"I didn't. I was desperate. Mairis's message is urgent. He wants you to repudiate this alliance publicly, and withdraw all your support, because it is making it impossible to achieve our mutual goals."
Yuan's nager was still ultrabrilliant, untapped by channel's transfer for too many weeks. Now it filled the room with a deadly weariness. "I see. Mairis has been forced to yield to the hysterics."
On the desk before Yuan lay a copy of the paper he'd shown Laneff a few days before. Next to it was a clip filled with other, similar articles Laneff also recognized. "Shanlun, I'm certain this paper is Diet-controlled. They're trying to spook Mairis into just this move, so they can see which of his backers withdraw. Then they'll know which prominent figures are ours–and those will become assassins' targets, like Laneff did. I can't do that to my own people!" Yuan emphasized that by slamming his fist into the desk top, with a ferocious grimace. "Damn the shendi-fleckin' Diet! I won't do it!" He smacked his whole aching hand into the desk top again.
Azevedo winced, and Yuan apologized. For the first time Laneff noticed the hint of need in the channel's nager. Then it disappeared as his fields shifted into the channel's working mode, shrouding him in nageric blur.
Slumping back in his chair, Yuan said to Azevedo, "RenSimes don't affect me the way you do. I don't think I can manage this. Perhaps you'd better leave."
Now, Laneff noticed that Yuan's field had increased in just the short time they'd been talking. His whole body, trained by Tecton methods, was responding to Azevedo's need.
Shanlun had tensed, perching on the edge of the seat, his Tecton training urging him to move to reshape the ambient, while something else held him back. Azevedo turned to meet Shanlun's gaze, no more than that, and Shanlun rose to stand beside and a little in front of Azevedo. The bland confetti nager swirled to enclose Azevedo's blur, and in moments the two of them had disappeared nagerically. Like channel and Companion. But a Householding Companion traditionally didn't do that with anyone but his own channel—unless the Tecton ordered it.
Yuan closed his eyes, his face softening in relief, and Laneff’s heart went out to the man, remembering his delight in the twists of fortune as they'd made good their escape, and understanding now why he couldn't laugh at this one.
When he opened his eyes, Yuan glanced from Azevedo to Shanlun and back. Then he centered on Shanlun. "Rior is a daughter House to Zeor. I have returned that pledge and granted Mairis all our loyalty. He has accepted my pledge. Such a pledge transcends temporal alliances of political convenience. If Mairis yields now to Diet demands to repudiate my allegiance, the Diet's next move will be to demand he prove he means it by throwing all Tecton resources into a drive to wipe out Rior. He knows almost enough about us now to do that."
"Mairis wouldn't do that to a daughter House or a sworn ally," replied Shanlun. "But that allegiance is going to be strained when I report that you've got not only Laneff here, but a huge standing army as well. After the raid on Teeren, the Diet and its violent tactics are looking very bad. Mairis can't afford to be associated with similar tactics—and I'm wondering if we can afford to trust you at all."
He didn't look at Laneff, but she felt his attention dart in her direction, then return to the schooled professionalism of a working Donor.
"Shanlun, Yuan has saved my life. And he's provided me a fully equipped lab to work in. He pledged to give Mairis all my findings."
Shanlun did look around then. "And to defend you with an army that just begs to be attacked?" He turned back to Yuan. "You engineered the Diet's attack on Teeren. You're prepared here for real violence. The Sime~Gen wars were over centuries ago. This isn't going to further the cause of Unity." He gestured around him. "And someone as valuable as Laneff shouldn't be caught in the middle of it, I don't see how Mairis could still have the same confidence in you, knowing you've held Laneff here secretly,"
Yuan's eyes narrowed, though his nager was so bright Laneff couldn't discern anything by the Gen's anxiety. "I'm not sure that Mairis will ever know you got through to me. You know too much to be allowed to go back to an enemy camp. If Mairis is weak enough to fold at a little throat-clearing from the Diet, the next thing you know he'll betray us into their hands."
Shanlun did not seem cowed by the threat. "Mairis is not your enemy. Don't you realize that in order to create real Unity, Mairis has to treat with the Diet and their silent sympathizers just as he treats with you? You represent the extreme in-Territory attitude, and they represent the extreme out-Territory attitude. You're both the tiniest of minorities, but the strength of your organizations is keeping the rest of the world from progress!"
"We're keeping the world—" choked Yuan, rising to his feet, leaning over the desk as if to throttle Shanlun.
Azevedo stepped between them, the ambient nager flowing and shifting as he moved. Yuan's flaming anger was blocked off from
Laneff’s senses, and all she could zlin was a faint tinge of bewildered exasperation on the surface of Shanlun's nager as it emerged from the fusion with Azevedo.
"Enough!" commanded the channel as if rebuking small boys, "Yuan, you can't see a tentacle in front of your eyelashes, you're so woozy with underdraw. You're in no condition to decide affairs of state on which the future of all humanity may hinge."
"Well what the shidoni shenshay frayed deproda do you expect me to do? Go crawling back to the Tecton and beg for transfer?"
Laneff felt the hot sting of tears in the Gen's eyes, but his face betrayed none of the anguish he felt. Azevedo did not react to the anger. He simply said, "No, my friend," and held out his hands to the Gen, tentacles extended in invitation. Simultaneously, his field dropped its masking blur, and pure need blazed forth so powerful that it rammed Laneff’s breath solid in her throat. What kind of a channel could mask such a need!
"Azevedo!" exclaimed Shanlun, one hand checked in midair. Laneff, too, was on her feet now. Two heartbeats later, Yuan pulled back from the brink of surrender. His haunted eyes went to Shanlun, as if sensing a prior claim. "It would be against our ethic—if you two have an agreement?" And then, hastily, he added, "Forgive me, Shanlun, if I misread you. It makes no sense for a Tecton Donor to be involved with a gypsy channel, but—"
"You don't misread him," supplied Azevedo. He turned to the speechless Shanlun. "You can handle your condition by the training you've had which Yuan has not. And you do have Mairis. Yuan has nobody. If Desha can give me to you, can you not give me to Yuan?" Shanlun met the channel's gaze. "I've no claim on you, Azevedo. I am ambrov Zeor." Straight as a rod, he turned and left, walking as if he had something precious balanced on his head.
Azevedo gazed after him, and Laneff read a tearing regret in his nager, a sharing of Shanlun's disappointment. But then he turned to Yuan, melting into a compassion that could not be overshadowed even by the bottomless need he felt. Yuan came around the desk, his whole body quivering in anticipation as he reached to take Azevedo's proffered hand. The Gen's field was rising again, but when the nageric blending took place as it had with Shanlun, Yuan steadied, then blinked and turned to Laneff.
He frowned at the door as it closed behind Shanlun. "I've taken his channel from him. I don't want to take his woman, too. Laneff, he's the one you prefer, isn't he?"
"Yuan, I—" She couldn't deny it, but she wasn't all that sure in her heart, either. "Whatever else," said Yuan, "he and I are sworn to the Tecton's