"Seriously probing, though1ful, intelligent ... with more insight in half a dozen pages than most authors manage in half a hundred."- Kirkas coje A Novel Contact I CRITICAL RAVES FOR FOREIGNER "Close-grained and carefully constructed ... a book that will stick in your mind...." -Locus "Ms. Cherry I h develops--her fascinating premise with immense subtlety and stunning perception." -Rave Reviews "A large new Cherryh novel is always welcome.. . a return to the anthropological science fiction in which she has made such a name is a double pleasure ... superlatively drawn aliens and characterization." 10 -Chicago Sun,-Times "Cherryh plays her strongest suit in this exploration of human/alien contact, producing an incisive study-in-contrast of what it means to be human in a world where trust is non-existent." -Library Journal ~M DAW TITLES BY C.J. CHERRYH THE ALLIANCE-UNION UNIVERSE The Company Wars DOWNBELOW STATION The Era of Rapprochement SERPENT'S REACH FORTY THOUSAND IN GEHENNA MERCHANTER'S LUCK The Chanur Novels THE PRIDE OF CHANUR CHANUR'S VENTURE THE KIF STRIKE BACK CHANUR'S HOMECOMING CHANUR'S LEGACY The Mri Wars THE FADED SUN: KESRITH THE FADED SUN: SHONUIR THE FADED SUN: KUTATH 1- The Age of Exploration CUCKOO'S EGG VOYAGER IN NIGHT PORT ETERNITY The Hanan Rebellion BROTHERS OF EARTH HUNTER OF WORLDS YCLE THE MORGAINE C ~~ATEOF I~VREL (#J) WELL OF SHIUAN (#2) FIRES OF AZEROTH (#3) EXILE'S GATE (#4) T14E EALDWOOD NOVELS THE DREAMSTONE THE TREE OF SWORDS AND JEWELS Merovingen Nights (Mri Wars period) ANGEL WITH T14E SWORD Merovingen Nights-Anthologies FESTIVAL MOON (#I) FEVER SEASON (#2) TROUBLED WATERS (#3) SMUGGLER'S GOLD (#4) DIVINE RIGHT (#5) FLOOD TIDE (#6) ENDGAME (#7) OTHER CHERRYH NOVELS FOREIGNER HESTIA WAVE WITHOUT A SHORE C ECTION VISIBLE LIGHT CHEREYH A novel of first contact. tWKS* MAI ~i~ 0 A W 8 0 0 K S , I N C DONALD A. WOLLHEIM, FOUNDER 375 Hudson Street, New York. NY 10014 ELIZABETH R. WOLLHEIM SHEILA E. GILBERT PUBLISHERS PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. Copyright 0 1994 by CJ. Cheffyh. All rights reserved. Cover art by Mchael Whelan For color prints of Afichael Whelan paintings, please contact: Glass Onion Graphics P.O. Box 88 Brookfield, CT 06804 DAW Book Collectors No. 941. t DAW Books are distributed by Penguin U.S.A. All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental. If you purchase this book without a cover you should be aware that this book may have been stolen property and reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publishet in such case neither the author nor the publisher has re- ceived any payment for this "stripped book." First Printing, November 1994 4 5 6 7 8 9 DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED U.S. PAT OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES ---MARCA REOtSTRADA. HECHO EN U.S.A. ENMWNEMWWM~ BOOK ONE t was the deep dark, unexplored except for robotic vis- itors. The mass that existed here was Earth's second stepping-stone toward a strand of promising stars; and, for the first manned ship to drop into its influence, the mass point was a lonely place, void of the electromag- netic chaff that filled human space, the gossip and chatter of trade, the instructions of human control to ships and F crews, tho fast, sporadic communication of machine talk- ing to machine. Here, only the radiation of the mass, the distant stars,,and the background whisper of existence it- self rubbed up against the sensors with force enough tc attract attention. Here, human beings had to remember that the universi was far wider than their little nest of stars-that, in th universe at large, silence was always more than the noi~ iest shout of life. Humans explored and intruded again it, and built their stations and lived their lives, a biolq, ical contamination of the infinite, a local and tempora condition. And not the sole inhabitants of the universe: that v no longer possible for humans to doubt. So wherever, probes said life might exist, wherever stars lool friendly to living creatures, humans ventured with sc caution, and unfolded their mechanical ears and liste into the dark-as Phoenix listened intently during hundred hours traverse of realspace. She heard nothing at any range-which pleased captains and the staff aboard. Phoenix wanted to fini 10 / C. 3. C+W-RRY44 prior claims to what she wanted, which was a bridge to computer interface to sort, andq insulated from the tenden- new, resources-rich territory, most particularly and imme drocess laterally and diately a G5 star designated T-230 in the Defens codebooks, 89020 on the charts, and mission objective, in the plans Phoenix carried in her data banks. Reach the star, unlimber the heavy equipment ... cre- ate a station that would welcome traders and expand hu- man presence into a new and profitable area of space. So Phoenix carried the bootstrap components for that construction, the algaes and the cultures for a station's life-sustaining tanks, the plans and the circuit maps, the diagrams and the processes and the programs, the data and the detail; she carried as well the miner-pilots and the mechanics and the builders and processors and the techni- cal staff that would be, for their principal reward, earliest shareholders in the first-built trading station to develop down this chain of stars-Earth's latest and most confi- dent colonial commitment, with all the expertise of past successes. Optics told Mother Earth where the rich stars were. Ro- bots probed the way without any risk of human life ... probed and returned with their navigational data~and their first-hand observations: T-230 was a system so rich Phoe- nix ran mass-loaded to the limit, streaking along at a rate a ship dared carry when she expected no other traffic, and when she had no doubt of refuel capabilities at her desti- nation. She shoved the gas and dust around her into a brief, bright disturbance, while her crew ran its hundred- hour routine of maintenance, recalibrations, and naviga- tional checks. The captains shared coffee on the last watch before re-entry~ took the general reports, and.ap- proved the schedule the way the navigator, McDonough, keyed it. But what the pilot received of that discussion was a blinking green dot on the edge of his display and a vague sense that things were proceeding comfortably on sched- ule, aboard a ship in good order. Taylor was On, which meant Taylor had input coming at him at rates it took a FOREIG,NER / 11 sisted human min top C,jes of an unas distract itself from the rush of data, Taylor had his ears devoted to computer signals and his eyes and his percep- tions chemically adjusted to the computer-filtered veloc- ity of the ship's passage. The green dot had to be there before he hyped out. The dot had showed up, and what other human beings did about it was not in any sense Taylor's business or realiza- tion. When that exit point came at him, and time folded up in his face, he reached confidently ahead and through space, toward T-230. He was a master pilot. The drugs in his blood made him highly specific in his concentration, and highly ab- stract in his understandings of the data that flashed in front of his eyes and screamed into his ears. He would have targeted Phoenix into the heart of hell if those had been the coordinates the computer handed him. But it was to T-230 he was looking. For that reason, he was the only one aboard aware when the ship kept going, and time stayed folded. And stayed. His heart began to pound in realtime, his eyes were fixed on screens flashing red, lines, and then dots, as those lines became hypothetical, and last of all a black screen, where POINT ERROR glowed in red letters like the irretrievable judgment of God. Heartbeat kept accelerating. He reached for the A13ORT and felt the cap under his fingers. He had no vi- sion now. It was all POINT ERROR. He scarcely felt the latch: and time was still folding as he uncapped the AJORT, for a reason he no longer remembered. Unlike the computer, he had no object but that single, difficult necessity. Program termination. Blank screen. POINT ERROR. God had no more data. FOREIGNER / 13 11 The ship dropped and the alarm sounded: This I is not a, drill. Computer failure. This is not a drill.... McDonough's heart was thumping and the sweat was running from exertion as he pressed the button to query Taylor. Every screen was blank. This is not a drill... The hard-wired Abort was in action. Phoenix was sav- ing herself. She blew off v with no consideration of frag- ile human bodies inside her. Phoenix then attempted to re-boot her computers from inflowing mformation. She queried her captain, her navi- gator, and her pilot and co-pilot, with painful shocks to the Q-patch. Two more such jolts, before McDonough found data taking shape on his screens at the navigation ,z!afion. Video displayed the star. No, two stars, one glaring blue-white, one faint red. McDonough sat frozen at his post, seeing in Phoenix' future-line a coasting drift to white, nuclear hell. "Where are we?" someone asked. "Where are we?" It was a question the navigator took for accusation. McDonough felt it like a blow to his already abused gut, and looked toward the pilot for an answer. But Taylor was just staring at his screens, doing nothing, not moving- "Inoki," McDonough said. But the co-pilot was slumped unconscious or worse. "Get Greene up here. Greene and Goldberg, to tht-, bridge." That was LaFarge on the staff channel, senior captain, hard-nosed and uncompromising, calling up the two back-up pilots. McDonough felt the shakes set in, wondered if LaFarge was going to call up all the backups, and oh, one part of him wanted that, wanted to go to his bunk and lie there inert and not have to deal with reality, but he had to learn what that binary star was and where they were and what mistake he might conceivably have committed to put them here. The nutrients the med-plug was shooting into him were making him sick. The sight in front of him was .Jnsm. optics couldn't be wrong. The robots couldn't be .wrong. Their instruments couldn't be wrong. "Sir?" Karly McEwan was sitting beside him, as stunned as he was-his own immediate number two: she was shaken, but she was punching buttons, trying, clamp- jawed as she was, to get sense out of chaos. "Sir? Go to default') Sir?" "Default for now," he muttered, or some higher brain function did, while his conscious intelligence was operat- ing on some lower floor. The 'for now' that had bubbled up as a caution hit his faltering intelligence like a pro- nouncement of doom, because he didn't see any quick way to get a baseline for this system. "Spectrum analysis, station two and three. Chart comparison, station four. Sta- tion five, rerun the initiation and target coordinates." The forebrain was still giving orders. The rest was functioning Uke Taylor, which was not at all. "We need a medic up here. Is Kiyoshi on the bridge? Taylor and Inoki are in trouble." "Are we stable?" Kiyoshi Tanaka's voice, asking if it was safe to unbelt and go after the pilots, but every ques- tion seemed to echo with double meanings, every question trailed off into unknowns and unknowables. "Stable as we can be," LaFarge said, and meanwhile the spectral analysis program was turning up a flood of data and running com- parisons on every star system on file, a steady crawl of n-on-matches on McDonough's number one screen, while the bottom of it reported NOT A MATCH, 3298 ITEMS EXAMINED. "We're getting questions from channel B," came from Communications. "Specials are requesting to leave quar- ters. Requesting screen output:1 Taylor's routine. Taylor had always given the passen- 14 / C. 1. CHERRYH FOREIGNER / 15 gers a view, leaving Earth system, entering the mass, "Go long range, back up our vector. Assunie we Over- points, and leaving them...........shot the star." "No," LaFarge said harshly. "No image." A blind man could see it was trouble. "Say it's a medical on the bridge. Say we're busy." Tanaka had reached Taylor and Inoki, and was injectinj something into Taylor, McDonough was aware of that. The passengers were feeling the variance in routine, and the NOT A MATCH hadn't changed. SEARCH FURTHER? The computer had run out of local stars. "Karly, you prioritized search from default one?" "From default," Navigation Two answered. The search for matching stars had started with Sol and the neaf neighborhood. "Our vector, plus and minus ten lights." The sick feeling in McDonough's gut increased. Nothing made sense. The backup pilots- showed up, asking distracting questions nobody could answer, the same questions every navigator was asking the instru- ments and the records. The captain told the medic to get Taylor and Inoki off the bridge-the captain swore when he said it, and McDonough distractedly started running checks of his own while Tanaka got the two pilots on their feet-Taylor could walk, but Taylor looked blind to, what was going on. Inoki was moving, but just scarcely: one of the com. techs had to haul him up and carry him, once Tanaka unbuckled him and unplugged the tube from his implant. Neither of them looked at Greene or Gold- berg as they passed. Taylor's eyes were set on infinity. Inoki's were shut. SEARCH FURTHER? the computer asked, having searched all the stars within thirty lights of Earth. "We stand at 5% on fuel," the captain reported calmly-a potential death sentence. "Any com pickup at all?" It At this star? McDonough asked himself, and: "Dead si- lent," Communications said. "The star's noisy enough to mask God-knows-what." Aye, sir. A moment later, hydraulics whined up on the hull. The big dish was unpacking and unfolding, preparing to listen. V was down to a crawl safe for its deployment-safe, if it was Earth's own Sun, but it wasn't. There was no data on this system. They were gathering it, drinking it in ev ery sensor, but nothing gave them even minimal certainty there wasn't a rock in their path, Nobody had ever come in at a close, binary, or a mass as large. God only knew what had happened to the field- hed up McDonough's hands were shaking as he punc the scope of both search sequences, approaching a hun- dred lights distant in all directions, search negative, past their objective. They still didn't know where they were, but with 5% fuel in reserve, they weren't leaving soon, ei- ther. They had the miner-craft: thank God they had the miner-craft and the station components. They might gather system ice and refuel.... Except that was a radiation hell out there, except the solar wind that blue-white sun threw out was a killing wind. This was not a star where flesh and blood could live, and if the miners did go out to work in that, they had to limit their time outside. Or if the ship was, as it might well be, infalling, on a massive star's gravity slope ... they'd meet that radiation close-up before they went down. "We've rerun the initiation sequence," Greene said, from Taylor's seat. "We don't find any flaw in the com- 55 awds. Meaning Taylor had keyed in on what navigation had given him. A cold apprehension gnawed at McDonough's stomach. "Any answer, Mr. McDonough?" "Not yet, sir." He kept his voice calm. He didn't feel that way. He hadn't made a mistake. But he couldn'l prove it by anything they had from the instruments. 16 / C. 3. CHERRYH FOREIGNER / 17 A ship couldn't come out of hyperspace aimed differ-~ :`fTont of video displays that said, on every damned chan ently than it had on entry. It didn't. It couldn't. t nel, STAND BY us something?" someone asked, a But if some hyperspace particle had screwed the redun-J. "Why don't they tell dant storage, if the computer had lost its destination point,breach of the peace. "They Ought to tell us something." and POINT ERROR was the answer, they couldn't run farAnother tech said, "Why don't we get the vid? We al- enoukh on their fuel mass to be out of sight of stars they ways got the vid before." "We can all go knew. 1 11 "We can go to hell," a pusher pilot said. Two stars, in any degree near each other, both with to hell. They're too good to bother." spectra matching the charts, were all they needed. Any-it's probably all right," somebody else said, and there two-star match against their charts could start to locatewas an uneasy silence-because it didn't feel like the them, and they couldn't be more than five lights off their- other times. That had been a hell of a jolt the ship had second mass point, if they'd run out all the fuel they were~ dealt when she braked, coming in, and the techs who carrying-couldn't be. Not farther than tWenty lights knew anything about deep space were as long-faced and from Earth total at most. nervous as the Sol-space miners and construction jocks, But there wasn't a massive blue-white within twenty who had no prior voyages at all to draw on. lights of the Sun, except Sirius, and this wasn't Sirius. it wasn't Probably All Right in Neill Cameron's think- Spectra of those paired suns were a no-match. It wasn'til ing, either---even a pusher mechanic like him could feel making sense. Nothing was. the difference between this system entry and the last. He started looking for pulsars. When you were out of Friends and couples like himself and Miyume Little were short yardsticks you looked for the long ones, the ones generally just standing close and waiting. Miyume's hand that wouldn't lie, and you started thinking about half- was cold and still. His was sweating. baked theories, like cosmic macrostructures, folded inter- possibly-he'd said it to Miyume-the techs up top- faces, or any straw of reason that might give a mind side were working up some big show for their arrival in something to work on or suggest a direction they'd gone their new home. ause they or offer a hint which of a hundred improbables was the Maybe there was just a routine lot to do bec truth. were shutting down and staying here-the crew might be figuring their insystem course or their local resources, and they'd get a take-hold call any time now, so that Phoenix could do course corrections. He'd heard that speculation offered by someone in the lounge. It was what he sincerely hoped. or Phoenix was in some sort of trouble. That was im- plicit in all the questions ... but it was much too soon to panic. The ship's crew was up there doing their job and .a one-sun spacer brat at least knew better than to bor- row trouble or start rumors-either with hopeful lies or the speculations on the worst case that had to be in every- body's thoughts, like infall, an entry too near the star itself. III Something's wrong, was the word running the outer corridors from the minute that the station staff and construction workers had permission to move about. Ile rumor moved into the lounges, where staffers and pusher pilots and mechanics all stood shoulder to shoulder in 18 / C. 3. CHERRYN Foolish fear. Robots had been here and fixed T-230's position with absolute certainty. Phoenix' crew was an experienced, hand-picked lot-Phoenix herself had run trade for five years before they diverted her to the stations start-up at T-230, and the U.N. didn't commit billions to any second-rate equipment or any crew that was going to drop a ship into a star. God, infall couldn't be the trouble up there. That was too remote a chance. He could take pusher and miner-craft apart and put them together again. Most that went wrong with an insystem miner ship, a mechanic could fix with a good guess and a screwdriver; but what could go wrong with a stardrive-what could go amiss in the massive engines that generated effects into hyperspace-fell entirely out- side his competency and his understanding. The STAND BY flasher suddenly went off. A star- view came on-screen and a collective breath of relief went up from the room, chilled by a murmur of conster- nation from a handful of techs, all standing together in the center of the room. Miyume's hand tightened on his, his on hers, while the tech staff were saying things like, That's not right and Where in hell are we? The white glare looked like a star to him. Maybe it did to Miyume. But techs were shaking their heads. And there was a red gl6w in the view he didn't understand. "That's not a G5," one of them said. "It's a damn bi- nary." And when ordinary worker-types started asking what he meant, the tech snapped, "We're not where we're supposed to be, you stupid ass!" Vhat are they talking about? Neill asked himself. What they were hearing wasn't making sense, and Miyume was looking scared. The techs were saying calm down and not to start rumors, but the tech who had claimed they were wrong shouted over the other voices, "We're not at any damned G5!" "So where are we?" Miyume asked, the first words she'd said. She was asking him, or anyone, and Neill FOROGNER didn't know how to answer that-he didn't see how could miss T-230 if they had gotten to any star at all by what he knew, by the education he'd had, ships 3 kept going in the directions they were going, that wa basic law of physics ... wasn't it? You aimed and built your field and you went, and if you had fuel eno you got there. And meanwhile his hardware-biased brain was thi ing, Could we have overshot? How far off could we on the fuel we've got? "This is Capt. LaFarge . . . That was the general address, and people shouted gently for quiet. ... unfortunate circumstance, " was all that through, that Neill could bear, and he was desperate hear what the captain said. Miyume's nails bit deeply i his hand, people were talking again, and Miyu shouted, "Shut up!" at the top of her lungs, at the s time others did. ... positional problem, " was the next clear phra Then: "which does not pose the ship any imminent ger ... 11 "That's a blue-white star!" a tech shouted. "What's think it is?" Someone got the fool shut down. Others hushed ones that wanted to ask questions. 11 * ' * ask everyone to go about business as usua LaFarge was saying. "And assist the technical crew w we try to establish position. We'll be looking into our sources in this system for refueling. We're very w equippedfor dealing with this situation. That's all. S easy. 'Establish position' sounded comforting. 'Refueli sounded even more hopeful. 'Well equipped for deali with this,' sounded as if the crew already had a pl Neill clung to that part of it, while a frantic part of h was thinking: This can't be happening to us, not to us. . f 20 / C. 3. CiqERRYH Things can't go wrong with this ship, there were too many precautions, everything taken care of ... They'd been screened, their skills had been tested, they'd had to have recommendations atop recommenda- tions even to come close to this job. They didn't sen foul-ups on a ship that carried Earth's whole damned co- lonial program, and disasters didn't happen to a rmis as important as this one. People had planned too I People had been too careful. Everything had been so right. "Establish position," a tech said, I don't like that 'Es, tablish position.' Are we talking about infall?" "No," a senior tech said. "We're talking about where~ we are. Which is clearly not where we're supposed to! be." "Refuel, hell," another tech said. "Thai's a radiatioEF bath out there." The pusher-craft aren't shielded to work out the7,~ Neill thought, with a sudden sick feeling, as the dynamics came clear to him. Jupiter was a radiation hazard. This thing ... this double sun, with light that made the cani- eras flare and distort . . . The miner-pilots couldn't survive it. Not for any long operation. The miners couldn't deploy here, not without an inevitable cost, as the exposure tags went dark, and the hours of running time added up. Pusher-craft were shielded for the environment they had to deal with, and their designated environment had been a mild, friendly G5. He didn't say that. Miyume looked scared. Probably did. The numbers started adding up, that was what the pi" 11, Sion" ong.~,, lots said when things started going wrong: the comparT~ might he, and the captain the company hired might refuse. you answers, but the numbers wouldn't deceive you, no matter what. They added, and the result didn't, wouldn't, couldn't change from what it was. Wishes didn't count. IV cDonough's shadow arrived, hovered over Taylor's chair, saying there hadn't been a mistake. Taylor processed that datum in the informational void. Things came painstakingly slowly or not at all. Other inputs in his surroundings were irrelevant. His mind refused dis- traction to trivia. But the navigator he paid close attention to ... and tried to ask him, although one had to slow the brain down incredibly to frame a single complex sound: T' "Wliat . Babble, then, unauthorized people touching him and talking to him. Taylor tuned the voices out until McDonough's voice came back, telling him in its infinite slowness that they were fueled up. That was something to process: they'd been at this star some months of realtime, then. Major datum. The navigator said next that Greene was sick, some- thing about an accident, about miner-pilots and crews dead or dying of radiation, pilots training pilots to do their job once they were dead ... something about the star they hoped to go to. The navigator had one for him, and they were fueled and going now, away from this hell- ish vicinity, this double monster that sang to him con- in his slow-moving dark. For the first time in a recent, lonely eternity, new data came in. "'Point," Taylor managed to say, needing destination, McDonough fed him coordinates that didn't make r e off the baseline, or with where they had to be. an c d P t n 'y t 0 "Wrong," Taylor said. But McDonough said then that y'd taken a new zero point, at this star, that they'd c spotted a possible mass point by optics and targeted a G5 " ~beyond it. I McDonough reeled off more numbers-Taylor grew drunk with them, the relief he felt was so great, but he 22 / C. 1. CHF-RRYH fOKIGNER / didn't process forward, he wa . s still listening to rto him again, at a rate he could understand. He skipp McDonough with painful, slow attention. McDonoughinto the mass well and out again with a blithe disregard said the crew and the captain wanted him to know theygravity. He had a G5 in sight. Goldberg stopped talking were going to move. Said-McDonough wasn't precise;him, or had just gotten too slow to hear. He had the s on the matter-they thought he might have some aware-and he reached for it, calm and sure now that those nu ness of the ship's motion. Hell, yes, he did. Things were moving faster and faster. There were actual data-points in sight, more than one at a time. Taylor said, laboriously, at McDonough's speed, "Bridge. Now." McDonough went away. The data stopped. Taylor waited. And waited. Sometimes it seemed to be years, and there was no sanity but to wait for that next point, that next, authorized contact. But McDonough's voice came back, after a long, long time, saying the captain wanted him to sit as pilot on the bridge. Goldberg would back him up. Greene, McDo- nough reminded him, was sick. Inoki was dead. Three years ago. Earth time. Datum. He had to factor in Goldberg as backup. His mind wanted to race. He held it down. There would be numbers. At long last there would be data at speed, mis- sion resumed. He sat down. He felt the chair around him. Somebody said-it was an authorized voice, Tanaka, he thought- that he didn't need the drug. That his brain manufactured it on its own now. Interesting datum. It accounted for things. Goldberg talked, then, saying how they were clear to hell and gone from Earth and Sol, that they still didn't know how they'd gotten there, but they'd gone through something they hoped wasn't attached permanently to this star. Watch it, Goldberg said. Are you hearing me? "Yes," Taylor said, with slow patience. But numbers had begun to proliferate. He saw the destination mass. He had it. He couldn't lose it this time. Goldberg was with him. And the universe was talking bers were true. He brought his ship in. He shut down, system by system, in the light of a y low sun. Then he knew he could sleep. I BOOK Two The foreign star was up, riding with the moon abo the sandstone hills, in the last of the sunlight, Manadgi, squatting above strange, regular tracks in t clay of a stream-bank, and seeing in them the scars of machine on the sandstone, tucked his coat between I knees and listened to all quarters of the sky, the ausl cious and the inauspicious alike. He heard only the sm, chirps and the oVo'cfick of a small creature somewhe in the brush. There were more unfixed stars now, tiny specks of lig. in irregular motion about the first. Sometimes the vei sharp-eyed could count them, two and three motes at time, shining before dawn or before the dusk, in proxin ity to the foreign star. Their numbers changed. They combined and uncon bined. Should one count the foreign star in their numbi or reckon only the attendant stars, and from what datt How could one reckon whether such activities were aui picious or not? Neither had the astronomers been able to say, when, hundred and twenty-two years ago, the foreign star ha first begun to grow in the heavens, a star so faint at fir! that only the strongest eyes could see it, so the stor was-a star that rose and set with the moon, in its anciez dance with the sun. Then the astronomers had been embarrassed, becaus with their lenses and their offeries they still could not de fine that apparition as a moon or a star, since in appew 28 / C. J. CHERRYH ance and behavior it was both, and they could not swear to its influence. Some thought it good, some thought it bad and, as many events as proponents could bring up on one side to prove it good, opponents could prove as many of bad issue. Only nand' Jadishesi had been unequivocal, insisting, cleverly, that it portended change. But so, also and finally, most astronomers swore, while the star grew in magnitude year by year, and gathered companions to itself- continual instability. Now dared one call it fortunate? The tracks yonder, the marks of the machines, were, beyond dispute, real, and bore out the story of repeated excursions from the landing-site--even at dusk, even to the eyes of a city-dweller. The Tachi, who herded in these hills and knew them as well as a city-dweller knew his own street, said that the machines had fallen from the sky, suspended from flowers, and drifted down and down and down by this means until they landed. So was it indeed from the clouds that the visitations had come, and with those descending flowers, came ma- chines that ran about the land ripping up trees and fright- ening Tachi children. Manadgi had doubted that origin in the clouds the same way he doubted that autumn moon-shadow was curative of rheumatism. People nowadays knew that the earth cir- cled the sun, that in the axial tilt they had their seasons confirmed. All such things they had come to understand in this age of reason, and understood them better once the astronomers of the aiji's court had taken to the problem of the misbehaving star and commissioned better and better tenses. The moon, as all educated people knew now, was a sphere of planetary nature, traveling through the ether, the same as the earth-their smaller cousin, as it were, mea- suring its year by the earth as the earth measured its time by the sun. So the falling of machines out of the heavens was as- tounding, but not incredible. In considering this awesome FOREIGNER track which no farmer's cart had ever made in the one could easily suppose people lived on the moon. could imagine them falling down to earth on great w petals, or on canvas sails, which Manadgi hoped to ness for himself tomorrow, that being the full of moon, the likeliest source of visitors. Or, for an alternative source of flower-sails, there the unfixed star, the persistent oddness of which argue least that it had something to do with this manifes of machines, since it was a newcomer to the skies, since it had been, in the last forty years, acquiring a pl ora of what might be unfixed moonlets, mere sparks, But again, Manadgi thought,-the sparks themsel might grow-or come nearer to the earth and deal v men. Perhaps, moon-folk had drawn the foreign star to position it presently occupied, sailing their created w across the winds of the ether, in the way that ocean-far ships used the worldly winds. There had thus far seemed no correspondence betw the appearance of the star or the stage of the moon pha when the flower-sails came down. But one could wonder about the Tachi's recor ke, in p e ) g as well as their grasp of the situation, when, si ple herders that they were, they insisted on flowers stead of ordinary canvas and, in the clear evidence people falling from the clouds, had endured this event a quarter of a year debating what to do-until now, n that the machines were well-established and ravaging land as they pleased, the Tachi aiji demanded immedi and severe action from the aiji of the Mospheiran Asso ation to halt this destruction of their western range the frightening of their children. Manadgi stood up, dusted his hands, and found, in last of the sunlight, a flat stone to take him dry-sh across the brook-a slab of sandstone the wheeled n chine had crushed from the bank as it was gouging a tra up the hill. It was a curiously made track, a pattern in 30 .1 C. 3. CHERRYM wheels repeating a design, its weight making deep trenches where the ground was wet. And not bogging down, evidencing the power of its engine ... again, not at all astonishing: if the moon-folk could catch the winds of the ether and ride enormous sails down to earth, they were formidable engineers. And might prove formidable in other ways, one could suspect. He certainly had no difficulty following the machine, by the trail of uprooted trees and mud-stained grass. Dusk was deepening, and he only hoped for the moon-folk not to find him in the dark, before he could find them and de- termine the nature and extent of their activity. Not far, the Tachi aiji had said. In the middle of the valley, beyond the grandmother stone. Almost he failed to recognize the stone when he climbed up to it. It lay on its side. Distressing. But one would already suppose by the felling of trees and the devastation of the stream down be- low, that moon-folk were a high-handed lot, lacking fear of judgment on themselves, or perhaps simply lacking any realization that the Tachi were civilized people, who ought to be respected. He intended to find out, at least, what was the strength of the intruders, or whether they could be- dealt with. That was ahead of other questions, such as where they did come from, or what the unfixed star might be and what it meant. All these things Manadgi hoped to find out. Until he crested the next rise in the barren clay track of the wheeled machine, and saw, in the twilight, the huge buildings, white, and square, and starkly unadorned. He sank down on his heels. There was no other way to hide in the barrenness the moon-folk had made, this bare- earth, lifeless sameness that extended the width of the valley around cold, square buildings painted the color of death, their corners in no auspicious alignment with the hills. He put his hands in front of his mouth to warm them, because the sinking of the sun chilled the air. FOREIGNEoveOrTwhPelrhmaipnsg,baencdaubsee the strangeness Suddenly seem, cause he doubted he could go ali into that place so ominously painted and so glaringly, Ix haPs defiantly, misaligned to the earth-he began to be dread of what he might find as their purpose, these fo who fell to Farth on petal sails. P 9 ut a station-dweller saw it on from cameras and stored taPe-while a planet-dwell, Saw it once a day, if he cared to 90 Outside, or stop on h way back from work. And Ian Bretano still did care t because it was still that new to him. New and disorienting' if he fell to thinking about whei he was on the planet ... or where home was, or what was or would be, for the rest of his life. And sometimes, at night when the stars swung abol the valley, sometimes when the moon was above the h( rizon line and all of space was over their heads, he missc the station desperately and asked himself for a wild, pal icked moment why he had ever wanted to be down hei at the bottom of a planetary well, why he'd ever left h- family and his friends and why he couldn't have contrif uted to the cause frorn the clean, safe laboratoric upstairs-Upstairs, they all called it, now, having take up the word from the first team down. Upstairs-as if the station and safety and families an friends were still all as attainable as a ride in a lift. But family and friends weren't in their reach- wolddn't be soon, nor might ever be, for all they coul know. That was the gaMble they had all taken, comin subjecting themselves to unregulate, 11 The sun eclipsed by the planetary Sight from S ace h I down here and rim was a glorio, 32 / C. )- C"ERRY" weather and air so thin that just walking across the com pound was strenuous exercise. air with no trouble, the They'd acclimate to thinnera botanist who'd medics claimed, they'd adjust-althOugh previously had mostly to do with algaes in convenient tanks and taxonomy in recorded text wasn't sure that he was adequate to be a discoverer or a pioneer. ompensa- still, for all of the discomforts there were c tions. Every specimen in the lab was a new species, the chemistry and the genetics was all to discover- And for those of them who'd grown used to the day sky, and all that glowing, dust-diffracted blue space over- head, for those of them who had convinced their storn- achs that they weren't going to fall off the planet when they looked outward to the horizon-thank God for the hills around them, that gave the illusion of a positive, not a negative curvature-they could take deliberate chances with their stomachs, walk with their eyes on an opaque sky and watch the colors change behind the hills as the world turned its face to deep space. Every evening and every morning brought new vana- tions of weather and different shadows on the hills. Weather and hills ... words they'd learned in Earth Science, from photos that had never hinted at the trans- parencies of a worldly sky, Or the coolth of a storm wind and the rushing sound it made in the grasses. He still ing that windows dared be so thin that found it unnerv a cloud thunder rattled them. He'd never realized that passing over the sun would cool the air so quickly. He'd had a smell. He'd never never have guessed that stormsoss a land imagined the complexity of sound traveling acT scape, or the smells, both pleasant and unpleasant- smells that might be more acute once his nose quit bleeding and his lungs quit aching- He still found it hard to make the n-jental conversion the station looking at tape Of a planet he from being onn the ground looking at a couldn't touch, and being 0 reach again. point of light he might never FOREIGNER / 33 It had been a hard good-bye, Upstairs. Parents, grand- parents, friends ... what could one say? He'd hugged them for what he knew might be the last time, in the lounge where the cameras weren't allowed-and he'd been fine right down to the moment he'd seen his father's expression, at which point his doubts had made a sudden lump in his throat and stayed there for the duration of the capsule ride, even after they had felt the parachute de- ploy. "See you," he'd said to them when he was leaving. "Five years. In five years, you'll ride down." That was the plan-set up the base, and start taking se- lected colonists down-force the building of the reusable lander, once they'd found something the Guild wanted badly enough; and priority on that safer transport would go to family and friends of the team members on the ini- tial phase of the on-world n-dssion. That was a privilege he won for them by being here and taking the risk ... not quite among the first down, but still on the list, dropped in early enough to be counted a pioneer. God, he'd been scared when he'd walked out of that room and into the suiting area, with the ten other team members. If there'd been a way to turn around, run back, beg to wait for another year of capsule-drops, to prove to him that that chute was going to open. If that was being a hero, he didn't want to do it twice, and God, the freefall descent ... and the landing ... The first astronauts had done planetfall in such cap- sules, by parachute. The history files said so. All old Earth's tech was in the data banks. They'd known that that first capsule would work, the same way they knew the recoverable lander was going to work-when the Guild turned loose enough resources to see it built. But come what might, they were down. The Guild might have refused to fly them down, but the Guild hadn't had the fight to stop the launch of what they'd built-and what they'd built, by its unpowered nature, hadn't needed Guild pilots; what they'd built had come all of spare parts and 34 / C. 3. CHERRYH plans from history files the Guild in its wisdom had called irrelevant to where they were. The Guild could have applied force to stop them, hauled the capsules back after launch--of course, the Guild could still do that, and the division was potentially that bitter. But so had the station its own force to use, if the Guild wanted to play by those rules-and the Guild evidently didn't, The Guild hadn't reached consensus, maybe, or hadn't expected the first cargo lander to make it, or had a crisis of, God help them, conscience-no station- dweller knew what passed in Guild councils, but the al- mighty Guild hadn't made a move yet. And the Guild couldn't starve them out once they were down here with- out bringing about a confrontation, with the station that they'd already and repeatedly declined. The food and equipment drops, so far, kept coming. Food and equipment drops that might not be absolutely critical by this time next year. And then let the Guild or- der what they liked. If they could eat what grew here- they could live here. The first close took Phoenix had had at the planet, had seen cities and dams and the clear ev- idence of agriculture and mining and every other attribute of a reasonably advanced civilization ... natives, with rights, to be sure. But not rights that outweighed their own rights. The sun sank in reds and yellows and golds. A planet shone above the hills. That was Mirage, second from the sun they called just ... the sun, having no better name for it, the way they called the third planet the world, or sometimes ... Down, in the way the Guild-born didn't use the word. Stupid way to name the planet, Ian thought; he person- ally wished the first generation had come up with some definite name they could use for the world ... Earth, some of them had wanted to call it, arguing that was what anyone called their home planet, and this was, in all FOREIGNER / senses that mattered home. The Guild had immedia rejected that reasonirg- e had argued passionately and eloquently that, no LenAonidr, others, notably th hydroponics biologist, Ren wasn't Earth. It mustn,t be. It wasn't the Sun. And wasn't the star they'd been targeting-when whatever t happened in hyperspace, had happened, and Taylor t saved the ship. Taylor might be the Guild's Saint-Taylor and Yj DonoUgh and the miner-pilots that, God save them evc one alive owed their lives to-but Lenoir, who'd argu so convincingly not to confound the names of Earth wi this place, was due a sainthood, too, no matter hat wl, would soon become the Guild had voted with him for re sons totally opposed to what Lenoir believed in; and th the construction workers and the station techniciain whose sons and daughters would carry out Lenoir's visi( and go down to the surface, had mostly voted against hi in that meeting. Not Earth, Lenoir had argued, and not their target StE Tile Planet had undergone its own evolution, all the wf to high intelligence, and by that process made up its a% biological rules, through its -own initially successful e; Periment at life, and its own,unique demands of envirot Ment on those ancestral organisms. The biochernistry, the taxonomies and the relationshi~ of species down to microbes and up to Earth,s maJ1C ecosystems-whole branches of human science sat i Phoenix' library: the systematic knowledge of the on life-aff6cted, human-impacted biosphere humans ha, thoroughly understood, thousands of years of accumu lated understanding about Earth,s natural systems ant their evolution and interrelationships. Pinning Earthly nanies On mere surface resemblances Lenoir had argued, would confuse subsequent generationj about where they were and who they were. It could crea6 a mindset that thought of the world in a way connecte( with their own evolutionary history, a Proprietary mind. 36 1 C. ). CHERRYH set, which Lenoir argued was not good; and more, a mindset that would repeatedly lead to mistaken connec- tions throughout the life sciences and, by those mistaken connections, to expensively wrong decisions. Corrupting the language to identify what they didn't wholly under- stand could on the one hand prove fatal to their own cul- ture and their humanity, and on the other, prove damaging to the very ecosystems they looked to for survival. So, Earth it was not. The council had deadlocked on the other choices; and what could Lenoir's great-great- grandson find now to call it but the world, this blue, cloud-swirled home they had, that Taylor had found for them? So now that they had mined the solar system, built the station, built an economy that could, with difficulty, build the lander to reach the planetary surface, the Pilots' Guild wanted them to leave-asked them, after nearly a hun- dred fifty years of orbiting the world, to shut down the station and transfer everything to the airless, waterless planetary base the Guild would gladly give them on Maudette, fourth from the sun ... far from interference in a world the Guild adamantly maintained should stay sac- rosanct, untouched by human influence, uncontaminated by human presence. Meaning that the Guild wanted them all to live under the Guild's thumb-because that was also the price of Maudette. The sun touched only the top of the buildings now. The western face of the hill was all in shadow, and Ian leaned his back against lab 4 and watched the colors flare, gaz- ing past the red clay scar of the safe-tracks toward the hills of sighing grass. Grasses was definitely what they were, the department had ruled so officially, and they could officially, scientif- icaRy, use that word as of two weeks ago--confirming the theories and the guesses of a century and a half of or- bital survey. They were exact in their criteria, the ones of them that believed such things were important--the ones FOREIGNER / Of theji who had spent their careers memorizing t thinies generation after generation-a hundred fif em toor things they saw only in pictures years Of studying taxonomies and ecosyster and teachi cestral world they'd never known- ns of an a No danined use, the Guild said of course. The Guile sons and daughters didn It enter E I arth Studies oh, no. TI Guild's sons and daughters had been le - I ship maintena arnIng Physics ai nce and starflight in all those long years b 'Ore P"Oenx had flown again-and was that practical, launch a starship when cessities? they were struggling for basic n, But, Fools, the Guild brats and worse.... For what? Fools called the station kids fo didn't - for endangering a planet the Gui give an honest datnn about? Fools for wanting tf, world they could see Wered abundantly everything the had 10 precariously the Guild's list of I Most of what the Priorities?Y ruined reserved fc Fools for challenging Guild autho ity-when yo couldn't be Guild s if you weren't born ral descendant c Phoen'x crew? Wa n't that the real reason the Guild-bor Called them fools? Because no station-builder brat coul4 every good reason for kee - - I Guild ha, ever cross that line and train as Guild and the ping it that way. Of course the name-calling had stung with particula force, the way the Guild kids had meant it to. Never mint that if the older generations caught the Guild brats at it they put them On rations for a week . . it didn't break , Guild brat,s' pride, and it didn't admit* a station kid t( what he wasn't born to reach, or make the science of thei, lost Earth and lost destination either relevant or importan, to the Guild. colonize e stars for other ba'SreOnnOMwautdheettGe,uilwdhislaeidt,beLyeasveeartcbhiesdwtohrld? Go Planetary systems free of claimants---oh, and, by the way, mine and build stations at those stars to refuel the Guild's ,ships, and live there and die there and do it all over again, 38 / C. 1. C44ERRY+4 all the lost lives and the sweat and the ddriger-be the worker-drones while Guild ships voyaged to places that would need more worker-drones to build, endlessly across space, all the while the Guild maintained its priorities and its perks that took most of every resource they had. Better here, in a cold wind and under a fading sky. Their sky, in which Mirage was setting now and Maudette had yet to rise, that curious interface between the day- glow and the true night. They could die here. Things might still go wrong. A microbe could wipe them out faster than they could figure what hit them. They could do terrible damage to the world and every living creature on it. The fears still came back, in the middle of the dark, or in the whispering silence of an alien hillside. The home- sickness did, when he thought of something he wanted to say to his family,' or his lifelong friends-then, like re- membering a recent death, recalled that the phone link was not all that easy from here, and that there was no ab- solute guarantee that the reusable lander they had bet their futures on would ever be built. Estevez had come Down with him, God help Julio and his sneezes. Estevez and he just didn't talk about Up- stairs, didn't talk about the doubts ... they'd gone through Studies together, been in training together- known each other all their lives ... how not, in the lim- ited world of the station? He and Julio had hashed over doubts aplenty before they'd made the cut, but not dwelled on them once they knew they were on the team, and most of all hadn't rehashed them once they were down here. Here everything was fine and they weren't scared, and Estevez wouldn't worry if he was late for din- ner, no, of course not. Julio would just be standing by the window by now, wondering if he'd gotten sick on the way or gotten bitten by some flying creature they hadn't cata- logued yet. Ian shoved his hands into his pockets and began to walk back to the barracks-Estevez probably had supper in the microwave, timed to IrOMONER no gen~ral mealtime, with the last Of sunset-they and supper, such a all of them on lab schedu done s it was, fell whenever the work - NO amenities, no variety in the menu, no-relial On freezers or fancy equipment: every priority was for equi IPment, everything was freeze-dried, dried, or a( water-and-boil, and damned disgusting as a lifelong pr, Pect. Probably the Guild looked for the cuisine to b1i them to their knees ... to have them begging the Gu for rescue and a good stationside dinner. Meanwhile he had discovered a sudden, unusual pref ence for sweets, which, with the coppery taste he had n'loossttlycotnbsotsaentleya,mweas the Only thing that tasted good. A out of the labs he'd worked mi, so named them what they were, in all their chemical par There was, in their reliance on food from orbit, a m( pressin reason to identify grasse 9 s, and dissect seeds, & figure out their Processes and their chemistry, where was like Earth's and where it was different: ecological different, the Guild had said, probably fun of toxins, a to meddle with. But the Guild was going to be wrong on that one, if t, results held-God, the tests were looking good, down the chemical level where it really counted: there we, starches and sugars they recognized, no toxins in tI seeds that, the PhOenix histories informed them, could [ processed and cooked in ways human beings had done h a staple food for thousands of years. That again, for the Guild's insistence they needed p understanding about natural systems-the Guild said the had no use precisely because in the Guild's opinion plat ets had no use, and, the unspoken part, stations an station-dwellers had no use except for the services the Provided. The Guild talked about ecological disasters- about native rights, about all manner Of rights includin the local fauna that had more rights than the workers 0)' the station ... the Guild, that adamantly refused under standing of any natural system. 