“Your manners are very direct, Kont’ Raen. And yet you don’t say a word of why you’ve come.”
“No, ser. I don’t intend to.” She lowered her eyes and took a drink, diminishing the harshness of that refusal, glanced up again. “I confess to a lively curiosity about you—about the Outside. How many worlds are there?”
“Above fifty around the human stars.”
“Fifty . . . and non-human? Have you found other such?”
Tallen’s eyes broke contact, and disappointed her, even, it seemed, with regret to do so. “A restricted matter, Kont’ Raen.”
She inclined her head, turned the glass in her hand, let the melting ice continue spinning, frowned—thinking on Outside, and on the ship at station, Outbound.
“We are concerned,” Tallen said, “that the Reach remain stable.”
“I do not doubt” She regarded him and his companions, male and female. “I doubt that I can answer your questions either.”
“Do you invite them?” And when she shrugged: “Who governs? Who decides policies? Do majat or humans dominate here?”
“Moth governs; the Council decides; majat and humans are separate by nature.”
“Yet you interpret.”
“I interpret.”
“And remain separate?”
“That, ser,” she answered, having lost her self-possession for the second time, “remains a question.” She frowned. “But there remains one more matter, seri, for which I asked you here. And I shall ask it and hope for the plain truth: among the bargains that you have made with concerns inside the Reach—is there any breach of quarantine? You’re not—providing exit for any citizens of the Reach? You’ve not agreed to do so in future?”
They were disturbed by this, as they might be.
“No,” Tallen said.
“Again, my personal position is one of complete disregard. No. Not complete. I would,” she said with a shrug and a smile, “be personally interested. I would be very interested to see what’s over the Edge. But this is not the case. There is no exit.”
“None. It would not be tolerated, Kont’ Raen, much as it is regrettable.”
“I am satisfied, then. That was the one item which troubled me. You’ve answered me. I think that I believe you. All our business for my part is done. Perhaps a social meeting when there’s leisure for it.”
“It would be a pleasure, Kont’ Raen.”
She inclined her head, set her glass aside, giving them the excuse to do the same.
There were formalities, shaking of hands, parting courtesies: she went personally to the door and made sure that Warrior did not approach them as they entered their car and closed the doors.
“Max,” she said, “see to the gate out there. Make sure our security is intact.”
He was over-zealous; he went without more than his sunvisor, and she frowned over it, for Istra’s sun was no kinder than Cerdin’s. New azi. Anxious and over-anxious to please. It was worse in its way than dealing with housecomp.
The car reached the gate and exited; Max saw to the closing and walked back, Warrior gliding along at a little distance, keeping a critical majat eye on all that passed.
Max entered, sought more instruction. “Just protect yourself when you go out, after this,” she said peevishly, and dismissed him. She was depressed by the encounter, had hoped otherwise, and logically could not say why.
She closed and sealed the door, blinking somewhat from the change of light, from the portico to the inner hall—looked up, for Jim was on the stairs, watching her.
He looked yet a little abstracted; deepstudy did that to one. And he had been upstairs longer than the tape had run . . . asleep, perhaps. It was a common reaction.
“You didn’t repeat it, did you?” she asked, thinking of Max’s excessive zeal, concerned for that.
“I listened aloud for several times.”
“You were supposed to enjoy it.”
“I thought I was supposed to learn it.” He shrugged from the stare she gave him for that, glanced down briefly, a flinching. “Is there something I can do now?”
She shook her head, and went back to her work.
The supplies arrived: Jim went out with Max and Merry to fend off Warrior while they were unloaded; it evidently was managed without incident, for she heard nothing of it. Six of the neighbours called, advising that they were indeed seeking shelter elsewhere; three were silent, and calls to them raised no human answer, only housecomp. There were several more calls from various sources, including ITAK and ISPAK.