“And what does she mean to show them?”
“You,” she said; Aiela instinctively flung the chiabres-link asunder, dismayed by that touch of willful cruelty in Isande: she enjoyed distressing Daniel. The impulse he sent in her direction carried anger, and Isande flinched, and felt shame. “We searched to find you,” she said then to Daniel. “Oh, not you particularly, but it came to Chimele’s attention that humans from beyond the Esliph were turning up—we have followed so many, many leads in recent months, through the iduve, kallia, even the amaut, investigating every anomaly. We traced one such shipment toward Kartos—economical: Chimele knew she would at least find Kartos’ records of value in her search. You were available; and you have pleased her enormously—hence her extraordinary patience with you. Only hope you haven’t misled her.”
“I haven’t led her at all,” Daniel protested. “Amaut were all I ever saw, the ugly little beasts, and I never heard of iduve in my life.” And hidden in his mind were images of what might become of him if he were given to the iduve of Chaganokh for cross-examination, or if thereafter he had no value to the iduve at all.
“You are kameth,” said Isande. “You will not be discarded. But I will tell you something: as far as iduve ever bluff, Chimele is preparing to; and if she is wrong, she will have ruined herself. Three kamethi would hardly be adequate serach—funeral gift—for a dynasty as old and honorable as hers. We three would die; so would her nasithi-katasakke, serach to the fall of a dynasty. The induve could destroy worlds of m’metanei and not feel it as much as they would the passing of Chimele. So be guided by us, by Aiela and by me. If you do in that meeting what you did today—”
Now it was Daniel who screened, shutting off the images from Isande’s mind. She ceased.
Do not be hard with him, Aiela asked of her. There is no need of that, Isande.
She did not respond for a moment; in her mind was hate, the thought of what she would do and how she would deal with the human if Aiela were not the intermediary, and yet in some part she was ashamed of her anger. Asuthi must not hate; with her own clear sense she knew it, and submitted to the fact that he was appended to them. If you fail to restrain him, she sent Aiela, you will lose him. You have fallen into a trap; I had prepared myself to remain distinct from him, but you are caught, you are merging; and because I regard you, I am caught too. Restrain him. Restrain him. If he angers the iduve, three kamethi are the least expensive loss that will result.
CHAPTER 6
THE ORITHAIN OF Chaganokh was a lonely man in the paredre of Ashanome. He wore the close-fitting garment common to iduve, but of startling white and complicated by overgarments and robes and a massive silver belt from which hung a ghiaka. His name was Minakh, and he was a conspicuous gleam of white and silver among so much indigo and black, with the fair colors of kallia and human an unintentional counterpoint across the room. Chimele faced him, seated, similarly robed and bearing a ghiaka with a raptor’s head, but her colors were dusky violet.
Tension was electric in the air. Daniel shivered at being thrust so prominently into the midst of them, and Aiela mentally held to him. Contact among the asuthi seemed uncertain, washed out by the miasma of terror and hostilities in the hall, which was filled with thousands of iduve. Bodies went rigid at the presence of Minakh, whiteless eyes dilated to black, breathing quickened. A dozen of the most powerful of nasul Ashanome were ranged about Chimele, behind, on either side of her: Khasif, Ashakh—great fearsome men, and two women, Tahjekh and Nophres, who were guardians of the dhis and terrible to offend.
Minakh’s eyes shifted from this side to that of the gathering. While he was still distant from Chimele he went to his knees and raised both hands. Likewise Chimele lifted her hands to salute him, but she remained seated.