40 / C. 3. C+WJW" , the microbes they collected But contrary to predictionsattended human beings and the ones that necessarilywith each other Or showed no dispensation to M an"katest fear, with them Or the Planet-that had been their gre vectored viruses getting a hold in human bodies or human- oc faster thaii the genetics people bacteria wreaking hav they'd could patch the problems. They'd prepared for it, ut it hadn't happened catastrOPhi taken precautions-b prepared cally; they weren't seeing the problems they'd en in lab cultures. The very fact they were finding for, ev correspondences was a hazard, Of course, but biological ~i so far and with fingers crossed, the immunologists were beginning to argue that the mere fact there were corre- nces might mean some effective defenses. Talk sponde the lab began to speculate on microbial-level evO- around related to geology and planetary lution more intimately formation than theory had previously held to be the case, wild stuff, the geneticists and the geologists and the bot- ting their heads together On one spectacular anists Put with the un- -y'd gotten the supply drop drunk the night the scheduled Gift from Upstairs- God, the irreverent insanity down here, after a lifetime ase, and the politics, and the Movement. 7 'he solemn Cai ere pouring iwon them after a century But discoveries wof taxonomies. They were and a half Of stagnant studyunderstanding the natu drunk with invention. They wereId formed a comPara ral systems they were seeing* They tive framework with its essential questions foremost, worked out on Lenor,s Principles'.for a hundred fifty ation trickling up through Optics and years of informof the planet; they'd held oil to hands-off observationit in the face of the planetary science--and they'd done )rPtion of resources, Guild's ridicule and the Guild's abs( ery Guild-blessed and the Guild's ship-building, and ev roject that drank up station time and mater"als' had Pi And if the Guild Profoundly repented anything it let pass council, it had to be the decision that had begun FOREIGNER / 41 station construction here, in orbit about a blue, living planet, insiead of barren, virtually airless Maudette. Safer, the scientists of that day had argued. Within reach of resources, if something went wrong. It certainly was within reach of resources, resources and the intelligent civilization they had already detected on the planet. Oh, yes, the Guild raised ethical arguments from the start, but say the truth-the Guild with its talk of moral choices, the right of the planet to develop on its own-they had such a deep concern for the planet- dwellers, papa was wont to say. So why is life down there so sacred to the Guild, and why do they count our lives so cheap? So he was here, because papa couldn't be, and mama wouldn't, without papa: the station and the Movement needed them where they were, if that lander was going to pass a council vote. What the Guild reasoned now, he didn't know. Or care. Thank God, hereafter the politics of the Movement, and who was in charge, and who led and who followed (being an administrator's son, he'd heard all the arguments for and against his being down here, and suffered personally from some of them) and what steps were first and what their policy would be in dealing with the Guild-none of that was his problem anymore. He was down here to prac- tice the science he'd become fascinated with at age eight .. . and realized when the Guild brats ridiculed him that he'd have no real chance of doing anything with it as a job. But papa's dream had been an of-course to him, even at eight ... that was why he'd spoken out without thinking, of course they'd go to the world, of course they'd walk down there someday. And now he did walk the planetary surface, now he did Lenoir's work, he did it, and for Lenoir's reasons: all the collections, the taxonomies, the equivalencies that might let them extrapolate from the natural system in the data storage to deal with a living one. He was laying the foun- 42 / C. I CHERRYM dation for a natural science of this world and a means of dealing with this world and protecting it from their own mistakes-because, dammit, they had to; sooner or later they had to be here. Lenoir was right-the world might have a higher life form already, and the world already and for thousands of years had surely had a name, in someone or something's language-but humanity had come to this solar system without a choice, and it was equally inevita- ble that they deal with the world, before it was space- faring or after, because Maudette was not their choice, and they knew Maudette was not even the Guild's choice-just a way to get the Guild's worker-drones away from the only planet that gave them options. The world had become their hope and their way of securing their freedom and their identity, before they had ever set foot on it. Until here he was, in a place generations had worked to reach, and, one way or the other, he wouldn't be admit- ting defeat. He wouldn't be going back Upstairs, rescued from starvation by some Guild ship. And he-damned sure wouldn't be gathered up and transported to airless Maudette, on Guild terms. Too late for that now, everlastingly too late. Speaking of late . -. . It was Julio in the window, shadow against the light. Shadow that ducked its head in a sudden sneeze. III ferhaps it was cowardice, Manadgi thought, that held )him from going down to the valley. Perhaps it was prudence that argued, in the quiet he saw settle about the buildings as the sun set, that watching and thinking fOREIGNIER / 43 ,tht.r.ough * night 'night grant him some useful under ding. One building had windows. He saw the isolated movements of living beings between the buildings, toward twilight s ambiguous with dis the height of the windows wa Most did not. The size and and occasionally afttan He saw the predating m ' er. ce achines, prowling about the desolation they had made. None came near him, perhaps because he had settled himself well away from such tracks, which evidently it was the purpose of such ma- chines to make, all about the area, a net of them, as if there were less intent to reach any specific place than to have as many routes as possible within the immediate sight Of these buildings. But did they need devastation on which to walk? Or was there some purpose to this stripping of the land that made sense to moon-folk? They feared the approach of enemies, perhaps. perhaps they wished to afford no cover to spies. Perhaps they wished to demonstrate the devastation, or-one hated to imagine-found such destruction aes- thetic. He might walk up to the building's as he had purpose4 and present himself to some authority. But aesthetic de- .Struction ... that thought gave him considerable pause. A machine passed below his biding-place, casting light as bright as the vanished sun along the rutted ground and over the grass along the edge of the devastation. It had no wheels, but linked plates on which it crawled. Its forepart was a claw, which it held rigid. It might be for digging or for stripping the ground. It might be a weapon. Certainly one did not want to its inclinations. A beam,of light hit the rocks and ran along the hill, and Manadgi held his breath, not daring to move. Someone surely sat in mastery Of that machine, he told himself, but there was something so disturbingly clockwork about the walk UP to that and ask , 44 / C. 3. CHERRYH swing of those lights that watching it made his flesh i crawl. What, he asked himself, if they were clockwork, such machines? What if the owners simply turned them loose to destroy, committing them to fortune and not caring what or whom they laid waste? A spear of light stabbed backward from the clanking machine. Too close, Manadgi said to himself, and drew back from his position-then stopped cold as he saw the sheen of glass and smooth metal among the brush and the grass of the slope just below him. An eye, he thought, a machine's single eye thrust UP through the grass, as yet notmoving, perhaps not cogni- zant of him. He had come here to make considerate approach. But not to this. Not to this. He held his breath, wondering if he dared move, or if it would move, or how long this eye had been there until the light from the machine showed it to him. The area of brush where the clawed machine had disap- peared was dark, now, and he sat in an awkward crouch, half ready to move away, doubting whether he dared, .wondering if there was another such machine lurking with mechanical patience, or if such eyes might be threaded all through the grass and the rocks, and he had somehow blundered through them unseen. He trembled to think, considering that it was himself on whom the fortunes of greater people leaned, and that on his auspicious or iDaus- picious choice, on a sum of strange participants whose number he could not at all reckon, chance was delicately balanced, awaiting his decision one way or the other to tip events into motion, for good or for ill to the aiji, whose interests bound up many, many lives. Clearly the moon-folk had no right intruding on Tachi land, within the aiji's power. They had done damage in their arrogance and their power and challenged the people of the whole Earth-and it was on him.to decide what to do, whether to risk this eye developing legs and running FOREIGNER / 45 to report, ()r a voice, to alert other eyes, and to call the clawed machine back to this slope. It had done neither, so far. Perhaps it was shut down. Perhaps it was not a whole machine, in itself, only a part from a Jamaged one. If they fell from the sky, perhaps a p ,etal-sa,l had failed, and one had smashed itself on the rocks. He could scarcely get his next breath, as he moved himself ever so silently backward and backward, straining his mortal eyes into the dark toward the eye and asking himself if the eye might have ears to hear the whisper of cloth or the drawing of his breaths or-it seemed possible to him-the hammering of his heart. But the eye sat in darkness, perhaps blind, perhaps asleep-or feigning it. Did clockwork things hear, or smell, or think? Or how did they know to move? Did they turn on and off their own switches? That seemed impossible. It stayed inert, at least. He gained his feet, moving with what stealth he could, uphill, encountering, at least, no other eyes in the grass. He settled into a nook higher on the hill, there to tuck p mong the yet unravaged rocks, to catch his breath and u a regain his composure. The aiji, he told himself, should haVe sent one of his assassins, not a speaker-should have sent some one of his guard accustomed to hazardous actions, who would know how to move silently and how to judge the hazards of this situation. And perhaps having seen clearly that it was a matter outside his judgment, his wisest course would be to with- draw with what he had seen, and to advise the aiji and the hasdrawad to send someone with the skill to penetrate this devastation. He saw no safe approach. Yet had any machine attacked him? I-lad the machines harmed the children, or could the Tachi prove such wan- dering machines had killed any of their herds? He had to admit fear had swayed his judgment a mo- ment ago. The clockwork machines had wreaked havoc 46 / C. 3. CHERRYIH on the land, but not, though given opportunity, attacked people or livestock. The children that had reported ma- chines had escaped unharmed, and nothing had tracked them to their village. The herdsmen that had spied on the landing places of the petal-sails had escaped, alive and well, without the machines of the moon-folk following them. So perhaps the machines were deaf and even witless things, and he had been foolish to run, just now. He was certainly glad no one was here to witness his dilemma, huddled in a hole in the dark, shivering, and not with the cold. Was that the story he wanted to tell the aiji and his court, how he had fled, without any closer observation? He had confidence in his skills as an observer atid as a negotiator. And could he fail to gather at least an assess- ment of numbers and position, which would be useful as the hasdrawad debated and the aiji arranged another, more aggressive, mission? He dared not carry back a mistaken report, or ask for assassins, and perhaps, in an assassin's too-quick reaction to threat, push the whole situation to hostilities that might not be anyone's intention. He had come here plainly to ask the moon-folk what they were doing, and to have an answer from them for the aiji. He had always realized the chance of dying by error or by hostile action. It was a risk he had been willing to run, when the aiji asked him the question in the safety of the aiji's apartments. Could he retreat now, claiming the machines had threatened him-his only excuse but cowardice- knowing that report would be taken as a reasoned conclu- sion, and that it would loose irremediable consequences? No. He could not. He could not remotely justify it. The aiji had seen applicability in his skills to make him the aiji's considered choice for this mission. He hoped the aiji had also seen intelligence, and judg- ment, and resourcefulness, not alone for the honor of the aiji's opinion, but because his personal resources seemed FOREIGNER / 4, very scanr just now, and the night was very cold, and nothing in his life had prepared him for this. IV he morning came as milky Dale as the first morning TIan bad wakened on the ' a'ne PI t, with a scattering of improbably pink clouds. Pink ... and gold, and pearl white, with a little mist in the low Places. Condensation due to the air being saturated with moisture and the am- bient temperature reaching the critical Point: weather. The moisture came from p - rev'Ous Precipitation and from evaporation from the ground and from respiration from the Plants. One could generate the same effect in the her- barium, up on the station, by a combination of natural and mechanical processes. It was a pretty effect there. But they'd never thought of pink clouds. A shame, Ian thought. They should put gels on the spots and arrange tours. See the planetary effects. It's pretty, Julio had said from the barracks door. -It's pretty, it's cold, have fun. Estevez with his regulated temperatures and filtered air: a life systems engineer with an allergy to the environ- ment was not a happy experimental specimen for the medics. Estevez flinched from the day sky. And Estevez admit to his fear? Retreat from it? Not if he had to go back in and throw up, after his glance at the weather. Allergies, Estevez said. And it was funny, but it wasn't, since Estevez couldn't leave this world. Steroids weren't the long-term answer, and they hadn't had an immune response problem in a hundred years and more on-station. Gene-patching wasn't an option for their little earth-sciences/chemistry lab 48 / C. J. CHERRYH down on the planet, they couldn't send specimens Up- stairs, they hadn't anybody trained to run the equipment if they could get it down here, they weren't a hundred per- cent sure a gene-patch was what they ought to try under exotic circumstances, anyway, and, meanwhile, Archive had come up with an older, simpler idea: find the sub- stance. Try desensitization. Fine, Estevez said, sleepless with steroids, stuck with needles, patched with tape, experimented on by botanists and zoologists. He'd try anything. Meanwhile Estevez stayed under filtration and stayed comfortable and main- tained his sense of humor-except it was scary to react to something after two months down here. The medics thought it should take longer. They weren't sure. There'd never been a hundred-fifty-year-old genetically isolated, radiation-stressed human population exposed to an alien world. Not in their records. Wonderful, said Estevez. Meanwhile all of them who went out on Survey, laying down their little grids of tape and counting grass species, took careful specimens of anything new, bushes, grasses, seeding and sporing plants and fungi and the like. The medics waved a part of that sample past Estevez' nose and taped other samples to his skin. They hung simple ad- hesive strips in the wind, and counted what impacted them, and analyzed snips of the filters, figuring at first that whatever Estevez was reacting to had to be airborne. But they were working on a new theory now, and ana- lyzed samples of soil and dead grasses, looking for molds. So they added the soil punch to the regular test, and ex- tended the grid of samples beyond the sterilized ground. Ian took a soil sample every hundred meters, a punch of a plastic tube down past the root-line, and left his blue plastic tube inserts in a row down the hillside, to pick up on the way back. The old hands down here could walk briskly. He ambled, stopped often, lungs aching, on the long easterly climb uphill, into the rising sun. FOREIGN He'd spotted different color on the east hill y It looked like a blooming plant, and if it did bloo economy of nature, One could guess it did that to genetic material for sexual combination to pro as the grasses did, a likely and advantageous sy cording to their own Earthly prejudice. , - That indicated, then, that it was shedding so into the air, and if it was shedding something, o well argue it was pollen. The committee was still the matter-quasi-pollen or quasi-spores fron flowers, but ask Estevez if he cared. The reprodu the broadleaf grasses might need debate, and po new nomenclature, but those looked to him like of the sort they grew in the herbarium from Ear red-violet, specifically, different than anything d yet seen in the landscape. And sweet-smelling, deliciously sweet, onc climbed far enough up the hill to catch the scent, take his whole-plant sample. Stowing that, with best hopes for Estevez, he di square, pegging one-meter lines on a plastic grid, t his handheld recorder, and began counting or grasses-there was a type, Lawton argued, that, wi grains per ear on average, showed evidence of ar selection, probably had drifted from cultivated fiek that that might let them, at safe distance, gather in tion on the edibility for humans of what the nativi tivated. Which would tell them- A siren, blasted out abruptly, down among tht buildings. Ian froze, sitting as he was, looked do and looked about him, thinking some surveyor acrc valley must have misjudged his position and trigger perimeter alarm. SGrass near him whispered Out of time with the b tartled, he spun on one knee and found himself s at a pair of brown, dusty boots, and the hem of a b 50 / C. 3. CHERRYH knee-length many-buttoned coat and the tall perspective $ 9 of an ebon-skinned giant. He couldn't move. He heard the alarm sounding in the distance, and realized in shock that he was the emergency, and this was the cause of it, this ... man, this creature that had picked his approach and his moment and chosen him ... The native beckoned to him, once, twice, unmistakably, to get tip. Impossible not to recognize the intelligence, the purpose, the civilized nature of the native, who was black as night, with a face not by any remotest kinship human, but sternly handsome in its planes and angles. A third time it beckoned. He saw no imminent threat as he rose. It was imposingly tall-more than a head taller- and broad-shouldered. He saw no weapons about its person-in which thought he suddenly realized that it might take some of his equipment for weaponlike. He was afraid to reach even for the probe he'd used, afraid to make a move in any direction, recalling all Earth's history of war-making mistakes and missed chances for reason. But he moved a cautious hand to his breast pocket, thumbed the switch on the pocket radio to the open posi- tion, all the while watching for the least alarmed reaction. He said quietly, "Base, I've made contact," and watched the native's face. "Base." He kept his voice low, his eyes constantly on the intruder, as if he were speaking to him. "Base, this is Ian. I've made contact. I've got company out here." The native still offered no objection, but in sudden fear of an imprudent answer from Base blasting out, he thumbed the volume control in the direction he devoutly hoped was down. "Nil li sat-ha," the intruder said to him-it sounded like that, at least, a low and, thank God, reasonable- sounding voice. He indicated the downward course to- ward the base, making his own invitation. It motioned again up the hill. "Base," he said, trying not to let his voice shake, "that FOREIGNER was him 4alking. I think it's a he. It looks to be. Tal low. Well-dressed. No weapons- Don't come up hen seems civilized, I'm going to do what he wants, Fn ing Out of perimeter, I don't want to alarm him. back. And don't talk to me, A hard, strong grip closed on his arm. He lo around in startlement at the intruder-no one in his had ever laid hands on him with that intimation of and strength. But the situation was suddenly sliding confusion: a glance downhill showed him his friends ning upslope toward them, the intruder was cle alarmed-and their lives and-everything they had woi for were at risk if someone miscalculated now. Come, the intruder wanted. And a part of him wai more than anything to run back to safety, back to thi he knew, things he could deal with on his own term But the hand that pulled at his arm was too stron~ fight to any advantage, and he went where it wanted, trying to think what to do-he left the communicati switch open, hoping no one would chase them or cor the alien,-panted, "Base, it's all right, I'm safe, wanting to talk, for God's sake, base, tell them p back ...... But he had no idea why they were coming headlong ter him, whether they knew something he didn't whether base was talking at all. They couldn't fight. Th had a handful of weapons against the chance of anirr intrusions, but they were a very few humans on a wor they knew wasn't theirs, they couldn't get off the plani nobody could get down to them, not even the Guild, un the lander was built, and there was no way they cou hold out against a native population that decided to atta( them. Someone downslope shouted, he didn't know what, bi the intruder began to run and he found himself compelle by a grip on'his arm that hauled him along at a breathles stumbling pace'. 52 / C. 3. CHERRYIH "Stay back!" he said to whoever was listening. "Dam mit, he's not hurting me, don't chase him!" air, he Breath failed him. He wasn't acclimated to the couldn't run and talk, he struggled to keep his feet under him as the intruder dodged around brush and rocks and pulled him along. Then his ankles did go, and pitched him onto his knees on the stony hill, the intruder still holding his arm with a grip that cut off the blood to his hand. He looked up at the native, then, scared, trying, to get his breath, trying to get up, and it snatched him up, wrenching his arm as it looked back the way they had come, as afraid as he was, he thought, despite the pain. "I'm all right," he said for the radio. "I've turned the volume off. I can't hear you. -- don't come after me!" don t want to scare the I and he cooperated at The native jerked him along, s lungs burning, his the best pace he could manage, hi breath coming on a knife's edge. His head spun, then, and he had the intruder half-carrying him, while he gasped af- ter air and saw the world in shades of gray- mothered At last it dragged him into a dark place and s him with its body and his coat. He made no protest, ex- cept to try to breathe, and, getting his face clear, lay in the shelter of the native's panting body, wanting only to stay alive, and not to provoke any craziness out of any- one. eft with the creature," Patton Bretano said, with a dd L sinking heart, and Pardino, down on the surface, went on about how they'd gotten radio transmission, they FOREIGNER / were still getting it, and they wanted a decision from station. Patton Bretano sat with the receiver in his hand, listt ing to it, asking himself why it was his son, and wl kind of craziness had sent Ian out by himself, or why I hadn't run for the base instead of away from it, but feared he knew that answer already. Ian wouldn't risk the project, wouldn't risk it. Worki near the perimeter, Pardino said. In an area where th thought they had years yet to find the answers. But the answers had found them. Found Ian, on t edges and unprotected. Pardino talked about how the i dio was still open, and if it stayed that way they had chance to track them. But, How can I tell Joy? was the thought chasii through Patton's mind, scattering saner notions. The f ther's instincts were to mount a search party, to curse L for doing what he'd done, the father's instincts didr damn care what risks the search would ran. The father didn't give a damn how a rescue attem would play politically with the Guild. The politician w~ thinking of the risks they knew they'd run, where they' put the base ... God, of course there were dangers, ar there were procedures for avoiding them. They'd create an electronic perimeter. The natives weren't advance enough to bypass it. They'd been down there for mond without an incident. They'd never let their precautior lapse, and Ian hadn't been in the first team down, he' pulled every string he had and absolutely made sure th, Ian wasn't in the first team.... "Pat, " Pardino said, "Pat, are you there?" "Yes," he said, thinking, God help us, it's happene~ hasn't it? Contact's made. Irrevocable from this poini But my son ... "We can't go after him, " Pardino said. "The staffs h consensus, we can't go after him, we aren't in that kind o position here . . . " "I want the transmissions." He was trembling. Th( 54 / C. 1. CHERRYM shock was still richocheting through his nerves, saying nothing was real. But that open radio was the only fragile link to Ian, and he wanted to be hearing that, not Pardino; he wanted to hear for himself that Ian was all right, never mind what the Guild was going to make of it, never mind that the news was going to be all over the station with the speed of the phone system, and somehow he had to break the news to Joy and get some kind of official news re~; lease out. Had to take a position before the Guild released the story on its own. He wasn't a bad man. He told himself he wasn't a bad man. He was walking a narrow line between a Pilots' Guild that wouldn't scruple to use the story against every- thing their hopes rested on, and a council skittish of op- posing them too radically ... and now Ian had gone and put himself in the middle of what, God help him, he'd planned. Because he knew and the committee knew there were inhabitants in that'area of the island, non-technological as they needed, as they'd wanted the.first contact to be, not to bring them face-to-face with the savviest politicians and the most advanced technology on the planet ... but he hadn't on any terms wanted Ian in the middle of that encounter. Pardino was saying something about the patch on chan- nel B, and he couldn't but think how the Guild was going to be monitoring their transmissions the instant they real- ized there was something happening. Everything they said, everything Ian said, was going to the Guild the same as it went to them, bet on it. "Pat, " Pardino said, obscuring what he wanted to hear, Ian's voice, "Pat, the boy's resourceful, he's being clever, he's not hurt, they're not threatening him, whatever's hap- pened. He talks, but they can't suspect there's a pickup, they haven't got radio. He said he's got the volume down so they can't hear, but he's not that far away. The batter- ies are good for at least four days solid, he says don't 'FOREIGNER come after the guy, they're not threatening him. You Pat? " "Yeah. Yes, I understand you. I want the transmissi dammit." "You've got everything we have. Pardino signed off with that, as if it made anything ter than it was; but, He's resourceful, Pardino had s too, and Patton clutched that thought to himself Pardino went out and left him a quiet, static-rid breathing. Then Ian's voice, saying, out of breath, "It's still right, don't worry, he's just afraid someone's following We're in a cave in the rocks. He keeps touching my a very gentle, like he's trying to get me to be quiet, he to me and I act like I'm answering him. " The other voice came back then, a low, quiet burr. "He's at least a head taller than me, " Ian's voice s mostly like us, but incredibly strong. His skin is black space, his eyes are narrow and his nose is kind of arch flat to the face, he frowns, you can tell that. . . The other voice again. A pause, then: "He's talking to me, I guess you can hear that, r, quiet, like he's trying to tell me everything~ all right. Ian's voice was shaking. Patton felt the fear in his s felt the strain telling on him, and Ian's breaths were and desperate. He knotted his hands together and kn the Guild was recording by now, every desperate minu to play back to the council and the station at large. Ian wasn't the type to crack, he knew his son. Ian w doing all right emotionally. It was the physical stress oi physical constraint that was putting that quaver into lar voice, but others might not think so. He punched in his wife's office number, before news could go out. He said it the way Pardino had said just, "Joy, Ian's in a little trouble, don't panic, but they' got a contact down there and Ian's met it." "A contact, " Joy said, on the other end of the li 56 / C. I CMERRYH "What do you mean, they've got a contact? Is he all right? Pat? Is he all tight?" "So far he's fine," Patton said. "We can hear him, he's got his radio Turn on your B. "I've got it," Joy said, "I've got it." "--a little out of breath, " Ian was saying, and coughed. "My legs are wobbly. I'm not acclimated down here. I'd say we're a couple klicks from the base, don't know how to judge it. There's like trees around here, kind of soft- trunked, big flat leaves, there's like a lot of moss, there's got to be water near here, I'd think, it's all soft-leaved 4. . . . " God, Patton thought, the boy was still observing, still was sending back his damn botany native he wanted to know about. open, Fve got him on the other channel. notes, but it was the He heard the creature talking again, he heard Joy ask, "Is that one of them?" and he muttered, "So far there's just one of them. Walked right through the perimeter alarm and accosted Ian. Ian ordered the rescue party back. He apparently wasn't feeling threatened." "Sir, " his secretary's voice broke in, on override. "Vordict's calling in, says it's urgent, about your son, Sir " The Guild had heard. The Guild was going to raise bloody hell about the situation and play hard politics with the electorate. He wasn't ready for this. Helhad a son in trouble down there and Vordict, damn him, wanted to make an issue of what they all sensibly knew had been in-' evitable from the hour they reached this star, all to read him might-have-beens. "He wants to keep moving, " Ian, s faint voice said. "He wants us to walk again. I'm cold, I'm out of breath, ex- cuse the shakes. . f, "Put him on," he told his secretary, regarding Vordict, and told Joy, "It's Vordict. I've got to talk to him. Ian can't hear us. But whatever he's found down there, it's not hostile, it's all right. . . ." FOREIGNER / 57 Ian gasped, a short, small intake of breath, and Patton's heart froze. Ian said, long-distance, "I lost my balance, is all. It's all tight, it's all right, don't anybody do anything stupid Patton wished the Guild would take that to heart. "Patton, " came the voice from the other channel. "Patton, you've forred this, this is on your head, it's your son in danger, and you knew damned well there was a set- tlement close to the base. I have the documents. I have the witness. You knew before you made the drop there, tell me otherwise, and be advised I intend to take this before the council. 11 V1 There was no offer of resistance, no threat, no weapon, and thus far the luck had been with the effort. Perhaps the moon-man sensed so and made no resistance to his kidnapping. Or perhaps malicious chance was running otherwise and everything only seemed this easy. . Manadgi did not reckon himself a superstitious man, nor a gullible one, or he tried not to be. Anything that proceeded this easily with so much force available to the other side, he greatly distrusted. But the moon-man, at least a head shorter than he, seemed a fragile creature, easily out of breath, quickly winded on the mildest climb. The creature's pale com- plexion turned paler still, and at times it staggered, but it never ceased to try to walk with him. It might be he had put it in fear of its life. It might be it was simply the disposition of moon-folk to be acquies- cent, for reasons such folk understood, but he could, not persuade himself to trust that chance, no more than he 11~,_" I 58 1 C. ). WERRYH COV),d entire)y persuade himself that the clockwork ma- chines were harmless to intruders. He walked and walked, and the moon-man stumbled alone beside him, muttering to himself so constantly he began to wonder if the creature was habitually that addled or somehow injured in its wits. He bad found it sitting in front of a square of grass, plucking stems and talking to itself, while poking at a black box full of buttons that per- haps made sense, but about what business he could not determine. Perhaps it was mad. Perhaps all moon-folk were- along with those furious early pursuers that had given chase and then given up. Or perhaps they were, after all, frail and gentle folk who could not even resist the kidnapping of one of their number- But who then loosed the clockwork machines to de- stroy the valley? The moon-man was lagging farther and farther off the -ps and then fell pace he wanted, was staggering in his ste to his knees, holding his side. "Get up!" Manadgi told it sternly, and waved his hand. The moon-man wiped his face and there was blood, most evidently blood, red as any man's, running from its nose-a flood of life, broken forth by the running and the climbing he had forced it to. He was sorry for it, then-he had not meant to do it harm and still it was trying to do what he asked it, with the blood pouring-down its face. Re gestured with a push at its arm for it to sit down again, and it seemed glad and relieved, bent over and phed its nostrils shut, then began to cough, which, with inc the bleeding, made him worry that it might choke itself Manadgi tucked his hands between his knees and squatted, waiting, hoping the creature knew what best to do to help itself. It was far from threatening, anyone at the moment, rather, it seemed choked, so imminently in peril FOREIGNER / 59 of its life that he took his water-flask and offered it, hop- ing it would help. The moon-man looked at him with suffering eyes, then unstopped the flask and poured a little water out on his hand, to be sure it was water, he thought, before he wiped his face with it. Then he poured a little more into his bloody hand and had a mouthful, which seemed to help the coughing. And the moment he stopped choking, the moon-man began muttering again, the odd creature ... Not an ugly or a fearsome being, Manadgi decided, ex- cept the blood smeared on its pale face. Its strangeness made him queasy about touching it, certainly about ever using the flask, but he greatly regretted hurting it, not having known how delicate it was. Still, for all he knew, its associates had set one of the clockwork monsters on their trail. "Get up," he said to it, exactly the words he had used before. "Get up." The moon-man immediately tried to do what he asked, without a gesture, so the creature had understood a word or two. He gained his feet with the flask tucked under his arm as if he meant to keep it, and kept talking to himself as he went, a thin, uncertain voice, now, lacking all affir- mation. They were past the stricken grandmother stone. They had left the scarring of the land and they went in tangle- grass that clung to the trousers and about the ankles. There was a stream down the hill, he remembered it at the other side of a steep bank and a stand of fern, a slab of rock. That was what he intended-a cold, clean stream and a moment to rest in a more sheltered place, difficult for -die clockwork machines to negotiate. "Be careful," he cautioned the creature, with a tug at the blue sleeve, and it looked around at him, pale, bloody- faced, with a startled expression, after which the moon- man slipped and slid away from him in a rattle of rock and a crashing of fern. 60 / C. ). CHERRYN The creature never cried out. It landed at the bottom half in the water and half on the bank and never moved as he came skidding down to it in fear and fright. He thought it might have broken bones in that fall. It lay still, and he could only think that if there had been any niche for ill fortune in their meeting he must just have destroyed himself and the aiji at once-he dreaded even to touch it, but what was he to do, or where else could he find help? So he pulled its arm and its shoulder out of the water- and it looked at him with dazed strange eyes and went on looking at him as if its bewilderment was as great, as if its understanding of its universe was devastated and dis- ordered as his own. He let it go, then, and it crouched there and bathed its face and washed its neck, while blood ran away in the clean water, an omen of things, he feared as much. But he saw clearly that he had driven it beyond any sane or reasonable limit, and how desperate and spent it was, and yet not protesting. Overall it seemed a brave creature, and never violent,- never anything but willing to comply with everything he asked of it. He found himself glad when it seemed to re- cover its breath, and not to be badly hurt from its fall. It looked at him then as if expecting to have to go on, crazed as their course had been, and able only to ask with its eyes who he was and what he wanted and where they were going, all the things a sane creature would want to know-would he not? Would not any man ask what he wanted and why should he go? Why indeed should he go, when he had every advan- tage of defense in the strange buildings, and why should he have been alone on the hill, and why should he have run from his own people, this strange moon-man who sat and counted grass stems? Perhaps fortune was tending that way and the moon- man had felt it, and given himself up to it. And if that was so, if that was so, dared he lose what FOREIGNER the auspicious moment had put in his hands, or risk it safety by driving it beyond its strength? He spoke to it quietly, he ventured to touch it gently o the knee as he knelt by it on the stream bank, and kept hi voice low and calming. "Rest, rest here, catch you breath. It's all right. Drink." One supposed it regularl drank ordinary water and not substances of the ether. shaped a cup with his hand and had a drink from the stream himself, said again, "Drink," to make the word sure, and the moon-man said it back to him, faint and weak as he was. More, the man's eyes were for a moment clear and un- afraid, if he could judge expression on such a face, elo- quent of curiosity about him, and even gratitude. "Ian," the man said, indicating himself, and said it a second time, so he became reasonably sure it was a name. He said his own name, "Manadgi," in the same way. "Ian," the man said, and put out his hand, as if he was to do the same. "Manadgi." He put forth his own hand, willing to be a fool, and the creature seized on it and shook it vigorously. "Ian, Manadgi," the creature said, and seemed de- lighted by the discovery. They sat there shaking each other by the hand, fools together, mutually afraid, mutu- ally relieved, mutually bewildered by their differences. He had no idea what its native customs or expectations must be. It could have very little idea about his. But it was possible to be civilized, all the same, and he found it possible to be gracious with such a creature, odd as it was-possible, the dizzy concept came to him, to estab- lish associate relations with what was certainly a power- ful association of unknown scope, of beings skilled in a most marvelous craft. "We shall walk," he said slowly, miming with his fin- gers. "We shall-walk to the village, Ian and Manadgi, to- gether." BOOK THREE i The air moved sluggishly through the open garden lat- tice, heavy with the perfume of the night-blooming vines outside the bedroom. An o'oi-ana went click-click, and called again, the harbinger of rain, while Bren lay awake, thinking that if he were wise, he would get up and close the lattice and the doors before he fell asleep. The wind would shift. The sea air would come and cool the room. The vents were enough to let it in. But it was a le- thargic, muggy night, and he waited for that nightly re- verse of the wind from the east to the west, waited as the first flickers of lightning cast the shadow of the lattice on the stirring gauze of the curtain. The lattice panels had the shapes of Fortune and Chance, baji and naji. The shadow of the vines outside moved with the breeze that, finally, finally, flared the cur- tain with the promise of relief from the heat. The next flicker lit an atevi shadow, like a statue sud- denly transplanted to the terrace outside. Bren's heart skipped a beat as he saw it on that pale billowing of gauze, on a terrace where no one properly belonged. He froze an instant, then slithered over the side of the bed. The next flash showed him the lattice folding further back, and the intruder entering his room. He slid a hand beneath the mattress and drew out the pistol he had hidden there-Lbraced his arms across the mattress in the way the aiji had taught him, and pulled the trigger, to a shock that numbed his hands and a flash that blinded him to the night and the intruder. He fired a 66 / C 3. CHERRYH second time, for sheer terror, into the blind dark and ring- ing silence. He couldn't move after that. He couldn't get his breath. He hadn't heard anyone fall. He thought he had missed. The white, flimsy draperies blew in the cooling wind that scoured through his bedroom. . His hands were numb, bracing the gun on the mattress. His ears were deaf to sounds fainter than the thunder, fainter than the rattle of the latch of his bedroom door- the guards using their key, he thought. But it might not be. He rolled his back to the bedside and braced his straight arms between his knees, barrel trained on the middle of the doorway as the inner door banged open and light and shadow struck him in the face. The aiji's guards spared not a word for questions. One ran to the lattice doors, and out into the courtyard and the beginning rain. The other, a faceless metal-sparked dark- ness, loomed over him and pried the gun from his fingers. Other guards came; while Banichi-it was Banichi's voice from above him-Banichi had taken the gun. "Search the premises!" Banichi ordered them. "See to the aiji!" "Is Tabini all right?" Bren asked, overwhelmed, and shaking. "Is he all right, Banichi?" But Banichi was talking on the pocket-com, giving other orders, deaf to his question. The aiji must be all right, Bren told himself, or Banichi would not be standing here, talking so calmly, so assuredly to the guards outside. He heard Banichi give orders, and heard the answering voice say nothing had gotten to the roof. He was scared. He knew the gun was contraband. Banichi knew it, and Banichi could arrest him-he feared he might; but when Banichi was through with the radio, Banichi seized him by the bare arms and set him on the side of the bed. FOREIGNER / 6 So he'd shot someone. He began to shiver as J ducked out again. Banichi turned the lights on and c back, atevi, black, smooth-skinned, his yellow eyes nar rowed and his heavy jaw set in a thunderous scowl. "The aiji gave me the gun," Bren said before Banict could accuse him. Banichi stood there staring at him an I finally said, "This is MY gun. He was confused. He sat there with his skin gone gooseflesh and finally moved to pull a blanket into hi lap. He heard commotion in the garden, Jago yelling a other guards. "This is my gun," Banichi said forcefully. "Can the be any question this is my gun? A noise waked you. I la~ in wait for the assassin. I fired. What did you see?" "A shadow. A shadow coming in through the curtains. Another shiver took him. He knew how foolish he ha( been, firing straight across and through the doors. Th bullet might have kept going across the garden, into th kitchens. It could have ricocheted off a wall and hit some one asleep in another apartment. The shock persisted i his hands and in his ears, strong as the smell of gunpow der in the air, that didn't belong with him, in hi room The rain started with a vengeance. Banichi used hi pocket-corn to talk to the searchers, and to headquarters lying to them, saying he'd fired the shot, seeing the in truder headed for the paidhi's room, and, no, the paidh hadn't been hurt, only frightened, and the aiji shouldn' be wakened, if he hadn't heard the shots. But the guard should be doubled, and the search taken to the south gates, before, Banichi said, the rain wiped out the tracks. Banichi signed off. "Why did they come here?" Bren asked. Assassins, he The other guard came back through the garden understood; but that any ordinary assassin should come doors-it was Jago. She always worked with Banichi. "There's blood. I've alerted the gates." into the residential compound, where there were guards throughout, where the aiji slept surrounded by hundreds 68 / C. 3. CHERRYM of willing defenders-nobody in their right mind would do that. And to assassinate him, Bren Cameron, with the aiji at the height of all power and with the nai'aijiin all con- firmed in their houses and supportive-where was the sense in it? Where was the gain to anyone at all sane? "Nadi Bren." Banichi stood over him with his huge arms folded, looking down at him as if he were dealing with some feckless child. "What did you see?" "I told you. Just a shadow, coming through the cur- tain." The emphasis of the question scared him. He might have been dreaming. He might have roused the whole household and alarmed the guards all for a nightmare. In the way of things at the edge of sleep, he no longer knew for sure what he had seen. But there had been blood. Jago said so. He had shot someone. ".I discharged the gun," Banichi said. "Get up and wash your hands, nadi. Wash them twice and three times. And keep the garden doors locked." "They're only glass," he protested. He had felt safe un- til now. The aiji had given him the gun two weeks ago. The aiji had taught him to use it, the aiji's doing alone, in the country-house at Taiben, and no one could have known about it, not even Banichi, least of all, surely, the assassin-if he had not dreamed the intrusion through the curtains, if he had not just shot some innocent neighbor, out for air on a stifling night. "Nadi," Banichi said, "go wash your hands." He couldn't move, couldn't deal with mundane things, or comprehend what had happened-or why, for the gods' sake, why the aiji had given him such an unprecedented and disturbing present, except a general foreboding, and the guards taking stricter account of passes and rules ... Except Tabini-aiji had said-'Keep it close.' And he had been afraid of his servants finding it in his room. "Nadi." Banichi was angry with him. He got up, naked and FOREIGNER / shaky as he was, and went across the carpet to the bath with a queasier and queasier stomach. The last steps were a desperate, calculated rush for toilet, scarcely in time to lose everything in his stomach humiliating himself, but there was nothing he coul do-it was three painful spasms before he could get breath and flush the toilet. He was ashamed, disgusted with himself. He ran wate in the sink and washed and scrubbed and washed, until no longer smelled the gunpowder on his hands, only pungency of the soap and astringents. He thought Banich must have left, or maybe called the night-servants t clean the bath.. But as he straightened and reached for the towel, h found Banichi's reflection in the mirror. "Nadi Bren," Banichi said solemnly. "We failed y tonight." That stung, it truly stung, coming from Banichi, wh would never humiliate himself as he had just done. He dried his face and rubbed his dripping hair, then had to look at Banichi face on, Banichi's black, yellow-eyed vis- age as impassive and powerful as a graven god's. "You were brave," Banichi said, again, and Bren Cameron, the descendant of spacefarers, the representa- tive of six generations forcibly earthbound on the world of the atevi, felt it like a slap of Banichi's massive hand. "I didn't get him. Somebody's loose out there, with a gun or-19 "We didn't get him, nadi. It's not your business, to 'get him.' Have you been approached by anyone unusual? Have you seen anything out of order before tonight?" "No.,, "Where did you get the gun, nadi-ji?, Did Banichi think he was lying? "Tabini gave it..." "From what place did you get the gun? Was this person moving very slowly?" He saw what Banichi was asking. He wrapped the towel about his shoulders, cold, with the storm wind 70 / C. ). CHERRY+I blowing into the room. He heard the boom of thunder above the city. "From under the mattress. Tabini said keep it close. And I don't know how fast he was moving, the assassin, I mean. I just saw the shadow and slid off the bed and grabbed the gun." Banichi's brow lifted ever so slightly. "Too much tele- vision," Banichi said with a straight face, and took him by the shoulder. "Go back to bed, nadi." "Banichi, what's happening? Why did Tabini give me a gun? Why did he tell me-T' The grip tightened. '~Go to bed, nadi. No one will dis- turb you after this. You saw a shadow. You called me. I fired two shots." I could have hit the kitchen!" "Most probably one shot did. Kindly remember buffets travel, nadi-ji. Was it not you who taught us? Here." To his stunned surprise, Banichi drew his own gun from the holster and handed it to him. "Put that under your mattress," Banichi said, and left him-walked on out of the bedroom and into the hall, pulling the door to behind him. He heard the lock click as he stood there stark naked, with Banichi's gun in his hand and wet hair trailing about his shoulders and dripping on the floor. He went and shoved the gun under the mattress where he had hidden the other one, and, hoping Jago would choose another way in, shut the lattice doors and the glass, stopping the cold wind and the spatter of rain onto the curtains and the carpet. Thunder rumbled. He was chilled through. He made a desultory attempt to straighten the bedclothes, then dragged a heavy robe out of the armoire to wrap about himself before he turned off the room lights and strug- gled, wrapped in the bulky robe, under the tangled sheets. He drew himself into a ball, spasmed with shivers. Why me? he asked himself over and over, and asked himself whether, he could conceivably have posed so ex- treme a problem to anyone that that individual would risk i FOREIGNER his life to be rid of him. He couldn't believe he had himself in a position like that and never once caught clue of such a complete professional failure. Perhaps the assassin had thought him the most defens less dweller in the garden apartments, and his open do had seemed the most convenient way to some other pe son, perhaps to the inner hallways and Tabini-aiji himsel But there were so many guards. That was an insan plan, and assassins were, if hired, not mad and not pron to take such risks. An assassin might simply have mistaken the roo Someone of importance might be lodged in the gue quarters in the upper terrace of the garden. He hadn heard that that was the case, but otherwise the garde court held just the guards, and the secretaries and chief cook and the master of accounts-and himse none of whom were controversial in the least. But Banichi had left him his gun in place of the aiji' which he had fired. He understood, clearer-witted no why Banichi had taken it with him, and why Banichi h had him wash his hands, in case the chief of general se curity might not believe the account Banichi would giv and in case the chief of security wanted to question paidhi and have him through police lab procedures. He most sincerely hoped to be spared that. And chief of security had no cause against him.that he kne of-had no motive to investigate him, when he was th victim of the crime, and had no reason that he knew of challenge Banichi's account, Banichi being in some way higher than the chief of security himself. But then ... who would want to break into his room His reasoning looped constantly back to that, and to th chilling fact that Banichi had left him another gun. Th was dangerous to do. Someone could decide to questi him. Someone could search his room and find the gun which they could surely then trace to Banichi, with al manner of public uproar. Was it prudent for Banichi have done that? Was Banichi somehow sacrificing him 72 / C. 3. CHERRY44 FOREIGNM / self, in a way he didn't want, and for something he might have caused? It even occurred to him to question Banichi's integrity-but Banichi and his younger partner Jago were his favorites among Tabini's personal guards, the ones that took special care of him, while they stood every day next to Tabini, capable of any mischief, if they intended any, to Tabini himself-let alone to a far more replace- able human. Gods, no, suspecting them was stupid. Banichi wouldn't see him harmed. Banichi would directly lie for him. So would Jago, for Tabini's sake-he was the paidhi, the Interpreter, and the aiji needed him, and that was reason enough for either of them. Tabini-aiji would take it very seriously, what had happened, Tabini would immediately start inquiries, make all kinds of distur- bance- And, dammit, he didn't want the whole citadel set on its ear over this. He didn't want notoriety. or to be the center of an atevi feud. Publicity harmed his position among atevi. It completely destroyed his effectiveness, the. moment politics crept into his personal influence, and politics would creep into the matter-politics would leap into it, the minute it hit the television news. Everybody would have an opinion, everybody would have a theory, and it could only be destructive to his work. He huddled under chill covers, trying to get his wits about him, but his empty stomach distracted him and the smell of gunpowder made him queasy. If he called for something to settle his nerves, the night-staff would bring him whatever he asked, or rouse his own servants at his request, but poor Moni and Taigi had probably been roused out of bed to bewildering questions-Did you shoot at the paidhi? Did you leave his door unlatched? Security was probably going down the list of employ- ees, calling in the whole night-staff and everyone he dealt with-as if anyone in this whole wing could be sleeping now. The shots had probably echoed clear downhill and into the city, the phone lines were probably jamnwd, rail station would be under tight restrictions, clear into morrow's morning commuter traffic ... no flattery him: he'd seen what resulted when someone set alarms inside Tabini's security. He wanted hot tea and crackers. But he could o make security's job more difficult by asking for perso errands to be run up and down through halls they w trying to search. Meanwhile the rain spatted against the glass. And was less and less likely that they would catch the assas at all. Moni and Taigi arrived in the morning with his bre fast cart-and the advisement from staff central d Tabini-aiji wanted him in early audience. Small surprise, that. was. In anticipation of a call, had showered and shaved and dressed himself unai before dawn, as far as his accustomed soft trousers shiA, at least, and braided his hair back himself. He h had the television on before they arrived, listening to morning news: he feared the case might be notorious now, but to his perplexity he heard not so much as a pa ing mention of any incident, only a report on the st last night, which had generated hail in Shigi townsh and damaged roof tiles in Wingin before it had gone ro ing over the open plains. He was strangely disappointed, even insulted, by the lence. One had assassins invading one's room and, on o level, despite his earnest desire for obscurity to the o side world, he did hope to hear confirmed that there h been an intruder in the aiji's estates, the filtered sort news they might have released---or, better yet, that the i truder was securely in the aiji's hands, undergoing que tioning. Nothing of the sort-at least by the television new and Moni and Taigi laid out breakfast with not a questi nor a comment about what had happened in the gard 74 / C. J. CHERRYN court last night, or why there were towels all over the bathroom floor. They simply delivered the message they had had from the staff central office, absorbed every dis- arrangement of the premises without seeming to notice, and offered not a hint of anything wrong, or any taste of rumors that might be running the halls. The lord second heir of Talidi province had assassin- ated a remote relative in the water garden last spring in an argument over an antique firearm, and the halls of the complex had buzzed with it for days. Not this morning. Good morning, nand' paidhi, how are you feeling, nand' paidhi? More berries? Tea? Then, finally, with a downcast glance, from Moni, who seldom had much to say, "We're very glad you're all right, nand' paidhi." He swallowed his bite of fruit. Gratified. Appeased. "Did you bear the comm6tion last night?" "The guard waked us," Taigi said. "That was the first we knew of anything wrong." "You didn't hear anything?" "No, nand' paidhi." With the lightning and the thunder and the rain coming down, he supposed that the sharp report of the gunshot could have echoed strangely, with the wind swirling about the hill, and with the gun being set off inside the room, rather than outside. The figure in the doorway last night had completely assumed the character of dream to him, a nightmare occurrence in which details both changed and diminished. His servants' utter silence surrounding the in- cident had unnerved him, even cast his memory into doubt ... not to mention his understanding and expecta- tion of atevi closest to him. He was glad to hear a reasonable explanation. So the echo of it hadn't carried to the lower-floor servants' court, down on the side of the hill and next the ancient walls. Probably the thunder had covered the echoes. Per- haps there'd been a great peal of it as the storm onset and as the assassin made his try-he'd had his own ears full I FOREIGNER / of the gunshot, which to him had sounded like doom, it didn't mean the rest of the world had been that clo But Moni and Taigi were at least duly concerned, perhaps perplexed by his human behaviors, or their pectation of them, they didn't know quite what else say, he supposed. It was different, trying to pick up gos when one was in the center of the trouble. All in tion, especially in a life-and-death crisis, became sign cant; appearing to know something meant someo official could come asking, and no one close to him n sonably wanted to let rumors loose-as he, personal didn't want any speculation going on about him from s vants who might be expected to have information. No more would Moni and Taigi want to hear anot knock on their doors, and endure a second round of qu tions in the night. Classically speaking-treachery servants were a cliche in atevi dramas. It was t ridiculous-but it didn't mean they wouldn't feel the on of suspicion, or feel the fear he very well understood, unspecified accusations they had no witnesses to refu "I do hope it's the end of it," he said to them. "I' very sorry, nadiin. I trust there won't be more police know you're honest." "We greatly appreciate your confidence," Moni s and both of them bowed. "Please be careful." "Banichi and Jago are on the case." "That's very good," Thigi said, and set scrambled eg in front of him. So he had his breakfast and put on his best summ coat, the one with the leather collar and leather down front edges to the knee. "Please don't delay in the halls," Taigi said. "I assure you," he said. "Isn't there security?" Moni asked. "Let us call sec rity." "To walk to the audience hall?" They were worried, decided, now that the verbal dam had broken. He was f ther gratified. "I assure you there's no need. It was pro 76 / C. 3. CHERRYH ably some complete lunatic, probably hiding in a storage barrel gome where. They might go after lord Murida in the water garden at high noon-not me. I assure you. With the aiji's own guards swarming about ... not highly likely." He took his key and slipped it into his trousers. "Just be careful of the locks. The garden side, especially, for the next few days." "Nadi," they said, and bowed again-anxious, he de- cided, as they'd truly been when they'd arrived, just not advertising their state of mind, which atevi didn't. Which reminded him that he shouldn't let his worry reach his face either. He went cheerfully out the door- Straight into a black uniform and, well above eye- level, a scowling atevi face. "Nand' paidhi," the guard officer said. "I'm to escort you to the hall." "Hardly necessary," he said. His heart had skipped a dozen beats. He didn't personally know the man. But the uniform wasn't one an assassin would dare counterfeit, not on his subsequent life, and he walked with the officer, out into the corridors of the complex, past the ordinary residential guard desk and into the main areas of the building-along the crowded colonnade, where wind gusted, fresh with rain and morning chill. Ancient stonework took sunlight and shadow, the for- tress walls of the Bu-javid, the citadel and governmental complex, sprawled over its high hill, aloof and separate from the urban sprawl of Shejidan-and down below those walls the hotels and the hostelries would be full to overflowing. The triennial public audience, beginning this morning, brought hundreds of provincial lords and city and township and district officials into town-by subway, by train-all of them trekking the last mile on foot from the hotels that ringed the ancient Bu-javid, crowds bearing petitions climbing the terraced stone cer- emonial road, passing beneath the fortified Gate of the Promise of Justice, and trekking finally up the last broad, flower-bordered courses to the renowned Ninefold FOREIGNER / Doors, a steady stream of tall, broad-shouldered atev with their night-black skins and glossy black braid some in rich coats bordered in gilt and satin, some i plain, serviceable cloth, but clearly their courtly bes Professional politicians rubbed shoulder to shoulder wi ordinary trade folk, lords of the Associations with an i ious, unpracticed petitioners, bringink their colorfull ribboned petitions, rolled and bound, and with then their small bouquets of flowers to lay on the foyer table an old custom of the season. The hall at the end of the open colonnade smelled recent rain and flowers, and rang with voices-ate meeting one another, or falling into line to register wit the secretaries, on whose desks, set up in the vast low foyer, the stacks of documents and petitions were grom ing. For the courtiers, a human on his way to court busine through this milling chaos was an ordinary sight-a pal smallish figure head and shoulders shorter than th crowds through which he passed, a presence conservativ in his simple, unribboned braid and leather trim-die p( lice escort was uncommon, but no one stared, except th country folk and private petitioners. "Look!" a child cried, and pointed at him. A mortified parent batted the offending hand dow while the echoes rang, high and clear, in the vaulted cei ings. Atevi looked. And pretended not to have seen eithc him or his guard. - A lord of the provinces went through the halls attende by his own aides and by his own guards and the aiji's well, and provoked no rude states.- Bren went with his po lice escort, in the same pretense of invisibility, a littl anxious, since the child's shout, but confident in the vis ible presence of the aiji's guards at every doorway every turn, ordinary precaution on audience day. In that near presence, he bade a courteous farewell his police escort at the small Whispering Port, which, small section of one of the great ceremonial doors, I IM I C1, ~, CHFMIPP~lq discreetly and without official recognition into the back of the audience hall. He slipped through it and softly closed it again, so as not to disturb the advance meetings in progress. Late, he feared. Moni and Taigi hadn't advanced the hour of his wake-up at all, simply shown up at their usual time, lacking other orders and perhaps fearing to do any- thing unusual, with a police guard standing at his door. He hoped Tabini hadn't wanted otherwise, and started over to the reception desk to see where he fitted in the hearings. Banichi was there. Banichi, in the metal-studded black of the aiji's personal guard, intercepted him with a touch on his arm. "Nadi Bren. Did you sleep last night?" "No," he confessed. And hoping: "Did you catch him?" "No, nadi. There was the storm. We were not so fortu- nate." "Does Tabini know what happened?" He cast a glance toward the dais, where Tabini-aiji was talking to governor Brominandi, one of the invitational private hearings. "I think I'm on the agenda. Does he want to talk with me? What shall I tell him?" "The truth, only in private. It was his gun-was it not?" He threw Banichi a worried look. If Banichi doubted his story, he hadn't left him with that impression last night. "I told you the truth, Banichi.11 "I'm sure you did," Banichi said, and when he would have gone on to the reception desk, as he had purposed, to give his name to the secretaryj Banichi caught his sleeve and held him back. "Nothing official." Banichi nodded toward the dais, still holding his sleeve, and brought him to the fm of the dais instead. Brominandi of Entaillan province was finishing his business. Brominandi, whose black hair was shot through with white, whose hands sparkled with rings both oma- FOREIGNER mental and official, w(Aild lull a stone to boredom, the bystanding guards had as yet found no gracious to edge the governor off. Tabini nodded to what Brominandi was saying, a second time, and finally said, "I'll take it before c cil." It sounded dreadfully like the Alujis river rig business again, two upstream provinces against th downstream which relied on its water for irrigation. fifty years, that pot had been boiling, with suit a counter-suit. Bren folded his hands in front of him stood with Banichi, head ducked, making himself as conspicuous as a human possibly could in the court. Finally Tabini-aiji accepted the inevitable petition was it counter-petition?) from Brominandi, a weig thing of many seals and ribbons, and passed it to his islative aides. At which time Bren slid a glance up to Tabini, and ceived one back, which was the summons to him and Banichi, up the several steps to the side of the aiji's ch in the lull in which the favored early petitioners c imill about and gossip, a dull, echoing murmur in vaulted, white and gilt hall. Tabini said, right off, "Do you know who it was, Bre Do you have any ideaT' "None, aiji-ma, nothing. I shot at him. I miss Banichi said I should say he fired the shot." A look went past him, to Banichi. Tabini's yellow ey were very pale, ghostly in certain lights-frighteni when he was angry. But he didn't seem to be angry, or signing blame to either of them. Banichi said; "It removed questions." "No idea the nature of the intrusion." "A burglar would be a fool. Assignations ... "No," Bren said, uncomfortable in the suggestion, b Tabini knew him, knew that atevi women had a curiosity about him, and it was a joke at his expense. "Not a feminine admirer." "No, aiji-ma." He certainly hoped not, recalling 80 / C. 1. CHERPYH blood Jago had found in the first of the rain, out on the terrace. Tabini-aiji reached out and touched his arm, apology for the levity. "No one has filed. It's a serious matter. I take it seriously. Be careful with your locks." "The garden door is only glass," Banichi said. "Alter- ations, would be conspicuous." "A wire isn't," Tabini said. Bren was dismayed. The aiji's doors and windows might have such lethal protections. He had extreme reser- vations about the matter. "I'll see to it," Banichi said. "I might walk into it," Bren said. "You won't," Tabini said. And to Banichi: "See to it. This morning. One on either door. His key to disarm. Change the locks." "Aiji," Bren began to say. "I have a long list today," Tabini said, meaning shut up and sit down, and when Tabini-aiji took that tone about a matter, there was no quarrel with it. They left the top of the dais. Bren stopped at the fourth step, which was his ordinary post. "You stay here," Banichi said. "I'll bring you the new key.,' "Banichi, is anybody after me?" "It would seem so, wouldn't it? I do doubt it was a lover." "Do you know anything I don't?" "Many things. Which interests you?" "My life." "Watch the wire. The garden side will activate with a key, too. I'm moving your bed from in front of the door." "It's summer. It's hot." "We all have our inconveniences." "I wish someone would tell me what's going on!" "You shouldn't turn down the ladies. Some take it badly." "You're not serious." fDMIGNER / No, Banichi wasn't. Banichi was evading the questi again. Banichi damned well knew something. He stood 'frustration as Banichi went cheerfully to turn his ro into a death-trap, mats in front of doors, lethal wires complete the circuit if a foolish, sleepy human forgot hurried to shut his own garden door in a sudden ra storm. He had been scared of the events last night. Now was mad, furiously angry at the disruption of his life, quarters, his freedom to come and go in the city-he saw guards, restrictions, threats ... without a damned rt son, except some lunatic who possibly, for whatev reason, didn't like humans. That was the only conclusi he could come to. He sat down Ga the step where the paidhi-aiji was tided to sit, and listened through the last pre-audience dience with the notion that he might hear something give him a clue, at least, whether there was some wi more political reason to worry, but the way Banic seemed to be holding information from him, and Tabin silence, when Tabini himself probably knew something wasn't saying, all began to add up to him to an atevi wi a grudge. No licensed assassin was going to file on a human w] was an essential, treatied presence in the aiji's hou hold-a presence without the right to carry arms, but the same, a court official and a personal intimate of d aiji of the Western Association. No professional in right mind would take that on. Which left some random fool attacking him as a sy bol, perhaps, or'someone mad at technology or at son equally remote grievance, who could know? Who con track such a thing? The only comforting thought was that, if it wasn't a I censed assassin, it was the lunatic himself or an amate who couldn't get a license-the sort that might mo down byCtanders by mistake, true, dangerous in that ro gard. 82 / C. I. CHERRYH I But Banichi, unlike -the majority of the aiji's guards, had a license..You didn't take him on. You didn't take on Jago, either. The rain last night had been a piece of luck for the intruder-who had either counted on the rain wip- ing out his tracks on the gravel and cement of the garden walkways, or he'd been stupid, and lucky. Now the assassin wasn't lucky. Banichi was looking for him. And if he'd left a footprint in a flower bed or a fin- gerprint anywhere, that man-assuming it was a man- was in trouble. le daren't go to a licensed doctor, for one thing. There had been blood on the terrace. Bren personally hoped he'd made life uncomfortable for the assassin, who clearly hadn't expected the reception he'd met. Most of all he hoped, considering Banichi's taking on the case, that life would become uncomfortable for the assassin's employer, if any, enough for the employer to withdraw the contract. The doors opened. The guards and marshals let the crowd in, and the secretary accepted from the Day Mar- shal the towering stack of ribboned, sealed petitions and affidavits and filings. There were some odd interfaces in the dealings of atevi and humans. One couldn't blame the atevi for clinging to traditional procedures, clumsy as the stacks were, and there was a computer record. The secretaries in the foyer created it. But ask the atevi to use citizen numbers or case num- bers? Convince them first that their computer-assigned personal numbers were auspicious in concert with their other numerologies. Convince them that changing those numbers caused chaos and lost records-because if things started going wrong, an ateva faulted his number and wanted it changed, immediately. Create codes for the provinces, simply to facilitate computer sorting? Were those numbers auspicious, or was it some malevolent attempt of the aiji'9 court in Shejidan to diminish their importance and their power? I fDREIGNER / Then, of course, there was the dire rumor that typi the names in still produced numbers in the comp .numbers of devious and doubtless malevolent intent the part of the aiji, conspiring, of course, with the hu who had brought the insidious device to earth. Not all that humans brought to earth was anathema, course. Television was an addiction. Flight was an creasingly essential convenience, practiced as see-a avoid by frighteningly determined provincials, altho the aiii had laid down the law within his domains, requ ing flight plans, after the famous Weinathi Bridge cra Thank the atevi gods Tabini-aiji was a completely i ligious man. The matters before the aiji had one turn of the gl apiece-a summation, by the petitioner. Most were matters, some involved trade, a few regarded pub works projects-highways and dams and bridges, barb and hunting and fishing rights which involved the ri of the Associations united under the aiji's influence. Ori inating projects and specific details of allocation and bu get involved the two houses of the legislature, hasdrawad and the tashrid-such bills were not the aij to initiate, only to approve or disapprove. But so much, incredibly much, still needed the aiji's personal seal personal hearing. For chief example, there were the feuds to register, tv in number, one a wife against an ex-husband, over ille conversion of her property. "It's better to go to court," Tabini said plainly. "Y( could get the money back, in installments, from his i come." "I'd rather kill him," the wife said, and Tabini sai "Record it," waved his hand and went on to the ne case. That was why humans preferred their enclave on Mo pheira. Mospheira was an island, it was under human m ministration, computers had undisputed numbers, an laws didn't have bloodfeud as an alternative. 84 1 C. 1. C+IERRY+i It did, however, mean that for all the sixty so-called provinces and conservatively three hundred million peo- ple under the aiji's hand, there was a single jail, which generally held less than fifty individuals awaiting trial or hearing, who could not be released on their own recogni- zance. There were a number of mental hospitals for those who needed them. There were four labor-prisons, for the incorrigibly antisocial-the sort, for instance, who took the assassins' function into their own hands, after refusal by a guild who did truly refuse unwarranted solicitation. Sane, law-abiding atevi simply avoided argumentative people. One tried to have polite divorces. One tried not to i antagonize or embarrass one's natural opponents. Thank God atevi generally did prefer negotiation or, as a last reasonable resort before filing feud, a physical, unarmed confrontation---equally to be avoided. Tall, strong hu- mans still stood more than a head shorter and massed a third less than the average atevi, male or female-the other reason humans preferred their own jurisdiction. He'd clearly annoyed somebody who hadn't followed the rules. His mind kept going back to that. No one had filed a feud. They had to notify him, that was one of the stringent requirements of the filing, but no one had even indicated casual irritation with him-and now Tabini was putting lethal defenses into his quarters. The shock of the incident last night was still reverber- ating through his thinking, readjusting everything, until he had suddenly to realize he really wasn't entirely safe walking the halls out there. Professional assassins avoided publicity and preferred their faces not to become famous-but there were instances of the knife appearing out of the faceless crowd, the push on the stairs. And in no few of the lords' staffs there were licensed assassins he daily rubbed shoulders with and never thought about it-until now. An elderly gentleman brought the forty-sixth case, which regarded, in sum, a request for the aiji's attendance FOREIGNER / at a regional conference on urban development. That we onto the stack, for archive. I One day, he'd told the aiji himself, and he knew h predecessors had said it, one day the archives would c( lapse under the weight of seals, ribbons, and paper, all t stories of the block-long building going down in a billo of dust. But this had to be the last petition for the sessio The secretary called no more names. The reception tab looked empty. But, no, not the last one. Tabini called the secret who brought an uncommonly elaborate paper, burden( with the red and black ribbons of high nobility. "A filing of Intent," Tabini said, rising, and startlir the aides and assembled witnesses, and the secretary he up the document and read: "Tabini-aiji against perso unknown, who, without filing Intent, invaded the peace my house and brought a threat of harm against the perso of the paidhi-aiji, Bren Cameron. If harm results henc forth to any guest or person of my household by th agency or by any other agency intending harm to tf paidhi-aiji, I personally declare Intent to file feud, b cause of the offense to the safety of my roof, with Banic of DaJoshu township of Talidi province as my registere and licensed agent. I publish it and cause it to be pu lished, and place it in public records with its seals and i signatures and sigils." Bren was thoroughly shocked. He felt altogether cor spicuous in the turning heads and the murmur of coff ment and question that followed as Tabini-aiji left th dais and walked past him, with: "Be prudent, nadi Bren." "Aiji-ma," he murmured, and bowed a profound bo to cover his confusion. The audience was over. Jago wa quick to fall in with Tabini, along with a detachment o the household and personal guard, as Tabini cut a swat through the crowd on his way to the side doors and th inner halls. Bren started away on his own, dreading the cours 86 / C. 3. CHERRYM through the halls' wondering if the attempted assassin or his employer was in the room and whether the police es- cort would still be waiting out there. But Banichi turned up in his path, and fell in with him, escorting him through the Whispering Port and into the public halls. "Fabini declared Intent," he said to Banichi, wondering if Banichi had known in advance what Tabini had drafted. "I'm not surprised," Banichi said. "I ought to take the next plane to Mospheira." "Highly foolish." "We have different laws. And on Mospheira an ateva stands out. Find me the assassin in this crowd." "You don't even know it was one of us." "Then it was the broadest damn human I ever saw. -Forgive me." One didn't swear, if one was the paidhi- aiji, not, at least, in the public hall. "It wasn't a human. I know that." "You know who came to your room. You don't know, however, who might have hired him. There is some smug- gling on Mospheira, as the paidhi is aware. Connections we don't know exist are a very dangerous possibility." The language had common pronouns that didn't specify gender. Him or her, that meant. And politicians and the aiji's staff used that pronoun habitually. "I know where I'm safer." :'Tabini needs you here." 'For what?" That the aiji was undertaking anything but routine business was news to him. He hadn't heard. Banichi was telling him something no one else had. And a handful of weeks ago Tabini had found unprec- edented whimsy in arming him and giving him two hours of personal instruction at his personal retreat. They had joked, and shot melons on poles, and had supper together, and Tabini had had all the time he could possibly want to warn him if something was coming up besides the routine councils and committee meetings that involved the naidhi. FOREIGNER / E I I They turned the comer. Banichi, he did not fail to noti hadn't noticed his question. They walked out onto th rpolonnade, with the walls of the ancient Bu-javid pale an regular beyond them, the traffic flow on the steps rt versed, now, downward bound. Atevi who had filed fc hearing had their numbers, and the aiji would receiv them in their established order. But when they walked into the untrafficked hall thf led toward the garden apartments, Banichi gave him tw, keys. "These are the only valid ones," Banichi sai~ "Kindly don't mix them up with your old ones. The ol ones work. They just don't turn off the witres." He gave Banichi a disturbed stare-which, alsc Banichi didn't seem to notice. "Can't you just shock th, bastard? Scare him? He's not a professional. There's beei no notice ...... "I'm within my license," Banichi said. "The Intent i filed. Didn't you say so? The intruder would be very fool ish to try again." A queasy feeling was in his stomach. "Banichi, darru it .... 11 , "I've advised the servants. Honest and wise servants capable of serving in this house, will request admissioi henceforth. Your apartment is no different than mine now. Or Jago's. I change my own sheets." As well as he knew Jago and Banichi, he had had n( idea of such hazards in their quarters. It made sense ir their case or in Tabini's. It didn't, in his. "I trust," Banichi said, "you've no duplicate keys circu. lating. No ladies. No-hem-other connections. You'vt not been gambling, have youT' "No!" Banichi knew him, too, knew he had femalc connections on Mospheira, one and two not averse tc what Banichi would call a one-candle night. The paidhi- aiji hadn't time for a social life, otherwise. Or for long ro- mantic maneuverings or hurt feelings, lingering hellos or good-byes-most of all, not for the peddling of influence or attempts to push this or that point on him. His friends as / C. 1. CHERRYN didn't ask questions. Or want more than a bouquet of flowers, a phone call, and a night at the theater. "Just mind, if you've given any keys away." "I'm not such a fool." '~Fools of that kind abound in the Bu-javid. I've spoken severely to the aiji." Give atevi a piece of tech and sometimes they put it to- gether in ways humans hadn't, in their own history- inventors, out of their own social framework, connected ideas in ways you didn't expect, and never intended, ei- ther in social consequence, or in technical ramifications. The wire was one. Figure that atevi had a propensity for inventions regarding personal protection, figure that atevi law didn't forbid lethal devices, and ask how far they'd taken other items and to what uses they didn't advertise. The paidhi tried to keep ahead of it. The paidhi tried to keep abreast of every technology and every piece of vo- cabulary in the known universe, but bits and tags perpet- ually got away and it was accelerating-the escape of knowledge, the recombination of items into things utterly out of human control. Most of all, atevi weren't incapable of making techno- logical discoveries completely on their own ... and had no trouble keeping them prudently under wraps. They were not a communicative people. They reached the door. He used the key Banichi had given him. The door opened. Neither the mat nor the wire was in evidence. "Ankle high and black," Banichi said. "But it's down and disarmed. You did use the right key." "Your key." He didn't favor Banichi's jokes. "I don't see the mat." "Under the carpet. Don't walk on it barefoot. You'd bleed. The wire is an easy step in. You can walk on it while it's off. Just don't do that barefoot, either." He could scarcely see it. He walked across the mat. Banichi stayed the other side of it. "It cuts its own way through insulation," Banichi said. i ~ -~'--AFCMEIGMER i av "AM through boot leather, paidhi-ji, if it's live. Don't touch it, even when it's dead. Lock Cie door and don't wander the halls." "I have an.energy council meeting this afternoon." "You'll want to change coats, nadi. Wait here for Jago. She'll escort you." "What is this? I'm to have an escort everywhere I go? I'm to be leapt upon by the minister of Works? Assaulted by the head of Water Management?" "Prudence, prudence, nadi Bren. Jago's witty company, She's fascinated by your brown hair." He was outraged. "You're enjoying this. It's not funny Banichi." "Forgive me." Banicbi was unfailingly solemn. "Bu humor her. Escort is so damned boring." 11 t was the old argument, highway transport versus rai bringing intense lobbying pressure from the highwf transport operators, who wanted road expansion into d hill towns, versus the rail industry, who wanted the big] speed research money and the eventual extensions in the highlands. Versus commercial air freight, and vers the general taxpayers who didn't want their taxes raise The provincial governor wanted a highway instead of rail spur, and advanced arguments, putting considerat influence to bear on the minister of Works. Computer at his elbow, the screen long since gone rest, Bren listened through the argument he'd heard various guises-this was a repainted, replastered vi sion-and on a notepad on the table in front of hi sketched interlocked circles that might be psychologica significant. 90 / C. J. CHERRYH Far more interesting a pastime than listening to the minister's delivery. Jago was outside, probably enjoying a soft drink, while the paidhi-aiji was running out of ice water. The Minister of Works had a numbing, sing-song rhythm in his voice. But the paidhi-aiji was obliged to lis- ten, in case of action on the proposal. The paidhi-aiji had no vote, of course, if the highway came to a vote today at all, which didn't look likely. He had no right even to speak uninvited, unless he decided to impose his one real power, his outright veto over a council recommendation to the upper house, the tashrid-a veto which was good until the tashrid met to consider it. He had used his veto twice in the research and development council, never with this minister of Works, although his predecessor had done it a record eighteen times on the never-completed Trans- montane Highway, which was now, since the rail link, a moot point. One hoped. There was the whole of human history in the library on Mospheira, all the records of their predecessors, or all that they could still access-records which suggested, with the wisdom of hindsight, that consuming the planet's petrochemicals in a vast orgy of private transport wasn't the best long-range choice for the environment or the quality of life. The paidhi's advice might go counter to lo- cal ambitions. In the case of the highway system, the ad- vice had gone counter, indeed it had. But atevi had made enormous advances, and the air above the Bergid range still sparkled. The paidhi took a certain pride in that-in the name of nearly two hundred years of paidhiin before him. The atevi hadn't quite mastered steam when humans had arrived on their planet uninvited and unwilling. Atevi had seen the tech, atevi had been, like humans, eager for profit and progress-but unlike humans, they tended to see profit much more in terms of power accruing to their interlocked relationships. It was some- FOREIGNER thing about their hardwiring, human theorists said; si the inclination seemed to transcend cultural lines; a sc arly speculation useful for the theorists sitting safe Mospheira, not for the paidhi-aiji, who had to make tical sense to the aiji of the Ragi atevi in the city Shejidan, in Mospheira's nearest neighboring Associ and long-term ally- Without which, there might be a second ugly test of man technology versus atevi haroniin, a concept which there was no human word or even complete tra lation. Say that atevi patience had its limits, that assa nation was essential to the way atevi kept their soi balance, and haroniin meant something like 'accumul stresses on the system, justifying adjustment.' Like all other approximations: aiji wasn't quite 'duke,' it certai wasn't 'king,' and the atevi concept of countries, bo and boundaries of authority had things in common m their concept of flight plans. No, it wasn't a good idea to develop highways and dependent transport, decentralizing what was an effect tax-supported system of public works, which supp the various aijiin throughout the continent in their offic which in turn supported Tabini-aiji and the system Shejidan. No, it wasn't a good idea to encourage systems which entrepreneurs might start making a lot of mon spreading other entrepreneurial settlement along to ways and forming human-style corporations. Not in a system where assassination was an ordin and legal social adjustment. Damn, it was disturbing, that attempt on his ap more so the more time distanced him from the physi fear. In the convolutions of thinking one necessarily M drawn into, being the paidhi-studying and competing years to be the paidhi, and becoming, in sum, fluent it language in which human words and human thoug didn't neatly translate ... bits and pieces of connectio had started bobbing to the surface of the very dark wa 92 / C. 1. CHERRYM of atevi mentality as he understood it. Bits and pieces had been doing that since last night, just random bits of wor- risome thought drifting up out of that interface between atevi ideas and human ones. Worrisome thoughts that said that attacking the paidhi- aiji, the supposedly inoffensive, neutral and discreetly si- lent paidhi-aiji ... was, if not a product of lunacy, a premeditated attack on some sort of system, meaning any point of what was. He tried to make himself the most apolitical, quiet presence in Tabini's court. He pursued no contact with the political process except sitting silently in court or in the corner of some technological or sociological impact council-and occasionally, very occasionally presenting a paper- Having public attention called to him as Tabini had just done ... was contrary to all the established policy of his office. He wished Tabini hadn't made his filing of Intent- but clearly Tabini had had to do something severe about the invasion of the Bu-javid, most particularly the employer of the assassin's failure to file feud before doing it. No matter that assassination was legal and accepted- you didn't, in atevi terms, proceed without filing, you didn't proceed without license, and you didn't order wholesale bloodbaths. You removed the minimal individ- ual that would solve a problem. Biichi-gi, the atevi called it. Humans translated it . . . 'finesse.' Finesse was certainly what the attempt lacked~give or take the would-be assassin hadn't expected the paidhi to have a gun that humans weren't supposed to have, this side of the Mospheira straits. A gun that Tabini had given him very recently. And Banichi and Jago insisted they couldn't find a clue. Damned disturbing. Attack on some system? The paidhi-aiji might find himself identified as belonging to any number of systems ... like being human, like being the paidhi-aiji at all, like FOREIGNER / I advising the aiji that the rail system was, for long- ecological considerations, better than highway transp ... but who ever absolutely knew the reason or the fense, but the party who'd decided to 'finesse' a mat The paidhi-aiji hadn't historically been a target. sonally, his whole tenure had been the collection words, the maintenance of the dictionary, the observati and reporting of social change. The advice he gave Ti was far from solely his idea: everything he did and s came from hundreds of experts and advisers on M pheira, telling him in detail what to say, what to o what to admit to-so finessing him out of the pie might send a certain message of displeasure with h but it would hardly hasten highways into existence. Tabini had felt something in the wind, and armed hi And he hadn't reported that fact to Mospheira, seco point to consider: Tabini had asked him not to tell anyo about the gun, he had always respected certain few vate exchanges between himself and the aiji, and he h extended that discretion to keeping it out of his offic reports. He'd worried about it, but Tabini's confide had flattered him, personally and professionally---there the hunting lodge, in Taiben, where all kinds of co rules were suspended and everyone was on holid Marksmanship was an atevi sport, an atevi passio Tabini, a champion marksman with a pistol, had, app ently on whim, violated a specific Treaty provision provide the paidhi, as had seemed then, a rare week personal closeness with him, a rare gesture of-if fiiendship, at least as close as atevi came, an abrogati of all the formalities that surrounded and constrained h and Tabini alike. It had immensely increased his status in the eyes certain staff. Tabini had seemed pleased that he took the lessons, and giving him the gun as a present h seemed a moment of extravagant rebellion. Tabini had i sisted he 'keep it close,' while his mind racketed wild between the absolute, unprecedented, and possibly polic 94 / C. 3. CHERRYM changing warmth of Tabini's gesture toward a human, and an immediate guilty panic considering his official posi- tion and his obligation to report to his own superiors. He'd immediately worried what he was going to do with it on the plane home, and how or if he was going to dispose of it-or report it, when it might be a test Tabini posed him, to see if he had a personal dimension, or per- sonal discretion, in the rules his superiors imposed on him. And then, after he was safely on the plane home, the gun and the ammunition a terrifying secret in the personal bag at his feet, he had sat watching the landscape pass and adding up how tight security had gotten around Tabini in the last few weeks. Then he'd gotten scared. Then he'd known he had got- ten himself into something he didn't know how to get out of-that he ought to report, and didn't, because nobody on Mospheira could read the situation in Tabini's court the way he could on a realtime basis. He knew that some danger might be in the offing, but his assessment of the situation might not have critical bits of data, and he didn't want orders from his superiors until he could figure out what the undercurrents were in the capital. That was why he had put the gun under the mattress, which his servants didn't ordinarily disturb, rather than hiding it in the drawers, which they sometimes did rear- range. That was why, when a shadow came through his bed- room door, he hadn't wasted a second going after it and not a second more in firing. He'd lived in the Bu-javid long enough to know at a very basic level that atevi didn't walk through people's doors uninvited, not in a society where everyone was armed and assassination was legal. The assassin had surely been confident the paidhi wouldn't have a weapon-and gotten the surprise of his life. If it hadn't been a trial designed to catch him with the gun. Which didn't say why~ FOREIGNER / He was woolgathering. They were proposing a v next meeting. He had lost the minister's last remarks the paidhi let something slip unchallenged through council, he could end up losing a point two hundred y of his predecessors had battled to hold on to. There points past which even Tabini couldn't undo a con recommendation-points past which Tabini wouldn't dertake a fight that might not be in Tabini's interest, o he'd set Tabini in a convenient position to deny his vice, Tabini being, understandably, on the atevi side any questionable call. "I'll want a transcript," he said, as the meeting b up, and gathered a roomful of shocked stares. Which probably alarmed everyone unnecessaril they might take his glum mood for anger and the ponement and request for a transcript as a forew that the paidhi was disposed to veto. And against what interest? He saw the frown gather the minister's face, wondering if the paidhi was taki position they didn't understand-and confusion wasn' good thing to generate in an ateva. Action bred action. had enough troubles without scaring anyone needlessl The Minister of Works could even conclude he bl someone in his office for an attack that was surely ported coast to coast of the continent by now, in wh case the minister and his interests might think they sh protect themselves, or secure themselves allies they lieved he would fear. Say, I wasn't listening during the speech? Insult gentle and long-winded Minister of Works directly in sorest point of his vanity? Insult the entire council, as their business bored him? Damn, damn, a little disturbance in atevi affairs led so much consequence. Moving at all was so cursed de cate. And they didn't understand people who let e passing emotion show on their faces. He took his computer. He walked out into the hall, 96 / C. J. CHERRYH mernbering to bow and be polite to the atevi he might have distressed. Jago was at his elbow instantly, prim Jago, not so tall as the atevi around her, but purposeful, deliberate, dan- gerous in a degree that had to make everyone around him reassess the position he held and the resources he had. Resources the aiji had, more to the point, if, a moment ago, they had entertained any uneasiness about him. There was another turn of atevi thinking-that said that if a erson had power like that, and hadn't used it, he p wouldn't do so as long as the status quo maintained itself intact. "Any findings?" he asked Jago, when they had a space of the hall to themselves. "We're watching," Jago said. "That's all. The trail's cold." "Mospheira would be safer for me." "But Tabini needs you." "Banichi said so. For what? I've no advisements to give him. I've been handed no inquiry that I've heard of, unless something turns up in the energy transcript. I'm sorry. My mind hasn't been on business." "Get some sleep tonight." With death-traps at both doors. He had nothing to say to that suggestion. He took the turn toward the post office to pick up his mail, hoping for something pleasant. A let- ter from home. Magazines, pictures to look at that had human faces, articles that depended on human language and human logic, for a few hours after supper to let go of thoughts that were going to haunt his sleep a second night. It was one of those days he wanted to tell Barb to get on the plane, fly in here, just twenty-four human hours.... With lethal wires on his bedroom doors? He took out his mail-slot key, he reached for the door, and Jago caught his arm. "The attendant can get it." From behind the wall, she meant-because someone was trying to kill him, and Jago didn't want him reaching into the box after the mail. fDREMMER / "That's extreme," he said. "So might your enemies be." "I thought the word was finesse. Blowing up a m slotT' "Or inserting a needle in a piece of mail." She took h key and pocketed it. "The paidhi's mail, nadi-ji." The attendant went. And came -back. "Nothing," the attendant said. "There's always something," Bren said. "Forgive n persistence, nadi, but my mailbox is never empty. It never in my tenure here been empty. Please be sure." "I couldn't mistake you, nand' paidhi." The atten spread his hands. "I've never seen the box empty eithe Perhaps there's holiday." "Not on any recent date." "Perhaps someone Picked it up for you." "Not by my authorization." "I'm sorry, nand' paidbi. There's just nothing there.' "Thank you." He bowed, there being nothing else say, and nowhere else to look. "Fhank you for your trot ble." And quietly to Jago, in perplexity and distres "Someone's been at my mail." Banichi probably picked it up." "It's very kind of him to take the trouble, Jago, but can" pick up my mail." "Perhaps he thought to save you bother." He sighed and shook his head, and walked away, Jag right with him, from the first step down the hall. "His o fice, do you think?" "I don't think, he's -there. He said something about meeting." "He's taken my mail to a meeting." "Possibly, nadi Bren." Maybe Banichi would bring it to the room. Then h could read himself to sleep, or write letters, before he fo got human language. Failing that, maybe there'd be machimi play on television. A little revenge, a little hu mor, light entertainment. 98 / C. 3. OHERRYH They took the back halls to reach the main lower cor- ridor, walked to his room. He used his key---opened the door and saw his bed relocated to the other end of the room. The television was sitting where his bed had been. Everything felt wrong-handed. He avoided the downed wire, dead though it was sup- posed to be. Jago stepped over it too, and went into his bathroom without a please or may I? and went all around the room with a bug-finder. He picked up the remote and turned on the television. I Changed channels. The news channel was off the air. All the general channels were off the air. The weather chan- nel worked. One entertainment channel did. "Half the channels are off." Jago looked at him, bent over, examining the box that held one end of the wire. "The storm last night, perhaps." "They were working this morning." "I don't know, nadi Bren. Maybe they're doing re- pairs." He flung the remote down on the bed. "We have a say- ing. One of those days." "What, one of those days?" "When nothing works." "A day now or a day to come?" Jago was rightside up now. Atevi verbs had necessary time-distinctions. Banichi spoke a little Mosphei'. Jago was a little more language- bound. "Nadi Jago. What are you looking for?" "The entry counter." "It counts entries." "In a very special way, nadi Bren. If it should be a professional, one can't suppose there aren't countermeas- ures.,, "It won't be any professional. They're required to file. 1 Aren't they?" "People are required to behave well. Do they always? We have to assume the extreme." One could expect the aiji's assassins to be thorough, FOREIGNER / and to take precautions no one else would take-s because they knew the utmost possibilities of their He should be glad, he told himself, that he had them lo ing out for him. God, he hoped nobody broke in tonight. He didn't w to wake up and find some body burning on his carpe He didn't want to find himself shot or knifed in bed, either. An ateva who'd made one attempt undetec might lose his nerve and desist. If he was a profession his employer, losing his nerve, might recall him. Might. You didn't count on it. You didn't ever quite count it-you could just get a lit tle easier as the days pass and hope the bastard wasn't just awaiting a better wind( of opportunity. "A professional would have made it good," he said Jago. "We don't lose many that we track," Jago said. "It was raining." "All the same," Jago said. He wished she hadn't said that. Banichi came back at supper, arrived with two new s vants, and a cart with three suppers. Algini and Tai Banichi called the pair, in introduction. Algini a Tano bowed with that degree of coolness that said th were high hall servants, thank you, and accustomed fancier apartments. "I trusted Taigi and Moni," Bren muttered, after t servants had left the cart. "Algini and Tano have clearances," Banichi said. "Clearances. -Did you get my mail? Someone got mail.99 "I left it at the office. Forgive me." He could ask Banichi to go back after it. He could i sist that Banichi go back after it. But Banichi's supp would be cold-Banichi having invited himself and Jal to supper in his apartment. 