"I have a book of charges for the woman called Shedemei." It was hard for him to get his mouth around her name.
Before Shedemei could speak, Mother pushed forward. "What is this about?" she asked.
Husu was immediately flustered. "Lady Chebeya," he said. Then, noticing Edhadeya, he took a step backward. "No one said... I've been misled, I think!"
"No you haven't," said Shedemei. She touched Chebeya lightly on the shoulder. "You may be a raveler, but you're not Hushidh, I'm not Rasa, and this good man is definitely not Rashgallivak."
In vain Luet searched her memory for details of the story Shedemei was alluding to. Something about Hushidh the raveler destroying the army of Rashgallivak. But Husu had no army, not anymore. She didn't understand and wasn't going to.
"Husu, you have a book of charges?"
"Shall I read them to you?"
"No, I'll simply tell them to you," said Shedemei. "I assume that I'm charged by a group of men from this neighborhood with creating a public nuisance because of the number of poor people who call at my school, with incitement to riot because I'm teaching the children of former slaves right along with other girls, with confusion of sexes for having appended the male honorific ro to the end of the name of the Hero Rasa in the name of my school. And, let me see-oh, yes, I'm sure there's a charge of blasphemy because I call the wives of the Heroes Heroes in their own right-or is that merely a charge of improper doctrinal innovation?"
"Yes," stammered Husu, "improper doctrinal... yes."
"And, oh yes, mustn't forget-treason. There's a charge of treason, isn't there."
"This is absurd," said Chebeya. "You must know it is, Husu."
"If I were still in the king's council," said Husu, "then yes, I'd say so. But I'm in the civil guard now, and when I'm given a book of charges to deliver, then I deliver them." He handed the polished bark to Shedemei. "It's to be tried in Pabul's court in twenty-four days. I don't think you'll have any trouble finding lawyers who'll want to speak for you."
"Don't be silly, Husu," said Shedemei. "I'll speak for myself."
"That's not done by ladies," said Chebeya-and then laughed at her own words, realizing whom she was talking to. "I suppose that won't make any difference to you, Shedemei."
"See? Everyone has learned something today," said Shedemei, also laughing.
Husu was astonished at the lightness of their tone. "These are serious charges."
"Come now, Husu," said Shedemei. "You know as well as I do that these charges are deliberately stupid. Every single crime I'm charged with consists of something that Akmaro the high priest has been teaching people to do for thirteen years. Mixing poor with rich, mixing diggers with humans and angels, mixing former slaves with freeborn citizens, applying the honors of men to women, and denying the authority of the king's priests over doctrine-that is the substance of the treason charge, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"There you are. These charges have been placed against me specifically because if I am put on trial, Akmaro's teachings will be on trial."
"But Pabul is not going to convict you of a crime because you're following the teachings of my husband," said Chebeya.
"Of course he's not. It doesn't matter what he does. The enemies of the Keeper don't care how the trial turns out. I don't matter to them. It may be the very fact that you came to visit me today that led them to decide to lay these charges. They probably expect me to call you as witnesses on my behalf. And if I don't, they'll call you as witnesses against me."
"I won't say a word against you," insisted Luet.
Shedemei touched her arm. "The act of calling you is what matters.
It ties Akmaro's family with the case. The more you defend Shedemei, the more credit the enemies of the Keeper will gain with the public. Or at least that part of the public that doesn't want to stop hating the diggers."
Husu was livid. "What is your source of information? How did you already know what the charges against you were?"
"I didn't know," said Shedemei. "But since I deliberately broke every one of those laws and made it clear to anyone who asked that I knew I was breaking them, I'm not at all surprised to find them on the book of charges."
"Did you want to be put on trial for your life?" asked Husu.
Shedemei smiled. "I assure you, Husu, no matter how things turn out, the one certainty is that I will not be dead."
Still confused, still angry, Husu and the two human guards left the house. "You do know the custom that you may not leave the city," Chebeya said.
"Oh, yes," said Shedemei. "I've already been advised of that."
"We've got to go home, Mother," Luet said. "We have to tell Father what's happened."
Mother turned to Shedemei. "This morning I didn't know you. Tonight I'm bound to you by cords of love as if I'd been your friend for years."
"We are bound together," said Shedemei, "because we both serve the Keeper."
Mother looked at her with a wry smile. "I would have thought so until the moment you said that, Shedemei. Because there was something about what you said that is ... not a lie ... but... ."
"Let's just say that my service to the Keeper hasn't always been voluntary," said Shedemei. "But it is now, and that's the truth."
Mother grinned. "You seem to know more than I do about what a raveler can see."
"Let's just say that you're not the first I've known." Then Shedemei laughed. "Not even the first named Chveya."
"Nobody can pronounce her name the old way like that," said Luet. "How do you do that?"
• "Humans can say it," said Shedemei. "Chvuh. Chveya. It's only angels that can't, and that's why the name was changed."
"It's silly, isn't it," said Luet. "The person I'm named for and the person Mother is named for were also mother and daughter, except the other way around."
"It's not a coincidence," said Mother. "After all, I'm the one who named you."
"I know that," said Luet.
"I thought the names were appropriate myself," said Shedemei. "As I said, I once had dear friends with those names. I knew them long ago and far away, and they're dead now."
"Where are you from?" Chebeya demanded. "Why have you come here?"
"I'm from a city that was destroyed," said Shedemei, "and I came here in search of the Keeper. I want to know who she is. And the closer I stay to you and your family, Chebeya, the better my chances of finding out."
"We don't know any more than you do," said Luet.
"Then perhaps we'll find out together," said Shedemei. "Now go home before the sky gets too dark. The evening rains are about to begin and you'll be soaked."
"Will you be all right?" asked Mother.
"You must believe me when I say that I am the only one who is perfectly safe." With that, Shedemei hustled them out the door. Impulsively Luet stopped at the last moment and kissed the schoolmaster on the cheek. Shedemei embraced her then and held her for a moment. "I lied," she whispered. "I didn't just come here for the Keeper. I also came here because I wanted a friend."
"I am your friend," said Luet. Later she would think of how passionately she said those words and wail to Edhadeya that she must have sounded like a schoolgirl. But at the time, looking into Shede-mei's eyes, they seemed the most natural words she could have said.