“But if everyone has become so habitually wolves or sheep that the collapse must come, you will carry those same habits into the new world, too. People whose most forgotten ancestors were sheep will not become on the instant self-reliant beavers. Your new world will be built by those who have known only the old. You’ve been given a clean slate, you say? But what you have just erased was written by you, or people like you. What makes you think the new script will be any different?”
“That is why,” whispered Eglay Portion, “we need you to lead us.”
Rolling boulders uphill was not high on Donovan’s list of priorities. By the looks on their faces, neither were Ekadrina and Oschous delighted by the suggestion.
“My needs are simple; my wants are few,” the Fudir said. “When I bought my ticket a year and a half ago, I intended to visit friends on Dangchao Waypoint. That is still my goal, and has always been.”
Ekadrina Sèanmazy struck the floor with her staff. “Den hear our ruling as joint custodians of whatever it is dat we are joint custodians of. Da agents of de League will be repatriated wid our t’anks for defending da Gayshot Bo from de renegade Gidula. Dis was above and beyond your call to duty—is dat how you say it? Call to duty?—which was merely to rescue a kidnapped citizen. Eglay, Ravn, and da magpies Padaborn. You cast your lot wid Donovan buigh. So be it. You will be exiled wid him into de League. Aynia, you should have remained loyal to me. But unlike da late Phoythaw Bhatvik, you surrendered when called upon. I will grant da confusion of da past day. So your motion is remitted to exile Coreside. You will be sent to a new world, dere to found a new colony. Dere.” She brushed her hands. “All cleared up. All set right.”
“Deadly One,” said Gwillgi, whose strength was returning. “What of Domino Tight? He and I are gozhiinyaw. Will he come with us?”
“From my point of view,” said Oschous, “he remained loyal to the Revolution when even Big Jacques was seduced by the renegade Gidula.”
“Is dat a recommendation?” said Ekadrina.
“You could name him liaison between the Lion’s Mouth and the Kennel,” Gwillgi pointed out. “If you are to begin anew, that is a new thing you may try.”
“Deadly Ones,” said the scarred man, “the fate of Domino Tight may be out of your hands. The Technical Name took him below for healing. And she has been down there a long time.”
“Yes,” said Bridget ban, who rose unsteadily from her chair. “How long for this accelerated healer to restore someone?”
“My sweet Domino,” said Ravn, “was closer to death than any man on this side of it.”
Gwillgi shook his head. “He was closer in Cambertown—yet fought at the warehouse.”
Ekadrina pulled her chin. “If de reins of da Confederation are in our hands now, we ought to know what is down dere.”
The Fudir said, “She swore that no one outside the College would ever see them.”
Oschous rose from his seat. “There is a new order in the world.”
An intuition struck Bridget ban and she seized her daughter’s hand and went swiftly to the fane’s door. Donovan followed her, pausing to activate Little Hugh’s pallet and pull it with him. Ravn and Greystroke did the same with Gwillgi and Graceful Bintsaif. Pyati and One pulled Three outside to the mezzanine. Ekadrina watched them, glanced at the colored tile that Tina Zhi had used to open the secret entrance, and within moments the fane had cleared.
Oschous exited last. “We will all feel foolish if nothing happens.”
The floor of the fane buckled and sagged, and a moment later the sound of an explosion reached them.
Ekadrina leaned on her staff and contemplated the wreckage. “Dat’s good,” she said. “I hate to feel foolish.”
In the second place, they gathered in the Cache.
The room was a shambles; the seven vaults, empty. In one, they found Matilda of the Night. No one asked how she had followed Tina Zhi into the Cache while everyone had been watching. Ekadrina rolled her eyes. “Am I to find a Hound behind every potted plant and curtain?”
Matilda was bleeding from her nose and ears. Though the vault had sheltered her somewhat, the concussion of the explosion had thrown her against the back wall. “Recognized me,” she gasped. “Should … have expected. Took … Vestiges. Leapt.”
Ekadrina looked to the scarred man and Bridget ban. “Da Amnesty holds. Take her up.” Donovan called up to Pyati and his magpies to bring down yet another gravity pallet. Ekadrina took Bridget ban by the arm. “So, de Vestiges are gone; and you have seen all dere is to see, which is nutting. I would not take da fruits from da laborer’s mouth; but whatever your Matilda recorded, a copy would be appreciated.” When Bridget ban hesitated, Ekadrina added, “Dey were ours to begin wit.’”
“Is justice now one of your watchwords?”
Ekadrina shrugged. “I always t’ought it one of yours.”
“I doubt there be muckle useful even in full-spectrum scans. But if she took any records, you will have them. Call it a gesture of amity for this day.”
Donovan had been so preternaturally silent that Bridget ban glanced in his direction. “Why not round up the Vestigial Virgins for a cup of coffee? Even some of the office sheep may know something.”
Ekadrina tilted her head back. “You t’ink any of dem are coming back after dis? Dey will vanish into de sheep pens. Too many records destroyed dis day. We will search for de Virgins; but I t’ink Tina Zhi will pluck dem to her personal planet long before we find dem, and what man knows where dat is?”
“It’s a big Spiral Arm,” agreed Donovan buigh.
In the third place, they gathered in Grimpen’s ship. The cutter had been left in Dao Chetty orbit in charge of Obligado, marked with suitably official-looking Confederal identifiers. Matilda of the Night had been using a small two-man craft expropriated somewhere in the Confederation. They left it behind, taking from it only its medical supplies, food stock, and the body of Cŵn Annwn. The old Sèan Beta still lay under Mount Lefn.
The ship was more crowded than she was wont, but Little Hugh, Graceful Bintsaif, and Matilda of the Night took up very little room. They occupied three of the four autoclinics. Gwillgi and Three Padaborn, less seriously wounded, took turns in the fourth.
The scarred man went to the clinic and sat with Little Hugh for a while, carrying on a one-sided conversation. “You didn’t have to stay,” he told the comatose man. “You could have taken Méarana forcibly and departed before Gidula entered the building.” He remembered how he had cold-conked Hugh on the front stoop of a Chel’veckistad tenement and run off alone to secure January’s Dancer. “I’m sorry I got you into any of this.” He hesitated. “Do you remember when you told me of your childhood, and I never answered?” Little Hugh said nothing and the machine continued to breathe for him. “I wasn’t being secretive. I had no memories of it, none at all. But now that I remember my name, other scraps may follow.”
Tomas Krishna Murphy. It was the name of a stranger; but it was a Terran name, so that much was true. Donovan had been a code name, assigned by the Lion’s Mouth.
So, you are no more the “original” than any of the rest of us, said the Sleuth.
He did not know Graceful Bintsaif so well, but he stopped at her tank and paid his respects. She had given her life—or at least nine-tenths of it—to buy Méarana a little time. For that he would always love her.
Matilda of the Night he did not know at all. He didn’t think anyone did. What is your secret? he asked her sleeping form. There was something odd about her, like a jigsaw piece that did not fit anywhere in the scene.