100 / C. 3. CHERRYH He sighed and fetched an extra chair. Jago brought an- other from the side of the room. Banichi set up the leaves of the serving table and set out the dishes, mostly cooked fruit, heavily spiced, game from the reserve at Nanjiran. Atevi didn't keep animals for slaughter, not the Ragi atevi, at any rate. Mospheira traded with the tropics, with the Nisebi, down south, for processed meat, preserved meat, which didn't have to be sliced thin enough to admit daylight-a commerce which Tabini-aiji called disgrace- ful, and which Bren had reluctantly promised to try to discourage, the paidhi being obliged to exert bidirectional influence, although without any veto power over human habits. So even on Mospheira it wasn't politic for the paidhi to eat an thing but game, and that in appropriate season. To preserve meat was commercial, and commercialism re- garding an animal life taken was not kabiu, not 'in the spirit of good example.' The aiji's household had to be kabiu. Very kabiu. And observing this point of refinement was, Tabini had pointed out to him with particular satisfaction in turning the tables, ecologically sound harvesting practice. Which the paidhi must, of course, support with the same enthu- siasm when it came from atevi. Down in the city market you could get a choice of meats. Frozen, canned, and air-dried. "Aren't you hungry, nadi?" "Not my favorite season." He was graceless this eve- ning. And unhappy. "Nobody knows anything. Nobody tells me anything. I appreciate the aiji's concern. And yours. But is there some particular reason I can't fly home for a day or two?" 17he aiji-" "Needs me. But no one knows why. You wouldn't mis- lead me, would you, Jago?" "It's my profession, nadi Bren." "To lie to. me." There was an awkward silence at the table. He'd in- FOREIGNER I tended his bluntness as bitter humor. It had come ou the wrong moment, into the wrong mood, into their h est and probably frustrated efforts to find answers. Of humans, he was educated not to make mistakes m them. "Forgive me," he said. "His culture will lie," Banichi said plainly to Ja "But admitting one has done so insults the victim." Jago took on a puzzled look. "Forgive me," Bren said again. "It was a joke, n Jago." Jago still looked puzzled, and frowned, but not angr "We take this threat very seriously." "I didn't. I'm beginning to." He thought: Where's mail, Banichi? But he had a mouthful of soup inste Making too much haste with atevi was not, not tive. "I'm grateful. I'm sure you had other plans this e ning." "No," said Jago. "Still," he said, wondering if they'd fixed the televis outage yet, and what he was going to say to Banichi Jago for small talk for the rest of the evening. Ma] there was a-play on the entertainment channel. It seen they might stay the night. And in whose bed would they sleep, he asked hims -Or would they sleep? They didn't show the effects last night at all. "Do you play cards?" "Cards?" Jago asked, and Banichi shoved his ch back and said he should teach her. "What are cards?" Jago asked, when what Bren wan to ask Banichi involved his mail. But Banichi proba had far more important things on his mind-like chec with security, and being sure surveillance items w working. "It's a numerical game," Bren said, wishing Bani4 wasn't deserting him to Jago-he hoped not for the ni When are you leaving? wasn't a politic question. He m 102 / C. 3. CHERRYN still trying to figure how to ask it of Banichi, or what he should say if Banichi said Jago was staying ... when Banichi went out the door, with, "Mind the wire, nadi Bren." "Gin," Jago said. Bren sighed, laid his cards down, glad there wasn't money involved. "Forgive me," Jago said. "You said I should say that. Unseemly gloating was far from-" "No, no, no. It's entirely the custom." "One isn't sure," Jago said. "Am I to be sure?" He had embarrassed Jago. He had been mishidi- awkward. He held out his palm, the gesture of concilia- tion. "You're to be sure." God, one couldn't walk without tripping over sensitivities. "It's actually courteous to tell me you've won." "You don't count the cards?" Atevi memory was, especially regarding numbers, hard to shake, no matter that Jago was not the fanatic number- adder you found in the surrounding city. And no, he hadn't adequately counted the cards. Never play numbers with an atevi. "I would perhaps have done better, nadi Jago, if I weren't distracted by the situation. I'm afraid it's a little more personal to me." "I assure you we've staked our personal reputations on your safety. We'd never be less than committed to our effort." He had the impulse to rest his head on his hand and re- sign the whole conversation. Jago would take that as ev- idence of offense, too. "I wouldn't expect otherwise, nadi Jago, and it's not your capacity I doubt, not in the least. I could only wish my own faculties were operating at their fullest, or I should not have embarrassed myself just now, by seeming to doubt you." "I'm very sorry." FOREIGNER / "I'll be far brighter when I've slept. Please regard mistakes as confusion." Jago's flat black face and vivid yellow eyes held m intense expression than they were wont-not offense, thought, but curiosity. "I confess myself uneasy," she said, brow furrow "You declare absolutely you aren't offended." "No." One rarely touched atevi. But her manner invi it. He patted her hand where it rested on the table. "I i derstand you." It seemed not quite to carry the point, a looking her in the eyes, he flung his honest thoughts al it. "I wish you understood me on this. It's a hurr thought." "Are you able to explain?" She wasn't asking Bren Cameron: she didn't kni Bren Cameron. She was asking the paidhi, the interpre to her people. That was all she could do, Bren thong regarding the individual she was assigned by the aiji protect, since the incident last night-an individual w didn't seem in her eyes to take the threat seriou! enough, or to take her seriously ... and how was she know anything about him? How was she to guess, w the paidhi giving her erratic clues? Will you explain? ss asked, when he wished aloud that she understood hirr "If it were easy," he said, trying with all his wits make sense of it to her---or to divert her thinking aw from it, "there wouldn't need to be a paidhi at all. -f I wouldn't be human, then, and you wouldn't be ate and nobody would need me anyway, would they?" It didn't explain anything at all. He only tried to ma the confusion . less important than it was. Jago cou surely read that much. She worried about it and thouE about it. He could see it in her eyes. "Where's Banichi gone?" he asked, feeling things l: tween them slipping further and further from his contri "Is he planning to come back here tonight?" "I don't know," she said, still frowning. Then he d cided, in the convolutions of his exhausted and increa 104 / C. J. Cf4E;W+l I ingly disjointed thoughts, that even that might have sounded as if he wanted Banichi instead of her. Which he did. But not for any reason of her incompe- tency. Dealing with a shopkeeper with a distrust of com- puters was one thing. He was not faring well at all in dealing with Jago, he could not put out of his mind Banichi's advisement that she liked his hair, and he de- cided on distraction "I want my mail. "I can call him and ask him to bring it," He had forgotten about the pocket-com. "Please do that," he said, and Jago tried. And tried. "I can't reach him," Jago said. "Is he all right?" The matter of the mail diminished in importance, but not, he feared, in significance. Too much had gone on that wasn't ordinary. "I'm sw~e he is." Jago gathered up the cards. "Do you want to play again?" "What if someone broke in here and you needed help? Where do you suppose he is?" Jago's broad nostrils flared. "I have resources, nadi Bren." He couldn't keep from offending her. "Or what if he was in trouble? What if they ambushed him in the halls? We might not know." "You're very full of worries tonight-" He was. He was drowning in what was atevi; and that failure to understand, in a sudden moment of panic, led him to doubt his own fitness to be where he was. It made him wonder whether the lack of perception he had shown with Jago had been far more general, all along-if it had not, with some person, led to the threat he was under. Or, on the other hand, whether he was letting himself be spooked by his guards' zealousness because of some threat of a threat that would never, ever rernaterialize. "Worries about what, paidhi?" He blinked, and looked by accident up into Jago's yel- low, unflinching gaze. Don't you know? he thought. Is it FOREIGNER / I a challenge, that question? Is it distrust of me? Why these questions? But you couldn't quite say 'trust' in Jago's language either, not in the terms a human understood. Every house every province, belonged to a dozen associations, th made webs of association all through the country, whose border provinces made associations across the putative borders into the neighbor associations, an endless fuzzy interlink of boundaries that weren't boundaries, both geo- graphical and interest-defined-'trust,' would you say? Say man'chi-'central association,' the one association that defined a specific individual. "Man'china aijiia nai'am, " he said, to which Jago blinked a third time. I'm the aiji's associate, foremost. "Nai'danei man'chini somai Banichi?" Whose associate are you and Banichi, foremost of all? "Tabini-aijiia, hei. " But atevi would lie to anyone but their central associate. "Not each other's?" he asked. "I thought you were very close, you and Banichi." "We have the same man'chi." "And to each other?" He saw what might be truth leap through her expression-and the inevitable frown followed. "The paidhi knows the harm in such a question," Jago said. "The paidhi-aiji," he said, "knows what he asks. He finds it his duty to ask, nadi." Jago got up from the table, walked across the room and said nothing for a while. She went to look out the garden doors, near the armed wire-it made him nervous, but he thought he ought not to warn her, just be ready to remind her. Jago was touchy enough. He hadn't quite insulted her. But he'd asked into a matter intensely personal and private. "The Interpreter should know -he won't get an honest answer," she'd implied, and he'd said, plain as plain to her politically sensitive ears, "Me Interpreter serves the 106 / C. 1. CHERMH aiji by questioning the true hierarchy of your intimate alignments." Freely translated-Faced with betraying someone, the aiji or Banichi, ... which one would you betray, Jago? Which have you? Fool to ask such a question, when he was alone in a room with her? But he was alone in the whole country, for that matter, one human alone with three hundred million atevi, and billions around the world, and he was obliged to ask questions-with more intelligence and cleverness than he had just used, granted; but he was tired enough now, and crazed enough, to want to be sure of at least three of them, of Tabini, Banichi, and Jago, before he went any further down the paved and pleasant road of belief. There wag too much harm he could do to his own species, be- lieving a lie, going too far down a false path, granting too much truth to the wrong people- Because he wasn't just the aiji's interpreter. He had a primary association that outranked it, an association that was stamped on his skin and his face-and that was the one atevi couldn't help seeing, every time they looked at him. He waited for Jago to think his question through- perhaps even to ask herself the questions about her own loyalties that atevi might prefer not to ask. Perhaps atevi minds, like human ones, held hundreds of contradictory compartments, the doors of which one dared not open wholesale and look into. He didn't know. It was, perhaps, too much to ask, too personal and too dangerous. Perhaps questioning the loyalty atevi felt as a group inherently questioned a tenet of belief-and perhaps their man'chi concept was, at bottom, as false, as humans had always wished it was, longing at an emotional level for atevi to be and think and hold individual, interpersonal values like themselves. The paidhi couldn't believe that. The paidhi daren't be- FOREIGNER / I lieve that deadliest and most dangerous of illusions. was off the emotional edge. And, perhaps recognizing that the paidhi was off edge, Jago declined to answer him. She used the pocket com again, asking Banichi if he was receiving-and stil didn't look at him. Banichi still didn't answer. Frowning, then, perhaps for a different reason, Jag called headquarters, asking where Banichi was, or if any one knew where he was--and, no, headquarters didn' know. Maybe Banichi was with some woman, Bren thought although he decided he should keep that idea to himse figuring Jago was capable of thinking of it for herself i it was at all likely. He wasn't sure whether Banichi Jago slept with each other. He had never been complete certain what the relationship was between them, except close, years-long professional partnership. He saw the frown deepen on Jago's face. "Someone find out where he is," she said into the com. There were verbal codes; he knew that and he couldn' tell whether the answer he overheard was one: "Lab work, " HQ said, but Jago didn't seem to like the answer. "Tell him contact me when he's through," Jago said to HQ, not seeming pleased, and shut the contact off on the affirmative. "You had no sleep last night," she said, in he smoother, professional tones, and, evading the wire, she slid the glass garden doors open on the lattice. "Please rest, nadi Bren.". He was exhausted. But he had rather plain answers. And he was far from sure he wanted his garden doo open. Maybe they were setting up a trap. He was in no mood tonight to be the sleeping bait. "Nadi," he said, "have you forgotten my question?" "No, paidhi-ji." "But you don't intend to answer." 108 / C. 3. CMERRYH Jago fixed him with a yellow, lucent stare. "Do they ask such questions on Mospheira?" "Always." "Not among us," Jago said, and crossed the room to the door. "Jago, say you're not angry." Again that stare. She had stopped just short of the deadly square on the carpet, turned it off, and looked back at him. "Why ask such a futile question? You wouldn't believe either answer." It set him back. And made him foreign and deliberate in his own reply. "But I'm human, nadi." "So your man'chi isn't with Tabini, after all. Dangerous question. Deadly question. "Of course it is. -But what if you had two ... two very strong man 'chiin?" "We call it a test of character." Jago said, and opened the door. "so do we, nadi Jago." He had caught her attention. Black, wide, imposing, she stood against that bar of whiter hall light. She stood there as if she wanted to say something. But the pocket-com beeped, demanding attention. She spoke briefly with headquarters, regarding Banichi's whereabouts, and HQ said that he was out of the lab, but in conference, asking not to be disturbed. "Thank you," she said to the com. "Relay my mes- sage." And to him:, "The wires will both be live. Go to bed, paidhi Bren. I'll be outside if you need me." "All night?" There was a moment of silence. "Don't walk in the gar- den, nand' paidhi. Don't stand in front of the doors. Be prudent and go to bed." She shut the door then. The wire rearmed itself-he supposed. It came up when the door locked. And did it need all of that-Jago and the wire, to se- cure his sleep? FOREIGNER / 1 Or where was Banichi and what was that exchange questions, this talk about loyalties? He couldn't reme who'd started it. Jago could have forgone an argument with him, at edge of sleep, when he most wanted a tranquil min he wasn't even certain now who'd started it and who pressed it, or with what intention. He hadn't done we The whole evening with Banichi and then Jago had had stressed, on the edge quality,.as if- In retrospect, it seemed that Jago had been fishing hard as he had been to find out something, all along pressing every opportunity, challenging him, or ready take offense and put the worst construction on matters. might be Jago's inexperience with him-he'd dea mostly with Banichi and relied on Banichi to interpret her. But he couldn't figure out why Banichi had deserte him tonight-except the obvious answer, that Banichi the senior of the pair had had matters on his mind mo important to the aiji than the paidhi was. And so far as he could tell, neither he nor Jago h completely gotten the advantage, neither of them ha come away with anything useful that he could figu out-only a mutual reminder how profound the diffe ences were and how dangerous the interface betwee atevi and human could still turn, on a moment's notice He couldn't even get his points across to one wel educated and unsuperstitious woman with every reason t listen to him. How could he transmit anything, via h prepared statements to the various councils, make an headway with the population at large, who, after two cei turies of peace, agreed it was a very good thing for ht mans to stay on Mospheira and grudgingly conceded th computers might have numbers, the way tables mig have definite sizes and objects definite height, but, Go even arranging the furniture in a room meant considerin ratios and measurements, and felicitous and infelicitou 110 / C 3. CHERRYH combinations that the atevi called agingi'ai, 'felicitous numerical harmony.' Beauty flowed from that, in atevi thinking. The infelic- itous could not be beautiful. The infelicitous could not be reasoned with. Right numbers had to add up, and an even division in a simple flower arrangement was a communi- cation of hostility. God knew what he had communicated to Jago that he hadn't meant to say. He undressed, he turned out the light and cast an appre- hensive look at the curtains, which showed no hint of the deadly wire and no shadow of any lurking assassin. He put himself to bed-at the wrong end of the room-where the ventilation was not directly from the lattice doors. Where the breeze was too weak to reach. He was not going to sleep until the wind shifted. He could watch television. If it worked. He doubted it would. The outages usually stayed through the shift, when they happened. He watched the curtain, he tried to think about the council business ... but his mind kept circling back to the hall this morning, Tabini making that damnable an- nouncement of feud, which he didn't want-certainly didn't want public. ' And the damned gun-had they transferred that, when they moved his bed? He couldn't bear wondering if anyone had found it. He got up and felt under the mattress. It was there. He let go a slow breath, put a knee on the mattress and slid back under the sheets, to stare at the darkened ceiling. Many a rhoment in the small hours of the morning he doubted what he knew. Close as he was to Tabini in certain functions, he doubted he had ever made Tabini un- derstand anything Tabini hadn't learned from his pre- decessor in office. He did his linguistic research. The paper that had gotten him on the track to the paidhi's of- fice was a respectable work: an analysis of set-plurals in the Ragi atevi dialect, of which he was proud, but it was i FOREIGNER / no breakthrough, just a conclusion to which he'd be able to add, since, thanks to Tabini"s patient and iffe gious analysis. But at times he didn't understand, not Tabini, not Tai and Moni, God knew what he would figure about glum-faced servants Banichi and Jago foisted off on hi but that was going to be another long effort. He was in damned mess, was what he'd made for himself-he did catch the nuances, he'd gotten involved in something didn't understand. He was in danger of failing. He imagined once he had the talent to have done what first paidhi had done: breach the linguistic gap from co ceptual dead zero and in the heart of war . In the years when humans had first come down h few at first~ then in greater and greater numbers as seemed so easy ... they'd been equally confident understood the atevi-until one spring day, twenty-o years into the landings, with humans venturing peaceful onto the continent, when that illusion had-suddenly a] for reasons candidates for his job still argued amo themselves-blown up in their faces. Short and nasty, what atevi called the War of Landing-all the advanced technology on the human sid and vast numbers and an uncanny determination on the part of the atevi, who had, in that one year, driven mans from Ragi coastal land and back onto Mosphei attacked them even in the valley the bewildered survivo held as their secure territory. Humanity on this world h come that close to extinction, until Tabini-aiji's fou removed predecessor had agreed, having met face-to464 with the man who would be the first paidhi, to'ce Mospheira and let humans separate themselves from ate completely, on an island where they'd be safe ar isolated. Mospheira and a cease-fire, in exchange for the tec nology the atevi wanted. Tabini's fourth-removed pred cessor, being no fool, had seen a clear choice staring hi in the face: either strike a deal with humanity and becon 112 / C. 3. CHERRYH indispensable to them, or see his own allies make his lands a battlefield over the technology his rivals hoped to lay their hands on, killing every last human and poten- tially destroying the source of the knowledge in the pro- cess. Hence the Treaty which meant the creation of the paidhi's office, and the orderly surrender of human tech- nology to the atevi Western Association, at a rate- neither Tabini's ancestor nor the first paidbi had been fools-that would maintain the atevi economy and the relative power of the aijiin of various Associations in the existing balance. Meaning, all of the rivals, the humans and the technol- ogy securely in the hands of Tabini's ancestor. The War had stopped ... Mospheira's atevi had resettled on the Ragi aiji's coastal estate-lands, richer than their own fields by far, a sacrifice of vast wealth for the Ragi aiji, but a wise, wise maneuver that secured the peace-and every damned thing the Mospheira atevi and the Ragi atevi wanted. Humans weren't under this sun by choice. And (the constant and unmentioned truth) humans to this day didn't deal with the atevi by choice or at advantage. Hu- mans had lost the War: few in numbers, stranded, their station soon in decay, their numbers dwindling above and below ... descent to the planet was their final, desperate choice. Impossible to conceal their foreignness, impossible to trust a species that couldn't translate friendship, impossi- ble to admit what humans really wanted out of the agree- ment, because atevi in general didn't-that foreign word-trust people foolish enough to land without a by- .your-leave and possessing secrets they hadn't yet turned over. The paidhi didn't tell everything he knew-but he was treaty-bound to the slow surrender of everything humans owned, to pay the rent on Mospheira-and to empower the only human-friendly government on the planet to keep FOREIGNER / humanity's most implacable enemies under his thu The aiji of that day had wanted high-powered guns atevi had had muzzle-loading rifles and cumbersome c non, and took to high-velocity bullets with-terrible of speech-an absolute vengeance. Fastest piece of talking a paidhi had ever done, pres with the aiji's request for designs that would put a terri ing arsenal in Ragi hands, Bretano had pointed out t such weapons would surely reach Ragi rivals as well, that the Ragi already had the upper hand. Did they w to tip the balance? Pressed for advanced industrial techniques, Bret had objected the ecological cost to the planet, and whole committee behind him, and his successors, had gun the slow, centuries-long business of steering science steadily into ecological awareness- And toward material production resources that wo serve human needs. The one tactic, the ecological philosophy ... hoped get war out of the atevi mindset, to build experime rockets instead of missiles, rails instead of cannon, consider what happened to a river downstream when a tle garbage went in upstream, to consider what happe when toxic chemicals blew through forests or poisons into the groundwater-thank God, the atevi had taken the idea, which had touched some cultural bent already the Ragi mentality, at least. It had locked onto success generations so firmly that little children in this h century learned rhymes about clean rivers-while hu tacticians on Mospheira-safe on Mospheira, unlike paidhi-deliberated what industry they dared prom( and what humans needed the atevi to develop in order humans to get launch facilities and the vehicle tt needed. The unspoken, two hundred-year-agenda, the one ev human knew and the paidhi walked about scared out his mind because he knew-because even if atevi gues by now that getting themselves a space program me 114 / C. ). CHERRYN developing materials as useful to humans as to them- selves, even if he could sit in the space council meetings and surmise that every atevi in the room knew what they developed had that potential, it was a question he never brought up, not with them, not with atevi he knew the best--because it was one of those impenetrable thickets in atevi mindset, how they'd take the knowledge if it be- came impossible to ignore it. He'd certainly no idea at all how it would play outside Tabini's court, out across the country-when popular novels still cast human villains, and they appeared in shadow, in nebai, in the machimi plays-nebai, because they couldn't get human actors.... Humans were the monsters in the closet, the creatures under the bed ... in a culture constantly on its guard against real dangers from real assassins, in a culture where children learned from television a paranoid fear of strangers. What were humans really up to on Mospheira? What dark technological secrets was Tabini-aiji keeping for himself? What was in the telemetry that flowed between the station in space and the island an hour by air off Tabini's shores? And why did some loon want to kill the paidhi? He had a space council meeting tomorrow-nothing he considered controversial, a small paper with technical in- formation the council had asked and he'd translated out of the library on Mospheira. No controversy in that. None in the satellite launch up- coming, either. Communications weren't controversial. Weather forecast wasn't controversial. There was the finance question, whether to add or subtract a million from the appropriation to make the unmanned launch budget add up to an auspicious num- ber-but a million didn't seem, against six billion already committed to the program, to be a critical or acerbic Js- sue, over which assassins would swarm to his bedroom. There was, occasionally smoldering, the whole, sensi- tive manned versus unmanned debate-whether atevi fOREIGNER / i i should attempt to recover the human space station, w was in increasing disrepair, with its tanks empty nov its slow drift out of stable orbit. The human policy wasn't to scare anyone by brin up the remote possibility of infall in a populated area. ficially, statistically, the station debris would come in the vast open oceans, in, oh, another five hun years, give or take a solar storm or so--he couldn't sonally swear to any of it, since astrophysics wasn't forte, but the experts said that was what he should and he'd said it. He'd advanced his modest paper on the topic of sion goals at his inaugural meeting with the space c cil, proposing the far from astonishing concept that lif metal to orbit was expensive, and that letting what wa ready orbiting burn up was not economical, and that should do something with the dead, abandoned station fore they sank large resources into unmanned missio Manned space advocates of course agreed immedi with celebration. Astronomers and certain anti-hu lobbies disagreed passionately. Which put the ques into the background, while council members consu numerologists on truly important issues such as (the rently raging question) whether the launch dates v auspicious or not, and how many dates it was auspici to approve in reserve-which got into another debate tween several competing (and ethnically signific schools of numerology, on whether the current ( should be in the calculation or whether one counted birthdate of the whole program or of the project or of date the launch table was devised. Never mind the debate over whether the fuel cham baffle in the heavy lift booster could be four-partitio without affecting the carefully chosen harmonious n bers of the tank design. The truly dangerous issues that he could think of, ly here flat on his back, waiting for assassins, were all quiet ones-the utilization of the station as an at 116 / C. 3. CMERRYH FOREIGNER mission goal was one item of some controversy he'd strenuously advocated, now that he began to add up the supporters, some of them less reasonable, behind the gen- teel voices of the council. And always factor into any space debate the continual exchange of telemetry and instructions between Mos- pheira and the station, which had gone on for two hun- dred years and was still going. A certain radical element among atevi maintained there were weapons hidden aboard the abandoned station. The devoted lunatics of the radical fringe were convinced the station's slow infall was no accident of physics, but a carefully calculated approach, perhaps in the hands of hu- mans secretly left aboard, or instructions secretly relayed from Mospheira, now that they knew about computer controls, which would end with the station descending in a blazing course across the skies, 'disturbing the ethers to disharmony and violence,' and creating hurricanes and tidal waves, as its weapons rained fire down on atevi civ- ilization and placed atevi forever under human domina- tion. Forgive them, Tabini was wont to say dryly. They also anticipate the moon to influence their financial ventures and the space launches to disturb the weather. Foreign aijiin from outside Tabini's Association actu- ally funded offices in Shejidan to analyze those telemetry transcripts on which Shejidan eavesdropped-the numer- ologists these foreign aijiin employed suspecting secret assignments of infelicitous codes, affecting the weather, or agriculture, or the fortunes of Tabini's rivals ... and one daren't call such beliefs silly. Actually Tabini did call them exactly that, to his inti- mates, but in public he was very kabiu, very observant, and employed batteries of number-counters and geometri- cians of.various persuasions to study every utterance and every bit of intercepted transmission, just as seriously-to refute what the conservatives came up with, to be sure. From time to time-it was worth a grin, even in the dark-Tabini would come to the paidhi and say, Trans this. And he would phone Mospheira with a segmen code that, transmitted to the station, would be comp nonsense to the computers, so the technicians assu him-they just dropped it into some Remark string, transmitted it solely for the benefit of the eave and that fixed that, as Barb would say. Numbers wo then turn up in the transmission sequences that b some doomsayer's bubble before he could go public his theory. That, God help them all, was the space program. that was not worth a grin. That was every program promoted. That was the operation of the council and hasdrawad and the tashrid and the special interests operated in the shadows-radical groups among th special interests, groups that called the Treaty Mospheira a mistake, that called for those things the radical humans-and God knew there were thos suspected as existing in extensive plans and Tabini missed as stupid, like another attack on Mospheira. Humans might have no illusion of welcome in world-but there were certainly the serious and the n serious threats. Serious, were the human-haters who cussed on the highway dispute as a human plot to the economy under Tabini's thumb-which cut much close to the truth neither the paidhi nor the aiji wante public awareness. There was, thank God, the moonbeam fringe-wi slippery grip on history, the laws of physics, and real The fringe went straight for the space program (one s posed because it was the highest and least conceiv technology) as the focus of all dire possibility, ideas r ing from the notion that rocket launches let the sphere leak out into the ether ... to his personal fav the space station cruising at ground level causing hu canes and blasting cities with death rays. Atevi co laugh at it. Humans could. Humor at the most outrage lie / C. 3. CHERRYM hate-mongering did everyone good, and poked holes in assumptions that otherwise would lie unventilated. The ffinge had done more good, in fact, for human- atevi understanding than all his speeches to the councils. But if you ever wanted a source from which a lunatic, unlicensed assassin could arise, it was possible that one of the fringe had quite, quite gone over the edge. Maybe the numbers, had said, to one of the lunatics, one fine day, Go assassinate the paidhi and the atmo- sphere will stop leaking. Thus far ... Tabini and-his own predecessors at least juggled well. They'd dispensed technology at a rate that didn't overwhelm the economy or the environment, they'd kept ethnic differences among atevi and political opinions among humans well to the rear of the decision- making process-with the Ragi atevi and the Western As- sociation they led profiting hand over fist, all the while, of course, by reason of their proximity to and special re- lationship with Mospheira; and, oh, well aware what that relationship was worth, economically. Tabini had proba- bly had far more than an inkling for years where human advice and human techonology was leading him. But Tabini's association also enjoyed the highest stan- dard of living in the world, was very fond of its comforts and its television. And Ragi planes didn't crash into bridges any more. Somebody after Tabini's hide was the likeliest scenario that kept -bobbing up-a plausible scenario, in which the paidhi could remotely figure, if whoever was after Tabini, knowing how difficult a target Tabini was, would be con- tent to take out Tabini's contact with humans and make that relationship more difficult for a season. A new paidhi, a state of destabilization in whichr no paidhi was safe. Somebody might even be after a renego- tiation of the Mospheira Treaty to spread out the benefits to other associations, which had been proposed, and which the Western Association had adamantly refused. In that case the paidhi-aiji might well become a critical FOREIGNER I i flash-point. He got along with Tabini. He liked Tabini didn't reciprocate the liking part, of course-b atevi. But Tabini and he did get along with all too levity and good humor, perhaps-as some might se like that business at the retreat at Thiben, far too co Some might think it, even among the Ragi themsel or among the outlying allies, each of whom, in the n lous fashion of atevi associations, had at least one other associations. , Maybe the better, special relationship he though and Tabini had-had brought this on, transgressing s boundary too rapidly, too inexpertly, in blind, confident enthusiasm. Frightening thought. Appalling thought. Succeed well and fail completely? If Tabini's government went unstable, and the net of atevi Associations shifted its center of gravity, eastward and deeply inland, where there was never easy familiarity with humans, where ethnic and his differences between Ragi and Nisebi and Meduriin c find only humans more different and more suspect they found each other. Atevi had been, with the exception of the tribals remotest hinterlands and the islands in the Edi Arc ago, a global civilization, at a stage when humans h been. Atevi explorers had gone out in wooden ships, all those things that humans had, by the records, do lost Earth---except that atevi hadn't found a New they'd found the Edi, and damned little else but a canic, troubled chain of islands, not advanced, not cu ally up to the double assault of the explorers from East and the explorers from the West, who'd immedi laid claim to everything in sight and still-still, for sons the ethnographers were still arguing-the same plorers met each other in those foreign isles and fo enough in common and enough difficult about the in vening geography-4he continental divide in the princ continent topped 30,000 feet-to trade not overland, 120 / C. 3. C+HERRYH by sea routes that largely, after the advent of full-rigged ships, excluded the Isles where the two principal branches of atevi had met. Atevi had, historically, cooperated together damned well, compared to humans. Hence the difficulty of getting atevi to comprehend correctly that humans had been very willing to be let alone on Mospheira, and not included in an association-an attitude which the atevi turned out not to trust. Shejidan had thrown itself into the breach, sacri- ficed its fear of outsiders for the foreign concept of 'treaty,' which it marginally understood as the sought- after association with humans. Which was one of the most critical conceptual breakthroughs the first paidhi had made. To this day Tabini professed not to comprehend the hu- man word 'treaty,' or the word 'border,' which he denied had real validity even among humans. An artificial con- cept, Tabini called it. A human delusion. People belonged to many associations. Boundaries might exist as an arbi- trary approximate line defining provinces-but they were meaningless to individuals whose houses or kinships might lie both sides of the line. He lay in the dark, watching the moonlit curtains begin to blow in a generous cool breeze-the weather had greatly moderated since the front had come through last night. He hadn't been in the garden this afternoon to en- joy it. Someone could shoot him from the rooftop, Jago said. He should stay out of the garden. He shouldn't go here, he shouldn't go there, he shouldn't walk through crowds. Damned if Banichi had forgotten his mail. Not Banichi. Things regarding the person Banichi was watching just weren't trivial enough to Banichi that they completely left his mind. This was a man that, in the human expression, dotted his i's and crossed his Vs. Second frightening thought. Why would Banichi steal his mail-except to rob him fOREIGNER / I of information like ads for toothpaste, video tapes, ski vacations on Mt. Allan Thomas? And if it weren't Banichi that had gotten it, why wo Banichi lie to him? To protect a thief who stole adverti ing? Stupid thought. Probably Banichi hadn't li6d at al probably Banichi was just busy and he was, ever since nightmare flash of that shadow across the curtain la night, suffering from jangled nerves and an overacti) imagination. He lay there, imagining sounds in the garden, smellir the perfume of the blooms outside the door, wonderi what it sounded like when someone hit the wire and fri and what he should do about the situation he was workir on- Or what the odds were that he could get Deana Ha out of the Mospheira office to take up temporary duty the aiji's household, for, say, a month or so vacati God, just time to see Barb, go diving on the coast, t reasonable chances with a hostile environment instead a pricklish atevi court. Cowardice, that was. It was nothing to toss in H lap-oh, by the way, Deana, someone's trying to kill give it your best, just do what you can and I'll be b when it blows over. He couldn't escape that way. He didn't know he should call his office and try to hint what was goft on-he ran a high risk of injecting misinformation misinterpretation into an already uneasy situation, if did that. There were code phrases for trouble and assassination-and maybe he ought to.take the chan and let the office know that much. But if Tabini for some reason closed off communic tions tighter than they were, the last information his offi might have to work with was an advisement that ' someol had tried to kill him-leaving Hanks de facto in ch And Hanks was a take charge and go ahead type, damned hothead, was the sorry truth, apt to take measun 11 22 / C. J. CHERRYM to breach Tabini's silence, which might not be the wisest course in a delicate atevi political situation. He had con- fidence in Tabini-Hanks under those circumstances wouldn't, and might do something to undermine Tabini ... or play right into the hands of Tabini's enemies. Damned if he did and damned if he didn't. Tabini's si- lence was uncharacteristic. The situation had too many variables. He was on-site and he didn't have enough in- formation to act on-Hanks would have far less if she had to come in here, and she would feel more pressed, in the total absence of information, to do something to get him back if there was no corpse ... a very real fear from the first days, that some aiji in Shejidan or elsewhere might get tired of having the paidhi dole out technologi- cal information bit at a time. Something about the mythical goose and the source of golden eggs-a parable the first paidhiin had been very forward to inject into atevi culture, so that now atevi were certain there was such a thing as a goose, although there was not a bona fide bird in the world, and that it was a foreign but surely atevi fable. That was the way the game went. Given patience- given time-given small moves instead of wide ones, hu- mans got what they wanted, and Tabini-aiji did. Goseniin and golden eggs. III anichi arrived with breakfast, with an armload of mail, the predictable ads for vacations, new prod- ucts, and ordinary goods. It was quite as boring as he'd expected it to be, and a chilly, unseasonal morning made him glad of the hot tea the two substitute servants FOREIGNER / 12 brought. He had his fight breakfast-now he wanted hi television. "Are the channels out all over the city, or whatT' h asked Banichi, and Banichi shrugged. "I couldn't say." At least there was the weather channel, reporting rai in the mountains east, and unseasonal cool weather alon the western seaboard. No swimming on the Mospheir beaches. He kept thinking of home--kept thinking of tb white beaches of Mospheira, and tall mountains, stf patched with snow in the shadowy spots, kept thinking c human faces, and human crowds. He'd dreamed of home last night, in the two hours c sleep he seemed to have gotten-he'd dreamed of tb kitchen at home, and early mornings, and his mother an Toby at breakfast, the way it had been. His mother wrol to him regularly. Toby wasn't inclined to write, but Tob got the news, when his letters did get home, and Tob sent word back through their mother, what he was up t( how he was faring. His mother had taken the community allotment he' left when he'd won the paidhi's place and had no'moi need for his birthright: she'd combined it with her savinj from her teaching job, and lent his family-bound and ui terly . respectable brother the funds to start a medical pra( tice on the north shore. Toby had the thoroughly ordinary and prosperous lil their mother had wanted for herself or her children, with & appropriately adorable and available grandchildren. She wE happy Bren didn't write her with things like, Hello, Mothe someone tried to shoot me in my bed. Hello, Mother, die won't let me fly out of here. It was always, Hello, Mothe things are fine. How are you? They keep me busy. It's vei interesting. I wish I could say more than that ... "Not that coat," Banichi said, as he took his plain on from the armoire. Banichi reached past him, and took th audience coat from the hanger. "For the space councilT' he protested, but he knew, b 124 / C. 3. CHERRY11-1 knew, then, without Banichi saying a word, that Tabini had called him. "The council's been postponed." Banichi shook the coat out and held it for him, preempting the new servants' )ffices. "The ratios in the slosh baffles will have to wait at least a few days." He slipped his arms into the coat, flipped his braid over the collar and settled it on with a deep breath. The weight wasn't uncomfortable this crisp morning. "So what does Tabini want?" he muttered. But both the servants were in the room, and he didn't expect Banichi to answer. Jago hadn't been there when he waked. Just Tano and his glum partner, bringing in his breakfast. He hadn't had enough sleep, for two nights now. His eyes stung with exhaustion. And he had to look presentable and have his wits about him. "Tabini is concerned," Banichi said. "Hence the post- ponement. He wishes you to travel to the country this af- ternoon. A security team is going over the premises." "What, at the estate?" "Stone by stone. Tano and Algini will pack for you, if necessary." What could he ask, when he knew Banichi wouldn't answer-couldn't answer a question Tabini hadn't author- ized him to answer? He took a deep breath, adjusted his collar, and looked in the mirror. His eyes showed the want of sleep-showed a modicum of panic, truth be known, because the decision not to call Mospheira was fast becoming an irrevocable one, with decreasing oppor- tunities to change his mind on that score without making a major, noisy opposition to people whose polite maneuvering-if that was what he perceived around him-might not be profitable to challenge. Maybe it was paralysis of will. Maybe it was instinct saying Be still-don't defy the only friend humanity has on this planet. Paidhiin are expendable. Mospheira isn't. We can't FOREIGNER / I stand against the whole world. This time they have a craft. And radar. And all the technological resources. They're very close to not needing us any more. In the room behind him the door opened and Jago c in, he assumed to supervise the two servants, who words to him had consisted in controversies like: serves, nadi?" and "Sugar in the tea?" Moni and Taigi had known answers like that with asking him at every turn. He missed them already. feared they wouldn't be back, that they'd already be reassigned-he hoped to a stable, influential, thorougf. normal atevi. He hoped they weren't in the hands of t police, undergoing close questions about him, and h mans in general. Banichi opened the door a second time, for them leave for the audience, and he went out with Banic feeling more like a prisoner than the object of so mu official concern. "Aiji-ma." Bren made the courteous bow, hands knees. Tabini was in shirt and trousers, not yet at formal best, sitting in the sunlight in front of the doors-Tabini's doors, high in the great mass of the B javid, faced not the garden, but the open sky, the descen ing terraces of the ancient walls, and the City that was fortress' skirt, a geometry of tile roofs, hazed and so ened by the morning mist to faintest reds, roofs aus ciously aligned in their relationship to each other and the city's accommodation to the river. Beyond that, Bergid range, riding above a haze of distance, far acr( -the plains-a glorious view, a cool, breathless dawn. The table was set in the light, half onto the balco against that prospect. And Tabini was having breakfas Tabini made a hand-sign to his servants, who instan procured two more cups, and drew out from the table two other chairs. So they were completely informal. He and Banichi down at the offered places, with the Bergid range a mi 126 / C. 3. CHERRYH blue and the City spread out in faint tile reds below the balcony railing. "I trust there's been no repetition of the incident," Tabini said. "No, aiji-ma," Banichi answered, adding sugar. "I'm very distressed by this incident," Tabini said. A sip of tea. "Distressed also that you should be the object of public speculation, Bren-paidhi. I was obliged to take a position. I could not let that pass. -Has anyone ap- proached you in the meetings?" "No," Bren said. "But I do fear I was less than obser- vant yesterday. I'm not used to this idea." "Are you afraid?" "Disturbed." He wasn't sure, himself, what he felt. "Disturbed that I've been the cause of so much disar- rangement, when I'm here for your convenience." "That's the politic answer." '~-And I'm very angry, aiji-ma." "Angry?" "That I can't go where I like and do what I like." "But car. the paidbi ever do that? You never go to the City without an escort. You don't travel, you don't hold entertainments, which, surely, accounts for what Banichi would counsel you as habits of the greatest hazard." "This is my home, aiji-ma. I'm not accustomed to slinking past my own doors or wondering if some poor servant's going to walk through the door on my old key.... I do hope someone's warned them." "Someone has," Banichi said. "I worry," he said, across the teacup. "Forgive me, aiji-ma." "No, no, no, I did ask. These are legitimate concerns and legitimate complaints. And no need for you to suffer them. I think it would be a good thing for you to go to Malguri for a little while." "Malguri?" That was the lake estate, at Lake Mai- dingi-Tabini's retreat in early autumn, when the legisla- ture was out of session, when he was regularly on FOREIGNER / vacation himself. He had never been so far into the i rior of the continent. When he thought of it-no hum had. "Are you going, aiji-ma?" "No." Tabini's cup was empty. A servant poured other. Tabini studiously dropped in two sugar lumps stirred. "My grandmother is in residence. You've not e countered her, personally, have you? I don't recall you' had that adventure." "No." He held the prospect of the aiji-dowager unnerving than assassins. Ilisidi hadn't won election the successions. Thank God. "Aren't you-forgive sending me to a zone of somewhat more hazard?" Tabini laughed, a wrinkling of his nose. "She does e joy an argument. But she's quite retiring now. She s she's dying." "She's said so for five years," Banichi mutter "Aiji-ma.11 "You'll do fine," Tabini said. "You're a diplomat. can deal with it." "I could just as easily go to Mospheira and absent self from the situation, if that's what's useful. A deal more useful, actually, to me. There's a load of sonal business I've had waiting. My mother has a c on the north coast ...... Tabini's yellow stare was completely void, co implacable. "But I can't guarantee her security. I'd be tremely remiss to bring danger on your relatives." "No ateva can get onto Mospheira without a visa." "An old man in a rowboat can get onto Mospheir Banichi muttered. "And ask me if I could find your er's cabin." The old man in a rowboat would not get Mospheira unnoticed. He was willing to challen Banichi on that. But he wasn't willing to own that fact Tabini or Banichi for free. "You'll be far better off," Banichi said, "at Malgu "A fool tried my bedroom door! For all I know it my next door neighbor coming home drunk through 128 / C. 3. CHERWH garden, probably terrified he could be named an at- tempted assassin, and now we have wires on my doors!" One didn't shout in Tabini's presence. And Tabini had supported Banichi in the matter of the wires. He remem- bered his place and hid his consternation behind his tea- cup. Tabini sipped his own and set the cup down as Banichi set his aside. "Still," Tabini said. "The investigation is making progress which doesn't need your help. Rely on my judgment in this. Have I ever done anything to your harm?" "No, aiji-ma." Tabini rose and reached out his hand, not an atevi cus- tom. Tabini had done it the first time ever they met, and at rare moments since. He stood up and took it, and shook it solemnly. "I hold you as a major asset to my administration," Tabini said. "Please believe that what I do is out of that estimation, even this exile." "What have I done?" he asked, his hand still prisoner in Tabini's larger one. "Have 1, personally, done some- thing I should have done differently? How can I do better, if no one advises me?" "We're pursuing the investigation," Tabini said quietly. "My private plane is fueling at this moment. Please don't cross my grandmother." "How can I escape it? I don't know what I did to bring this about, Tabini-aiji. How can I behave any more wisely than I have?" A pressure of Tabini's fingers, and a release of his hand. "Did one say it was your fault, Bren-paidhi? Give my respects to my grandmother." "Aiji-ma." Surrender was all Tabini left him. He only dared the most indirect rebellion. "May I have my mail routed there?" "There should be no difficulty," Banichi said, "if it's sent through the security office." "We don't want to announce your destination," Tabini FOREIGNER / 12 said. "But, yes, security does have to know. Take c Take every precaution. You'll go straight to the airport. it taken care of, Banichi?" "No difficulty," Banichi said. What 'it' was, Bren h no idea. But there was nothing left him but to take h formal leave. 