“The m’metane has an extraordinary confidence in his own value.”
“It was not a conscious choice.”
“Explain.”
“Among his kind, life is valued above everything. I know, I know your objections, but grant me for a moment that this is so. It was a confidence so deep he didn’t think it, that if he served beings of arastiethe, they would consider saving his life and the child’s of more value than taking that of Tejef.”
“He is demented,” Chimele said.
Careful, Isande whispered into his mind. Soft, be careful.
“You gave me a human asuthe,” Aiela persisted, “and told me to learn his mind. I’m kallia. I believe kastien is more important than life—but Daniel served you to the limit of his moral endurance.”
“Then he is of no further use,” said Chimele. “I shall have to take steps of my own.”
His heart lurched. “You’ll kill him.”
Chimele sat back, lifted her brows at this protest from .her kameth, but her hand paused at the console. “Do you care to stay asuthithekkhe with him while he is questioned by Tejef? Do not be distressed. It will be sudden; but those who harmed him and interfered with Ashanome will wish they had been stillborn.”
“If you can intervene to kill him, you can intervene to save him.”
“To what purpose?”
Aiela swallowed hard, screened against Isande’s interference. He sweated; the idoikkhe had taught its lesson. “It is not chanokhia to destroy him, any more than it was to use him as you did.”
The pain did not come. Chimele stared into the trembling heart of him. “Are you saying that I have erred?”
“Yes.”
“To correctly assess his abilities was your burden. To assign him was mine. His misuse has no relevance to the fact that his destruction is proper now. Your misguided giyre will cost him needless pain and lessen the arastiethe of Ashanome. If he comes living into the hands of Tejef he may well ask you why you did not let him die; and every moment we delay, intervention becomes that much more difficult.”
“He is kameth. He has that protection. It would not be honorable for Tejef to harm him.”
‘Tejef is arrhei-nasuli, an outcast. It would not be wise to assume he will be observant of nasul-chanokhia. He is not so bound, nor am I with him. He may well choose to harm him. We are wasting time.”
“Then contact that amaut aircraft and demand Daniel and the child.”
‘To what purpose?”
The question disarmed him. He snatched at some logic the iduve might recognize. “He is not useless.”
“How not? Secrecy is impossible now. Tejef will be alerted to the fact that I have a human nas kame; besides, the amaut in the aircraft would probably refuse my order. Tejef is their lord; they said so quite plainly, and amaut are nothing if not consistent. To demand and to be refused would mean that we had suffered vaikka, and I would still have to destroy a kameth of mine, having gained nothing. To risk this to save what I am bound to lose seems a pointless exercise; the odds are too high. I am not sure what you expect of me.”
“Bring him back to Ashanome. Surely you have the power to do it.”
“There is no longer time to consider that alternative. Shall I commit more personnel at Tejef’s boundaries? The risk involved is not reasonable.”
“No!” Aiela cried as she started to turn from him. He rose from his chair and leaned upon her desk, and Chimele looked up at him with that bland patience swiftly evaporating.
“What are you going to do with Priamos when you’ve destroyed him?” Aiela asked. “With three days left, what are you going to do? Blast it to cinders?”
“Contrary to myth, such actions are not pleasurable to us. I perceive you have suffered extreme stress in my service and I have extended you a great deal of patience, Aiela; I also realize you are trying to give me the benefit of your knowledge. But there will be a limit to my patience. Does your experience suggest a solution?”
“Call on Tejef to surrender.”
Chimele gave a startled laugh. “Perhaps I shall. He would be outraged. But there is no time for a m’metane’s humor. Give me something workable. Quickly.”
“Let me keep working with Daniel. You wanted him within reach of Tejef. Now he is, and whatever else, Tejef has no hold over him with the idoikkhe.”
“You m’metanei are fragile people. I know that you have giyre to your asuthe, but to whose advantage is this? Surely not to his.”
“Give me something to bargain with. Daniel will fight if he has something to fight for. Let me assure him you’ll get the amaut off Priamos and give it back to his people. That’s what he wants of you.”
Chimele leaned back once more and hissed softly. “Am I at disadvantage, to need to bargain with this insolent creature?”
“He is human. Deal with him as he understands. Is that not reasonable? Giyre is nothing to him; he doesn’t understand arastiethe. Only one thing makes a difference to him: convince him you care what—“
A probing touch found his consciousness and his stomach turned over at foreknowledge of the pain. He tried to screen against it, but his sympathy made him vulnerable.
“Daniel is conscious.” Isande spoke, for at the moment he had not yet measured the extent of the pain and his mind was busy with that. “He is hearing the amaut talk. The child Arle is beside him. He is concerned for her.”
“Dispense with his concern for her. Tell him you want a report.”
Aiela tried. Tears welled in his eyes, an excess of misery and weariness; the pain of the wounds blurred his senses. Daniel was half-conscious, sending nonsense, babble mixed with vague impressions of his surroundings. He was back on the amaut freighter. There was wire all about. Aiela, Aiela, Aiela, the single thread of consciousness ran, begging help.
I’m here, he sent furiously. So is Chimele. Report.
“’I,’” Aiela heard and said aloud for Chimele, “’I’m afraid I have—penetrated Tejef’s defenses—in a somewhat different way than she had planned. We’re coming down, I think. Stay with me—please, stay with me, if you can stand it. I’ll send you what I—what I can learn.’”
“And he will tell Tejef what Tejef asks, and promise him anything. A creature that so values his own life is dangerous.” Chimele laced her fingers and stared at the backs of them as if she had forgotten the kamethi or dismissed the problem for another. Then she looked up. “Vaikka. Tejef has won a small victory. I have regarded your arguments. Now I cannot intervene without using Ashanome’s heavy armament to pierce his defenses—a quick death to Tejef, ruin to Priamos, and damage to my honor. This is a bitterness to me.”
“Daniel still has resources left,” Aiela insisted. “I can advise him.”
“You are not being reasonable. You are fatigued: your limbs shake, your voice is not natural. Your judgment is becoming highly suspect. I have indeed erred to listen to you.” Chimele gathered the now-useless position report together and put it aside, pushed a button on the desk console, and frowned. “Ashakh: come to the paredre at once. Rakhi: contact Ghiavre in the lab and have him prepare to receive two kamethi for enforced rest.”
Rakhi acknowledged instantly, to Aiela’s intense dismay.
He leaned upon the desk, holding himself up. “No,” he said, “no, I am not going to accept this.”
Chimele pressed her lips together. “If you were rational, you would recognize that you are exceeding your limit in several regards. Since you are not—“
“Send me down to Priamos, if you’re afraid I’ll leak information to Daniel. Set me out down there. I’ll take my chances with the deadline.”
Chimele considered, looked him up and down, estimating. “Break contact with Daniel,” she said. “Shut him out completely.”
He did so. The effort it needed was a great one. Daniel screamed into the back of his mind, his distrust of Chimele finding echo in Aiela’s own thoughts.