Daniel. The quiet touch was back in his mind, offended, as angry as Daniel had ever felt him. The things you do not know about kallia are considerable. You lack any sense about giyre yourself, so I suppose it does not occur to you that I have it for all beings with whom I deal—even for you. I am not human. I do not lie to my friends, destroy what is useless, or break what is whole. I can also accept defeat when I meet it. Abandon the child there. I will get her to safety, I will be responsible, even if I must come to Priamos myself. Just get out of the area. You’ve already created enough trouble for yourself. Don’t finish ruining your cover.
No, Daniel sent. One look at that kalliran face of yours and you would never catch her. Send your ship. But you’ll do things on my terms.
There was no answer. Daniel looked up again at the star that was Ashanome. A second brilliant light had appeared not far from it; and a third, unmoving to the eye. They were simply there, and they had not been.
Aiela, he flung out toward the first star.
But this time Aiela shut him out.
The paredre blazed with light. The farthest side of it, bare of furniture, was suddenly occupied by consoles and screens and panels rippling with color. In the midst of it stood Chimele with her nas-katasakke Rakhi, and they spoke urgently of the startling appearance of two of the akitomei. The image of them hung third-dimensional in the cube of darkness on the table, projection within projection, mirror into mirror.
Suddenly there was only Chimele and the darker reality of the paredre. Aiela met her quick glance uneasily, for kamethi were not admitted to control stations.
“Isande has been summoned,” said Chimele. “Cast her the details of the situation here. Keep screening against Daniel. Are you strong enough to maintain that barrier?”
“Yes. Are we under attack?”
The thought seemed to surprise Chimele. “Attack? No. The nasuli are not prone to such inconsiderate action. This is harathos, the Observance. Tashavodh has come to see vaikka done, and Mijanothe is the neutral Observer, who will declare to all the nasuli that things were done rightly. This is expected, and unexpected. It might have been omitted. It would have pleased me if it had been.”
In his mind, Isande had already started for the door of her apartment, pulled her tousled head through the sweater; the sweater was tugged to rights, her thin-soled boots pattering quickly down the corridor. He fired her what information he could, coherent, condensed, as he had learned to do.
And Daniel? she asked in return. What has happened to him?
Her question almost disrupted his screening. He clamped down against it, too incoherent to screen against Daniel and explain about him at once. Isande understood, and he was about to reply again when he was startled by a projection appearing not a pace from him.
Mejakh! He jerked back even as he flashed the warning to Isande. His dealings with the mother of Khasif and Tejef had been blessedly few, but she came into the paredre more frequently now that other duties had stripped Chimele of the aid of her nasithi-katasakke—for Chaikhe’s pursuit of an iduve mate had rendered her katasathe and barred her from the paredre. Khasif and Ashakh were on Priamos, and poor Rakhi was on watch in the control room trying to manage all the duties of his missing nasithi to Chimele’s demanding satisfaction. Mejakh accordingly asserted her rank as next closest, of an indirectly related sra, for Chimele had no other. Seeing that she had children now adult, she might be forty or more in age, but she had not the apologetic bearing of an aging female. She moved with the insolent grace of a much younger woman, for iduve lived long if they did not die by violence. She was slim and coldly handsome, commanding in her manner, although her attractiveness was spoiled by a rasping voice.
“Chimele,” said Mejakh, “I heard.”
Chimele might have acknowledged the offered support by some courtesy: iduve were normally full of compliments. All Mejakh received was a stare a presumptuous nas kame might have received, and that silence found ominous echo in the failure of Mejakh to lower her eyes. It was not an exchange an outsider would have noted; but Aiela had been long enough among iduve to feel the chill in the air.