'Straight to the airport,' meant exactly that, evidend straight downstairs, in the Bu-javid, to the lowest, inn level, where a rail station connected with the rail syste all over the continent. It was a well-securitied place, this station deep in th Bu-javid's heart, a station which only the mai'aijim an the aiji himself and his staff might use-there was other for common traffic, a little down the hill. Guards were everywhere, nothing unusual in any ti he'd been down here. He supposed they maintained constant watch over the tracks and the cars that reste here-the authorities in charge could have no idea whe someone might take the notion to use them, or whe someone else might take the notion to compromise the What looked like a freight car was waiting. The i bound tram would sweep it up on its way below-and would travel looking exactly like a freight car, mixed 1 with the ordinary traffic, down to its painted and, one u derstood, constantly changed, numbers. It was Tabini's-cushioned luxury inside, a counci room on wheels. That was where Banichi took him. "Someone has checked it out," he said to Banich He'd used this particular car himself-but only once nually on his own business, on his regular departure the airport, and never when there was any active feud question. The whole proceedings had a surreal feeling. "Destined for the airport," Banichi said, checking p pers, "no question. Don't be nervous, nadi Bren. I assu you we won't misplace you with the luggage." Banichi was joking with him. He was scared. He' been nervous walking down here, was nervous on t 110 / C. J. CHERRYH platform, but he walked to the back of the windowless car and sat down on the soft cushions of a chair, unable to see anything but the luxury around him, and a single televised image of the stationside with its hurrying workers. He was overwhelmed with the feeling of being swallowed alive, swept away to where no one human would ever hear of him. He hadn't advised anyone where he was go- ing, he hadn't gotten off that phone call to Hanks or a let- ter home-he had no absolute confidence now that Banichi would deliver.it if he wrote it this instant and en- trusted it to him to take outside. "Are you going with me?" he asked Banichi. "Of course." Banichi was standing, looking at the mon- itor. "Ah. There she is." A cart had appeared from a lift, a cart piled high with white plastic boxes. Jago was behind it, pushing it toward the car. It arrived, real and stuck on the uneven threshold, and Jago shoved and swore as Banichi moved to lend a hand. Bren got up to offer his efforts, but at that moment it came across, as Tano turned up, shoving from the other side, bound inside, too. The cart and the baggage had to mass everything he had had in the apartment, Bren thought in dismay, unless three-quarters of that was Banichi's and Jago's luggage. They didn't take the luggage from the cart: they secured the whole cart against the forward wall, with webbing belts. Protests did no good. Questions at this point only an- noyed those trying to launch them with critical things they needed. Bren sat down and stayed still while Banichi and Jago went outside, never entirely leaving the thresh- old, and signed something or talked with other guards. In a little while, they both came back into the car, say- ing that the train was on its way, and would couple them on in a few minutes. Tano meanwhile offered him a soft drink, which he took listlessly, and Algini arrived with a final paper for Banichi to sign. fDREIGNER / What? Bren asked himself. Concerning what? His co mitment, to Malguri, might it be? To the aiji-dowager's prison, where she was dyin this notorious, bitter woman, twice passed over for aij One wondered if she had had a choice in lodgings, whether the rumors about her were true ... that, havi offended Tabini, she had very little choice left. The jet made a quick rise above the urban sprawl Shejidan--one could pick out the three or four major ce tral buildings among the tiled roofs, the public Regis the Agricultural Association, the long complex Shejidan Steel, the spire of Western Mining and Indus the administrative offices of Patanadi Aerospace. A fir turn onto their course swept the Bu-javid past the a craft's wing-tip, a sweep of fortified hill, interloc squares of terraces and gardens-Bren imagined he cou see the very court where he had lived ... and wonde in a moment of panic if he would ever see his apartme again. They reached cruising altitude-above the likely caf bility of random private operators. A drink appeare Tano's efficiency. Tano's proper concern. Bren sulk( not wanting to like Tano, who'd replaced the servants very much liked, who had had their jobs with him sin he'd taken up residence in Shejidan, and who probat had been transferred by a faceless bureaucracy without much as an explanation. It wasn't fair to them. It was fair to him. He liked them, even if they probably would understand that idea. He was used to them and they w gone. But sulking at Tano and Algini wasn't a fair treatm( of the new servants, either: he knew it and, in prol atevi courtesy, tried not to show his resentment tow them, or his feelings at all, toward two strangers. He back instead with as placid a face as he could manage a watched the land and the clouds pass under the wi FOREIGNER / 13 132 / C. 3. CHERRY44 wishing he was flying instead toward Mospheira, and safety. And wishing Banichi and Jago were culturally or bio- logically wired to understand the word 'friend' or 'ally' the way he wanted to mean it. That, too. But that was as likely as his walking the Mospheira straits barefoot. His stomach was upset. He was all but convinced now that he had made a very serious mistake in not calling Deana Hanks directly after the incident, while the attempt on his bedroom was still a matter of hot pursuit, and be- fore Banichi and Jago might have received specific orders to prevent him calling. But he hadn't even thought of it then-he couldn't re- member what he had been thinking, and decided he must have gone into mental shock, trying first to dismiss the whole matter and to look brave in front of Banichi; then he'd launched himself into 'handlihg it,' even to a fear of Hanks' seizing control over the situation-meaning he was losing his grip on matters, and knew it, and was still denying things were out of control. Now he was well past the end of his options for action, so far as he could see, unless he wanted to contemplate outright rebellion against Tabini's invitation to an estate hours away from the City-unless he was willing to break away in that remote airport screaming kidnap and murder, and appealing to the casual citizen for rescue from the aiji. Foolish notion. Foolish as the notion of refusing Tabini in the invitation, under the terms he had had-and now that he began to think about phones and the lake estate, and getting any call out to Mospheira, from where he was going-the request to transfer a call to the Mospheira phone system would have to go back through the Bu- javid for authorization, so it was the same damned thing. Eventually his office on Mospheira would wonder why he hadn't called ... in, say, a week or two of silence. It wasn't unusual, that lapse of time between his calls and consultations. And, after that two weeks of silence, his office mig] be worried enough to think about contacting Foreign A fairs, over them, who would tell them to wait while the went through channels. In another week, Foreign Affairs on Mospheira mig have exhausted the approved channels it had at its di posal, and decided to send a memo to the President, wh might, might, after consulting the Departments in Cou cill make personal inquiries of his own and finally lay inquiry on Tabini's doorstep. Count it the better part of a month before Mosphei decided for certain that Shejidan had somehow misplace the paidhi. Disturbing, to discover that individual atevi he had pe sonally thought he understood and an atevi society he h thought he intellectually understood suddenly weren't ac ing in any predictable way. He felt it as an offense to h pride that he found nothing now wiser or more resourc ful to do than to pretend he was utterly naive and that wasn't actually being kidnapped across the country where, face it, he could disappear for good and all. N body from Mospheira, not even Hanks, was going t fracture the, Treaty looking for a paidhi who just mig have made some unforgivable mistake. Hell, no, they wouldn't demand him back. They'd ju send a new one, with as good a briefing as they cou manage and instructions to pull in a bit and not to be s stupid. He'd trusted so implicitly ... never expected Tabini be other than a hundred percent for atevi and his own pe sonal interests, but he'd always believed he knew wh those interests were. Tabini hadn't resisted his sugge tions: not in the rail system, not the space program, medical research, not the computerization of the supp system. Tabini wasn't opposed to anything he'd put fo ward, or, for God's sake, Tabini could have said somi thing, and they could have talked about it-but, n Tabini had listened with intelligent interest, asking livel 134 / C. 3. CHERRYH questions-Tabini's predecessors had all listened to rea- son, and invested themselves to the hilt in the interlocking of ecology and technological advance, a concept that atevi were quick to understand. Reciprocally, there'd never been anything an aiji of Tabini's house had asked that humans hadn't done, or given, or tried to comply with, since the War of the Land- ing itself, right down to his current paper regarding proc- essed meat, which tried ... tried to explain to Mospheira that commercialization of meat production was deeply of- fensive to Ragi, no matter that Nisebi saw nothing wrong i with it and were willing to sell. That cultural adaptation went both ways, and Mospheira ought to rely on the sea, and fish, which had no season, and thereby show their hosts on the planet that they had made an effort to change themselves to conform to atevi sensibilities, the way atevi had changed their behaviors toward humans.... Sometimes his job seemed like rolling the proverbial boulder uphill. Just not losing ground seemed hard. But atevi were on the very threshold of manned space- flight. They had satellite communications. They had a re- of liable light launch system. They were on the verge developing the materials that, with human advice, could leapfrog them past the steps humans had taken getting down here, right to powered descent, interlinked maneu- vering-terms he was having to learn, concepts that he was studying up on during his so-called fall vacations, cramming into his head the details behind the next po cy paper he might give-that he ached to give-some ti in the next five years, granted the intermediate heavy rocket was going to work. Not even that they absolutely needed to take that step; li -1 ft But after a time, cloud closed in around the peaks, but the ffi Meira aid while the sky remained blue, there was a sheet of wri w te under them, hiding the land. Disappointing. This sort of thing set in over the st and didn't let up. Even the planet kept atevi secrets. Which didn't mean there wasn't useful work he c RMEIGNER / I It was a cultural decision, a scientific decision ... disappointed hell out of him, because he wanted to be paidhi that put them a hundred percent into the busine of space, and he wanted it while he was young enough 90 UP himself. That was his secret, personal dream, tt if atevi were going to trust any human to go, they mig trust the paidhi, and he wanted to be that person, and ste the attitudes if not the spacecraft- That was the dream he had. The nightmare was le specific, only the apprehension which, long before the sassin tried his bedroom, he had been trying to commui cate to Hanks and the rest of the office, that you couldi go on giving atevi bits and pieces of tech without acc erating the randomness in the process, meaning that ate minds didn't work the same as human minds, and d atevi cultural bias was going to view certain technologi advances differently than humans did, and atevi inve tiveness was going to put more and more items togett into their own inventions, about which they didn't cons the Mospheira Technology Commission. Thank God so far the independent inventions h been ICBMs or atomic bombs. But he knew, as eve paidhi before him had known, that, if someday the Tre broke down, he'd be the first to know. He watched the land pass under the wings, the land, the free ranges and forests . -. eventually a tide cloud rolled under them, with the black, snow-capp peaks of the Bergid thrusting up like steep-sid islands-fascinating, to see the edge of his visible wo go past, and exciting, in a disturbing way, to be seei country humans never saw. Everything was new, hithe forbidden. o ce on osph s stall, let atevi develop the intermediate lift capacity. The quality in the synthetic materials wasn't there yet, and the chemical rocket lifter and the early manned experience would give atevi the ex- perience and the political and emotional investment in space-atevi were much on heroes. 136 / C. )~ CHERRYli Jo while he was being kidnapped. He'd rescued his com- puter from baggage. He set it up on the table and brought up his notes for the end of the. quarter development con- ference, his arguments for creating a computer science center in Costain Bay, modem-linked to atevi students in Wingin. If there is, he wrote now, one area of technological i difficulty, it is ironically in mathematics, in which the dif- iK ferent uses of mathematics by our separate cultures and languages have led to different expressions of mathemat- ics at an operational level. While these different percep- tions of math are a richfieldfor speculation by mathema- ticians and computer designers for the future, for the present, these foundational differences in concept remal . n an obstacle particularly to the beginning atevi computer student attempting to comprehend a logical machine which ignores certain of his expectations, which ignores the operational conveniences and shortcuts of his lan- guage, and which proceeds by a logical architecture adapted over centuries to the human mind. The development of a computer architecture in agree- ment with atevi perceptions is both inevitable and desir- able for the economic progress of the atevi associations, particularly in materials development, but the paidhi re- spectfully urges that many useful and lifesaving technolo- gies are being delayed in development because of this difficulty. While the paidhi recognizes the valid and true reasons for maintaining the doctrine of Separation in the Treaty Of Mospheira, it seems that computer technology itself can become the means to link instructors on Mospheira with students on the mainland, so that atevi students may have the direct benefit of study with human masters of design and theory, to bring computers with all their advantages into common usage-while encouraging atevi students to devise interfacing software which may take advantage of atevi mathematical skills. Such a study center may serve as a model program, fOREIGMER / moreover, for finding other areas in which atevi without harm to either culture, interface directly in territory of empirical science and form working ag ments which seem appropriate to both cultures. I call to mind the specific language of the Treaty Mospheira which calls for experimental contacts in s ence leading to agreements of definition and unequivo terminology, with a view tofuture intercultural coope tions under the appointment of appropriate atevi offic This seems to me one of those areas in which coop ation could work to the benefit of atevi, widening int cultural understanding, fulfilling all provisions of t Treaty wherein ... Banichi dropped into the seat opposite. "You're so busy," Banichi said. "I was writing my text for the quarterly conference trust I'll get back for it." "Your safety is of more concern. But if it should that you can't attend, certainly I'll see that it reaches conference." "There surely can't be a question. The conference four weeks away." "Truthfully, I don't know." Don't know, he thought in alarm. Don't know- I Jago set a drink in front of Banichi, and sat down, herse in the other seat facing his. "It's a pleasant place," Ja said. "You've never been there." "No. To Taiben. Not to MaIguri." Politeness, he cot do on autopilot, while he was frantically trying to fr a euphemism for kidnapping. He saved his work do hard and folded up the computer. "But four weeks, na I can't do my work from halfway across the country.' "It's an opportunity," Banichi said. "No human beft you, nand' paidhi, has made this trip. Don't be so glun "What of the aiji-dowager? Sharing accommodatio with a member of the aiji's family, with a woman I do know-has anyone told her I'm coming?" 138 / C. J. CHERWH Banichi drew back his lip from his teeth, a fierce amusement. "You're resourceful, paidhi-ji. Surely you can deal with her. She'd have been the aiji, for your predecessor, at least. . . "Except for the hasdrawad," Jago said. The hasdrawad had chosen her son, whom she'd wished aloud she'd aborted when she'd had the chance as the story ran; then, adding insult to injury, the hasdrawad had passed over her a second time when her son was assassinated-ignoring her claims to the succes- sion, in favor of her grandson, Tabini. "She favors Tabini," Banichi said. "Contrary to reports. She always has favored him." She'd fallen, riding in the hunt, at seventy-two. Broke her shoulder, broke her arm and four ribs, got up and rode through the rest of the course, until they'd caught the quarry. Then she'd attacked the course manager with her riding crop, for the lost hide on her precious, high-bred Matiawa jumper-as the story went. "Her reputation," Bren said judiciously, "is not for pa- tience." ":,-)h, very much it is," Jago said "When she wants something that needs it." "Is it true, what people say about the succession?" "That Tabini-aiji's father died by assassination?" Bani- chi said. "Yes." "They never found the agency," said Jago. "And very competent people searched." "Not a clue to be had-except in the dowager's satis- faction," said Banichi. "Which isn't admissible evi- dence.-She wasn't, of course, the only one so motivated. But her personal guard is no slight matter." "Licensed?" Bren asked. "Oh, yes," said Banichi. "Most of her guard are old," Jago said. "A bit behind the times." FOREIGNER / "Now," said Banichi. "But I wouldn't say they we then." 46 A Pind this is where Tabini-aiji sends me for safety? "The aiji-dowager does favor him," Jago said. "Well, in most regards," Banichi said, The plane thumped onto the runway in a blindi ownpour-other planes had been diverted out to t lowland airport. Banichi said so. But the aiji's crew w right on through. Engines reversed thrust, brat screeched on wet pavement, the plane veered into a c trolled right turn and blazed a fast track to the small minal. Bren stared glumly at the weather, at guards and truc: hurrying out to the aiji's plane-a more elaborate rec tion than he got at Mospheira. But, then, the peo meeting him on Mospheiri didn't carry guns. He unbelted, got up with his computer, and follow Banichi to the door as the pilot opened it, with Jago cl( i~ I in attendance. Rain whipped into their faces, a mist thick enough breathe. Rain spattered the pavement of the runway. veiled the scenery in gray, so the lake visible from the port melded seamlessly with the sky, and the hills arou it were banks of shadow against that sky. Malguri, he thought, must be somewhere on those hi shores, overlooking the I ake. "They're sending a car," Jago yelled into their ears had pocket-com in hand, as a crew began pulling up movable stairs for their descent. The device had no canopy such as Shejidan airport afforded. One suppos they were expected to make a dash for it, down the ste One wondered whether, if Tabini, had been on t plane, they would have found such a canopy. Or park the car closer. Thunder rumbled, and lightnings glared off the v concrete. "Auspicious," Bren muttered, far from anxious to ve AERRYff ture metal steps in the frequent lightning. But the stairs thumped against the side of the plane, rocking it; rain gusted in, cold as autumn. The raincoated attendants yelled and beckoned them to come ahead. Banichi went. Hell, he thought, and ducked through the door and hurried after, clinging to the cold, slick metal hand-grip, flinching as lightning lit the ladder and the pavement and thunder cracked overhead. Light up like a candle, they would. He reached the bottom and left the metal ladder with relief, spied Banichi at the open door of the transport van, and, trying not to slip on the pavement, ran for it, with Jago rattling her way down the steps behind him. He reached shelter. Jago arrived, close behind him, flung herself into the seat, rain glistening on her black skin, as the van driver got out to close the van door stopped to stare, wide-eyed, while the cold mist gusted n. Evidently no one had told the driver a human was in e party- "Shut the door!" Banichi said, and the drenched driver slammed it and made haste to climb in his seat in front. "Algini and Tano," Bren protested, leaning to glance back at the plane, through a rain-spotted window, as the driver's door shut. "They'll bring the baggage," Jago said. "In another car." In case of bombs, Bren supposed glumly, as the driver took off the brake, threw the van into gear and launched into what must be the standard verbal courtesies, gamely wishing them Welcome to Maidingi, Jewel of the Moun- tains, a practiced patter that went on into the felicitous an i th positioning of the mountains, cosmically harmonious and fortunate, and the 'grateful influences' of the mountain springs above the Lake, the Mirror of Heaven. The Miffor of Heaven reflected nothing, at the mo- ment. Rain shattered the images of drowned buildings and gray void beyond the glass as the car sped along-Bren had expected them to pull up at the terminal and catch a FOROGNER / train to MaIguri, but the van had whisked them right p the terminal entrances, one and the next and the next, they headed for the wire fence and the lake. "Where are we going?" Bren asked, casting anxio glances at Banichi-surely, he thought, Banichi won protest this strange detour; possibly they were all in d ger and he should keep his mouth shut. "This is scheduled, nadi," Jago said, laying a hand his knee. "Everything as arranged." "What's arranged?" He was short of temper. He divid his attention nervously between the oncoming fence Jago's placid face, then paid it all to the fence, as col sion seemed imminent. But the driver swung toward a gate, which opened tomatically in front of them. And Jago hadn't answer him. "Where are we going?" "Be calm," Banichi said quietly. "Please take my ass ances, nand' paidbi, everything is quite in order." "Aren't we taking the rail?" "There's no rail to Malguri," Banichi said. "One go by car." One wasn't supposed to go by car. There wasn't s posed to be a car link between an airport and any end tination, no matter how rich one was: the nearest rail li was supposed to be the rule ... and was there no rail all between Malguri and the airport? The designation on the van, written in large letters rig above the driver, was, Maidingi Air ... and did an airli vehicle regularly serve private destinations? They were licensed to be a ground transport. Maybe it was a special authorization security had. B was it that dire an emergency? "Are we afraid to hire a bus?" he asked, and indicate right in front of them, and clear to be read, Maidingi A "There's no bus to Malguri." "It's the law. There's supposed to be a hired bus... The van caught an abrupt turn and threw him agair 142 / C. J. CHERRYH I Jago patted his leg, and he folded his arms and sank He skiied, on his vacations. He was a passionate ski back to reassemble the pieces of his dignity and his selO He had been on interesting roads, up Mt. Allan Thom possession, while the thunder rumbled. on Mospheira. There were places where the local tech hadn't caught[ Paved roads. Thank you. Going down a mountain up to the regulations. There were places with economic~, skis was one thing. exceptions. But the aiji's own holding damned'sure wasn't one.r Tabini couldn't hire a bus? Or the bus to Maidingi Town- ship didn't serve MaIguri, when it was right next door? The aiji was supposed to set an example of environmental compliance. Kabiu. Good precedent. Correct behavior. Appearances. Where in hell was the estate, that the town bus couldn'ti get them there? I Gravel scattered under the tires, and the van jolted onto! a road in which gray void was on one side and a moun- tain on the other. The road ceased to be Improved in any sort, and one recalled the vetoes of one's predecessor, overriding the access highway bill from the high villages-and one's own assertion to the aiji, mildly tipsy, that such would 'undermine the rail priority,' that the ap- peal from the mountain villages was a smoke screen-the aiji had taken to that expression with delight, once he un- derstood it--covering provincial ambitions. and leading provincial aijiin to sedition. It was the identical argument his predecessors had used-he had been queasy about the paranoid logic it en-, couraged in Tabini, from an ethical standpoint-but Tabini had seemed to accept it as perfectly reasonable atevi logic, and the paidhi didn't vary from his predeces- sors' arguments for mere human reasons: the paidhi ad- hered to what had worked with past administrations, argued by atevi logic, unless he had very carefully worked out a change and passed it by council. And this road was evidently the by-product of that I It, FOREIGNER / I This ... ... vehicle was not designed to climb. It slipped on t turns. He clutched his computer to keep it from sliding to rear of the van. He thought he might change his reco mendation on the non-township roads proposal. The van ground its way for what felt like well over hour up rainwashed gravel, whined and slipped and stn gled around an uphill serpentine curve with a spit gravel from beneath the wheels at the last. Gray sp and driving rain filled the windows on every side but o The van lurched upward into void, tilted, and Bren held the seat white-knuckled with his free hand, Jago sway into him, with what might be Lake Maidingi or empty beside and below and in front of him-he didn't want look. He didn't want to imagine. How long would it take searchers to find them if a slipped off the rain-washed edge, and they plunged into the lake? Another jolt-a slip. "God!" The driver gave him a startled look in the rearview n ror that took his attention from the wheel. Bren clar his mouth shut after that. But Banichi and the dri started a conve ' rsation-during which the driver k looking to the back seat to make his points. "Please, nadi!" Bren said. Gravel went over the edge. Their right tires bridge4 washout and narrowly missed the rim. He was certain it. logic, founded on his predecessor's vetoes over the high-,Then, around that curve, curtained in rain, a mass way system, and sustained on his own. No bus. No pavement. shadow towered on the gray brink. Stone towers an spires rose there, in a rain-crystaled spatter on t 144 / C. J. CHERRYH glass-he couldn't tell where the road was, now, exceptl the rattle of gravel under the tires assured him they werJ still on it. "Malguri," Banichi said in his deep tones. "A fortress of the forty-third century," the driver said, "the architectural jewel of this province ... maintained under the provincial trust, an autumn residence of the aiji-, major, currently of the aiji-dowager . . ." He sat and hugged his computer case and watched as the towers grew larger in the windshield, as they gathered j. detail out of the universal gray of the mist, the lake be- low, and the clouds ... then acquired colors, the dark~ gray of stone and the rain-soaked drip of heraldic banners from the uppermost tiers. He was used to atevi architecture, was accustomed to antiquity in the City, and found it in the customs of the aiji's hall, but this place, bristling with turrets and castel- lations, was not the style of the Landing, like so much of Shejidan. The date the driver had given them was from[ long, long before humans had ever come into the system, from long before there had ever been a strayed ship or a space station-be ore-he made a fast re-reckoning- there'd been a human in space at all. The wipers cleared the scene in alternate blinks, a world creating and recreating itself out of primeval del- uge as wooden gates yawned for them and let them in- side, onto a stone-paved road that curved beneath a broad, sheltering portico, where the rain only scarcely reached. The van stopped. Banichi got up and opened the door from inside, on a darkly shadowed porch and open wooden doors. A handful of atevi hastened out of that warm, gold-lit darkness to meet the van-in casual dress, all of them, which fit what Bren knew of country life. Ex- cept the boots, it was attire appropriate to a hunting lodge like Taiben, which Bren supposed that Malguri was, in fact, considering the wild land around it ... probably very good hunting, when some more energetic member of the aiji's family was in residence. FOREIGNER / He followed Banichi out of the van, computer in h reckoning, now that he saw the style of the place, there might even be formal hunts while they were h the staff lent itself to entertaining the guests. Banichi Jago would certainly be keen for it. He would tramping through dusty weeds, getting sunburn, and s ing at his supper down a gun barrel was not his fav sport. He was concerned for his computer in the cold that was whirling about them, sucked under the portic the drafts; and he was more than anxious to conclude welcome and get in out of the wet. "The paidhi," Banichi was saying, and Banichi lai heavy hand on his shoulder. "Bren Cameron, the close sociate of Tabini-aiji, the very person, give him welcome . . ." It was the standard formality. Bren bov murmured, "Honor and thanks," in reply to the st courtesies, while Jago banged the van door shut and missed the driver. The van whined off into the storm somehow the whole welcoming party advanced, by grees and inquiries into the aiji's health and well-be across the cobbles toward the main doors-thank Bren thought. A backward glance in response to a q tion spotted an antique cannon in the paved courty through veils of rain; a forward glance met gold, mt light coming through the doors on a wave of warmer It was a stone-paved hall, with timbered and plas walls. The banners that hung from the time-blacke rafters looked centuries old themselves, with their mu colors and complex serpentine patterns of ancient wri that, no, indeed, the paidhi didn't know. He recogni Tabini's colors, and the centermost banner had Tabi personal emblem, the baji on a red circle, on a blue fi There were weapons on every wall-swords and weap the names of which he didn't know, but he'd seen then the lodge at Taiben, with similar hides, spotted shaded, pinned on walls, thrown over chairs that o nothing to human designs. Banichi seized him by the shoulder again and 146 / C. J. CHERRYM further introductions, this time to two servants, both male, introductions which required another round of bows. "They'll take you to your rooms," Banichi said. "They'll be assigned to you." He'd already let the names slip his attention. But, was on his tongue to say, -but what about Algini and Tallo, on their way from the airport? Why someone else? "Excuse me," he said, and bowed in embarrassment. "I lost the names." The paidhi was a diplomat, the paidhi didn't let names get away like that, even names of servants-he wasn't focussing, even yet, asking himself whether these servants were ones Banichi knew, or Jago, did, or how they could trust these people. But they bowed and patiently and courteously said their names again: Maigi and DJinana, honored to be at his ser- vice. Dreadful beginning, with atevi trying to be polite to him. He was being pushed and shoved into places he didn't know in a culture already full of strangenesses, and he was overwhelmed with the place. "Go with them," Banichi said gently, and added some- thing in one of the regional languages, to which the ser- vants nodded and bowed, regarding him with faces as impassive as Banichi's and Jago's. "Nand' paidhi," one said. Maigi. He had to get them straight. Maigi and Djinana, he said over and over to himself, as he followed them across the hall, through the archway, and to the foot of bronze-banistered stone stairs. He real- ized of a sudden they had just passed out of the sight of Jago and Banichi, but Banichi had said go, Banichi evi- dently believed they were trustworthy. He had no wish to insult the servants twice by doubting them. So it was up the stairs, into the upper floor of a strange house ruled by a stranger old woman. The servants he fol- lowed talked together in a language the paidhi didn't know, and the place smelled of stone and antiquity. Plas- tering didn't exist in these wooden-floored upper halls, FOREIGNER / which, he supposed, were for lesser guests. Pipes wires ran across ceilings clearly ancient, and b tungsten-based bulbs hung in brackets festooned by copper-centered insulated wire, covered with dust. This is Tabini's hospitality? he asked himself. Thi how his grandmother lives? He didn't believe it. He was offended, outright fended, and somewhat hurt, that Tabini sent him to dingy, depressing house, with out-of-date plumbing God knew what kind of beds. They were running out of hallway. Two huge do closed off the end. More hiking, he supposed glumly, i some gloomy cubbyhole remote from the activity of dowager and her staff. It probably wasn't Tabini's fault. It might be the d ager had countermanded Tabini's arrangements. Gr mother might not want a human in her house, and mi lodge him under a stairs or in a storeroom soinewh Banichi and Jago would object when they found Grandmother would take offense, Tabini would t offense ... The servants opened the doors, on carpet, a spaci sitting room and furniture ... God, gilt, carved over ev surface, carpets that weren't, Bren suddenly realiz mill-produced. The soft,- pale light came from a I pointed-arched window with small rectangular panes, t dered in amber and blue panes-a beautiful frame o gray, rain-spattered nothing. "This is the paidhi's reception room," Maigi said, Djinana opened another, side door and showed him i an equally ornate room with a blazing fireplace-ill heating source, he said to himself in a remote, n( taking, area of his brain; but the forebrain was busy Y other details, the heads and hides and weapons on walls, the carved wooden furniture, the antique car with the baji-naji medallions endlessly repeated, identi windows in the next room, which, though smaller, was less ornate. 148 / C. J. CHERRYH "The private sitting room," Maigi said, then flung open the doors on a windowless side room of the same style, with a long, polished wood table from end to end. "The dining room," Maigi said, and went on to point out the hanging bell-pull that would summon them, "Like that in the sitting room," Maigi said, and drew him back to be assured he saw it. Bren drew a deep breath. Everywhere it was stone walls and polished wooden floors, and dim lights, and gilt ... a museum tour, it began to be, with Maigi and Djinana pointing out particular record heads of species three of which they confessed to be extinct, and ex- plaining certain furnishings of historical significance. "Given by the aiji of Deinali province on the marriage of the fourth dynasty aiji's heir to the heir of l5einali, which, however, was never consummated, due to the death of the aiji's heir in a fall from the garden walk. . What garden walk? he asked himself, determined, under the circustances, to avoid the fatal area himself. It was the paranoia of the flight here working on his nerves. It must be. Or it might be the glass eyes of dead animals staring at him, mute and helpless. Maigi opened yet another door, on a bedroom far, far larger than any reasonable bedroom needed to be, with- Bren supposed at least it was a bed and not a couch-an affair on a dais, with spears upholding the curtains which mostly enfolded it, a bed smothered in skins of animals and set on a stonework dais. Maigi showed him another bellpull, and briskly led him on to yet-God!-a farther hall. He followed, beginning to feel the entire matter of the paidhi's accommodations ridiculously out of con- trol. Maigi opened a side door to a stone-floored room with a hole in the floor, a silver basin, and a stack of linen towels. "The accommodation," Maigi pronounced it, eu- phemismistically. "Please use the towels provided. Paper jams the plumbing." FOREIGNER / I He supposed his consternation showed. Maigi took u a dipper from the polished silver cauldron, an ornate di per, and poured it down the hole in the floor. "Actually,'.' Djinana said, "there's continual water a( tion. The aiji Padigi had it installed in 4879. The dip remains, for the towels, of course." It was genteel, it was elegant, it was ... appalling, w the feeling he had about it. Atevi weren't animals. H wasn't. He couldn't use this. There had to be somethin else, downstairs, perhaps; he'd find out, and walk that Djinana opened a double door beyond the accommod tion, which let into a bath, an immense stone tub, wi pipes running across the floor. "Mind your step, nadi Djinana said. Clearly plumbing here was an afterthough too, and the volume of water one used for a single b had to be immense. "Your own servants will light the fires for you eac evening," Djinana said, and demonstrated that there w~ running water, while he absorbed that small adviseme that Algini and Tano were not lost, his luggage might y make it, and he might not be alone with Djinana an Maigi after all. Meanwhile Maigi had opened up the boiler, which w mounted on the stone wall, and which had two pipes ru ning into it from overhead, down the wall: the larger o had to be cold water entering the boiler and a hot wat conduit carried it out and across to the tub; but he w, puzzled by the second, thinner pipe-until he realize that small blue flame in the boiler compartment must b supplied by that smaller gauge pipe. Methane gas. An e3 plosion waiting to happen. An asphyxiation, if the littl flame went out and let gas accumulate in the bath. My God, he thought, racking up violation after viol tion, several of them potentially lethal as the two servan led the way back through the accommodation and into th hall. Had Tabini sent him here for safety? Now that he ur derstood what some of these pipes and electric lines mu. 150 / C. 3. 0HERRYM be, he traced other after-thought installations in the an- Algini. A draft fluttered the fire in the fireplace, and cient. stonework, some of which he realized now were cer- tainly carrying methane, throughout the apartments elsewhere, others of which were an antique electric sup ply, a source of sparks. The building was still standing. The wiring was very old. So were the pipes. Evidently the staff had been care- ful ... thus far. "We, of course, are at your service," Maigi said as they walked. "Your own staff should be arriving soon. They'll lodge in the servants' quarters, too. One ring for them, for personal needs; two for us, for food, for adjustment in the accommodations. We serve Malguri itself, and of course, provide its hospitality in any special requirements the paidhi might have." Djinana led the way back to the sitting room-an expe- dition in itself-and taking a small leather-bound codex from a table, presented it to him along with a pen. "Please add your name to the distinguished guests," Djinana requested of him, and, as he prepared to do so: "It would be a further distinction, nadi, if you'd sign in your own language. That's never been, before." "Thank you," he said, quite touched, actually, at the implication of genuine welcome in this shrine, and dulyl, signed in atevi script and, with, ironically, less practice, in' Mosphei'. He heard thumping in the hall. He looked up. "Doubtless your servants," Maigi said, and a moment later saw Tano with two big boxes, headed in through the outer door, and, imperiling an antique table, through the reception room. and' "Nand' paidhi," Tano said, out of breath, and rain- soaked, like the boxes. Djinana hastened to show Tano through into the bedroom, to save the furniture, Bren supposed-and hoped those boxes were his clothes, par- ticularly his sweaters and middle-weight coat. "Would the paidhi like tea?" Maigi asked, as a thump of the outer door announced some other arrival, probably R)REIGNER / mediately, true to his guess, Algini came through the s ting room, equally soaked, and managed to bow in trans difficult with two huge boxes in his arms. Everything he owned, he thought, remembering the p of boxes they had loaded on the train-God, how long they propose he stay here? "Tea," he recalled distractedly. "Yes---2' He felt chill -in spite of the fire, having come, a few hours ago, fro a much more southerly and coastal climate, and havi suffered a long drive over a trying road. Hot tea appeal to him, and it came to him that, in the confusion, hadn't had breakfast, or lunch, except a few wafers on plane. "Is there a cheese pie, do you think?" That w usually safe, whatever the season. "Of course, nadi. Although I should remind the paid that dinner is only an hour away.... The time zones, he realized. He'd never been enough from Mospheira to meet one. But not only w the climate colder, the time zones had to be at least hours advanced. He wasn't sure how his stomach with that sudden piece of information, or whether could last an hour until supper, now that he was thinki about food. Thunder rumbled, and lightning flashed, whiting the windows. "No pie, then," he said, and decided li was not necessarily fast-paced here: he might find div sion in a leisurely, lodge-style supper. "Just the te please." But he was thinking, hearing another furious spate rain hit the windows, God, I understand why there's lake here. Supper arrived, after the tea, elegantly served in dining room. Definitely lodge-style cuisine, and he c tainly had no complaint against the menu-the season game thank God, was different here in the highlands. Bui it was a solitary supper-himself alone at the ve 152 C. CHERRYN fOREIGNER long and silen ' t table-at the endmost seat, so he coulhim, on the drive up, and no matter how much the see the window in the sitting room, which he thouliked their courtesies and facades, he had felt the situ would be pleasant, but they were so high up, on the sec.slipping farther and farther from his control for two ond floor, he had no view but the gray sky, which wnow. He wanted something to be clear to him. He darkening sullenly to dusk. Tano and Algini ate inready to lose all patience. quarters, Maigi and Djinana served, and he hardly kne Instead he said, mildly, "I know you've done your b either set of servants well enough to make conversation,Probably you'd rather be elsewhere than here." Attempts died in, Yes, nand' paidhi, thank you, nan& Jago's brow furrowed. "Have I given such an imp pajdhi, the cook will be glad, nand' paidhi. sionT, Finally, though, during the second, post game-disli + God help him, he thought. "No, of course not. Bu soup course, Jago came, leaned her arms on the back oi suppose you have other duties than-me." the nearest of the ten chairs on either side of the table,'~ "No.' and made idle chatter with him, how did he find the act Jago had a habit of doing that to conversations, he commodations, how did he find the staff? cided ' once you inquired about anything useful, anythi "Wonderful," he said. "Though I haven't seen a phoneyou really wanted to know. He took a spoonful of so connection. Or the wires. Is there a portable I could bor-~ hoping Jago would find something to say. row?" She didn't. She leaned on the chair back, evidently "There's one, I believe, in the security station. But it's, her ease. raining." He took another spoonful, and a third, and still J Still. leaned on the chair, evidently content to watch him, "You mean the security station is outside." guarding him, or something. Thunder was still rumbli "I fear it is. And I really don't think it prudent to call outside. out, nadi Bren." "Are you going to stay at Malguri?" he asked. "Why?" It came out angry, and he hadn't meant that. "Most likely." Jago, had instantly withdrawn her elbows from the chair "Do you expect whoever invaded my room can re back and stood up straight. "Forgive me, nadi," he said here, too?" more moderately. "But I do need to reach my office on "Less likely." some regular basis. I urgently need to have my mail. I do It went like that, by one syllable and two, and ne hope my mail is going to get up that difficult road." much more, once he'd started asking questions. Jago heaved a sigh and set her hands on the chair back. 'When do you think the rain will stop?" he asked "Nadi Bren," she said patiently, "while I don't think out finally, only to'make Jago, carry the conversation for in moving you from the capital necessarily deceived anyone, than three beats. Pul - re d Ot h thel it would hardly be wise to have you phoning out. They'll "Tomorrow," she said. And stopped. expect decoys. Let them think our flight to MaIguri was "Jago, do you favor me? Or am I in your disfavor exactly that." "Of course not, nadi Bren." "Tben you know something about them." "Have I done something for Tabini to be put out w "No. Not actually." T1 me He was tired, he had had the self-restraint scared out of "Not that I know." 154 / C. 1. C44ERRYH "Are they sending my mail?" "Banichi's asking about that. It takes authorizations." "Whose?" "We're working on it." Thunder rolled above the fortress. He finished his sup- per, intermittent with question and answer with Jago, had a drink or two in which Jago did not share, and even wished, if, as Banichi had said, Jago found him in the least attractive, she would stay in his sitting room and at least make some polite pass at him, if it meant she initi- ated four consecutive sentences. He just wanted someone to talk to. But Jago left, all business, seeming preoccupied. The servants cleared supper away in silence. He cast about for what to do with himself, and thought about a resumption of his regular habits, watching the evening news ... which, now that he thought about it, he had no television to receive. 'Ie didn't ask the servants about the matter. He opened cabinets and armoires, and finally made the entire circuit of the apartments, looking for nothing more basic now than a power tap. Not one. Not a hint of accommodation for television or telephones. Or computer recharges. He thought about ringing the bell, rousing the servants and demanding an extension cord, at least, so he could use his almost depleted computer tonight, if they had to run the cord up from the kitchens or via an adapter, which had to exist in some electronics store in this benighted district, down from an electric light socket. But Banichi hadn't put in an appearance since they parted company downstairs, Jago had refused the request for a phone already, and after pacing the carpeted wooden floors awhile and investigating the small library for some- thing to do, he went to bed in disgust-flung himself into the curtained bed among the skins of dead animals and discovered that one, there was no reading light, two, the FOREIGNER / lights were all controlled. from a switch at the doorw and, three, a dead and angry beast was staring straight him, from the opposite wall. It wasn't me, he thought at it. It wasn't my fault probably wasn't bom when you died. My species probably hadn't left the homeworld yet It's not my fault, beast. We're both stuck here. IV orning dawned through a rain-spattered glass, breakfast didn't arrive automatically. He pulled chain to call for it, delivered his request to Maigi, w was at least prompt to appear, and had Djinana light fire for an after-breakfast bath. Then there was the "accommodation" question; faced with trekking downstairs before breakfast in se of a modem bathroom, he opted for privacy and for c ing with what evidently worked, in its fashion, which quired no embarrassed questions and no (diplomatic speaking) appearance of despising what was-w effort-an elegant, historic hospitality. He managed. decided that, left alone, he could get used to it. The paidhi's job, he thought, was to adapt. Someh( Breakfast, God, was four courses. He saw his wais doubling before his eyes and ordered a simple poac fish and piece of fruit for lunch, then shooed the serv out and took his leisurely bath, thoroughly self-indulge Life in Malguri was of necessity a matter of plann ahead, not just turning a tap. But the water was hot. He didn't ask Tano and Algini in for their n( conversation while he bathed ("Yes, nadi, no, nadi.") their helD in dressing. He found no actual numose 156 / C. J. CHERRYN dressing: no agenda, nowhere to go until lunch, so far as Banichi and Jago had advised him. So he wrapped himself in his dressing gown and stared out the study window at a grayness in which the blue and amber glass edging was the only color. The lake was sil- ver gray, set in dark gray bluffs and fog. The sky was milky gray, portending more rain. A last few drops jew- eled the glass. It was exotic. It damned sure wasn't Shejidan. It wasn't Mospheira, it wasn't human, and it wasn't so far as he could see any safer than Tabini's own household, just less convenient. Without a plug-in for his computer. Maybe the assassin wouldn't spend a plane ticket on him. Maybe boredom would send the rascal back to livelier climes. Maybe after a week of this splendid luxury he would hike to the train station and join the assassin in an escape himself. Fancies, all. He took the guest book from its shelf-anything to oc- cupy his mind-took it back to the window where there was better light and leafed through it, looking at the names, realizing-as the leaves were added forward, rather than the reverse, after the habit of atevi books- that he was holding an antiquity that went back seven hundred years, at least; and that most of the occupants of these rooms had been aijiin, or the in-laws of aijiin, some of them well-known in history, like Pagioni, like Dagina, who'd signed the Controlled Resources Development Treaty with Mospheira-a canny, hard-headed fellow, who, thank God, had knocked heads together and elimi- nated a few highly dangerous, warlike obstacles in ways humans couldn't. He was truly impressed. He opened it from the back, as atevi read-the right-left direction, and down-and dis- covered the founchtion -date of the first fortress on the site, as the van driver had said, was indeed an incredible FOREIGNER / two thousand years ago. Built of native stone, to hold valuable water resource of Maidingi for the lowlands, to prevent the constant raiding of hill tribes on the lages of the plain. The second, expanded, fortress ---- < supposed, including these very walls--dated from sixty-first century. He leafed through changes and additions, found a v schedule, of all things, once monthly, confined to lower hall-(We- ask our guests to ignore this mont visit, which the aiji feels necessary and proper, Ma1guri represents a treasure belonging to the people the provinces. Should a guest wish to receive tour gro in formal or informal audience, please inform the s and they will be most happy to make all arrangeme? Certain guests have indeed done so, to the delight a honor of the visitors .... ) Shock hell out of them, I would, Bren thought glurr Send children screaming for their parents. None of people here have seen a human face-to-face. Too much television, Banichi would say. Children Shejidan had to be reassured about Mospheira, that mans wer en't going to leave there and turn up in th houses at night-so the report went. Atevi children kn about assassins. From television they knew about the of the Landing. And the space station the world ha asked to have. Which was going to swoop down and stroy the earth. His predecessor twice removed had tried to arrange let humans tour the outlying towns. Several mayors h backed the idea. One had died for it. Paranoia still might run that deep-in the outlyi districts-and he had no wish to push it, not now, not this critical juncture, with one attempt already on his li Lie low and lie quiet, was the role Tabini had assign him, in sending him here. And he still, dammit, did know what else he could have done wiser than he h once the opportunity had passed to have made a pho call to Mospheira. ISO / C. 1. CMERRYM If there'd ever been such an opportunity. Human pilots, in alternation with atevi crews, flew cargo from Mosph6ira to Shejidan, and to several coastal towns and back again ... that was the freedom humans had now, when their forebears had flown' between stars none of them remembered. Now the paidhi would be arrested, most likely, if he took a walk to town after an extension cord. His appear- ance could start riots, economic panics, rumors of de- scending space stations and death rays. He was depressed, to tell the truth. He had thought he had a good rapport with Tabini, he had thought, in his hu- man way of needing such things, that Tabini was as close to a friend as an ateva was capable of being. Something was damned well wrong. At least wrong enough that Tabini couldn't confide it to him. That was what everything added up to-either officially or person- ally. And he put the codex back on the shelf and took to pacing the floor, not that he intended to, but he found himself doing it, back and forth, back and forth, to the bedroom and back, and out to the sitting room, where the view of the lake at least afforded a ray of sunlight throug the clouds. It struck brilliant silver on the water. It was a beautiful lake. It was a glorious view, when it wasn't gray. He could be inspired, if his breakfast wasn't lying like lead on his stomach. Hell if he wanted to go on being patient. The paidhi's job might demand it. The paidhi's job might be to sit still and figure out how to keep the peace, and maybe he hadn't done that very well by discharging firearms in the aiji's household. But ... He hadn't looked for the gun. He hadn't even thought about it. Tano and Algini and Jago had done the actual packing and unpacking of his belongings. He blazed a straight course back to the bedroom, got down on his knees and felt under the mattress. FOREIGNER / His fingers met hard metal. Two pieces of hard met one a gun and one a clip of shells. He pulled them out, sitting on the floor as he was, his dressing robe, with the gun in his hands and a sudd dread of someone walking in on him. He shoved the g and the clip back where they belonged, and sat there as ing himself-what in hell is this about? Nothing but that the paidhi's in cold storage. A armed. And guarded. And his guards won't tell him cursed thing. Well, damn, he thought. And gathered himself up off the floor in a sudden fit resolution, intending to push it as far as he had latitu and find out where the boundaries (however nebulou might be. He went to the armoire and pulled out a go pair of pants; a sweater, obstinately human and impos ble for atevi to judge for status statements; and his go brown hunting boots, that being the style of this coun house. His favorite casual coat, the leather one. Then he walked out the impressive front doors of f suite and down the hall, an easy, idle stroll, down stairs to the stone-floored mainfloor, making no atte whatsoever at stealth, and along the hall to the grand ce tral room, where a fire burned wastefully in the heart where the lights were all candles, and the massive fro doors were shut. He walked about, idly examined the bric-a-brac, objects on tables that might be functional and might purely decorative-he didn't know. He didn't know wh to call a good many of the objects on the walls, partic larly the lethal ones. He didn't recognize the odder he and hides-he determined to find out the species and status of those species, and add them to the data files Mospheira, with illustrations, if he could get a book . or a copy machine ... ... or plug in the computer. His frustration hit new levels, at the latter thoughts. 