He turned up the jack of love and laid it beside the ten. “Another point for Newholme, Questy?”
Questioner shifted uncomfortably. When she had assessed Beltran Four a quarter-century before, she had not recommended any punishment. What went on there was all too common. Though Haraldson had hated war, he had known it would happen. War was natural. Men being killed in war was natural. Why was this situation worse? She had no sooner thought the question than Mouche answered it.
“You’re holding women to a higher standard than men,” he said. “Madame used to tell us that this is traditional, for men have usually been the judges, and they put women either in the gutter or upon a pedestal. Men have traditionally forgiven one another, for they know and excuse their own failings, but they do not forgive women for falling off the pedestal.”
She thought, of course, and of course. For a woman to be respected she must burn on a pyre like M’Tafa, be immured in solitude like Mathilla, submit to being buried alive like Tiu; for a woman to be respected, she must take the pain of life without demanding the joys, she must sacrifice herself, preferably without complaint. She may have no pleasure except what she is granted by father, or husband, or son. Damn Calvy!
“Are you finished with your argument?” she asked, her voice giving no indication of yielding.
“Not yet,” he said, taking a deep breath, for there was more at stake here than she knew. “I have the Kaorugi card to play.”
“Which is?”
“Will you agree that Kaorugi is a lifeform?”
“Kaorugi is a lifeform, certainly.”
“And will you agree that Haraldson’s edicts prohibit the torture or harassment of lifeforms?”
“I agree. I’m not intending to interfere with Kaorugi or any of its subparts. Quite the contrary.”
“Ah, but Bofusdiaga says you are. All his life until Quaggima, Kaorugi was singular and alone. Then Quaggima came, and Kaorugi had a companion. He delighted in that companionship, strange though it was. Then mankind came, and Kaorugi had still other creatures to learn about and from. He learned new feelings: vanity, pride, ecstacy, disgust—a whole volume of emotions.
“Now Quaggima is gone. It’s partly due to you that he’s gone, you know; you helped take him away, and you’ve left Kaorugi, who is virtually immortal, with mankind only. If you sterilize the planet of all mankind, Kaorugi will be sentenced to solitary confinement. Kaorugi doesn’t want that. So, if you take away mankind, you are torturing Kaorugi.”
He turned up the queen of love, laying it next to the jack and ten. “The Kaorugi card.”
“And that’s why I should change my mind?” she cried. “I should evade my duty so Kaorugi can have some company and learn more about the universe?”
“Not only for that, also because Haraldson would not approve of your interfering with the lifeform on this planet,” Mouche murmured. He hadn’t said all he could have said about the lifeform on the planet. If Questioner insisted on sterilization and managed somehow to get off planet to do it, Bofusdiaga would not let mankind die. They would become something else, of course. Rather as Mouche had become, though without some of the elements that had made that becoming successful, assuming it was successful. It would not necessarily be a bad thing or bad in all cases, but still that part of Mouche that was purely mankind preferred that his people be allowed to choose what they would be.
“You seem to have innumerable arguments,” she said in a grumpy voice.
“Not innumerable, no. I have played all my cards but two.”
“Well, play them,” she said impatiently. “Get on with it.”
“This is one you should like, Questy. Now that your political appointees are out of your hair, not that they were ever any good to you, you should demand the liberty of choosing your own aides. Competent ones. People who will work with you.”
“Competent aides,” she murmured, intrigued despite herself. “I must admit, that has its attractions. Could I possibly have a competent ship’s crew, as well?”
“We could work on that. Ornery might be just the person to assure it. We, that is Ellin and Bao and Ornery and I, would like to be your aides, Questy. We’ve held off discussing it with you, for there’s been a lot to think about, but it’s the only thing that makes sense. Ellin can’t go back to History House, she’s beyond that, and so is Bao. Ornery needs wider seas than the ones she’s been traveling, and I can’t be a planetbound Consort now. I know too much. I’ve seen too much, felt too much. I can’t do it even by serving my Hagion, for the Hagion I served is part of me, and that part of me isn’t interested in an eternity of Consorthood on Newholme … “