“But that’s exactly what she did.”
“Do you need it written out for you? You didn’t talk Mary into bringing you with her to Ransome’s Hole—she was intending to do that all along!”
“But you said there was no way she would—”
“Not so you could see if you liked Mary better than me.” Sylvia’s voice was warm. “You hairy, self-centered little ape. Mary did it for her purposes, not yours. She wanted to see if she liked you better than Ransome. But after she heard you talk about me, she said she felt less guilty about leaving to follow him.”
Bey sat for a few seconds in silence, staring into the blue-green depths of the water. He was feeling tired but not the slightest bit heartbroken. Even the revelation of Mary’s motives did not upset him.
“I’m a total idiot, you know,” he said at last.
“We’re all idiots.”
“I’m the worst. I thought I was being so clever with Mary. I’m going back, Sylvia. Back to Earth, back to something I’m good at. To the Office of Form Control again, if they’ll have me. But I’m really going to miss you and Aybee and Leo. I’m even going to miss Cinnabar and old Turpin, but I’ll miss you most of all. Would you come and visit me—see the Inner System for yourself?”
“Among all those little hairy Sunhuggers?” He knew she was laughing at him. “What do you think I am?”
“I think you’re a big, heartless skeleton that pretends to be a woman. Earth’s not as bad as you think. I think you’d like it. Will you do it? Come and visit?”
“I’m not sure.” She ran her finger along the hair on his wrist and refused to look at him. “No promises. But we’ll see.”
Bey nodded. It was all the answer he could expect, but it was enough.
He looked again into the water globe. The little red-throated fish was up against the wall, and it was still staring out at him. It had no eyelids, but Bey felt sure that it was trying to wink.