160 / C. 1. CHERRYH thought about trying the front doors to see if they were locked, taking a walk out in the front courtyard, if they weren't-maybe having a close up look at the cannon, and maybe at the gates and the road. Then he decided that that was probably pushing Banichi's good humor much too far; possibly, too, and more to the point, risking Banichi's carefully laid security arrangements ... which might catch him instead of an as- sassin. So he opted to take a stroll back into the rest of the building instead, down an ornate corridor, and into plain ones, past doors he didn't venture to open. If assassins might venture in here looking for him, especially in the dark, he wanted a mental map of the halls and the rooms and the stairways that might become escape routes. He located the kitchens. And the storerooms. And a hall at a right angle, which offered slit windows and a view out toward the mountains. He took that turn, having discovered, he supposed, the outside wall, and he walked the long corridor to the end, where he found a choice: one hallway tending off to the left and another to the right. The left must be another wing of the building, he de- cided, and, seeing double doors down that direction, and those doors shut, he had a sudden chilling thought of per- sonal residence areas, wires, and security systems. He reasoned then that the more prudent direction for him to take, if he had come to private apartments of some sort, where security arrangements might be far more mod- em than the lighting, was back toward the front of the building, boxing the square toward the front hall and the foyer. The hall he walked was going that direction, at about the right distance of separation, he was increasingly con- fident, to end up as the corridor that exited near the stairs leading up to his floor. He walked past one more side hall and a left-right-straight-ahead choice, and, indeed, ended fOREIGNER / up in the archway entry to the grand hall in front of main doors, where the fireplace was. Fairly good navigation, he thought, and walked back the warmth of the fireplace, where he had started his e ploration of the back halls. "Well," someone said, close behind him. He had thought the fireside unoccupied. He turned alarm to see a wizened little ateva, with white in h black hair, sitting in one of the high-backed leather chai ... diminutive woman-for her kind. "Well?" she said again, and snapped her book close "You're Bren. Yes?" "You're . . ." He struggled with titles and politics different honorifics, when one was face to face with atevi lord. "The esteemed aiji-dowager." "Esteemed, hell. Tell that to the hasdrawad." She bec oned with a thin, wrinkled hand. "Come here." He moved without even thinking to move. That was t command in Ilisidi. Her finger indicated the spot in fro of her chair, and he moved there and stood while st looked him up and down, with pale yellow eyes that h to be a family trait. They made the recipient of that stai think of everything he'd done in the last thirty hours. "Puny sort," she said. People didn't cross the dowager. That was well r( puted. "Not for my species, nand' dowager." "Machines to open doors. Machines to climb stair Small wonder." "Machines to ' fly. Machines to fly between stars. Maybe she reminded him of Tabini. He was suddenl over the edge of courtesy between strangers. He had f6i gotten the honorifics and argued with her. He found n way back from his position. Tabini would never respect retreat. Neither would Ilisidi, he was convinced of that i the instant he saw the tightening of the jaw, the spark o fire in the eyes that were Tabini's own. "And you let us have what suits our backward selves. 162 / C. 3. CHERRYH Gave him back the direct retort, indeed. He bowed. "I recall you won the War, nand' dowager." "Did we?" Those yellow, pale eyes were quick, the wrinkles around her mouth all said decisiveness. She shot at him. He shot back, "Tabini-aiji also says it's questionable. We argue." "Sit down!" It was progress, of a kind. He bowed, and drew up the convenient footstool rather than fuss with a chair, which he didn't think would further his case with the old lady. "I'm dying," Ilisidi snapped. "Do you know that?" "Everyone is dying, nand' dowager. I know that." Yellow eyes still held his, cruel and cold, and the aiji- dowager's mouth drew down at the comers. "Impudent whelp.,, "Respectful, nand' dowager, of one who has survived." The flesh at the comer of the eyes crinkled. The chin lifted, stem and square. "Cheap philosophy." "Not for your enemies, nand' dowager." "How is my grandson's health?" Almost she shook him. Almost. "As well as it deserves to be, nand' dowager." "How well does it deserve to be?" She seized the cane beside her chair in a knobby hand and banged the ferule against the floor, once, twice, three times. "Damn you!" she shouted at no one in particular. "Where's the tea?" The conversation was over, evidently. He was glad to find it was her servants who had trespassed her good will. "I'm sorry to have bothered you," he began to say, and began to get up. The cane hammered the stones. She swung her scowl on him. "Sit down!" "I beg the dowager's pardon, 1--2' Have a pressing en- gagement, he wanted to say, but he didn't. In this place the lie was impossible. Bang! went the cane. Bang! "Damnable layabouts! Cenedi! The tea!" FOREIGNER / Was she sane? he asked himself. He sat. He. did know what else he could do, but sit. He wasn't even s there were servants, or that tea'had been in the equati until it crossed her mind, but he supposed the a dowager's personal staff knew what to do with her. Old staffers, Jago had said. Dangerous, Banichi h hinted. Bang! Bang! "Cenedi! Do you hear me?" Cenedi might be twenty years dead for all he knew. sat frozen like a child on a footstool, arms about knees, ready to defend his head and shoulders if Ilisid whim turned the cane on him. But to his relief, someone did show up, an atevi servE he took at first glance for Banichi, but it clearly wasn on the second look. The same black uniform. But the was lined with time and the hair was streaked liberal with gray. "Two cups," Ilisidi snapped. "Easily, nand' dowager," the servant said. Cenedi, Bren supposed, and he didn't want tea, he h had his breakfast, all four courses of it. He was anxi to escape Ilisidi's company and her hostile questions b fore he said or did something to cause trouble Banichi, wherever Banichi was. Or for Tabini. If Tabini's grandmother was, as she claimed, dying . she was possibly out of reasons to be patient with world, which in Ilisidi's declared opinion, had not do wisely to pass over her. This could be a dangerous a angry woman. . But a tea service regularly had six cups, and Cenedi s one filled cup in the dowager's hand, and offered ano to him, a cup which clearly he was to drink, and for a m ment he could hear what wise atevi adults told every to dling child, don't take, don't touch, don't talk wi strangers- Ilisidi took a delicate sip, and her implacable stare w on him. She was amused, he was sure. Perhaps sh W, e e s 164 / C. 3. CHERRYM thought him a fool that he didn't set down the cup at once and run for Banichi's advice, or that he'd gotten himself this far in over his head, arguing with a woman no few atevi feared, and not for her insanity. He took the sip. He found no other choice but abject flight, and that wasn't the course the paidhi ever had open to him. He stared Ilisidi in the eyes when he did drink , and when he didn't feel any strangeness from the cup or the tea, he took a second sip. A web of wrinkles tightened about Ilisidi's eyelids as she drank. He couldn't see her mouth behind her hand and the cup, and when she lowered that cup, the web had all relaxed, leaving only the unrealized map of her years and her intentions, a maze of lines in the firelit black gloss of her skin. "So what vices does the paidhi have in his spare time? Gambling? Sex with the servants?" "It's the paidhi's business to be circumspect." "And celibate?" It wasn't a polite question. Nor politely meant, h feared. "Mospheira is an easy flight away, nand' dowager. When I have the time to go home, I do. The last time...' He didn't feel invited to chatter. But he preferred it to Ilisidi's interrogation. " .. . was the 28th Madara." "So." Another sip of tea. A flick of long, thin fingers "Doubtless a tale of perversions." "I paid respects to my mother and brother." "And your father?" A more difficult question. "Estranged." "On an island?" "The aiji-dowager may know, we don't pursue blood feud. Only law." :'A cold-blooded lot." 'Historically, we practiced feud." "Ah. And is this another thing your great wisdom found unwise?" He sensed, perhaps, the core of her resentments. H wasn't sure. But he had trod that minefield before-it wa FOREIGNER known territory, and he looked her straight in the fa( "The paidhi's job is to advise. If the aiji rejects o advice . . ." "You wait," she finished for him, "for another aiji, a other paidhi. But you expect to get your way." No one had ever put it so bluntly to him. He had wo dered if the atevi did understand, though he had thoug they had. "Situations change, nand' dowager." "Your tea's getting cold." He sipped it. It was inde cold, quickly chilled, in the small cups. He wondered she knew what had brought him to Malguri. He had h the image of an old woman out of touch with the worl and now he thought not. He emptied the cup. Ilisidi emptied hers, and flung it at the fire. Porcela shattered. He jumped-shaken by the violence, askir himself again if Ilisidi was mad. "I never favored that. tea service," Ilisidi said. He had the momentary impulse to send his cup after i If Tabini had said the like, Tabini would have been testir him, and he would have thrown it. But he didn't kno Ilisidi. He had to take that into account for good and al He rose and handed his cup to Cenedi, who waited wi the tray. Cenedi hurled the whole set at the fireplace. Tea hisse in the coals. Porcelain lay shattered. Bren bowed, as if he had received a compliment, an saw an old woman who, dying, sitting in the midst of th prized antiquity, destroyed what offended her preference broke what was Ancient and priceless, because she didn like it. He looked for escape, murmured, "I thank the aij dowager for her attention," and got two steps away befo bang! went the cane on the stones, and he stopped an faced back again, constrained by atevi custom-and th suspicion what service Cenedi was to her. He had amused the aiji-dowager. She was grinnin~ laughing with a humor that shook her thin body, as sh 166 / C. ]. CMERRYM leaned both hands on the cane. "Run," she said. "Run, nand' paidhi. But where's safe? Do you know?" "This place," he shot back. One didn't retreat from di- rect challenges-not if one wasn't a child, and wasn't anyone's servant. "Your residence. The aiji thought so." She didn't say a thing, just grinned and laughed and rocked back and forth on the pivot of the cane. After an anxious moment he decided he was dismissed, and bowed, and headed away, hoping she was through with jokes, and asking himself was Ilisidi sane, or had Tabini known, or why had she destroyed the tea service? Because a human had profaned it? Or because there was something in the tea, that now was vapor on the winds above the chimney? His stomach was upset. He told himself it was suggestion. He re- minded himself there were some teas humans shouldn't drink. His pulse was hammering as he walked the hall and climbed the stairs, and he wondered if he should try to throw up, or where, or if he could get to his own bath- room to do it not to upset the staff ... or lose his dignity ... Which was stupid, if he was poisoned. Possibly it was fear that was making his heart race. Possibly it was one of those stimulants like midarga, which in overdoses could put a human in the emergency room, and he should find Banichi or Jago and tell them what he'd done, and what he'd drunk, that was already making its way into his bloodstream. A clammy sweat'was on his skin as he reached the up- per hall. It might be nothing more than fear, and sugges- tion, but he couldn't get air enough, and there was a darkening around the edges of his vision. The hall be- came a nightmare, echoing with his steps on the wooden floor. He put out a hand to the wall to steady himself and his hand vanished into a strange dark nowhere at the side of his vision. I'm in serious trouble, he thought. I have to get to the fORMOMR / door. I mustn't fall in the hallway. I mustn't make it vious I'm reacting to the stuff . . . never show fear, ne show discomfort.... The door wobbled closer and larger in the midst of t dark tunnel. He had a blurred view of the latch, push down on it. The door opened and let him into the blindi glare of the windows, white as molten metal. Close the door, he thought. Lock it. I'm going to b I might fall asleep awhile. Can't sleep with the door u locked. The latch caught. He was sure of that. He faced glare of the windows, staggered a few steps and found he was going the wrong way, into the light. "Nadi Bren!" He swung around, frightened by the echoing sou frightened by the darkness that loomed up on every si of him, around the edges and now in the center of his sion, darkness that reached out arms and caught him a swept him off his feet in a whirling of all his concept up and down. Then it was white, white, until the vision went again and violent, and he was bent over a stone edg with someone shouting orders that echoed in his ears, a peeling his sweater off over his head. Water blasted the back of his head, then, cold water, battering flood that rattled his brain in his skull. sucked in an involuntary, watery gasp of air, and tried fight against drowning, but an iron grip held his arms a another-whoever it was had too many hands-gripp the back of his neck and kept him where he was. If tried to turn his'head, he choked. If he stayed where was, head down to the torrent, he could breathe, betwe spasms of a gut that couldn't get rid of any -more than had. A pain stung his arm. Someone had stuck him and was bleeding, or his arm was swelling, and whoever w holding him was still bent on drowning him. Waves nausea rolled through his gut, he could feel the burning 168 1 C. ). C"ERW" tides in his blood that didn't have anything to do with this world's moons. They weren't human, the things that sur- rounded him and constrained him, and they didn't like him--even at best, atevi wished humanity had never been, never come here ... there'd been so much blood, holding on to Mospheira, and they were guilty, but what else could they have done9 He began to chill. The cold of the water went deeper and deeper into his skull, until the dark began to go away, and he could see the gray stone, and the water in the tub, and feel the grip on his neck and his arms as painful. His knees hurt, on the stones. His arms were numb. And his head began to feel light and strange. Is this dyingl he wondered. Am I dying? Banichi's going to be mad if that's the case. "Cut the water," Banichi said, and of a sudden Bren found himself hauled over onto his back, dumped into what he vaguely decided was a lap, and felt a blanket, a very welcome but inadequate blanket, thrown over his chilled skin. Sight came and went. He thought it was a yellow blanket, he didn't know why it mattered. He was scared as someone picked him up like a child and carried him, that that person was going to try to carry him down the stairs, which were, somewhere about, the last he re- membered. He didn't feel at all secure, being carried. The arms gave way and dumped him. He yelled. His back and shoulders hit a mattress, and the rest of him followed. Then someone rolled him roughly onto his face on silken, skidding furs, and pulled off his blanket, his boots and his trousers, while he just lay there, paralyzed, aware Of all of it, but aware too of a pain in his temples that forecast a very bad headache. He heard Banichi's voice out of the general murmur in the room, so it was all right now. It would be all right, since Banichi was here. He said , to help Banichi, "I drank the tea." A blow exploded across his ear. "Fool!" Banichi said, FOREIGNER / 169 from above him, and flung him over onto his back and covered him with furs. It.didn't help the headache, which was rising at a rate that scared him and made his heart race. He thought of stroke, or aneurism, or an impending heart attack. Only where Banichi had hit his ear was hot and halfway numb. Banichi grabbed his arm and stuck him with a needle-it hurt, but not near the pain his head was beginning to have. After that, he just wanted to lie there submerged in dead animal skins, and breathe. He listened to his own heartbeat, he timed his breaths, he found troughs between the waves of pain, and lived in those, while his eyes ran tears from the daylight and he wished he was sane enough to tell Banichi to draw the drapes. "This isn't Shejidan!" Banichi railed at him. "Things don't come in plastic packages!" He knew that. He wasn't stupid. He remembered where he was, though he wasn't sure what plastic packages had to do with anything. The headache reached a point he thought he was going to die and he wanted to have it over with-- But you didn't say that to atevi, who didn't think the same as humans, and Banichi was already mad at him. Justifiably. This was the second time in a week Banichi had had to rescue him. He kept asking himself had the aiji-dowager tried to kill him, and tried to warn Banichi that Cenedi was an assassin-he was sure he was. He looked like Banichi-he wasn't sure that was a compel- ling logic, but he tried to structure his arguments so Banichi wouldn't think he was a total fool. "Cenedi did this?" He thought he'd said so. He wasn't sure. His head hurt too much. He just wanted to lie there in the warm furs and go to sleep and not have it hurt when and if he woke up, but he was scared to let go, because he might never wake up and he hadn't called Hanks. Banichi crossed the room and talked to someone. He 170 / C. 1. CHERRY14 wasn't sure, but he thought it was Jago. He hoped there wasn't going to be trouble, and that they weren't under at- tack of some kind. He wished he could follow what they were saying. He shut his eyes. The light hurt them too much. Some- one asked if he was all right, and he decided if he weren't all right, Banichi would call doctors or something, so he nodded that he was, and slid off into the dark,,thinking maybe he had called Hanks, or maybe just thought about calling Hanks. He wasn't sure. Light hurt. Moving hurt. There wasn't any part of him that didn't hurt once he tried to move, particularly his head, and the smell of food wasn't at all attractive. But a second shake came at his shoulder, and Tano leaned over him, 'he was sure it was Tano, though his eyes wouldn't focus, quite, and light hurt. "You'd better eat, nand' paidhi." "God * " 4'Come on." Pitilessly, Tano began plumping up the cushions about his head and shoulders-which made his head ache and made him uncertain about his stomach. He rested there, figuring that for enough cooperation to satisfy his tormentors, and saw Algini in the doorway to the bath and the servants' quarters, talking to Jago, the two of them speaking very quietly, in voices that echoed and distorted. Tano came back with a bowl of soup and some meal wafers. "Eat," Tano told him, and he didn't want it. He wanted to tell Tano go away, but his servants didn't go away, Tabini hired them, and he had to do what they said. Besides, white wafers was what you ate when your FOREIGNER / I stomach was upset and you wanted not to be sick-hi flashed on Mospheira, on his own bedroom, and hi mother-but it was Tano holding his head, Tano insistinj he have at least half of it, and he nibbled a crumb at time, while the room and everything tilted on him, an kept trying to slide off into the echoing edges of th world. He rested his eyes after that, and waked to the smell o soup. He didn't want it, but he took a sip of it, when Tan( put the cup to his lips, and burned his mouth. It taste( like the tea. He wanted to stop right there, but Tano kep trying to feed it to him, insisting he had to, that it was the only way to flush the tea out of his system. So he put an arm into the cold air, located the cup handle with his own hand, let Tano prop his head with pillows, and drank the cup without dropping it, until his stomach decided it absolutely couldn't tolerate any more. He rested the cup in both hands, then, exhausted, un- able to decide whether he wanted to put his arm back under the covers to get warm or whether the heat from the porcelain was better. Stay where he was, he thought. He didn't want to move, didn't want to do anything but breathe. Then Banichi walked in, dismissed Tano and stood over his bed with arms folded. "How are you feeling, nand' paidhi?" "Very foolish," he muttered. He remembered, if he was not hallucinating, the aiji-dowager, a pot of tea, smashed in the fireplace. And a man, Banichi's very image. Who was standing in the doorway. His heart jumped. Cenedi walked in when he saw him looking his way, and stood on the other side of his bed. I wish to apologize," Cenedi said. "Professionally, nand' paidhi. I should have known about the tea." "I should have known. I will know, after this." The taste of the tea was still in his mouth. His head ached if he blinked. He was upset that Banichi allowed this strang- 0 t a 172 / C. 3. CHERRYH er into the room, and he asked himself whether Banichi was playing some angle he didn't understand, pretending to believe Cenedi. it only made sense to keep his answers moderate, and to be polite, and not to offend anyone un- necessarily. "They compound the aiji-dowager's tea," Banichi said, "from a very old local recipe. There's a strong stimulant involved, which the dowager considers healthful, or at least bracing. With humans' small body weight and ad- verse reaction to alkaloids---~' "God." "The compound is a tea called dajdi, which I counse you to avoid in future." "The cook requests assurances of your good will,' Cenedi said from the other side of his bed. "He had n idea a human would be in the company." "Assure him, please." His head was going in circles. He lay back against the pillow, and almost spilled the half cup of soup. "No ill will. My damn fault." "These are human manners'll Banichi said. "He wishes to emphasize his confidence it was an accident, nadi." There was silence. He knew he hadn't said what he hoped to have said, and he shouldn't swear doing it, bu his head hurt too much. "No wish to offend," he mur mured, which was the universal way out of confusing of- fenses. "Only good will." His head was beginning to hurt again. Banichi rescued the soup and set it aside with clank on the table that sounded like thunder. "The aiji-dowager wants her doctor to examine the paidhi," Cenedi said, "if you would stand by as a witness for both sides in this affair, Banichi-ii." "Thank the aiji-dowager," Banichi said. "Yes." "I don't need a doctor," Bren said. He didn't want to have the dowager's doctor near him. He only wanted a lit- tle while to rest, lie in the pillows, and let the soup settle. But no one paid any attention to his wishes. Cenedi went out with Jago, came back with an elderly ateva with a bag full of equipment, who threw back the warm furs, FOREIGNER / 173 exposed his skin to chill, listened to his heart, looked into his eyes, took his pulse, and discussed with Banichi what he'd been given, how many cups of tea he'd had ... "One," he insisted, but no one listened to the victim. Finally the doctor came and stared down at him like a specimen in a collection, asked if he had a residual taste in his mouth, or smelled something like tea, and residual taste did describe it. "Milk," the doctor said, "a glass every three hours. Warm or cold." "Cold," he said, shuddering. When it came, it was heated, it tasted of the tea, and he complained of it; but Banichi tasted it, swore it was only the taste in his mouth and said that when it went away it would tell him he was free of the substance. Meanwhile Algini, the one without a sense of humor, kept bringing him fruit juice and insisting he drink, until he had to make repeated trips to what Maigi termed, del- icately, the accommodation. And meanwhile Banichi disappeared, again, and Algini didn't know a thing about his mail, couldn't authorize a power outlet ... "This is an historical monument, nand' paidbi. It's my understanding that any change to these walls has to be submitted to the Preservation Commission. We can't even remove a hanging picture to put up our schedule board, on the very same pins." It didn't sound' encouraging. "What are my chances," he asked, "of going back to the City any time soon?" "I can certainly present your request, nand' paidhi. I have to say, I don't think so. I'm sure the same consider- ations that brought you here, still apply." "What considerations?" "The protection of your life, nand' paidhi." "It doesn't seem safe here, does it?" "We've warned the kitchen to ask if you're in any party I 174 / C. 1. CHERRYN it serves. The cook is extremely concerned. He assures you of his caution in the future." He sulked, childlike, and, feeling Algini's frustration, struggled to mend his expression-but he felt like a child, hemmed about, decided for, and talked past by towering people with motives too dark and hushed to share with him. It inspired him to do childish things, like sending Algini for something complicated so he could sneak downstairs and out the front door and down the road to town. But'he sat still in bed like a good adult, and tried not to be surly with the staff, and drink the damned milk- "Cold!" he insisted to Algini, deciding he couldn't man- age the rest of it. Whereupon the kitchen, evidently never having heard of such a procedure, sent it over ice. The milk at last stopped tasting of the tea, the fruit juice had run through him until he had fruit juice running in his veins, he said as much to Djinana, who thought that was exceptionally, originally funny. He didn't. He asked for books on Maidingi, read about Malguri castle, out of books liberal in color pictures of his apartments, with notes on what century which piece dated from. The bed, for instance, was seven hundred years old. There were tours into this section of the castle, if there happened to be no guest in residence. He imagined tour- ists walking through, children gazing fearfully at the bed, and the guide talking about the paidhi, who'd died in Malguri castle, said to walk the halls at night, haunting the kitchens, looking for a cup of tea ... But it was all history that humans hadn't had access to-he knew: he'd read every writing of his predecessors. He wanted to make a note, to request Annals of Maidingi by Tagisi of Maidingi township, of Polgini clan, Carditi- Aigorana house, for the paidhiin's permanent research li- brary in Mospheira ... and then remembered the power FOREIGNER / 1 outlet that it wasn't possible to have. And nobody, course, could remove an historic damned lightbulb to p in a tap. It might pull down the historic damned wirin right off its track across the historic wooden rafters. Solar recharger, he thought. He wondered if the nearb town had any such thing compatible with his compute and if he could charge his account via the local bank- certainly Banichi could. Meanwhile ... paper and pen. He got up and searche the desks in the study, and found paper. No pen. H searched for the one he'd used to sign the guest registe Gone. Maddening. He rang for the servants, told Djinana h wanted one immediately, and got the requisite pen froin the servants' quarters. It skipped and it spat, but it wrote and he wrapped himself in a warm robe, put stockings o his cold feet, and sat and wrote morbid notes to his suc cessor. ... If, he added glumly, this ever gets to human eyes I've a gun under my mattress. Whom shall I shoot Algini, who can't get his schedule board hung? Cenedi, who probably didn't have a clue about the tea being le thal to humans? Tabini-aiji sent me here for my protection. So far, I've come far nearer dying at the hands of Malguris kitchen than Shejidan's assassins ... Some things he didn't write, fearing his room wasn't immune to search, if only by the servants and his own se- curity, who were probably one and the same-but he asked himself about the aiji-dowager, and asked himself twice what Tabini had had on his mind with that throw- away comment, "Grandmother's in residence." Not in the least likely, of course, that Tabini had foreseen his invitation to a fatal tea: even for the aiji-dowager, it was too serendipitous and too strange, over all-even if one grew extremely suspicious when accidents happened in the presence of persons of twice-denied ambition. 176 / C. 1. CHERRYH The obvious thought, of course, was that Ilisidi didn't like humans. But what if-a poisoned, delirious brain could form very strange ideas-what if Tabini's sending him here hadn't been to send him here, but to get Banichi and Jago inside Malguri, past Ilisidi's guard? A try on Ilisidi? Thinking about it made his head hurt. His appetite was still off, at supper. He didn't feel up to formal dinner, and ordered simply a bowl of soup and wafers-which tasted better than they had yesterday, and he decided he felt up to a second bowl of it, in his televisionless, fellowless, phoneless exile. Mealtimes had become a marker in the day, which thus far, lacking even a clock, he measured in paces of his quarters, in pages turned, in the slow progress of clouds across the sky, or boats across the wind-wrinkled lake. He forced himself to drink an ordinary tea, and lin- gered over a, sweet milk pudding, in which there was only one questionable and lumpy substance, exceedingly bitter to the taste-but one could, with dexterity, pick the bits out. Food became an amusement, a hobby, an adventure de- spite cook's assurances. The book he had open beside his plate was an absorbing enough account of lingering and resentful spirits of Malguri's murdered and accident- prone dead. The lake also was given to be haunted by var- ious restless fishermen and by one ill-fated lord of Malguri who leapt in full armor from the cliffs, thus evading what the book called 'a shameful marriage.' Curious idea. He resolved to ask someone about that, and to find out the doubtless prurient details. He discarded the last bitter bit in the pudding, and had his final spoonful as Djinana came in, to take the dishes, as he supposed. "I'll have another cup of tea," he said. He was feeling FOREIGNER / much better. Djinana laid a tiny silver scroll-case, wi great ceremony, beside his plate. "What's this?" he asked. "I don't know, nand' paidhi. Nadi Cenedi conveyed it "Would you open it?" "It's the dowager's own . . ." Djinana protested. "Nadi. Would you open it?" Djinana frowned and took it up-broke the seal a spread out the paper. He took it, once Djinana had proven it only the scr( it seemed to be. But he was thinking of the Bu-javid po office, and Jago's comment about needles in the mail. It was almost as welcome. An invitation. From the aij dowager. For an early breakfast. The hospitality of an aiji of any degree was not easy refuse. He had to share a roof with this woman. She nearly killed him. Refusal could convey a belief it wasn an accident. And that could mean hostilities. "Te Banichi I need to talk to him." "I'll try, nadi." "What, 'tryT Where is he, nadi?" "I believe he and nadi Jago drove somewhere." "Somewhere." He'd become reluctantly well a( quainted with the vicinity, at least the historical site within driving distance of Malguri. There wasn't any where to drive to, except the airport and the town ju outside. "Then I need to talk to Tano." "I don't know where he is, either, nand' paidhi. I rathe thought he'd gone with your security staff." "Algini, then." "I'll look for him, nand' paidhi." "They wouldn't have left me here." "I would think not, nand' paidhi. But I assure yo Maighi and I are perfectly well at your service." "Then what would you advise?" He handed Djinana th scroll, case and all. Djinana scanned it, and frowned.' "It's unusual," Djinana said. "The aiji-dowager doesn' receive many people." 17b / C. J. ,, she's making an extraordinary ges- 0 up. answer, nadi9 is it safe?" I s face assumed a very official serenity. c possibly advise the paidhi." then can we find Algini? I take it there's some ur- gency to respond to this." "A certain amount. I believe nand' Cenedi elected to wait--2' 16He knows Banichi's not here." did "I'm not sure, nadj." The facade cracked. Wom, come through. ,perhaps I can find Algini." Djinana left on that effand. He poured himself another cup of tea. He had to answer the summons, one way or the other. The thought unworthily crossed his mind that the aiji-dowager might indeed have waited until Banichi and Jago were otherwise occupied, although what might legitimately have drawn the whole damned staff to the airport when Tabini had said he was in their charge, he didn't know. He carefully rolled up the little scroll, shoved it into the case, and capped it. And waited until Djinana came back, and ith worried "Nadi, I don't know--2' "-where Algini is," he said. bowed, w alook. ,,I,m sorry, nand' paidhi. I truly don't know what to say. I can't imagine. I've made inquiries in the kitchen and with nand' Cenedi-" "Is he still waiting?" "Yes, nand' paidhi. I've told him-you wished to con- sult protocols." Tell Cenedi he was indisposeW That might save him-if the dowager wasn't getting her own reports from the staff. Which he couldn't at all guarantee. "Nadi Djinana. if your mother had a gun, and your mother threatened me-whose side would you take?" "I-assure you, nadi, FOREIGNER / . "You're not security. I don't come under y man'chi." "No, nadi. I work for the Preservation Commissi I'm a caretaker. Of the estate, you understand." If there was one ateva in the world telling him truth, he believed it by that one moment of absolute sh( in Djinana's eyes, that minute, dismayed hesitation. He hadn't phrased it quite right, of course, not, at lea inescapably. Banichi would have said, You're within r duty, nand' paidhi. And that could have meant anythin But, caretaker of Malguri? One knew where Djina, stood. Firmly against the hanging of schedule boards aj the importation of extension cords and the sticking nails in Malguri's walls. He knew that-but he didn know even that much about Banichi at the present m4 ment. Certainly Banichi hadn't been wholly forthcomijn with him, either that, or Banichi had been damned lax- which wasn't Banichi's style as he knew it. Unless something truly catastrophic had happene( Something like an attempt on Tabini himself. That surmise upset his stomach. - my mother would never Which, dammit, he didn't need to happen to Wimwhe he had, jast %quenhis stomach used to food again. Ni Tabini wasn't in danger. Tabini had far, better securil than he did; Tabini had the whole damned City to loc out for him, while his staff was down at the airport, leaN ing him to Cenedi, who could walk in here and blow hii and Djinana to small bits, if Cenedi were so inclined t disregard biichi-ji and stain the historic carpets. "Appropriate paper and pen." "With your own scroll-case, nadi?" "The paidhi doesn't know where his staff put it. The~ don't let him in on such matters. Try some appropriatt drawer. If ylau &Wk find A, it can go bare. -And i Banichi isn't back by tomorrow morning, you'll go wid me. "1-" Djinana began a protest. And made a bow, in- stead. "I have some small skill at protocols. I'll look foi 176 C. 1 yo, one from the estate. Would the . T, .Arasing. Am I frightening? Am I so foreign? .aren bad dreams?" .Ool~ tia looked twice distressed. -sturb you, nadi? I wouldn't want to. I think .a honest man. And I've met so few." "I wish the paidhi every good thing." "You are skilled in protocol. Do you think you can get me there and back tomorrow unpoisoned?" "Please, nand' paidhi. I'm not qualified-2' "But you're honest. You're a good man. You'd defend your mother before you'd defend me. As a human, I find that very honest. You owe your mother more than you do me. As I owe mine, thank you. And in that particular, you could be human, nadi, which I don't personally consider an outrageous thing to be." DJinana regarded him with a troubled frown. "I truly don't understand your figure of speech, nadi." "Between Malguri, and your mother, nadi-if it were the ruin of one or the other-which would you choose?" "That of my mother, nadi. My man'chi is with this place." "For' Malguri's reputation-would you die, nadi-jir "I'm not nadiji. Only nadi, nand' paidhi." "Would you die, nadi-ji?" "I would die for the stones of this place. So I would, nadi-Ji. I couldn't abandon it." "We also," he said, in a strange and angry mood, "we human folk, understand antiquities. We understand pre- serving. We understand the importance of old stories. Ev- erything we own and know-is in old stories. I wish we could give you everything we know, nadi, and I wish you could give us the same, and I wish we could travel to the moon together before we're both too old." "To the moon!" Diinana said, with an anxious, uncer- tain laughter. "What would we do there?" "Or to the old station. It's your inheritance, nadi-ji. It FOREIGNER / I should be." The paidhi was vastly upset, he discove and saying things he ordinarily reserved for one man, fo Tabini, things he dared not bring out in open council, be cause there were interests vested in suspicion of human and of everything the paidhi did and said, as surely mis guidance and deception of atevi interests. So he told the truth to a caretaker-servant, instead. And was angry at Banichi, who probably, justifiably was angry with the paidhi. But the paidhi saw things slip ping away from him, and atevi he'd trusted turnin strange and distant and withholding answers from him a moments of crisis they might have foreseen. He'd puzzled Djinana, that was certain. DJinana simpl gathered up the dessert dish and, when he couldn't fin the scroll-case, brought him an antique one from the es tate, and pen and paper and sealing-wax. He wrote, in his best hand, Accepting the aiji dowager's most gracious invitation for breakfast at th first of the clock, the paidhi-aiji, Bren Cameron, with pro found respect ... It was the form-laying it on, perhaps, but not by much. And he trusted that the dowager wouldn't have he mail censored. He passed the text by Djinana's doubtless impeccable protocol-sense, then sealed it with his seal- ring and dismissed him to give it to Cenedi, who was probably growing very annoyed with waiting. After that, with Djinana handling those courtesies, he composed another letter, to Tabini. I am uneasy, aiji-ma. Ifeel that there must be duties in the City which go wanting, as there were several matte pending. I hope that your staff will provide me necessary briefings, as I would be distressed to fall out of current with events. As you may know, Ma1guri is not computer- ized, and phone calls appear out of the question. Please accept my warm regards for auspicious days and fortunate outcome. Baji-naJi be both in your favor The paidhi-aiji Bren Cameron with profound respect and 176 / C. J. C and to Tabini-aiji in the con- count up the date on his fingers, AP 4 day. Or two. He became confused- Aly one, then wrote it down and sealed only a ribbon seal, but with the wax di- ft z paper. 'I .te was for Banichi to take on his next trip to the airport, and, one presumed, to the post. Then, in the case that one never made it, he wrote a copy. Djinana came back through the room, reporting he'd delivered the scroll, and asking would the paidhi need the wax-jack further. 661've a little correspondence to take care of," he said to Djinana. "I'll blow out the wick and read awhile after, thank you, nadi. I don't think I'll need anything. Is the dowager's gentleman out?" "The door is locked for the night, nand' paidhi, yes." "Banichi has a key-" "He does, yes, So does nadi Jago. But they'll most probably use the kitchen entry." The kitchen entry. Of course there was one. The food arrived, not from the stairs, but from the back halls, through the servants' quarters, his bedroom, and the sit- ting room, before it reached his dining table. "I'll be fine, then. Good night, nadi Djinana. Thank you. You've been extremely helpful." "Good night, nand' paidhi." Djinana went on back to his quarters, then. He finished his paraphrase of the note, and added: If this is found, and no note of similar wording has reached you before this, Tabini-ji, suspect the hand that should have delivered the first message. After one poi- soned cup, from the dowager, I am not reassured of anyone in MaIguri, even my own staff. He put it in the guest book, figuring that the next occu- FOREIGNER / Is pant would find it, if he didn't remove it himself. I wasn't a book Banichi would necessarily read. And, as he had just written, be was far from certain anything or anyone in MaIguri, tonight. Thunder rumbled outside, and lightning lit rain-drop on the night-dark window glass, flared brief color fror the stained glass borders. Bren read, late, in no mood to sleep, or to share a be, with his morbid thoughts. He looked at pictures, when th words began to challenge his focus or his acceptance c atevi attitudes. He read about old wars. Betrayals. Poison ings. Banichi arrived on a peal of thunder, walked in ani stood by the fire. A fine mist glistened on his blac~ silver-trimmed uniform, and he seemed not pleased "Nadi Bren, I wish you'd consult before decisions." The silence hung there. He looked at Banichi withou speaking, without an expression on his face, and though of saying, Nadi, I wish you'd consult before leaving. But Banichi, for what he cared, could guess what hi was thinking, the way he was left to guess what Bani chi was thinking, or where Jago was, or why the so-callel servants they'd brought for him from the City were absen or unavailable. And maybe it wasn't justified that he be angry, am maybe Banichi's business at the airport or wherever he'( just been was entirely justified and too secret to tell him but, damn, he was angry, a peculiar, stinging kind of an ger that, while Banichi was standing there, added up to ~ hurt he hadn't realized he felt so keenly, a thoroughly un professional and foolish and human hurt, which begai with Tabini and extended to the two atevi besides Tabin that he'd thought he understood. Heaving up his insides on a regular basis probably ha( something to do with it. Mineral balance. Vitamins. Unac customed foods that could leach nutrients out of you in stead of putting them in, or chemically bind what yot 184 / C. 3. CHERRYN needed ... he could think of a dozen absolutely plausible excuses for calculatedly self-destructive behavior, half of them dietary and the other half because, dammit, his own hard-wiring or his own culture wanted to like some single one of the people he'd devoted his life to helping. "I don't have to be the paidhi," he said, finally, since Banichi persisted in saying nothing. "I don't have to leave my family and my people and live where I'm not welcome with nine tenths of the population." "How do they choose you?" Banichi asked. "It's a study. It's something you specialize in. If you're the best, and the paidhi quits, you take the job. That's how. It's something you do so there'll be peace." "You're the best at what you do." "I try to be," he retorted. "I do try, Banichi. Evidently I've done something amiss. Possibly I've offended the aiji-dowager. Possibly I've gotten myself into a danger- ous situation. I don't know. That's an admission of fail- uIrl Banichi. I don't know. But you weren't here to ask. Jago wasn't here. I couldn't raise Algini. Tano wasn't on duty. So I asked Djinana, who didn't know what maybe you could have told me. If you'd been here." Banichi frowned, darkly. "Where were you, Banichi? Or should I ask? If you in- tended to answer my questions, you'd have told me you were leaving, and if you didn't intend me to worry you wouldn't trail the evidence past me and refuse my reason- able questions, when I rely on you for protection the Treaty doesn't let me provide for myself." Banichi said nothing, nor moved for the moment. Then he removed his elbow from the fireplace stonework and stalked off toward the bedroom. Bren snapped the book shut. Banichi looked back in startlement, he had that satisfaction. Banichi's nerves were that tightly strung. :'Where's Jago?" Bren asked. 'Outside. Refusing your reasonable questions, too." "Banichi, dammit!" He stood up, little good it did-he FOREIGNER / 185 still had to look up to Banichi's face, even at a distance. "If I'm under arrest and confined here, -tell me. And where's my mail? Don't regular planes come to Maidingi? It looked like an airport to me." "From Shejidan, once a week. Most of the country, nadi, runs at a different speed. Be calm. Enjoy the lake. Enjoy the slower pace." "Slower pace? I want a solar recharge, Banichi. I want to make a phone call. Don't tell me this place doesn't have a telephone." "In point of fact, no, there isn't a telephone. This is an historical monument. The wires would disfigure the-" "Underground lines, Banichi. Pipes overhead. The place has plenty of wires." "Ibey have to get here." "There's gas. There's light. Why aren't there plug-ins? Why can't someone go down to the town, go to a hard- ware and get me a damned power extension and a screw-in plug? I could sacrifice a ceiling light. The his- toric walls wouldn't suffer defacement." "There isn't a hardware. The town of Maidingi is a very small place, nadi Bren." "God." His head was starting to hurt, acutely. His blood pressure was coming up again and he was dizzy, the light and warmth and noise of the fire all pouring into his senses as he groped after the fireplace stonework. "Banichi, why is Tabini doing this?" "Doing what, nadi? I don't think the aiji-ji has a thing to do with hardwares in Maidingi." He wasn't amused. He leaned his back against the stones, folded his 'arms and fixed Banichi with an angry stare, determined to have it out, one way or the other. "You know, 'doing what.' I could feel better if I thought it was policy. I don't feel better thinking it might be something I've done, or trouble I've made for Tabini-I like him, Banichi. I don't want to be the cause of harm to him, or to you, or to Jago. It's my man'chi. Humans are like that. We have unreasonable loyalties to people we 164 / C. J. CHERWH needed he could think of a doze f my polite- excuses for calculatedly self-d them dietary and the other say, 661t 1111- hard-wiring or his o one of the pe I "I don't h d "t, Jz Banichi ~~- 4~ 0 lea .)n't shake one a Ause your man'ch when we like you Aake the best of it." ,ke. It meant a prefer ,&s. But love was worse. n that. ze, twice. He said, in ac C aning? What meaning you have for my mother and MY brother and it., e for Tabini and for you and for Jago." Breath fait, i. Self-control did. He flung it all out. "Banichi, I'd wai-K a thousand miles to have a kind word from you. I'd give you the shirt from my back if you needed it; if you were in trouble, I'd carry you that thousand miles. What do you call that? Foolish?" Another flaring of Banichi's nostrils. "That would be very difficult for you." "So is liking atevi." That got out before he censored it. "Baii-naii. It's the luck I have." "Don't joke." "I'm not joking. God, I'm not joking. We have to like somebody, we're bound to like somebody, or we die, Banichi, we outright die. We make appointments with grandmothers, we drink the cups strangers offer us, and we don't ask for help anymore, Banichi, what's the damned point, when you don't see what we need?" "If I don't guess what you like, you threaten to rain my reputation. Is this accurate?" The headache was suddenly excruciating. Things blur- red. "Like, like, like-get off the damned word, Banichi. I cross that trench every day. Can't you cross it once? Can't you cross to where I am, Banichi, just once, to know what I think? You're clever. I know you're hard to FOREIGNER / 187 mislead. Follow, Banichi, the solitary trail of my thoughts." "I'm not a cursed dinner-course!" "Banichi-il." The pain reached a level and stayed there, tolerable, once he'd discovered the limits of it. He had his hand on the stonework. He felt the texture of it, the silken dust of age, the fire-heated rock, broken from the earth to make this building before humans ever left the home- world. Before they were ever lost, and desperate. He composed himself-he remembered he was the paidhi, the man in the middle. He remembered he'd chosen this, knowing there wouldn't be a reward, believing, at the time, that of course atevi had feelings, and of course, once he could find the right words, hit the right button, find the clue to atevi thought-he'd win of atevi every- thing he was giving up among humankind. He'd been twenty-two, and what he'd not known had so vastly outweighed what he'd known. "Your behavior worries me," Banichi said. "Forgive me." There was a large knot interfering with his speech. But he was vastly calmer. He chose not to look at Banichi. He only imagined the suspicion and the anger on Banichi's face. "I reacted unprofessionally and intrusively." "Reacted to what, nand' paidhi?" A betraying word choice. He was slipping, badly. The headache had upset his stomach, which was still uncer- tain. "I misinterpreted your behavior. The mistake was mine, not yours. Will you attend my appointment with me in the morning, and guard me from my own stupidity?" "What behavior did you misinterpret?" m t' to 0 hat d 8 u ma wo cot the Straight back to the attack. Banichi refused the bait he cast. And he had no ability to argue, now, or to deal at all in cold rationality. "I explained that. It didn't make sense to you. It won't." He stared into the hazy comers beyond the fire- light, and remembered the interpretation Banichi had put on his explanation. "It wasn't a threat, Banichi. I would 176 / C. J. C 0> and .e for9k, Banicti. food you're ot. in the party." The door in the outermost room opened. Banichi's at- tention was instant and wary. But it was Jago coming through, rain-spattered as Banichi, in evident good humor until the moment she saw the two of them. Her face went immediately impassive. She walked through to his bed- room without comment. "Excuse me," Banichi said darkly, and went after her. Bren glared at his black-uniformed back, at a briskly swinging braid-the two of Tabini's-guards on their way through his bedroom, to the servant quarters; he hit his fist against the stonework and didn't feel the pain until he walked away from the fireside. Stupid, he said to himself. Stupid and dangerous to have tried to explain anything to Banichi: Yes, nadi, no, nadi, clear and simple words, nadi. Banichi and Jago had gone on to the servants' quarters, where they lodged, separately. He went through to his own bedroom and undressed, with an eye to the dead and angry creature on the wall, the expression of its last, cor- nered fight. It stared back at him, when he was in the bed. He picked up his book and read, because he was too angry to , most agreed- to the dowager's otions are his actions lis simple thing." michi, and went on look Banichi to think in wha Fabini's actions. "I haven' -t?" -n stare. "Ask regarding the ire the cook understands you're I I FOREIGNER / 189 sleep, about ancient atevi battles, about treacheries and murders. About ghost ships on the lake, and a manifestation that haunted the audience hall on this level, a ghostly beast that sometimes went snuffling up and down the corridors, looking for something or someone. He was a modern man. They were atevi superstitions. But he took one look and then evaded the glass, glaring eyes of the beast on the wall. Thunder banged. The lights all went out, except the fire in the next room, casting its uncertain glow, that didn't reach all the comers of this one, and didn't at all touch the servants' hall. He told himself lightning must have hit a transformer. But the place was eerily quiet after that, except for a strange, distant thumping that sounded like a heartbeat coming through the walls. Then far back in the servants' hall, beyond the bath, steps moved down the corridor toward his bedroom. He slid off the bed, onto his knees. "Nand' paidhi," Jago's voice called out. "It's Jago." He withdrew his hand from beneath the mattress, and slithered up onto the bed, sitting and watching as an en- tire brigade of staff moved like shadows through his room and outward. He couldn't see faces. He saw the spark of metal on what he thought was Banichi's uniform. One lingered. "Who is it?" he asked, anxiously. "Jago, nadi. I'm staying with you. Go to sleep." "You're joking!'