“Yes, sir.” Toshi gave a deep breath of relief and bowed, then backed a pace and turned, hurried off shouting orders at the crew of her aircraft. Tejef dismissed the matter into her capable hands.
There was still the unpleasant necessity of Mejakh. Harshly he ordered the kamethi to stand aside, and he knelt and gathered the shattered body into his arms.
Tejef washed meticulously and changed his clothes before he entered the paredre again. The remembrance of Mejakh’s face, the knowledge of Khasif a prisoner in the room down the corridor, worked at his nerves and his temper with the corrosive effect of takkhenes out of agreement. It grew stronger. Khasif must be coming out from under the effect of the drug.
Tejef mind-touched the projection apparatus where he stood and connected it to the unit in Khasif’s cell.
The nasith was a sorry sight. He had gained his feet, and he was dusty and bruised and bleeding, but he attempted a show of hostility.
Tejef was amazed to find that he did have the advantage of his proud iq-sra. Perhaps it was the drug still dulling Khasif s mind, or perhaps it was the knowledge that Mejakh was dead and that he had fallen to m’metanei and amaut. Undoubtedly Khasif had already attempted the door with his mind, and found its mechanism proof against an iduve’s peculiar kind of tampering—the lock primitive and manual. Now Khasif simply withdrew to the farthest corner, stumbled awkwardly into the wall he could not see in his vision of the paredre. He leaned there as if it were difficult to hold his feet.
“I have sent Mejakh hence,” Tejef said softly, “but she had nothing for serach but what she wore and the blanket they wrapped her in, and I vented the residue world-bound. Hail Mejakh, who was sra to us both.”
Khasif ought to have reacted to that pretty vaikka. He did not move. Tejef felt his own strength coursing along his nerves, felt Khasif s weakness and his fear.
“You could be free,” Tejef assured him, “if you declared yourself arrhei-nasul and made submission to me. I would take it.”
Khasif made a small sound of anger. That was all. It was a beaten sound.
“Sir.” Gordon’s voice sounded beyond the walls of Khasif s room, and Tejef ceased the projection and stood in the paredre once more, facing Gordon and the man Daniel. “Let him go,” said Tejef. “The restraint is not necessary.” Gordon released his prisoner, who showed a disheveled appearance that had no reasonable connection with his having been aroused from sleep. There was blood on his mouth. The human wiped at it at his first opportunity, but he seemed indisposed to quarrel with an iduve. Tejef dismissed Gordon with a nod.
“I assume you are in contact with your asuthe,” said Tejef.
“Is Isande on this ship?” the human demanded, and Tejef would have corrected his belligerence instantly had the man worn the idoikkhe. He did not, and risked a chastisement of more damaging nature if his insolence persisted.
“Isande is here; but I would surmise that the man who asked that question is named Aiela.”
“I thought arastiethe forbade guesswork.”
“Hardly an unreasonable assumption. And I am not wrong, am I? It was Aiela who asked.”
“Yes,” Daniel admitted.
“Tell this Aiela that should he wish to surrender himself, I will appoint him the place and the person.”
“Arle—the little girl.” Daniel ignored the barb to make that broken-voiced plea. “Where is she? Is she alive?”
Vaikka was practically meaningless against such a vulnerable creature as this, one so lacking in pride. Tejef had allowed himself to be vexed; now he dismissed his anger in disgust, made a gesture of inconsequence. He dealt with humans—it was all that could be expected.
“Chimele sent you to Priamos with asuthi to guide you, but without the idoikkhe—without its danger and its protection. Was it in order to kill me—to draw near to me, and to seem only human?”
“Yes,” said Daniel, so plainly that Tejef laughed in surprise and pleasure. And at once the human’s face changed, anger flaring; unprepared for the creature’s maniacal lunge, Tejef slapped the human in startled reaction—open-handed, not to kill. The blow was still hard enough to put the fragile being to the floor, and Tejef waited patiently until the human began to stir, and bent and seized his arm, dragging him to his feet.