“I can see that. Yet we can pull a sledge together without being kemmerings, as we say in Eskeve—eh? What the devil, I know what you were exiled for, my dear: for liking Karhide better than its king.”
“Rather for liking the king better than his cousin, perhaps.”
“Or for liking Karhide better than Orgoreyn,” said Yegey. “Am I wrong, Lord Estraven?”
“No, Commensal.”
“You think, then,” said Obsle, “that Tibe wants to run Karhide as we run Orgoreyn—efficiently?”
“I do. I think that Tibe, using the Sinoth Valley dispute as a goad, and sharpening it at need, may within a year work a greater change in Karhide than the last thousand years have seen. He has a model to work from, the Sarf. And he knows how to play on Argaven’s fears. That’s easier than trying to arouse Argaven’s courage, as I did. If Tibe succeeds, you gentlemen will find you have an enemy worthy of you.”
Obsle nodded. “I waive shifgrethor,” said Yegey, “what are you getting at, Estraven?”
“This: Will the Great Continent hold two Orgoreyns?”
“Aye, aye, aye, the same thought,” said Obsle, “the same thought: you planted it in my head a long time ago, Estraven, and I never can uproot it. Our shadow grows too long. It will cover Karhide too. A feud between two Clans, yes; a foray between two towns, yes; a border-dispute and a few barn-burnings and murders, yes; but a feud between two nations? a foray involving fifty million souls? O by Meshe’s sweet milk, that’s a picture that has set fire to my sleep, some nights, and made me get up sweating… We are not safe, we are not safe. You know it, Yegey; you’ve said it in your own way, many times.”
“I’ve voted thirteen times now against pressing the Sinoth Valley dispute. But what good? The Domination faction holds twenty votes ready at command, and every move of Tibe’s strengthens the Sarf’s control over those twenty. He builds a fence across the valley, puts guards along the fence armed with foray guns—foray guns! I thought they kept them in museums. He feeds the Domination faction a challenge whenever they need one.”
“And so strengthens Orgoreyn. But also Karhide. Every response you make to his provocations, every humiliation you inflict upon Karhide, every gain in your prestige, will serve to make Karhide stronger, until it is your equal—controlled all from one center as Orgoreyn is. And in Karhide they don’t keep foray guns in museums. The King’s Guard carry them.”
Yegey poured out another dram around of lifewater. Orgota noblemen drink that precious fire, brought five thousand miles over the foggy seas from Sith, as if it were beer. Obsle wiped his mouth and blinked his eyes.
“Well,” he said, “all that is much as I thought, and much as I think. And I think we have a sledge to pull together. But I have a question before we get in harness, Estraven. You have my hood down over my eyes entirely. Now tell me: what was all this obscuration, obfuscation and fiddlefaddle concerning an Envoy from the far side of the moon?”
Genly Ai, then, had requested permission to enter Orgoreyn.
“The Envoy? He is what he says he is.”
“And that is—”
“An envoy from another world.”
“None of your damned shadowy Karhidish metaphors, now, Estraven. I waive shifgrethor, I discard it. Will you answer me?”
“I have done so.”
“He is an alien being?” Obsle said, and Yegey, “And he has had audience with King Argaven?”
I answered yes to both. They were silent a minute and then both started to speak at once, neither trying to mask his interest. Yegey was for circumambulating, but Obsle went to the point. “What was he in your plans, then? You staked yourself on him, it seems, and fell. Why?”
“Because Tibe tripped me. I had my eyes on the stars, and didn’t watch the mud I walked in.”
“You’ve taken up astronomy, my dear?”
“We’d better all take up astronomy, Obsle.”
“Is he a threat to us, this Envoy?”
“I think not. He brings from his people offers of communication, trade, treaty, and alliance, nothing else. He came alone, without arms or defense, with nothing but a communicating device, and his ship, which he allowed us to examine completely. He is not to be feared, I think. Yet he brings the end of Kingdom and Commensalities with him in his empty hands.”