.' 441tis most likely only a lightning strike, nand' paidi. That's the auxiliary generator you hear. It keeps the re- frigeration running in the kitchen, at least until morning." He got up, went looking for his robe and banged his knee on a chair, making an embarrassing scrape. "What do you want, nadi?" "My robe." "Is this it?" Jago located it instantly, at the foot of his 176 C. I-OP--mir' "00000100000j)OV and t z ie 43 himself, .- A%V apany in the world, he told .o that the disturbance was in fact nothing t),g strike, and that Banichi was going to be wet, ci.-and in no good mood when he got back in. But Jago wasn't in her night-robe. Jago had been in uniform and armed, and so had Banichi been, when the lights had gone. "Don't you sleep?" he asked her, standing before the fire. The twin reflections of her eyes eclipsed, a blink, then vanished as she came close enough to rest an elbow against the stonework mantel. Her shadow loomed over him, and fire glistened on the blackness of her skin. "We were awake," she said. Business went on all around him, with no explanations. He felt chilled, despite the robe, and thought how desper- ately he needed his sleep-in order to deal with the dow- ager in the morning. :'Are. there protections around this place?" he asked. 'Assuredly, nadi-ji.' This is still a fortress, when it needs to be." "With the tourists and all." "Tourists. Yes. -There is a group due tomorrow, nadi. Please be prudent. They needn't see you." He felt himself more and more fragile, standing shiver- ,on was that not quite that .e robe on, tied om, as less pro- ided one kind of of lightning came followed him. Atevi -tund it spooky that hu- aid slip quietly through zhed each others' night- FOREIGNER / 191 ing in front of the fire in his night-robe. "Do people ever ... slip away from the tour, slip out of the guards' sight?" "There's a severe fine for that," Jago said. "Probably one for killing the paidhi, too," he muttered. His robe had no pockets. You could never convince an atevi tailor about pockets. He shoved his hands up the sleeves. "A month's pay, at least." Jago thought that was funny. He heard her laugh, a rare sound. That was her reassurance. "I'm supposed to be at breakfast with Tabini's grand- mother," he said. "Banichi's mad at me." "Why did you accept?" "I didn't know I could refuse. I didn't know what trou- ble it would make--2' Jago made a soft, derisive sound. "Banichi said it was because you thought he was a dessert." He couldn't laugh for a moment. It was too grim, and on the edge of pain; and then it was funny, Banichi's glum perplexity, his human desperation to find a focus for his orphaned affections. Jago's sudden, unprecedented willingness to converse. "I take it this was confused in translation," Jago said. "I expressed my extreme respect for him," he said. Which was cold, and distant, and proper. The whole futile argument loomed up, insurmountable barriers again. "Re- spect. Favor. It's all one thing." "How?" Jago asked-a completely honest question. The atevi words didn't mean what he tried to make them mean. They couldn't, wouldn't ever. The whole atevi hardwiring was different, the experts said so. The dynam- ics of atevi relationships were different ... in ways no paidhi had ever figured out, either, possibly because paidhiin invariably tried to find words to fit into human terms-and then deceived themselves about the mean- ings, in self-defense, when the atevi world grew too much for them. God, why- did she decide to talk tonight? Was it policy? An interrogation? or 176 1 C. I. C and t 1~6 1 C_ L ~C nd i ,X ,e word ru, ordinary usa, midedeni." That was three in a ro., He was too tired to take notes and the damned computer was down. "What does that mean?" "Midedeni believe luck and favor reside in people. it was a heresy, of course." - Of course it was. "So it was a long time ago." "Oh, half of Adjaiwaio still believes something like that, in the country,,anyway-that you're supposed to As- sociate with everybody you meet." An entire remote Association where people liked other people? He both wanted to go there and feared there were other essential, perhaps Treaty-threatening, differences. "You really believe in that?" Jago pursued the matter. And it was indeed dangerous, how scattered and longing his thoughts instantly grew down that track, how difficult it was to structure logical arguments against the notion, the very seductive notion that atevi could understand af- fection. "The lords of technology truly think this is the case?" Jago clearly thought intelligent people weren't ex- pected to think so. Which made him question himself, in the paidbi's in- ~, you'd un- ,ty it to him in as late. He was far-reaching at- .press that I would ,use he seems to me ict realm, that perc verse, which somew 19. ,eming surprise. It was a l,nd there weren't many, in .dn't. "Dahemidei. You're FOREIGNER / 193 ternal habit, whether humans were somehow blind to the primitive character of such attachments. Then the dislocation jerked him the other direction, back into belief humans were right. "Something like that," he said. The experts said atevi couldn't think out- side hierarchical structure. And Jago said they could? His heart was pounding. His common sense said hold back, don't believe it, there's a contradiction here. "So you can feel attachment to one you don't have man'chi for." "Nadi Bren, -are you making a sexual proposition to me? I The bottom dropped out of his stomach. "I- No, Jago-ji." "I wondered." "Forgive my impropriety." "Forgive my mistaken notion. What were you asking?" '1-2' Recovering objectivity was impossible. Or it had never existed. "I'd only like to read about midedeni, if you could find a book for me." "Certainly. But I doubt there'd be one here. Malguri's library is mostly local history. The midedeni were all eastem." "I'd like a book to keep, if I could." "I'm sure. I have one, if nothing else, but it's in Shejidan." He'd made a thorough mess. And left a person who was probably reporting directly to Tabini with the impres- sion humans belonged to some dead heresy they probably didn't even remotely match. "It probably isn't applicable," he said, trying to patch matters. "Exact correspondence is just too unlikely." Jago had a brain. A very quick one; and he risked something he ordinarily would have said only to Tabini. "It's the ap- parent correspondences that can be the most deceptive. We want to believe them." "At very least, we're polite in Shejidan. We don't shoot people over philosophical differences. I wouldn't take such a contract." 176 C. 1. CIA t -it 40 , and t ,ie A 0 C, lt;~_ "We b..- stood somethi., Don't doubt us, paicu.. f of Jago. so. s rare grin, a r-luminance of. tudes me, nadi." ridge the gap. He .e hadn't felt since rst unintended mis- .es, too. It makes me .tely. "Less single." id, as if she had under- .g. "To Tabini's house. ion't desert you." Off the meaning again. 'i ._ e was nothing there, noth- ing to make the leap of logic. He stared at her, asking himself how someone so fundamentally honest, and kind, granted the license she had--could be so abs6lutely void of what it might take to make that leap of emotional need. It just didn't click into place. And it was a mistake to pin anything on the Adjaiwaio and any dead philosophy. Philosophy was the keyword: intellectual, not emo- tional structure. And a human being, having embraced it, went away empty and in pain. He said, "Thank you, nadi-ji," and walked away from the fire to the window, which showed nothing but rain- spots against the dark. Something banged, or popped. It echoed off the walls, once, twice. That was no loose shutter. It was off somewhere out- side the walls, to the southwest, he thought, beyond the driveway. The house seemed very still, except the rain and the sound of the fire on the hearth. "Get away from the window," Jago said, and he stepped I FOREIGNER / back immediately, his shoulder to solid stone, his he beating like a hammer as he expected Jago to leave and rush off to Banichi's aid. His imagination leapt to and five assassins breaching the antique defenses of the c de, enemies already inside the walls. But Jago only stood listening, as it seemed. There no second report. Her pocket-corn beeped-he had seen it on her person, but of course she had it; she li it and thumbed on to Banichi's voice, speaking in v code. "Tano shot at shadows," she translated, glancing him. She was a black shape against the fire. "It's all rigt He's not licensed." Understandable that Tano would make a mistake judgement, she meant. So Tano, at least, and probab Algini, was out of Tabini's house guard-licensed firearms, for defense, but not for their use in publ places. "So was it lightning?" he asked. "Is it lightning they' shooting*at out there?" "Nervous fingers," Jago said easily, and shut the co off. "Nothing at all to worry about, nadi-ji." "How long until we have powerr "As soon as the crews can get up here from Maiding Morning, I'd say, before we have lights. This happen nadi. The cannon on the wall draw strikes very freq So, unfortunately, does the transformei. It's not at all ur common." Breakfast might be cancelled, due to the power failun He might have a reprieve from his folly. "I suggest you' go to bed," Jago said. "I'll sit here read until the rest of us come in. You've an appoin in the morning." "We were discussing man'chi," he said, unnerved, be the storin or the shot of his own failures. He'd gotten too personal with Jago, right down to her assumption was trying to approach her for sex, God help him. He w tangling every line of communication he had, he was o M / C. 3. CMERRYM an emotional jag, he felt entirely uneasy about the impres sion he'd left with her, an impression she was doubtless going to convey to Banichi, and both of them to Tabini the paidhi's behaving very oddly, they'd say. He proposi- tioned Jago, invited DJinana to the moon, and thinks Banichi's a dessert. "Were we?' Jago left the fire and walked over to him, taking his arm. "Let's walk back to your bedroom, nand' paidhi, you'll take a chill---2' She outright snatched him past the window, bruising his arm, he so little expected it. He walked with her, then, telling himself if she were really concerned she'd have made him crawl beneath it- she only wanted hirn away from a window tnat wouic glow with conspicuous light from the fire, and cast thei shadows. There were the outer walls, between that win, dow and the lake. But was it lightning hitting the cannon that she feared? "Go to bed," Jago said, delivering him to the door ol his bedroom. "Bren-ji. Don't worry. They'll be assessing damage. We'll need to call down to the power station with the information. And of course we take special pre- cautions when we do lose power. It's only routine. You may hear me go out. You may not. Don't worry for your Me. Ul%,tY." So one could call the airport on the security radio. One would have thought so. But it was the first he'd heard anyone admit it. And having security trekking through his room all night didn't promise a good night's sleep. But he sat down on the bed and Jago walked back to Me other room, leaving him in the almost dark. He took Off his robe, put himself beneath the skins, and lay listen- ilig, watching the faint light from the fireplace in the Other room make moving shadows on the walls and glis- tell On the glass eyes of the beast opposite his bed. They say it's Perfectly safe, he thought at it. Don't worry. it made a sort of sense to talk to it, the two of them in such intimate relationship. It was a creature of this planet. FOREIGNER / IS It had died.mad, fighting atevi who'd enjoyed killing i Nobody needed to feel sorry for anybody. hwasn't tl last of its species. There were probably hundreds of tho sands of its kind out there in the underbrush as mad an pitiless as it was. Adapted for this earth. It didn't make attachments to it young or its associates. It didn't need them. Nature fitte it with a hierarchical sense of dominance, survival pos tive, proof against heartbreak. It survived until something meaner killed it and stuc its head on a wall, for company to a foolish human who'd let himself in for this-who'd chased after th knowledge- wid lh--n %hehonor of be:111g 1he besL. Which had to be enough to go to bed with on nigh like this. Because there damned sure wasn't anythin else, and if he let himself- But he couldn't. The paidhi couldn't start, at twent3 six atevi years of age, to humanize the people he dea with. It was the worst trap. All his predecessors had ba tled it. He knew it in theory. He'd been doing all right while he was an hour's fligi away from Mospheira. While his mail arrived on sche( ule, twice a week. While ... While he'd believed beyond a doubt he was going t see human faces again, and while things were going oui standingly well, and while Tabini and he were such, suc good friends. Key that word, Friend. The paidhi had been in a damned lot of trouble, rigi there. The paidhi had been stone blind, right there. The paidhi didn't know why he was here, the paidl didn't know how he was going to get back again, th paidhi couldn't get the emotional satisfaction out c Banichi and Jago that Tabini had been feeding hiry laughing with him, joking with him, down to the last tim they'd met. Blowing melons to bits. Tabini patting him on th back-gently, because human backs fractured so easily- C. 3. ,,,F,,rgs-ociation and to-.T his office, the Of deYfi~ had to stop and "'AS figmin he had lost "i decided it was the letter rectly 0 S~ 0 4, rV 4~., W good ,.eading the of the bar- ssor, that the ,chments! ,ireater fools they the easier to get diroat, a painful, hu )TIal assessment of the .)nally, how long he was ,t. Not every Paidbi made got- it the d signed on for, the Pool of available a,up-Wilson hadn't been a damned bit of help,n strange and so short-fused board had tahked abouL ;ePlachig him against Tabini's the expressed refusal to have hifli rePlaced. Wilson father's as back had had his third heart attack the first month he w on MosPheira, maintained a grim, passionless demeanor in every meeting the two of them had had, never told him a damned thing of any use. The board called it burn-out. He'd taken their word for it and tried not to think of Wilson as a son of a bitch. t Tabini on his few fill-ins for Wilson's abserim, He'd rne st years of Valasi's a few (lays at a time, the two la administration-he'd thought Tabini's predecessor Valasi a real match for Wilson's glum mood, but he'd liked Tabini-that dangerous word again-but, Point of fact, he'd never Personally believed in Wilson's burn-out. A didn,t get that strange, that unpleasant, without his manting to it. He'd not liked Wilson, own character contribuhat his impression Was Of and when he'd asked Wilson W Tabini, Wilson had said, in a surly tone, The same as the rest of them-" He'd not liked Wilson. He had liked Tabini. He'd thought it a mistake on the board's part to have ever let FOREIGNER / I" Wilson take office, a man with that kind of prejudice, that kind of &Made. He was seared tonight. He looked down the years fie might stay in office and the years he might waste in the foolishness he called friendship with Tabini, and saw himself in Wilson's place, never having had a wife, never having had a child, never having had a friend past the day Barb would find some man on Mospheira a better invest- ment: life was too short to stay at the beck and call of some guy dropping into her life with no explanations, no conversation about his job-a face that began to go dead as if the nerves of expression were cut. He could resign. He could go home. He could ask Barb to marry him. But he had no guarantee Barb wanted to marry him. No questions, no commitment, no unloading of problems, a fairy-tale weekend ' of fancy restaurants and luxury hotels ... he didn't know what Barb really thought, he didn) know what Barb really wanted, he didn't know her in any way but the terms they'd met on, the terms they still had It wasn't love. It wasn't even close friendship. When lit tried to think of the people he'd called friends before h( went into university ... he didn't know where they wen now, if they'd left the town, or if they'd stayed. He hadn't been able to turn the situation over to Dean Hanks for a week. Where did he think he was going t find it in him to turn the whole job over to her and wal out-iffevocably, walk out on what he'd prepared hi whole life to do? Like Wilson-a man seventy years old, who'd just set Valasi assassinated, who'd just come home, because b .1ureer ended with Valasi-with nothing to show for fort bee years of work but the dictionary entries he'd mae a handful of scholarly articles, and a record number of N toes on the Transmontane Highway Project. No wife, family. Nothing but the university teaching post waiti for him, and he couldn't communicate with the studer Wilson couldn't communicate with the human studer 198 / C. 3. CHERRYH and telling him he had real talent for firearms. How good was Tabini, more to the point? How good at reading the paidhi was the atevi fourth in line of his side of the bar- gain? Tipped off, perhaps, by his predecessor, that the paidhiin had a soft spot for personal attachments? That the longer you knew them, the greater fools they became, and the more trusting, and the easier to get things from? There was a painful lump in his throat, a painful, hu- man knot interfering with his rational assessment of the situation. He'd questioned, occasionally, how long he was good for, whether he could adjust. Not every paidhi made it the lifelong commitment they'd signed on for, the pool of available advice had dried up-Wilson hadn't been a damned bit of help, just gotten strange and so short-fused the board had talked about replacing him against Tabini's father's expressed refusal to have him replaced. Wilson had had his third heart attack the first month he was back on Mospheira, maintained a grim, passionless demeanor in every meeting the two of them had had, never told him a damned thing of any use. The board called it bum-out. He'd taken their word for it and tried not to think of Wilson as a son of a bitch. He'd met Tabini on his few fill-ins for Wilson's absences, a few days at a time, the two last years of Valasi's administration-he'd thought Tabini's predecessor Valasi a real match for Wilson's glum mood, but he'd liked Tabini--4hat dangerous word again-but, point of fact, he'd never personally believed in Wilson's bum-out. A man didn't get that strange, that unpleasant, without his own character contributing to it. He'd not liked Wilson, and when he'd asked Wilson what his impression was of Tabini, Wilson had said, in a surly tone, "The same as the rest of them." He'd not liked Wilson. He had liked Tabini. He'd thought it a mistake on the board's part to have ever let FOREIGNER / 199 Wilson take office, a man with that kind of prejudice, tha kind of attitude. He was scared tonight. He looked down the years h might stay in office and the years he might waste in foolishness he called friendship with Tabini, and sa himself in Wilson's place, never having had a wife, ne having had a child, never having had a friend past the da~ Barb would find some man on Mospheira a better inves ment: life was too short to stay at the beck and call some guy dropping into her life with no explanations, n conversation about his job-a face that began to go de as if the nerves of expression were cut. He could resign. He could go home. He could ask B to marry him. But he had no guarantee Barb wanted to marry him. N questions, no commitment, no unloading of problems, fairy-tale weekend of fancy restaurants and luxury hotel ... he didn't know what Barb really thought, he didn' know what Barb really wanted, he didn't know her in an way but the terms they'd met on, the terms they still had It wasn't love. It wasn't even close friendship. When tried to think of the people he'd called friends before h went into university ... he didn't know where they w now, if they'd left the town, or if they'd stayed. He hadn't been able to turn the situation over to Dean Hanks for a week. Where did he think he was going find it in him to turn the whole job over to her and w out-iffevocably, walk out on what he'd prepared hi whole life to do? Like Wilson-a man seventy years old, who'd just s Valasi assassinated, who'd just come home, because hi career ended with Valasi-with nothing to show for forty three years of work but the dictionary entries he'd made a handful of scholarly articles, and a record number of ve toes on the Transmontane Highway Project. No wife, n family. Nothing but the university teaching post waitin for him, and he couldn't communicate with the students Wilson couldn't communicate with the human students 200 / C. J. CMERRYM He was going to write a paper when he got out of this, however damning it was, a paper about Wilson, and the atevi interface, and the talk he'd had with Jago, and why Wilson, with that face, with that demeanor, with that atti- tude, qouldn't communicate with his classes. Thunder crashed, outside his wall. He jumped, and lay there with his heart doing double beats and his ears still ringing. The cannon, Jago said. Common occurrence. He lay there and shook, whether because of the noise, or the craziness of the night. Or because he couldn't un- derstand any longer why he was here, or why a Bu-javid guard like Tano drew a gun and fired, when they were out there looking at transformers. Looking at lightning-struck transformers, while the lightning played over their heads and the rain fell on them. Like hell, he thought, like hell, Jago. Shooting at shad- ows. What shadows, Jago, is Tano expecting out there in the rain? Shadows that fly in on scheduled airliners ... and the tightest security on the planet, except ours, doesn't know who it is and where they are? Like hell again, Jago. V1 lively night," the aiji-dowager said, over tea she "Aswore was safe. "Did you sleep, nand' paidhi?" "Intermittently." Ilisidi chuckled softly, and pointed out the flight of a dragonette above the misty, chill lake. The balcony railing dripped with recent rain. The sun came up gold above the mountains across the lake, and the mist began to glow FOREIGNER / 2 with it. The dragonette dived down the face of the cliff, membranous wings spread against the sun, and swept up ward again, with something in its claws. Predator and prey. 'Ibey're pests," Hisidi said. "The mecheiti hate them but I won't have the nest destroyed. They were here first What does the paidhi say?" "The paidhi agrees with you." "What, that those that were here first-have natura ownershipT' Two sips of tea, one bite of roll, and Ilisidi was on the attack. Banichi had said be careful. Tabini had said he could handle it. He thought a moment, first to agree, then to quibble Then: "The paidhi agrees that the chain of life shouldn' be broken. That the loss of that nest would impoverish Malguri." Ilisidi's pale eyes rested on him, impassive as Banichi's could ever be-she was annoyed, perhaps, at his changing the subject back again. But he hadn't changed her proposition, not entirely. "They're bandits," Ilisidi said. "Irreplaceable," he said. "Vermin. "The past needs the future. The future needs the past." "Vermin, I say, that I choose to preserve." "The paidhi agrees. What do you call them?" "Wi'itkitiin. They make that sound." "Wi'itkitiin." He watched another scaled and feathered diver, and asked himself if Earth had ever known the like. "Nothing else makes that sound." "No." "Reason enough to save it." Ilisidi's mouth tightened. The grimace became a hint of a laugh, and she spooned up several bites of cereal, put away several thin slices of breakfast steak. Breif kept pace, figuring one didn't speak to the aiji- dowager when she was thinking, and an excellent break- 202 / C. 3. CHERRYN fast was- going to get cold. Cooked over wood fire, Cenedi had said, when he wondered how there was any- thing hot, or cooked. He supposed they managed that in the kitchen fireplace, if there was a fireplace in the kitchen. The thumping Jago had called the generator had stopped sometime during the night. The machine was out of fuel, perhaps, or malfunctioning itself. Maidingi Power swore on their lives and reputations that Malguri would have power, as soon, they said, as they had restored power to the quarter of Maidingi township that was dark and chill this morning. Meanwhile the castle got along, with fireplaces to warm the rooms and cook the food, with candles to light the halls where light from windows didn't reach- systems which had once been The System in Malguri. The aiji-dowager had ordered breakfast set outside, on the balcony, in a chill mountain summer morning-fortunate, Bren thought, that he'd worn his heavier coat this morn- ing, because of the chill already in the rooms. The cold had steam going up from his tea-cup. It was nippishly pleasant-hard to remember the steamy nights that were the rule in the City in this month, the rainstorms rolling in from the sea. And with the candles and the wood fires and the an- cient stones, it was a blink of the eye to imagine, this misty morning, that he had come unfixed in time, that oared vessels with heraldic sails might appear out of the mist on the end of the lake. Another dragonette had flown, with its eye on some prey. Its cry wailed away down the heights. "What are you thinking, paidhi? Some wise and revelatory thought?" "Thinking about ships. And wood fires. And how Malguri doesn't need anything from anywhere to sur- vive." The aiji-dowager pursed her lips, rested her chin on her fist. "Aei, a hundred or so staff to do the laundry and carry the wood and make the candles, and it survives. An- . FOREIGNER / 2 other five hundred to plow and tend and hunt, to feed d launderers and the wood-cutters and the candlemake and themselves, and, oh, yes, we're self-sufficient. Exce the iron-workers and the copy-makers to supply us an the riders and the cannoneers to defend it all from the U associated who won't do their share and had rather pre on those who do. MaIguri had electric lights before y came, nadi, I do assure you." She took a sip of tea, set tf. cup down and waved her napkin at Cenedi, who hove in the doorway and mediated the service. He thought the breakfast ended, then. He prepared rise, but Ilisidi waved a hand toward the terrace stairs. "Come." He was caught, snared. "I beg the dowager's pardo My security absolutely forbids me--2' "Forbids you' Outrageous. -Or did my grandson s them against me?" "No such thing, I assure you, with utmost courtesy. H spoke very positively --- 2' "Then let your guards use their famous ingenuity." Sh shoved her chair back. Cenedi hastened to assist, and t put her cane under her hand. "Come, come, let me sho you the rest of Malguri. Let me show you the Malguri c your imagination." He didn't know what to do. She wasn't an enemy- least he hoped she wasn't, and he didn't want to one. Tabini, damn him, had put him here, when he' known his grandmother was here. Banichi was all re proach for the invitation he'd accepted without havin Banichi's doubtless wise advice-and there was nothin the paidhi saw now to do, being committed to the dowa ger's hospitality, except to fall to the floor moaning an plead indisposition-hardly flattering to an already upse cook; or to get up from the table and follow the ol woman and see what she wanted him to see. The latter seemed less damaging to the peace. H doubted Banichi would counsel him differently. So he fol lowed Ilisidi to the outer edge of the terrace and down 204 / C. J. CMERRYM and down the stone steps, to yet another terrace, from which another stairs, and then a third terrace, and so be- low to a paved courtyard, all leisurely, Cenedi going be- fore the dowager, four of the dowager's security bringing up the rear. It was farther down than he expected. It involved walk- ing quite far back in the fortress, first through a walled courtyard, then across an earthy-smelling second walled court, at which he truly began to doubt the direction they were going, and the wisdom of following this party of strangers. Banichi is going to kill me, Bren thought. Jago is going to file Intent on me. If the dowager's guard doesn't have it in mind from the start. Banichi can't have any idea where I've gone, if he isn't watching already- Which, thinking of it, he well might- Something banged, hammerlike, at the gate in front of them, and as Cenedi opened it there came fierce squeals the like of which he'd never heard at close range, only in machimi plays... Mecheiti, he thought with trepidation, seeing first Cenedi and then the dowager walk through that gate. Horse was what the Remote Equivalencies said. But horse didn't cover this utter darkness beyond the gates, defying the servants to hold it, shaking its head, threatening with its formidable rooting-tusks-it was horse only because atevi rode it, it was horse on the atevi scale of things, the creature that had helped them cross the continents and pull their wagons and patrol their bor- ders. It threw its head in defiance of its handlers, it gnashed its formidable teeth, its tusks capped with gold. Its head-harness glittered with beads, in the mop of flying mane-it was violent, frightening in its nearness and in the heedless strength with which it pulled the handlers about. He stopped at the gate, counting it only prudence-but Ilisidi kept walking, after Cenedi. The other guards- there were three more of them than they had started FOREIGNER / 20 with-passed him where he stood, telling him his fe was inappropriate, whatever the evidence of his sense and he gathered his resolve and walked out behind th last, suffering, in that tall company, a sudden revision perspectives: the world had suddenly become all ate size, and the fragile old ateva leaning on her cane next this terrible creature, and reaching out her hand to it, w of the same giant scale, the same fearsome darkness. might have been centuries ago in Malguri. It might hav been some aiji of the warlike age- He watched in trepidation as the mecheita dipped h huge head and took something from Ilisidi's hand. gulped that down and began to make little snatches at fingers with its overshot upper lip as if it expecte more-playing games, he realized, delicate in its mov( ments, reacting to her fingers with a duck of its head an a gentleness in its touch he would not have believed its behavior with the handlers. Bluff and bluster, he said to himself The creature wE a pet. It was all a show to impress the paidhi, the stup human. "Come, come," Ilisidi said, looking back at him. Sh leaned the hand with the cane against the mecheita' neck, using the animal for a prop instead, and wanted h to come up to it. Well, atevi had tried to bluff him before--includin Tabini. Atevi in the court had set up traps to destroy hi dignity, and with it his credibility. So he knew the gain( He summoned up the mild anger and the amusement deserved, walked up with his heart in his throat and ten tatively offered his hand, expecting the dowager woul dissuade him if there *was a real threat But not putting all his faith in it. He was ready t snatch his hand back as it stretched its neck toward hi and jerked away. He did the same, heart thumping. "Again," said Ilisidi. "Again, paidhi. Don't worry. hasn't taken fingers in a year or two." 206 / C. 1. CHERRYM He gathered a breath and held out his hand a second time-this time he and the creature were more cautious of each other, the mecheita's nostrils opening and shutting rapidly, smelling him, he supposed, recalling from his studies that such animals did rely heavily on smell. Its head was as long as his arm from shoulder to fingertip. Its body shadowed him from the sun. It grew bolder, feeling over big hand with its prehensile upper lip, not seeming to threaten, but dragging his fingers down against the gold- capped rooting tusks. It had a little lump of bony plate on its nose, that was bare and gray and smooth. The inquisitive lip was barred with wrinkles, and came to a narrow point between the two gold-capped tusks. It explored his fingers, snuffling and blowing its great breaths on him in evident enthusi- asm, flicking its ears as it had with the dowager, seeming not offended that he had no treat for it. It tickled the soft skin between his fingers, and tasted his fingertips with a file-like tongue. It didn't flinch away from him, that curious rough con- tact, it took to his whole fingers with skin-abrading en- thusiasm, and he was delighted and afraid and enchanted, that something in the world met him with such complete, uncomplicated curiosity-accepting what it met. It wasn't offended at his strange taste, that for the dowager's hopes Of his discomfiture. Then it took the ultimate, unanticipated liberty of nos- ing him in the face. His hands flew up to fend it off, and his next view of it was from the pavings looking up at its looming shadow. "Hei," Ilisidi said, holding the creature's harness, and standing over him, "don't push on the nose, nand' pafcffii. Babs is sorry, aren't you, Babs? Didn't expect a hand on your nose, did you, poor Babs?" He gathered himself up-he had saved his skull from the pavings, but not his backside. He brushed himself off and doggedly offered his hand again to the mecheita- one didn't admit an embarrassment, among atevi, even FOREIGNER / 2 while the dowager chuckled at his discomfort and said should take Nokhada, as a relatively placid mount. "Take ... where, aiii-mai?" "To see MaIguri, of course," Ilisidi declared, as if agreement had encompassed everything. She gave cane to Cenedi, hiked up the skirt of her coat and hit B on the shoulder, the signal--he knew it from televisi for Babs to put out a foreleg. Another man helped Ilisi with his joined hands, and Hisidi swung up to a practic landing on the riding-pad as Babs surged up agai smooth and quick as a courtly bow. They towered him, Ilisidi and the mecheita, black against the sky, beast that was wholly shadow, and Ilisidi, whose p eyes were the only brightness, like a figure out MaIguri's violent past, that swept past him, and turn about and fidgeted to be moving. There was a great deal of activity out of the building, a stable from which other mecheiti came wi their handlers, a crowd of black shapes, as tall, as o nous from where he stood, one for every man in Ilisidi party. And himself. "Forgive me," he began, when Cen signaled the handlers to bring one of the creatures to hi "This isn't cleared. I don't know how to ride. I beg to call that I was sent here for my safety, at considerable di ficulty of my absence from critical matters in court-I' not consulted with my own security, whose repu tions--2' Nokhada's passage cut off his view, a living mounta between him and the stone wall of MaIguri. "Let her your scent," Cenedi said, having the lead rope, and hol ing the creature still. "Just don't press on the nose. T reaction is quite involuntary. The tusks are capped, but the same--one could deal damage." The mecheita. stretched out its neck for a lazy sniff his hand, and a more curious examination of his clothin and a lick at his face and a try for his neck. He ste back, not quite in time, from the swing of its he 208 / C. J. CHERRYM blunt tusk bruised his jaw and brought stars to his eyes, while Cenedi restrained it and the servants, nothing heeding his protests, prepared to help him up the way they had helped Ilisidi. "Just put your foot here, nand' paidhi, it's quite all right." "I can't ride, dammit, I don't know how!" "It's quite all right," Cenedi said. "Just hold to the pad- rings. Leave the reins alone. She'll follow Babs." "Where?" he asked bluntly. "Where are we going?" "Just out and back. Come. I'll assure your safety, nand' paidbi. It's quite all right." Call Cenedi a liar, in Cenedi's domain? He was sur- rounded by the people he'd left safety to follow, because he wouldn't be bluffed into retreat. Cenedi vowed he was safe. It was Cenedi's responsibility, and Banichi would hold him to it-with his life. The paidhi could only be a certain degree dead. He was replaceable, in an hour, once Mospheira knew he'd bro- ken his neck. "It's your responsibility," he said to Cenedi, taking up the reins. "Tabini-aiji has filed Intent, on my behalf. I trust you're aware what went on last night." With which he prepared to put his foot in the stirrup, and let Cenedi worry. He resolutely struck Nokhada on the shoulder, to make him or her or it extend the foreleg: he knew from television how one got up. But as Nokhada inclined in the brief bow, and he couldn't get the stirrup situated, or his foot situated in it, the handlers gave him a shove up toward the rings. His light weight went up from their hands in a greater hurry than he expected, and he had only just landed on the riding-pad when Nokhada came up on her feet. He went off the other side with a wild snatch at the riding-pad, into the hands of security, as Nokhada went in a circle. Atevi seldom laughed aloud. Ilisidi did, as Babs threw FOREIGNER / 20 his head and circled and snorted and handlers tried to co lect Nokhada. There was no choice, now. Absolutely none. He dust( himself off, asked Cenedi for the rein, and, shaking in d knees, remade his acquaintance with Nokhada, who h been made a fool along with him. "Make both of us look good," he muttered to a mou tainous shoulder, and tried a second time to mal Nokhada extend the leg. "Hit harder," Cenedi said, so I hit arder, and Nokhada sighed wearily and put the le out. A second time he put his foot in the stirrup, and a se ond time Nokhada came up with him. This time he expected it. This time he grabbed the pa rings and leaned into Nokhada's motion-landed astrid then tilted as Nokhada continued to turn in circles. "Loosen the rein, loosen the rein, nand' paidhi!" He heard the dowager laughing uproariously and clun to the rings as he let the rein slip through his thumb an forefinger. Nokhada shook herself and turned around an around again, "Ha!" Ilisidi said, as his circular, humiliating cours showed him other riders getting mounted, with far les spectacle. He tried to straighten the reins out. He trie with pats of his hand to make friends with Nokhada, wh in her now slower circles, seemed more interested in in vestigating his right foot, which he moved anxiously ou of range. Then Ilisidi shouted out, Babs passed him in a sudde rush of shadow, Nokhada took it for permission and mad the last revolution a surge forward that jerked the rei through his hand so hard it burned. The stone face of th building passed in a lurching blur, the gate did, and whil he was clinging to the pad-rings and trying to find hi ballance, they were across the courtyard, headed throug an arch and down a stone chute beside the stairs tha ended in an open gate, and sunlight. A cliff was in front of them. He saw Ilisidi and Bab 210 / C. 1. CHERRYM turn to the road, and he jerked on Nokhada's head to make her turn, too, which Nokbada took for an insult, dancing deliberately out on the brink of disaster, with the misty lake beyond and empty air below. "Don't jerk her head, nand' paidhi!" someone shouted from close behind him, and Cenedi came riding past, bumping his leg, sending Nokhada on a perverse course along the very edge, the creature shaking her head and kicking at nothing in particular. On the upward course ahead, Ilisidi stopped, and turned about and waited until they caught up, among the rest of her guard. Nokhada was sweating and snorting as he jogged them to a stop beside Cenedi, and he was perfectly content, trembling in every joint, that Nokhada should stop and stand as the other riders gathered about them. He'd survived. He was on a solid part of the mountain. Nokhada couldn't fling them both into the lake. That was a hard-won triumph. "Caught your breath?" Ilisidi asked him. "How are you doing, nand' paidhi?" "All right," he lied, out of breath. "The lake trail's a little steep for a novice," Ilisidi said, and he thought she had to be joking. There was no trail over that edge back there. Surely there wasn't. "Are we ready? -Thumb and finger, nand' paidhi. Gently, gently. She'll follow. Just hold on." Babs moved, Nokhada moved, as if she was on an in- visible string. Babs made a running rush at the slope, and Nokhada waited and did the same, right behind, with Cenedi behind him. But two of the men were ahead of Ilisidi, and over the ridge and out of sight-security, he supposed, though he supposed that any sniper would just wait for a more profitable target. "Someone did try to kill me," he said breathlessly to Cenedi, in case no one had ever quite made all the details clear, in case Cenedi had thought he was other than seri- ous. "In Shejidan. Under the aiji's own roof Without fil- F04ZEIGNER / 21 ing. I supposed Banichi must have mentioned that. it' not just a supposed threat." "We're well aware," Cenedi said. "The tea was ou best chance." Cenedi was joking, he hoped. Deadpan retaliation his remark when they mounted up. But Cenedi claimed he'd known all along that the was a hazard, and Cenedi, or Ilisidi, had insisted all t same on bringing him outside the walls, and risking h neck with Nokhada. On one level, it was Tabini's kind gesture, absolute defiance of his restrictions and the be thoughts of his security-but he remained uneasy in spi of Cenedi's assurances. The thought flitted through h head that if there were enemies or kidnappers in Malg ... he could be riding with them. But Banichi hadn't warned him anything of the so Banichi had brought Cenedi into his bedroom. Cene said he knew why they were at Malguri, and thought h could guarantee his safety. Nokhada dipped her head of a sudden to investigate th ground-not the most opportune moment for Nokhada do that, and he made a grab at the rings and jerke Nokhada's head to bring it up-which brought Nokh to an inglorious, sulking halt for two heartbeats befo Nokhada moved on her own, still ducking her head, nos to the ground while she was climbing. "She has a scent," Cenedi said. Cenedi's own mechei was doing much the same, and so was Babs, up the hil "I'd hang on, nand' paidhi. Babs is lead." "Lead what?" he asked. "Mecheit'-aiii.7' Cenedi said, and he had a sudden re ollection of televised hunts, of the legendary ability mecheiti to track atevi fugitives or four-footed game. remembered Babs going over his hand, and Nokhad smelling him over. He had the sudden apprehension th it wasn't just television, wasn't anything made-up, or e aggerated. And he couldn't control the damned mecheita he w I 212 / C. 3. C+4ERRYH on to prevent it taking him wherever llisidi took a whim to 90. Babs gave a sudden whip of his tail and with a scatter of gravel took out diagonally across the slope. Nokhada and Cenedi's mount and the rest pivoted and launched themselves as if they'd been shot at-Nokhada recklessly, roughly surging uphill in Babs' tracks, outpacing Cenedi and the rest. He didn't want the lead-and all he could do was hang on to the rings and not drop- the rein. A gully loomed ahead, a wash of soft earth down the hill, and Ilisidi showed no disposition to slow Babs down. Babs took it. Oh, God, he thought, envisioning himself bleeding on the ground, run over by the mecheiti behind. He tucked down, he gripped the rings with all his might-he didn't mass much, he didn't mass much, he kept telling himself as Nokhada thundered across the slope-Nokhada was going to go and Nokhada didn't intend to fall-Nokhada took a four-beat turn into the jump, hind legs shoved, shoulders rose- Then came a floating feeling, a headlong plunge against which his body instinctively reacted backward- and a teeth-cracking jolt as somehow he went forward again and his mouth hit the back of Nokhada's neck. Nokhada's legs were under them again, all four of them, in a pounding rhythm-Babs' dark rump showed in front of them as Babs suddenly darted left and right on the close track of something brown and white running ahead of them. Nokhada ran a straighter course, other mecheiti running like earthquake behind her. A shot rang out ahead, from Ilisidi. Whatever it was- went down in a cloud of dust and flattening grass as it skidded downslope. The guards all cheered the shot, as Babs stopped and the mecheiti came to a blowing, stamping halt around Babs, laying back ears and snorting and sidling about. Bren's mouth was cut. He blotted it, watching one of the guards ride down the slope to where the game had foMlet4ER / 21! fallen. Everyone thought it a'wonderful shot on llisidi'~ part. He supposed it was. He was shaking. His lip wat -swelling already, and he must have bruised Nokhada'~ ribs with the clenching of his legs-his inner thigh mus- cles were sore and shuddery, and he was sweating, afte, doing nothing whatsoever in the chase but hold on. While the aiji-dowager had just shot supper for herseli and her staff, and the mecheiti were all wild-eyed and ex. cited, at, one supposed, the smell of blood and gunpowdei in the air. "How do we fare, nand' paidhi?" "I'm still here, nai-ii." That sounded too much like E challenge. "Credit to the mecheita, not myself." "Are you hurt, nand' paidhi?" Dependable. Exactly like Tabini. Now the concern. "Her neck and my face," he said ruefully. "Too far forward," Hisidi said, and started off again ai a brisk clip, uphill, while-a glance over his shoulder- the one guard was hauling the carcass up onto the riding- pad. The beasts' abilities weren't just television. Machim plays that showed a fugitive ripped apart by those tusk,4 wasn't exaggeration, he was convinced of it. He didn'i want to be on the ground in front of those feet, or in the way of those teeth, which, in war, they'd not blunt- capped. Cenedi's assurances of safety with them began to seeir more and less substantial. But-he began to recall with E shudder Babs smelling him over, a smell Babs couM never have met , before. The mecheiti-aiji, Cenedi had called him, Babs having fixed that smell in his beast- brain and the associative group hierarchy the experts swore extended right into the animal kingdom- Politics. Four-footed politics. Colony behavior, the) called it on Mospheira, where they studied small indige- nous animals, but nothing-nothing like the mecheita, i nothing like these hunters, that ate-he remembered his 214 / C. J. CHERRYM history-anything they could root up or catch. Omm- vores. Pack hunters. His legs were limp. His hand was shaking, holding the rein, from the excess of adrenalin, he said to himself. Like the gunshot. He wasn't used to such things. They engaged his senses wholly, insanely, on a level a profes- sional risk-taker like Cenedi surely didn't deal with any- more: he didn't know what was important, so he took in everything that hit his senses, like a madman, and tried to do something when, to a well-ordered mind like Cenedi's, there wasn't anything to do. The single guardsman they had left overtook them at a diagonal on the hill, with a small, graceful creature tied to the back of his riding-pad. Its head lolled. Its eyes were like the beast's on the bedroom wall, not angry, though: soft, and astonished. A small trickle of blood ran from black, fine nostrils, a pretty nose, a pretty face. Bren didn't want dinner with the dowager tonight. Sausages didn't have such mortality about them. He preferred distance from his meals. Tabini called it a moral flaw. He called it civilization and Tabini called it delu- sion: You eat meat out of season, Tabini would say. Out of time with the earth, you sell flesh for profit. You eat what never runs free: you call that civilized? He hadn't an argument against that reasoning. He rode at Babs' swishing tail, as the company remarked to each other again how fine a shot the dowager had made, and Ilisidi said that now that they had stocked the larder, they could enjoy the rest of the ride. At a slower pace, Bren hoped: the insides of his legs, even relaxing, now, were finding the riding-pad an unnat- ural stretch, and when he tried to find a comfortable pos- ture, he kicked Nokhada by accident and went humiliatingly off the trail, right down the mountainside, before he could get the niecheita stopped and redirected. "Nand' paidhiT' Cenedi asked from above. "We're coming," he said. He supposed Nokhada made a 'we.' Nokhada certainly expressed an opinion, in flat- fOREIGNER / 21! tened ears and plodding gait, once they reached the trai again, overtaking the rear of the column, where Cened waited. "What happened?" Cenedi asked. "We're figuring it out," he muttered. But Cenedi gav( him a fast rundown of the signals: touch of the feet for di rection, light tugs of the rein for attention signals, or t( restrain outright rebellion. Don't touch the nose, don' pull down on the head. Left foot, go right, right foot, 9( left; tug lightly, go- faster, tug hard, go slow, don't kick man in the groin or a mecheita behind the ribs. Which seemed a civilized arrangement. "If he intends to jump," Cenedi told him, "do as yoi did. Your weight won't bother him. -Are the stirrup short enough?" "I fear, nadi, I wouldn't possibly know." "If your legs cramp, say so." 