"Your name is Emil Luiz, sir, and if I were under threat I would not give you a correct answer. Boz, from the ruins nearest Flower, southeast to some low hills; you'll see pillars, Boz, and a city within the rocks. Do you know that site?
"We can find it. We'll be there, Duncan. Be patient with us."
"Understood, Boz. Youtt be safe to land. You only.
"Cease," said Melein.
Transmission ceased," the machine echoed.
"Aliens," Abotai hissed. "You deal with aliens.
Duncan pulled his veil aside, and there was a void in the dus-sense; a cry went up from the elee, for it was the face of the image. He seemed not to regard it, but looked at Melein. "Is there else," he asked, "she'pan?
"When they come," she answered.
"Aye," Duncan said, and the void persisted, a gap and a darkness where Duncan had been. A touch fell on Niun's shoulder; it was Hlil. He felt all of them, Has, Rhian, Taz. Only Duncan was not there, for all that Duncan returned to him, and looked nakedly into his eyes, and stood among them.
"Veil yourself," Niun said, "sov-kela.
Duncan did so, and he and his beast went aside, into the other room, among the others who waited.
They rested must, finally. Galey sucked in great breaths from the mask, bowed over, uninterested in the rations the others passed among them. A drink of water, that he took, and bowed down with his head against his arms. His knees ached and his temples pounded. He rubbed at eyes which ran tears that never stopped.
More such to go; the city of the mri dead that one next, he reckoned.
"Sir," Kadarin said. And when he responded lethargically; "Sir
He looked up, rose, as the others scrambled to their feet There was a ship coming. He stared at it, blank and terrified; and there was no place to go, no concealment in the vast flat; it was coming low.
One of their own. He blinked, no less disquieted, heard the same realization on the lips of Magee and Kadarin.
It was coming for them, coming in fast.
"Treachery," Nagn hissed, her color gone white around the nostrils. Suth sat still, his hearts quite out of phase, stared at the screens on which shuttles and Santiago were moving dots, all his calculations amiss.
"Bai," Morkhug pleaded.
Suth faced his sled about. His attendant crouched in the corner, attempting invisibility. Suth considered, regarding his mates who looked to him for decision suddenly keyed in the control center, where a contact to Saber-Corn was maintained continuously.
"Bai Koch," he requested of his own younglings, and slowly calmed his breathing, suppressed the racing heartbeats with reason. The human face suddenly filled his screen; Koch, indeed; Suth knew him by the ruddiness and white, clipped hair.
"Bai Suth?" the human bai asked.
"You are undertaking operations without consultation, bai, contrary to agreement
"No operations; maneuver. As you have an observer near the world as you have received transmission, as we have. We are moving more reliable monitoring into position. We confess surprise, bai Suth; we are not yet ready to address policy.
What action are you taking, bai?
"Meditating on the matter, bai Suth.
"What is your installation onworld doing?
A hesitation. "What is yours doing?
"We are not in contact. They are pursuing previous instruction. Doubtless they will not act beyond those instructions.
"Ours likewise, bai Suth.
Suth sucked air. Is your intention to accept this offered contact, reverend ally?
There was a second hesitation. "Yes," Koch said.
Suth's hearts left synch again. "We urge the bai to enter urgent consultations with us.
"Most assuredly. You are welcome aboard.
"We also must contact our onworld mission.
Koch's face remained impassive. There was a slight flaring of his nostrils; what this meant in a human was disputable.
"We advise you," Koch said, "to stay clear of Kutath; we do not mean to have lives endangered. We would take very seriously any approach to Kutath, bai Suth."
"We wish to send a shuttle to your ship.
"I have said that you are welcome.
"I am entering arrangements. Favor, bai Koch, maintain a full flow of data to our offices.
"Agreed.
"Favor.
"Favor," Koch murmured in turn, and faded.
Suth sucked a deep breath, puffed it out with a flutter of his nostrils. "They wish me aboard.
"Bai?" Tiag mourned, visibly disturbed.
"Secure ship," Suth said. And when they delayed in confusion; "Leave onworld to onworld; secure the ship. Saber ... is here
"Enough," said Melek in horror; Magd killed the message which played over and over in the recorder. There was the thump of the pumps in the silence, the furtive scratching of some night-wandering crawler at the plastic dome.
They were alone, they two, senior. They had killed their assistants, a grim matter of economics. They hungered almost constantly in their terror; and Magd looked on Melek with continual fear. It was next, when it came to seniority.
"There is a way out," said Melek.
"I am listening." Magd's belly hurt. It already existed on short rations, pampering Melek, beginning to die slowly in the hope of living longer. Its skin flaked; its joints were whitening. More than anything it desired to please; its thoughts were nightmare, of hunger on the one hand, being refused survival by the elder Suth if it dared leave its post; of slaughter at Melek's hand, merciful and more immediate. It could not think. It wanted life, dung to hope, scrabbled after this one, that Melek itself offered.
"Orders," Melek said, "require we observe and find this youngling Duncan. That we stir up the mri and destroy this youngling if we find it. This is our way out Listen listen, youngest] Will this message have gone out and Skirug not know? Is not our time shortened here? They will send us orders; we finish here; we finish. Then we can come back; then Eldest will welcome us and make us favorites, feed us of his own cup. Both both of us. If we do this for him. If we finish."
Magd had no inner confidence. Magd's hearts labored and its mouth was dry, its tongue sticking to the membranes, so that water and soi were the only coherent desires. Magd knew the trap; that yielding food to Melek, Magd was no longer strong enough to resist, no longer keen-witted.
"Yes," it said, desperate, paid anxious attention as Melek brought up charts on their screens.
"Here," Melek said, indicating a place near hills. "This is the place. We must be ready; we must work out all the details. You will lead in, youngest
"Yes," it said again.
It would have agreed to any instruction.
Chapter Seventeen
It was an hour for sleeping. Perhaps some within the elee city did so, but none within the hall of the elee she'pan, nor anywhere about it. Niun sat still, at the feet of Melein, his dus and his companions by him, while certain kel'ein, mostly hao'nath and ja'ari, walked the corridors of the city, wandering by twos and by threes, to observe the things which passed among the elee. None offered them violence. None challenged them, or alarm would have been raised in the halls of Ele'et, and blood would have flowed; it did not; and the most part of the Kel sat quietly in attendance on the she'pan.
"You must call them back," said Abotai of the kel'ein who ranged the city corridors. "They must not must not harm Ele'et
"They do not," Melein said softly, and stilled any protest of Sen or Kel with an uplifted and gently lowered hand. "And we go where we will.
"Understand" Abotai's lips trembled, and she held the hand of the Husband who sat beside her. "More than lives these precious things, she'pan of the mri.