee that calls himself High-bones has killed a few, though him and his friends always claim it was accidental—those set in authority over us have to decide what to do with you.”
“I don’t know why you think the climbers have given up wanting me dead,” Rillibee objected. “Several of them are still set on killing me. Highbones wants me done with because he says I made a fool of him. He had some kind of bet that I’d end up splattered. Topclinger’s friends want him to pay up. He says his bet was with Topclinger, and with him dead, there’s no bet anymore, but they keep nagging at him, and that makes him hate me more. Ropeknots wants me out of the way because I’ve made him out to be a liar. The longer I stay clear of ‘em, the worse they want me gone.”
“Well, you should give them what they want, Brother. I always try to do that. When someone else wants something very badly, I always try to give them what they want. They want you gone, you should go. I think it’s best if we can get you back to the dig with me, especially if we can do it before Elder Brother Jhamlees remembers those twenty stripes he promised you, which I heard about from someone I can’t remember. However, if you say youwantto come back to the dig with me, Elder Brother will send you anywhere on Grass except there.” Brother Mainoa sucked at the grass stem he was chewing and considered the matter.
“What you should do, Lourai, is look depressed and ask them what there is for you to do. They’ll mention half a dozen things, including the dig. They’ll mention the gardens and the henhouses and the pig farm and carpentry shop and weaving shop and the dig. If they don’t mention it. you do. Say, ‘I saw the dig, too, when Brother Mainoa brought me in.’ Get it into the conversation. Then, when they say ‘dig?’ you say, ‘Dig, Elder Brother? I was there and I don’t think I’d like that much.’”
“Why should I fool around with the Elder Brother? I thought you said Elder Laeroa was a sympathetic person.”
“Oh, Elder Laeroa’s good enough. He’s interested in things, Laeroa is. In the dig. In the gardens. He’s a good botanist, too. But it won’t be Laeroa that assigns you to your job. That’ll be assistant to the office of Sopority and Ignoble Doctrine, Elder Asshole Noazee Fuasoi. He hates people. His greatest joy comes from telling people to do things they don’t like, so Asshole Fuasoi does all the assignments. Him and his assistant, Shoethai. Except Shoethai’s so inconsequential, it’s easy to forget him.”