"I'm working on a project with Issib."
"The other students say that you're hiding," said Hushidh.
Hiding. Because Father was so notorious and controversial. "I'm not ashamed of my father."
"Of course not," said Hushidh. "They say you're hiding. Not me."
"And what do you think I'm doing? Or has the Oversoul told you?"
"I'm a raveler," she said, "not a seer."
"Right. I forgot." As if he should keep track of what kind of witch she was.
The Oversoul doesn't have to tell me how you're weaving yourself into the world,"
"Because you can see it."
She nodded. "And you're very brave."
He looked at her in consternation. "I sit in the library with Issya."
"You're weaving yourself into the weakest of the quarreling parties in Basilica, and yet it's the best of them. The one that should win, though no one can imagine how."
"I'm not party of any party."
She nodded. "I'll stop talking if you don't want to hear the truth."
As if she were going to be the fount of irresistible wisdom.
"I'll listen to a pig fart as long as it's the truth" said Nafai.
Immediately she got to her feet and moved away.
That was really stupid, Nafai rebuked himself. She's just trying to help, and you make a stupid joke out of it. He got up and followed her. "I'm sorry," he said.
She shrugged away from him.
"I'm used to making stupid jokes like that," said Nafai. "It's a bad habit, but I didn't mean it. It's not as if I don't know for myself now that the Oversold is real."
"I know that you know? she said coldly. "But it's obvious that knowing the Oversoul exists doesn't mean you automatically get brains or kindness or even decency."
"I deserve it, and the next three nasty things you think of." Nafai stepped around her, to face her. This time she didn't turn away.
"I see patterns," she said. "I see the way things fit together. I see where you are starting to fit. You and Issib."
"I haven't been following things in the city," said Nafai. "Busy with the project we're working on. I don't really know what's going on."
"It's been wearing you out," she said.
"Yes," said Nafai. "I guess so."
"Gaballufix is the center of one party," she said. "It's the strongest, for more reasons than one. It isn't just about the war wagons anymore, or even about the alliance with Potokgavan. It's about men. Especially men from outside the city. So he's strong in numbers, and he's also strong because his men are asserting themselves with violence."
Nafai thought back to conversations he had overheard at mealtimes. About the tolchocks, men who were knocking down women in the street for no reason. "His men are the tolchocks?"
"He denies it. In fact, he claims that he's sending his soldiers out into the streets of Basilica in order to protect women from the tolchocks."
"Soldiers?"
"Officially they're the militia of the Palwashantu clan. But they all answer to Gaballufix, and the clan council hasn't been able to meet to discuss the way the militia are -being used. You're Palwashantu, aren't you?"
"I'm too young for the militia yet."
"They're not really militia anymore," she said. "They're hired. Men from outside the walls, the hopeless kind of men, and very few of them really Palwashantu. Gaballufix is paying them. And he paid the tolchocks, too."
"How do you know this?"
"I was pushed. I've seen the soldiers. I know how they fit together."
More of the witchery. But how could he doubt it? Hadn't he felt the influence of the Oversoul whenever he thought about forbidden words? It made him sweat just to think of what he'd been through during the past week. So why couldn't Hushidh just look at a soldier and a tolchock and know things about them? Why couldn't camels fly? Anything was possible now.
Except that the Oversoul's influence was weakening. Hadn't he and Issib overcome its power, in order to think about forbidden things?
"And you know that I'm not one of them."
"But your brothers are."
"Tolchocks?"
"They're with Gaballufix. Not Issib, of course. But Elemak and Mebbekew."
"How do you know them ? They never come here- they're not Mother's sons."
"Elemak has come here several times this week," said Hushidh. "Didn't you know?"
"Why would he come here?" But Nafai knew at once. Without being able to think the thought himself, he knew exactly why Elemak would come to Rasa's household. Mother's reputation in the city was of the highest; her nieces were courted by many, and Elemak was of an age-well into the age, in fact-for a serious mating, intended to produce an heir.
Nafai looked around the courtyard, where many girls and a few boys were eating their supper. All the students from outside were gone, and the younger children ate earlier. So most of the girls here were eligible for mating, including her nieces, if Rasa released them. Which of them would Elemak be courting?
"Eiadh," he whispered.
"One can assume," said Hushidh. "I know it isn't me."
Nafai looked at her in surprise. Of course it wasn't her. Then he was embarrassed; what if she realized how ridiculous it had seemed to him, that his brother might desire her.
But Hushidh continued as if she didn't even notice his silent insult. Certainly she was oblivious to how the idea of Elya courting Eiadh might hurt Nafai. "When your brother came, I knew at once that he was very close to Gaballufix. I'm sure that it's causing Aunt Rasa a great deal of sorrow, because she knows that Eiadh will say yes to him. Your brother has a great deal of prestige."
"Even with Father's visions causing such a scandal?"
"He's with Gaballufix," said Hushidh. "Within the Party of Men-those who favor Gaballufix-the worse your father looks, the belter they like Elemak. Because if something happened to your father, then Elemak would be a very rich and powerful man."
Her words reawakened Nafai's worst fears about his brother. But it was a monstrous, unbearable thought. "Gabaliufix wants Elya to influence Father, that's all."
Hushidh nodded. But was she nodding in agreement, or just silencing him so she could get on with what she had to say? "The other strong party is Roptat's people. They're being called the Party of Women now, though they are also led by a man. They want to ally with the Gorayni. And also they want to remove the vote from all men except those currently mated with a citizen, and require all non-mated men to leave the city every night by sundown, and not return until dawn. That's their solution to the tolchock problem-and to Gaballufix, as well. They have a wide following-among mated men and women."
"Is that the group that Father's with?"
"Everyone in the Party of Men thinks so, but Roptat's people know better."
"So what's the third group?"
"They call themselves the City Party, but what they truly are is the Party of the Oversoul. They refuse to ally with any warring nation. They want to return to the old ways, for the protection of the Lake. To make this a city above politics and conflict. To give away the great wealth of the city and live simply, so no other nation will desire to possess us."
"Nobody will agree to that."
"You're wrong," she said. "Many do agree. Your father and Aunt Rasa have won over almost all the women of the Lake Districts."
"But that's hardly anybody. Only a handful of people live in the Rift Valley."
"They have a third of the council votes."