'They don't." He didn't complain of the rubbery condi tion. He put that down to sheer fright and a workout o muscles he wasn't used to using. "Good," Cenedi said, and rode off at a steep diagona up the ridge, Cenedi's mechieta ducking its head an4 sniffing the ground intermittently, while its long leg never broke stride. Curious ability. It was smelling for something along thi ground, and lifted its head to smell the wind as the, reached the crest of the ridge. And Cenedi kept the creature under control so damne( effortlessly. Cenedi stopped, signalled them with a wavi of his hand, and Ilisidi put Babs up the ridge at a fair clip Nokhada took- the diagonal course uphill, then, hellben on regaining second place to Babs. Dammit! Brei thought, cutting the guards off in their climb; but he wa afraid to pull on the rein, among the rocks and slidin~ gravel. "Excuse mel" he called back over his shouldei "Nadiin, it's her-idea!" That drew laughter from thi guards, as Nokhada fell in at Babs' tail. 216 / C. J. CHERRYH Better than resentment, at least. There was a hierarchy among mecheiti, and Ilisidi and everyone in the party had known Nokhada was going to follow Babs, come hell or high water. They'd had their-joke. He'd- gained a cut lip and sore muscles, but he hadn't fallen off and he'd been a fair sport about the joke-it was the way he'd learned to deal with Tabini's court, at least, and the way he'd learned to deal with Tabini, early on. One just didn't back away from a challenge-and atevi would try a newcomer, if for nothing more than to deter- mine his place in the order of things: they did it to anyone and they did it as a matter of course, on an instant's judg- ment to find out a fool or a leader ... neither of which he planned to be with them, not to threaten llisidi or Cenedi or any of them. And after he had realized Illisidi's joke at his expense and let them know he saw it, then things were easier, then he could ride at Babs' lazily switching tail and be easy about the position in which llisidi had set him, giving him a mecheita proper to a high-ranking visitor from Tabini's own staff; he could quite well appreciate the humor in that, too-a mecheita that was going to give the unskilled visitor hell, especially if he thought he was going to ad- just his position in line, or argue with Ilisidi. Humiliate him? llisidi could do that with a flick of her riding crop. Follow a competition jumper in terrain like this? The paidhi-aiji would be extremely lucky if only his dignity fractured. But he must have passed llisidi's trial of him, since Cenedi had given him at least a fair sketch of left, right, go, and stop-enough knowledge to put a fool in trouble or keep a wiser man from outright folly-like that busi- ness on the exit from the gate, and the cliff, which now he was convinced must not have been so sheer as his imme- diate impression of it, or Nokhada more in command of her footing than she seemed. Dump the paidhi down- slope? Yes. Lose a high-bred mecheita? The woman - fDREIGNER / who'd attacked a course official with her riding c over scratches? He wasn't wholly certain. The tea service had certai been calculated to send some message; and he was wholly certain llisidi, was innocent in the matter of tea-although he would bet the severity of his reacti had left the dowager and Cenedi some little chagrined general atevi recklessness toward questions of life death and bihawa, that aggressive impulse to test s gers, had betrayed them and left them somewhat at dis vantage: to that degree he suspected it was in fact accident-a blemish on mutual dignity they had to rep Had to. And he couldn't have accepted the breakfast vitation and then declined to come with Ilisidi on ride. He'd read it right, let Banichi say what he wou he'd read it correctly. And, having achieved something of a Place in the do ager's party, he hoped hereafter simply to enjoy the s and the mountain-the very height of the mountain, world spread out below in a spectacular view. They rode in tall, windswept grass, and yellow, ragg flowers that abounded along the ridge, with an un( structed view across the lake to the mountains on other side. The breaths he drew were freighted with ri smells of the earth and the grass and crushed flowers, oiled leather of the harness, and the dusty, musky smell the mecheiti themselves.The grass and the pebbly rub at the roots brought back vividly the last time he Tabini had hunted at Taiben, slogging afoot through dusty hills- Tabini trying'to show him the finer points of hunti and stalking- Everything came back to him so very clearly: that d that exact time, as if the realities of the countrysi and the reality of the city compartmentalized themselv so thoroughly they maintained separate time-streams, that, entering one ... he took up- where he had left o with no events between. Time slipped wildly on hi 218 / C. 1. CHERRYM turned treacherous. Today's foolish hazard had slid un- awares to chancy, intoxicating success, the paidhi riding a thousand, two thousand miles from the safety of Mos- pheira and enjoying the sights and smells and sounds no human had ever experienced. The mecheiti of the machimi plays had turned real as the dust and the flowers and the sun. And strangest of all to his ears came the silence that wasn't silence, but the total absence, for the first time in his life that he was ever aware, of machine sounds. The sounds that reached his ears were rich enough, the wind and the creak of leather and jingle of harness and bridle rings, the scuff of gravel, the sighing of the grass along the hill-but he'd never been anywhere, even Taiben, where he couldn't see power lines, or hear, however faintly, the sound of aircraft, or a passing train, or just the generalized hum of machinery working-and he'd never known it existed, until he heard its absence. Below them, the miniaturized walls of MaIguri, as few atevi surely ever were privileged to view them. There wasn't a road, wasn't a rail, wasn't a trace of habitation aparent in all the hills and the lake shore, except those walls. Time slipped again. He imagined the wind-stiffed ban- ners of the machimi plays, the meetings of treachery and connivance in the hills, the fortress destined for attack- how to get the lord into the open, or assassins within the walls, engaging single individuals, instead of armies ... saving lives, saving resources, saving the land from future feuds. And always, in such plays, the retainer with an ances- tral grudge, the trusted assassin with the unevident man'chi, the thing the aiji on the windy ridge or the aiji within the fortress should have known and didn't. One could all but hear the banners cracking in the wind, hear the rattle of armor . . . atevi civilization, atevi history that flourished now only in the machimi, on television- where human history flourished not at all. FOREIGNER / 21 There was something unexpectedly seductive about textures ... from the brightness of blood on the kill to white and brown fur of the animal, from the casual dr of dung to the smell of flowers and the scent of crush grass and the lazy switch of mecheita ears. It wasn't same reality as in the halls of the Bu-javid. It certain wasn't Mospheira. It was the atevi world as huma might never see it, neighboring, as they did, only tl smoke-stacks and steam-engines of Shejidan. It was a world that, given a hundred years, atevi the selves might never see again, or never understand, cause the future that might have naturally grown Malguri's past-never would grow at all in a solely ate way, now that Mospheira had given atevi the railro and communications satellites, now that jets sped ate travellers across the country too high and too fast to sl a place like MaIguri. He argued with Tabini about meat, and seasons, thought Atevi ways ... inconvenient. But that argument was the same thing as the jets the satellites. Another little piece of MaIguri under attac Thinking of that word ... "Have you talked specifically to Banichi, nadi?" asked Cenedi, who rode behind him. "I would hate to ri into security installations." Cenedi gave him an expressionless stare. "So wou we, nadi." He knew that response. Helpful as a stone wall, Whi said the paidhi wasn't supposed to know about the inst lations-or that Cenedi didn't know, and wasn't Banichi's confidence, and now thought that he wa which couldn't help matters if they rode into somethit he couldn't foresee. But the two men that had ridden out from their numb at the beginning still hadn't rejoined them-or ev( shown up again. They must be the other side of the And now and again Babs in particular would drop h head to sniff at the trail, Nokhada likewise-unexpec 220 C. 3. CHERRYH little jolts and a pitch of Nokhada's shoulder, but he learned to read the intent in the set of Nokhada's ears and the general rhythm of her stride. I Not easy beasts to trap, he began to think. Not beasts that would go blindly into something wrong on the trail. But he began to be easier on that account. Malguri's grounds weren't, then, the sort of weed-grown, desolate place where enterprising assassins could just come and go at will. The very presence of the mecheiti would dissuade intruders. And one could legitimately believe, after all, that the power outage that still held in Malguri this morning was the legitimate result of a lightning strike, considering that power seemed to have gone out over a quarter of the township in the valley. Ilisidi had asked if he had slept through the distur- bance-no, flisidi had called it a lively night, and asked whether he'd slept through it. Through what? Power failures? Or gunshots in the night, Tano's nervous finger on the trigger, and Banichi on the radio? Neither Banichi nor Jago had clued him what to do, if they'd had any idea of the proposed morning hunt. Nei- ther of them had forewarned him he might be asked ... had trusted him as the paidhi, maybe. Or just not known. But Tabini, who doubtless knew the aiji-dowager as well as anyone in Shejidan, had said, regarding his deal- ings with Ilisidi--use your diplomacy. llisidi slowed and stopped ahead of him, where the trail began a downward pitch again. "From this place," llisidi said, waving her hand to the view ahead, "you can see three provinces, Maidingi, Didaini, Taimani. How do you regard my land?" "Beautiful," he said honestly. "My land, nand' paidhi." Nothing llisidi said was idle, or without calculation. "Your land, nai-ji. I confess I resisted being sent to MaIguri. I thought it remote from my duties. I was mis- FOREIGNER / 2 taken. I wouldn't have known about the dragonettes od erwise. I wouldn't have ridden, in all my life." In the in inent, he agreed inside with what he was saying, enjoyin his brief respite from Banichi, Jago, and sane responsibi ity, enjoying-the atevi attitude was contagious-h chance to push the restrictions under which the pai necessarily lived and conducted ~business. "But Banic will kill me when I get back." 11isidi looked askance at him, and the comers of hi mouth tightened. Literal atevi minds. "Figuratively speaking, nai-ji." 'You're sure of my grandson." Disquieting question. "Should I have doubt, nai-ji Ilisidi was certainly the one to ask, but one couldn't tru the answer. No one knew nisidi's man'chi, where it I She had never made it clear, at least that he knew, an presumably, if Banichi or Jago knew, they would hai told him. But no more did he know where Tabini's was. That w always the way with aijiin-that they had none, or h none in reach of their subordinates. "Tabini's a steady lad," Ilisidi said. "Young. Ve young. Tech solves everything." A hint of her thoughts and her motives? He wasn sure. "Even the paidhi doesn't maintain that to be tt case, nai-ji." "Doesn't the Treaty forbid-I believe this was yo insistence-interference in our affairs?" "That it does, nai-ji." Dangerous ground. Very dang ous ground. Hell if this woman was as fragile as sh looked. "Have I seemed to do contrary things? Please me the kindness of telling me so." "Does my grandson tell you so?" "If he told me I was interfering, I do swear to yo nai-ji, I would certainly reconsider my actions." She said nothing for a space. It left him, riding besi her in the windy silence, to think anxiously whether an~ thing he had said or done or supported in the variot 222 / C. J. CHERRYN councils could be controversial, or as the dowager hinted, interfere in atevi affairs, or push technology too fast. "Please, aiji-ji. Be blunt. Am I opposing or advancing a position with which you disagree?" "What a strange question," Ilisidi said. "Why should I tell you that?" "Because I would try to find out your reasons, nai-ji, not to oppose your interests, not to preempt your resources-but to avoid areas of your extreme interest. Let me recall to you, we don't use assassins, nai-ji. That's not even a resource for us." "But they are, for atevi who may support you in your positions." He'd heard that argument before. He could get around it with Tabini. He longed after Tabini's company, he longed only to ask him, forthrightly to learn things ... that no one else was telling him lately. And as now and again in the hours since he'd come to Malguri, he suffered another of those moments of dislocation-at one instant convinced that things were all right, and then, with no particular reason, doubting that, and recalling how completely he was isolated, more iso- lated than the paidhi had ever been from his resources. "Forgive my question," he said to Ilisidi. "But the paidhi isn't always wise enough to understand his posi- tion in your affairs. I hope for your good opinion, nai-Ji." "What do you hope to accomplish in your tenure?" He hadn't expected that question. But he'd answered it, repeatedly, in councils. "An advancement for atevi and humans, nai-ji. An advancement, a step toward technolog- ical equality, at a pace which won't do harm." "That's a given, isn't it? By the Treaty, a dull and tedi- ous given. Be less modest. Name the specific, wondrous thing you'd have done before you die ... the gift you wish most, in your great wisdom, to bestow on us." He didn't think it a harmless question. He could name certain things. He honestly didn't have a clear answer. "I don't know," he said. fOREIGNER / 223 "What, the paidhi without a notion what he wishes to do?" "A step at a time, nai-ji. I don't know what may be possible. And telling you ... would in itself violate the principles . . ." "The most ambitious thing you've ever advanced." "Ibe rail system." "Pish. We invented the rail. You improved it." That was true, though atevi trains and steamships had been only the most rudimentary design, and boilers had burst with frightening regularity. "So what more, paidhi? Rockets to the moons? Travel amongst the stars?" A far more dangerous topic. "I'd like, yes, to see atevi at least reach that threshold in my lifetime. Nai-ji, so much is possible from there. So much you could do then. But we aren't sure of the changes that would make, and I want to understand what would result. I want to give good advice. That's my job, nai-ji." He had never himself seen it so clearly, until now. "We're at the edge of space. And so much changes once you can look down on the world." "What changes?" One more dangerous question, this one cultural and philosophical. He looked outward, at the lake, the whole world seeming to lie below the path they rode. "Height changes your perspective, nai-ji. We see three provinces from here. But my eye can't see the treaty- boundaries." "Mine can. That mountain ridge. The river. They're quite evident." "But were this mountain as high as the great moon, nai-Ji, and if were you born on this very high mountain, would you see the lines? Or, if you saw them, would they mean to you what they mean to people born on the plain, these distant, invisible linesT' "Man'chi is man'chi. Man'chi is- important. And to a 224 / C. J. CHERRY+i FOREIGNER / 22 dweller on the border-what meaning, these lines aijiincillors shouted it at the paidhi in council. Not even agree on? Man'chi is never visible." Tabini could he give the untranslatable, the true answ( It was gratifying to expect the answer one got, theWe thought we could make you our friends. same that Tabini inevitably gave. It was gratifying to think one did accurately forecast atevi sentiments. It was useful to know about Ilisidi. "So that wouldn't change," he said. "Even if you stood on the highest mountain." "Man'chi would never change," Ilisidi said. "Even if you left the sight of the world for years and years.1% "In hell and on earth, man'chi would not change. But you don't understand this, you humans." Babs, struck a slight rise, and for a moment walked solitary, until Nokhada caught up. Ilisidi-dowager said, "Or you never tell your enemies, if you do change." That, too, was in the machimi plays. The catastrophic event, the overturning of a life's understandings. But al- ways toward the truth, as he saw it. Always toward what man'chi should have been. Hisidi offered no explanation of her remark. Perhaps he was supposed to have asked something wise. But imagi- nation failed him. "We truthfully didn't understand your view of things, nai-ji, when we first arrived. We didn't understand atevi. You didn't understand us. That's one of the great and un- fortunate reasons of the War." "The unfortunate reason of the War was humans taking Mospheira, to which they had no right. It was hundreds of thousands of atevi dislodged from their homes. It was man'chi broken, because we couldn't deal with your weapons, nand' paidhi." The dowager's voice wasn't an- gry, only severe, and emphatic. "And slowly you raise us up to have technology, and more technology. Does this not seem a foolish thing to do?" Not the first time he'd met that question, either. Atevi asked it among themselves, when they thought the paidhi would hear no report of their discussion. Thwarted coun- So he gave the official, the carefully worked ou translatable reply: "We saw association possible. We sa advantage to us in your good will in this region whe fortune had cast us." "You tell us whether we shall have roads, or rail. Yo deny us what pleases you to deny. You promise us wo ders. But the great wonders, as I hear, are on Mospheir for the enjoyment of humans, who have paved roads." "A very few. Fewer than you have." "On a continent a thousand times the size of Mo pheira. Be honest, nand' paidhi." "With vehicles that don't use internal combustio Which will come, nai-ji, which will come to atevi." "In your lifetime ... or in mine?" "Perhaps in thirty years. Perhaps less. Depending whether we have the necessary industry. Dependin on finding resources. Depending on the associations the provinces finding it politic to cooperate in produci scarce items, in depending on computers. Depending man'chi, and who's willing and not willing to work gether, and how successful the first programs are ... b I needn't tell that to the aiji-dowager, who knows the o stinacy of vested interests." He had made the dowager laugh, if briefly and darkl The sun cast Ilisidi's black profile in shadow against t hazy distances of the sky and the lake. They rode a whi in silence, there on the crest of the mountain, with wind picking up the mecheiti's manes and himself roc ing, child-sized, on the back of a creature bred to c atevi into their infrequent and terrible wars. "There's the airport," Ilisidi said, pointing ahead them. Straining his eyes, he could make out what he thou was Maidingi Airport, beside a hazy sprawl.he deci must be Maidingi township. Nearer at hand, he could ju 226 / C. J. CMERRYM W, make out the road, or what he took for it, wending down the mountain. "Is that the town?" he asked, knowing it was a stupid question, but only to break the silence; and Ilisidi said it was Maidingi. After that, looking out over the broad plain, Ilisidi pointed out the direction of villages outlying Maidingi township, and told him the names of plants and regions and the mountains across the lake. But in his mind was the history he had seen in the books in his room, the castle standing against attack from the Association across the lake, even before cannon had come into the question. MaIguri had stood for centuries against intrusion from the east. Banners flying, smoke of cannon on the walls Don't romanticize, his predecessor had told him. Don't imagine. See and observe and report. Accuracy. Not wishful thinking. Lives relied on the paidhi's accuracy. Billions of fives relied on the truth of his perception. t And relied equally on his representing both sides accu- rately to each other. But, he thought, how much have we forgotten about them? How much have we encouraged them to lose? How much have we overridden, imposing our priorities and our technological sequence over theirs? Or are those possibilities really forgotten here? Have they ever wholly been forgotten? They rode to the very end of the ridge. Clouds were rolling in over the southern end of the lake, dark gray be- neath, flashing with lightnings, brooding over slate-gray waters. But sunlight slanted over the blue peaks to the east, turning the water along the MaIguri shore as bright as polished silver. A dragonette leapt from its nest among the rocks, crying protest to the winds, and thunder rum- bled. Another dragonette was creeping back up the moun- tain the long, slow way they must, once they'd flown, FOREIGNER / 2 wings folded, wing-claws finding purchase on the ste rocks. Dragonettes existed in Shejidan. Buildings near t park had slanted walls, he'd heard, specifically to them purchase. Atevi still valued them, for their stubbo ness, for their insistence on flying, when they knew way back was uncertain and fraught with dangers. Predator on the wing and potential prey on the retu Ilisidi turned Babs about on the end of the trail, took a downward, slanting course among the rocks. followed. In a time more of riding, they passed an old and ruin building Cenedi said was an artillery installation from provincial dispute. But its foundations, Cenedi said, h been older than that, as a fortress called Tadiiri, the Sis once bristling with cannon. "How did it go to ruinsT' he asked. "A falling out with Malguri," Cenedi said. "And a b rel of wine that didn't agree with the aiji of Tadiiri or court." Poison. "But the whole fortressT' he blurted out. "It lacked finesse," Cenedi said. So he knew of a certainty then what Cenedi was, same as Banichi and Jago. And he believed now abs lutely that his near demise had embarrassed Cenedi, Cenedi had said, professionally. "After that," Cenedi said, "Tadiiri was demolished, cannon taken down. You saw them at the front entran as you drove in." He had not even been sure they were authentic. A morial, he had thought. He didn't know such things. B the age of wars and cannon had been so brief-and w on the earth of the atevi so seldom a matter of engag ment, almost always of maneuver, and betrayal, wi leaders guarded by their armies. It was assassination o most had to guard against, on whatever scale. And here he rode with Ilisidi, and her guard, leavi the one Tabini had lent m. 228 / C. J. CHERRYN 3" a Or was it, in atevi terms, a maneuver, a posturing declaration of position and power, their forcing him to join them? He might have found something else unhealth- ful to drink, or eat. There were so many hazards a human could meet, if they meant him harm. And Banichi and Cenedi did speak, and did intrude into each other's territory-Banichi had been angry at him for accepting the invitation, Banichi had said there was Po way to retrieve him from his promise-but all of it was for atevi reasons, atevi dealing with a situation between Tabini and his grandmother, at the least, and maybe a trial of Banichi's authority in the house: he simply couldn't read it. Maybe llisidi and Tabini had made their point and maybe, hereafter, he could hope for peace between the two wings of the house-Tabini's house, Tabini's politics with generations before him, and paidhiin before himself. Diplomacy, indeed, he thought, falling back to Babs' tail again, in his place and deftly advised of it. He understood who ruled in Malguri. He had certainly gotten that clear and strong. He supposed, through Banichi, that Tabini had. But in the same way he supposed himself a little safer now, inside Ilisidi's guardianship as well as Tabini's. V11 n a courtyard echoing with shouts and the squeals of mecheiti, Nokhada extended a leg at his third request, mostly, Bren thought, because the last but her had already done the same. He slithered down Nokhada's sun-warmed side, and viewed with mistrust the mecheita's bending her neck around and nibbling his sleeve, butting capped but still formidable tusks into his side as he tried to straighten twisted rein. But he wasn't so foolish as to press Nokhada's nose again, and Nokhada lifted her head, sni ing the air, a black mountain between him and the mi morning sun, complaining at something unseen-or or liking the echoes of her own voice. The handlers moved in to take the rein. He ga Nokhada a dismissing pat on the shoulder, figuring tl was due. Nokhada made a rumbling sound, and ripped rein from his hand, following the rest of the group handlers were leading away into the maze of courtyar( "Use her while you're here," llisidi said, near him. " any time, at any hour. The stables have their instructio to accommodate the paidhi-aiji." "The dowager is very kind," he said, wondering there was skin left on his palm. "Your seat is still doubtful," she said, took her ca from an attendant and walked off toward the steps. He took that for a dismissal. But she stopped at the first step and looked back, le ing with both hands on her cane. "Tomorrow mornir Breakfast." The cane stabbed the air between them. " argument, nand' paidhi. This is your host's privilege." He bowed and followed llisidi up the steps in the ge eral upward flow of her servants and her security, w probably overlapped such functions, like his own. His lip was swollen, he had lost the outer layer of s on his right hand, intimate regions of his person were s and promising to get sorer, and by the dowager's declar tion, he was to come back for a second try tomorrow, situation into which he seemed to have opened a door th couldn't be shut again. He followed all the way up the steps to the balcony Ilisidi's apartment, that being the only way up into castle he knew, while the dowager, on her way into h inner apartments, paid not the least further attention to I being there-which was not the rudeness it would ha been among humans: it only meant the aiji-dowager w FOREIGNER / 230 / C. 1. CHERRY+4 disinterested to pursue business further with an inferior. At their disparity of rank she owed him nothing; and in that silence, he was free to go, unless some servant should deliver him some instruction to the contrary. None did. He trailed through the dowager's doorway, and on through the public reception areas of her apart- ment, tagged all the way by her lesser servants, who opened the outermost doors for him and bowed and wished him good fortune in his day as he left. Good fortune, he wished them, in his turn, with appro- priate nods and bows on their part, after which he trekked off down the halls, bruised and damaged, but with a knowledge now of the land, the provinces, the view and the command of the castle, and even what was the history and origin of the cannon he could see through the open front doors. Where--God help him-several vehicles were parked. Perhaps some official had come up from the township. Perhaps the promised repair crew had arrived and they were putting the electricity back in service. In any event, the paidhi wasn't a presence most provincial atevi would take without flinching. He decided to hurry, and traversed the front room at a fast, sore-legged walk. Straight into an inbound group of the castle staff and a flock of tourists. A child screamed, and ducked behind its parents. Par- ents stood stock still, a black wall with wide yellow eyes. He made an apologetic and sweeping bow, and-it was the paidhi's minimal job-knew he had to patch the dam- age, wild as he must look, with a cut lip, and dust on his coat. "Welcome to MaIguri," he said. "I'd no idea there -were visitors. Please reassure the young lady." A pause for breath. A second bow. "Me paidhi, Bren Cameron, at your kind disposal. May I do you any grace?" "May we have a ribbon?" an older boy was forward to ask. "I don't know that I have ribbons," he said. He did, 'FOREIGNER I sometimes, have them in his office for formalities. H didn't know whether Jago had brought such things. B one of the staff said they could procure them, and wax, he had his seal-ring. He was trapped. Banichi was going to kill him. "Excuse me," he said. "I've just come in from the s ble court. I need to wash my hands. I'll be right bac down. Excuse me, give you grace, thank you ..." H bowed two and three times more and made the stairs, wa halfway up them when he looked up. Tano was standing at the top of the stairs with n pleased expression on his face, a gun plainly on his hip Tano beckoned him to come upstairs, and he ran the res of the steps, the whole transaction between them at suc an angle, he hoped, that the tourists couldn't see the rea son for his sudden burst of energy. "Nand' paidhi," Tano said severely. "You were to us the back hall." "No one told me, nadi!" He was furious. And held hi temper. The culprit was Banichi, who was in ch the second party responsible was clearly himself. "I nee to clean up. I've promised these people----?' "Ribbons, nand' paidhi. I'll see to it. Huffy." He flew up the stairs past Tano, aches and all, down hall to his apartment, with no time to bathe. He onl washed, flung on fresh shirt and trousers, a clean co and passed cologne-damp hands over his windblown which was coming out of its braid. Then he stalked out and down the hall, and made more civilized descent of the stairs to what had been s up as a receiving line, a place'ready at the table in the h in front of the fireplace, with wax-jack, with ribbons with small cards, and an anxious line of atevi-for eac of them, a card to sign, ribbon and seal with wax, an with the first such signature and seal, a pleased and n vous tourist who'd received a bonus for his trip, while line of thirty more waited, stealing glances past one an other at the only living human face they'd likely seen, un- less they'd been as far as Shejidan. The paidhi was used to adult stares. The children were far harder to deal with. They'd grown up on machimi about the War. Some of them were sullen. Others wanted to touch the paidhi's hand to see if his skin was real. One' asked him if his mother was that color, too. Several were afraid of his eyes, or asked if he had a gun. "No, nadi," he lied to them, with mostly a clear con- science, "no such thing. We're at peace now. I live in the aiji's house." A parent asked, "Are you on vacation, nand' paidhi?" 6411m enjoying the lake," he said, and wondered if his attempted assassination was on the television news yet, in whatever province the man came from. "I'm learning to ride." He poured wax and sealed the ribbon to the card. "It's a beautiful view." Thunder rumbled. The tourists looked anxiously to the door. "I'll hurry," he said, and began to move the line faster, recalling the black cloud that they had seen from the ridge, down over the end of the lake-the daily deluge, he said to himself, and wondered whether it was the season and whether perhaps there was a reason why Tabini came here in the autumn, and not mid-summer. Perhaps Tal knew better, and sent the paidhi here to be drowned. The electricity was still off. "It looks so authentic," one visitor said to another, regarding the candlelight. Tour the bathrooms, he thought glumly, and longed for the hot bath that would take half an hour at least to heat. He felt the least small discomfort sitting on the hard chair, that had everything to do with the riding-pad and Nokhada's gait, and the stretching of muscles in places he'd been unaware separate muscles existed. A humid, cold gust of wind swept in the open front doors, fluttering the candies and making a sputter of wax from the wax-jack that sprirfld-ed the polished wood of the table. He thought of calling out to the staff to shut the FOREIGNER / 233 door before the rain hit, but they were all out of conve nient range, and he was almost finished. The tourist would be outbound in only another moment or two, an( the door was providing more light to the room than th4 candles did. Thunder boomed, echoing off the walls, and he wa down to the last two tourists, an elderly couple wh wanted 'Tour cards, if the paidhi would, for the grand children." He signed and sealed, while the tourists with their rib boned cards were congregating by the open doors. Th vans were pulling around, and the air smelled like rain sharp contrast to the smell of sealing-wax. He made an extra card, his last ribbon, for the old man who told him his grandchildren were Nadimi and Fari an Tabona and little Tigani, who had just cut her first teeth and his son Fedi was a farmer in Didaini province, an would the paidhi mind a picture? He stood, feeling the stretch of stiffening muscles, hi smiled at the camera, and at the general click of shutter as others took it for permission. He felt much better abou the meeting, encouraged that the tourists proved ap proachable, even the children behaving far more easily to ward him. It was the closest he supposed he'd ever comi to meeting ordinary folk, except the very few he met i audience in Shejidan, and in the success of the gesturi and in the habits of his job he felt constrained to a recip rocal courtesy, seeing them to the doors and onto thei buses-always good policy, the extra gesture of goo will, despite the 'chill; and he liked the old couple, wh were following at his elbow and asking him about hi family. "No, I don't have a wife," he said, "no, I'v thought about it-" Barb would die of boredom and frustration, in th cloister the paidhi lived in. Barb would stifle in the su rounding security, and as for being circumspect-her li wouldn't tolerate the board's questions, she wouldn't pas 234 / C. 3. CHERRYM ... and Barb ... he didn't love her, but she was what he needed. A boy crowded near him, right up against his arm, and said, not too discreetly, "I'm that tall, look." Which was the truth. But his parents hastily snatched him away, de- claring that that was a very insheibi thing to say, very in- discreet, rude and dangerous, and begging the paidhi's pardon could they possibly take a picture with him if a member of the paidhi's staff could possibly snap the shut- ter? He smiled, atevi-style, waited while they arranged the shot, and looked civilized and as comfortable as possible, standing with the couple as the camera clicked. More cameras went off, the moment he stepped away, a veritable barrage of shutters. And a random three pops outside the open doors. He turned in a heart-frozen shock, recognizing the sound of gunfire, as someone grabbed him by the arm and slammed him against the open door-as the tourists all rushed out under the portico in the rain. Another shot rang out. The tourists cheered. It was Tano half-smothering him, when he hadn't eveni known Tano was close. "Stay here," Tano said, and went outside, his hand on his gun. He couldn't stand there not knowing what was happen- ing, or what the danger was. He risked a glance after Tano's departing back, keeping the rest of him behind the substantial door. He saw, in the gaps of a screen of tour- ists, -a man lying on the pavings out in the rain, and atthe same remove, atevi figures coming from the lawn to the, circular drive, near the cannon, mere shadows through the veils of rain. A bus driver~ ignoring the whole affair, was shouting for his tourists to get aboard, that they had a long drive today, and a schedule for lunch on the lake, if the weather passed. The tourists boarded, while the atevi shadows stood around the man lying on the cobbles. He supposed the fOREIGNER / 23 shooting was over. He came out and stood in front of t door as the damp gusts hit him. Tano came back in has "Get inside, nand' paidhi," Tano said. The first van w moving out, tourists pressing their faces to the window a few waving. He waved back, helpless habit, frozen b the grotesqueness of the sight. The van made the circul drive past the cannon and the second bus passed him. "It's handled, nand' paidhi, get inside. They think was machimi for the tourists, it's all right." "All right?" He held his indignation in check an steadied his voice. "Who's been killed? Who is it?" "I don't know, nand' paidhi, I'll try to find out, but can't leave you down here. Please go upstairs." "Where's Banichi?" "Out there," Tano said. "Everything's all right, n come, I'll take you to your rooms." Tano's pocket-co sputtered, and Tano turned it on, one-handed. "I ha him" Tano said. It was Banichi's voice, Bren thou thank God it was Banichi, but where was Jago? He he Banichi saying something in verbal code, about a proble solved, and then another voice-telling gender with ate voices wasn't always easy-saying something about second team and that being all right. "The dowager," Bren said in a low voice, sudden asking himself-one had to ask, with the evidence death on the grounds-was Ilisidi somehow involve was she all right, was she somehow the author of wh was happening out there, with Banichi? "Perfectly safe," Tano said, and gave him another ge tle shove. "Please, nadi, Banichi's fine, everyone fine-2' "Who's dead? An outsider? Someone on staff?" "I'm not quite sure," Tano said, "but please, nadi, don make our jobs more difficult." He let himself be maneuvered away from the door then, away from the blowing mist that made his clothi damp and cold, and across the dim hall and up the stair All the while he was thinking about the shadows in 236 / C. 1. CHERRYM rain, about Banichi out there, and someone lying dead on the cobbled drive, right by the flower beds and the memo- rial cannon- Thinking uneasily, too, about the alarm last night, and about riding up on the ridge not an hour ago, with Ilisidi and Cenedi, where any rifle might have picked them off. The vivid memory came back, of that night in Sheji- dan, and the shock of the gun in his hands, and Jago say- ing, like a bad dream, that there was blood on the terrace. Like outside, on the lawn, in the rain. His knees started shaking as he climbed the stairs to the upper hall. His gut was upset before he reached the doors to his apartment, as if it were that night, as if everything was slipping again out of his control. Tano strode two steps ahead of him at the last and opened the door to his receiving room, to, what should feel like refuge, where warm air met him like a wall and light flooded in from a window blind with rain. Lightning flashed, making the window white for an instant. The tourists were having a rain-drenched ride down the moun- tain. Their lunch on the lake seemed uncertain. Someone had invaded the grounds last night and that someone was dead on the drive, all his plans cancelled. It hardly seemed reasonable that no one knew what they were. Tano rang for the other servants, and assured him in a low voice that hot tea was forthcoming. "A bath," Bren said, "if they can." He didn't want to deal with I)jinana and Maigi right now, he wanted Tano, he wanted people he knew were Tabini's-but he was scared to. protest that to Tano, as if a question to their plans could turn into a challenge to their conspiracy of silence, a sign that the prisoner had gained the spirit to rebel, a warning that his guards should be more careful- Another stupid thought. Banichi and Jago were the ones he wanted near him, and Tano had said it, his per- sonal needs could only hinder whatever investigation Banichi was pursuing out there. He didn't need to know FOREIGNER / 2 on the same level that Banichi needed to be followi that trail in the rain, needed to be asking questions amoi the staff, like how that person had gotten in or whether had come with the bus or whether Banichi had someho made a terrible mistake and it was just some poor, mi taken tourist out on the lawn for a special camera angl The people on the bus would miss one of their ov number, wouldn't they? Wouldn't one or the other bu loads be asking why a seat was vacant, or who that h been, or had it all been machimi, just an actor, all alon an entertainment for their edification? Wasn't it histori and educational, here at MaIguri, where fatal accid happened on the walks? Djinana and Maigi were quick to answer his summon and hastened him out of Tano's care and into the drawi room in front of the fire-peeling him out of his dan coat as they went and asking him how breakfast had go with the dowager ... as if no tourists had come in, as nothing was going on out there, with any possible rel vancy to anyone's life- Where was Algini? he suddenly wondered. He hadn seen Tano's partner since -yesterday, and someone w dead out there. He hadn't seen Algini last night, just sh ows passing through his room. He hadn't seen Algi maybe since the day before ... what with the incide with the tea, he'd lost his sense of time since he'd le Shejidan. Tano hadn't looked worried. But atevi didn't alwa express things with their faces. Didn't always expre what they felt, if they felt, and you didn't know ... "Start the heater," Maigi said to Djinana, and flung lap-robe about him. "Nadi, please sit down and su warm. I'll help you with the boots." He eased down into the chair in front of the fire, whi Maigi tugged the boots off. His hands were like ice. H feet were chilled, for no good reason at all. "Someo was shot outside," he said in a sudden reckless moo 238 / C. 3. CHERRYH challenging Maigi's silence on the matter. "Do you know that?" "I'm sure everything's taken care of." Maigi knelt on the carpet, warming his right foot with vigorous rubbing. 'They're very good." Banichi and Jago, Maigi seemed to mean. Very good. A man was dead. Maybe it was over, and he could go back tomorrow, where his computer would work and his mail would come. With the electricity stiH out, and tourists coming and going, and the dowager exposing all of them to danger on a morning ride? Why hadn't Banichi interposed some warning, if Banichi had any warning there was someone loose on the grounds, and why hadn't Banichi's warning gotten to him about the tourists? Or hadn't Jago said something to him, yesterday- something about a tour, -but he hadn't remembered, dammit, he'd been thinking about the other mess he'd gotten himself into, and it hadn't stuck in his mind. So it wasn't their fault. Somebody had been chasing him, and he had walked in among the tourists, where someone else could have gotten shot-if his guards hadn't, in the considerations of finesse, somehow pro- tected him by being there. He felt cold. Maigi tucked him into the chair with the robe and brought in hot tea. He sat with his robe- wrapped feet propped in front of the fire, while the thun- der boomed outside the window and the rain whipped at the glass, a level above the walls. The window faced the straight open sweep off the lake. It sounded like gravel pelting the glass. Or hail. Which made him wonder how the windows withstood it: whether they were somehow reinforced-and whether they were, considering the wall out there, and the chance of someone climbing it, also bulletproof. Jago had wanted him clear of it, last night. Algini had fOREIGNER / disappeared, since before last night. The power h failed. He sat there and kept replaying the morning in his he the breakfast, the ride, Hisidi and Cenedi, and the touri and Tano, most of all the happy faces and the hands ing at him from the windows of the buses, as if e was television, everything was machimi. He'd made slight inroad into the country, met people he'd not to be afraid of him, like the kids, like the old c and someone got shot right in front of them. He'd fired a gun, he'd learned he would shoot to kit for fear, for-he was discovering-for a terrible, terrib anger he had, an anger that was still shaking him-an ger he hadn't known he had, didn't know where it h started, or what it wanted to do, or whether it w directed at himself, or atevi, or any specific situation. It hadn't been a false alarm last night---or it was, B would say, one hell of a coincidence. Maybe Banichi thought last night he was safe, and whoever it was h simply gotten that far within Banichi's guard. May they'd been tracking the assassin all along, and let him off with Ilisidi this morning in the hope he'd draw the a sassin out of cover. Too much television, Banichi had said, that night wi the smell of gunpowder in his room, and rain on the race. Too many machimi plays. Too much fear in children's faces. Too many pointi fingers. He wanted his mail, dammit, he wanted just the c logs, the pictures to look at. But they weren't going bring it. Hanks might have missed him by now, tried to call h office and not gotten through. On vacation with Tabini, fty'd say. Hanks might kn better. They monitored atevi transmissions. But the wouldn't challenge the Bu-javid. on the point. They'd g on monitoring, once they were alert to trouble, trying find him-and blame him for not doing his job. H 240 / C. 1. CHERRY#4 would start packing to assume his post. Hanks always hq, resented his winning it over her. And Tabini would detest Hanks. He could tell the Comf mission that, if they didn't think it self-serving, and p of the feud between him and Hanks. But if he was so damned good at predicting Tabini---a reading situations-he couldn't prove it from where he sat now. He hadn't made the vital call, he hadn't Pul Mospheira alert to the situation- God, that was stupid. He had the willies over sorue misguided lunatic and now he saw the Treaty collapsing as if atevi had been waiting all these centuries only to re- sume the War, hiding a missile program they'd built oi their own, launching warheads at Mospheira. It was as stupid as atevi with their Planet-skinuningi satellites shooting death rays. Relations between Mos. pheira and Shejidan had bad periods. Tabini's administra- tion was the least secretive, the easiest to deal with of afl the administrations they'd ever dealt with. "Death rays," Tabini would say, and laugh, invite him to supper and a private drink of the vice humans and atevi held in common. Laugh, Tabini would say. Bren, there are fools on Mospheira and fools in the Bu-javid. Don't take them seriously. Steady hand, Bren-ji, like pointing the finger, there's no difference. Good shot, good shot, Bren.... Rain ... pelted the window. Washed evidence awayl Buses rolled away down the road, the tourists laughed, amazed and amused by their encounter. They hadn't hated him. They'd wanted photographs to aft prove his existence to their neighbors ... "Nadi," Djinana said, from the doorway. "Your bathwater's ready." He gathered the fortitude to move, tucked his robel"~ about him and went with Djinana through the bedroom,~ through the hall and the clammy accommodation, into tk FOREIGNER / ket and the rest of his clothes, to sink neck-deep in warm, steamy water. Clouds rose around him. The water invaded the ach he wouldn't admit to. He could lie and soak and stare st Pidly at the ancient stonework around him-ask hims important questions such as why the tub didn't f, through the floor, when the whole rest of the second fl was wood. Or things like ... why hadn't the two staffs advis each other about the alarm last night, and why had Cen let them go out there? They'd talked about cannon, and ancient wars. Everything bluffed. The stones, the precariousness, d age, the heat, the threat to his life. The storm noise didr get here. There was just the occasional shock of thun through the stones, like ancient cannon shots. And everyone saying, It's all right, nand' pajdhi, it nothing for you to worry about, nand' paidhi. He heard footsteps somewhere outside. He heaj voices that quickly died away. Banichi coming back, maybe. Or Jago or Tano. Ev( Algini, if he was alive and well. Nothing in the hou seemed to be an emergency. In the failure of higher tec nology, the methane burner worked. The paidhi was used to having his welfare complete in others' hands. There was nothing he could do. The was nowhere he could go. He lay still in the water, wiggling his toes, which we cramped and sore from the boots, and ankles whic were stiffening from the stress of staying on th mecheita's back.'He must have clenched his legs all th way. He sat there soaking away the aches until the wat began to cool and finally climbed out and toweled hirr self dry-Djinana would gladly help him, but he h never had that habit with his own servants, let alone wit strangers. Let alone here. So he put on the dressing-robe Djinana had laid ou overheated air of the bath, where he could shed the blan- and went back to the study to sit in front of his own s 242 / C. ). CHERRYH fire, read his book and wait for information, or release, or hell to freeze over, whichever came first. Maybe they'd caught the assassin alive. Maybe they were asking questions and getting answers. Maybe Banichi would even tell him if that was the case- Or maybe not. "When will we have power?" he asked Djinana, when DJinana came to ask if the paidhi wanted anything else. "Do they give any estimate?" 11. igo said something about ordering a new trans- former," Djinana said, "by train from Raigan. Something blew out in the power station between here and Maidingi, I don't know what. The paidhi probably understands the systems far better than I do." He did. He hadn't realized there was a secondary sta- tion. Nobody had said there was--only the news that a quarter of Maidingi was waiting on the same repair. It was logical a power station should attract lightning, but it wasn't reasonable that no one within a hundred miles could bring power back to a major section of a township without parts freighted in. "This isn't a poor province. This has to happen from time to time. Does it happen every summer?" '~Oh, sometimes," Djinana said. "Twice last." "Does it happen assassins get in? Does that happen?" "Please be assured not, nand' paidhi. And it's all right now." "Is he dead? Do they know who he was?" "I don't know, nand' paidhi. They haven't told us. I'm sure they're trying to find out. Don't worry about such things." "I think it's natural I worry about such things," he mut-11 tered, looking at his book. And it wasn't fair to take his frustration out on I)jinana and Maigi, who only worked here, and who would take MaIguri's reputation very per- sonally. "I would like tea, DJinana, thank you." "With sandwiches?" FOREIGNER / 2 "I think not, DJinana, thank you, no. I'll sit here ai read." There were ghost ships on the lake. One was a passe ger ship that still made port on midwinter nights, once Maidingi port itself, right under the lights, and tried t take aboard the unwary and the deservedly damned, b only a judge-magistrate had gone aboard, a hundred ye ago, and it had never made port again. There was a fishing boat which sometimes appeared i storms--once, not twenty years ago, it had appeared t the crew of a stranded net-fisher that was taking on wat and sinking. All but two had gone aboard, the captain an his son electing to stay with their crippled trawler. Th fishing boat, which everyone had remarked to be old an dilapidated, had sailed away with the crew, never to b seen again. Everything in the legends seemed to depend on mis placed trust, though atevi didn't quite have the word fo it: ghosts lost all power if the victims didn't believe wh they saw, or if they knew things were too good to be tru and refused to deceive themselves. Banichi still hadn't come back. Maigi and Djinan came asking what he wanted for dinner, and recom mended a game course, a sort of elusive, cold-bloode creature he didn't find appetizing, though he knew hi servants thought it a delicacy. He asked for shellfish, in stead, and Maigi thought that easy, though, Djinana sai the molluscs might not be the best this time of year: the would send down to town and they might have them, bu it might be two or three hours or so before they coul present them. "Waiting won't matter," he said, and added, "the might lay in some more for lunch tomorrow." "There's no ice," I)jinana said apologetically. "Perhaps in town." "One could find out, nadi. But a great deal of the tow 244 / C. 1. CHERRYM is without power, and most houses will buy it up for their own stock. We'll inquire. . ." "No, no, nadi, please." He survived on shellfish, in sea- sons of desperation. "Others doubtless need the ice. And if they can't preserve it-please, take no chances. If the household could possibly arrange to find me fruited toast and tea, that would do quite well. I've no real appetite this evening." "Nadi, you must have more than toast and tea. You missed lunch." "Djinana-nadi, I must confess, I find the season's dish very strong ... a difference in perceptions. We're quite sensitive to alkaloids. There may be some somewhere in the preparations, and it's absolutely essential I avoid them. If there were any kabiu choice of fruit or vegetables ... The dowager-aiji had very fine breakfast rolls, which I very much favor." "I'll most certainly tell the cook. And-" Djinana had,, a most conspiratorial look. "I do think there's last' month's smoked joint left. It's certainly not un-kabiu, if it's left over. And we always put by several." Preserved meat. Out of season. God save them. "We never know how many guests," Djinana said, quite straight-faced. "We'd hate to run short." "Djinana-nadi, you've saved my life." Djinana was highly amused, very pleased with their so- lution, and bowed twice before leaving. Whereupon, for the rest of the afternoon, he went back to his ghost ships, and his headless captains of trawlers that plied Malguri shores during storms. A bell was said to ring in the advent of disasters. Instead there was an opening of the door, a squishing of wet boots across the drawing room, and a very wet and very tired-looking Banichi, who walked into the study, and said, "I'll join you for dinner, nadi." He snapped his book shut, and thought of saying that most people waited to be asked,'that he hadn't had any courtesy and that he was getting damned tired of being IM Rowl- - FOROGNER / walked past, ignored, talked down to and treated in ge eral like a wayward child. "Delighted to have company," he said, and persuad himself he really was glad to have someone to talk "Tell Djinana to set another place. -Is Jago coming? "Jago's on her way to Shejidan." Banichi's voi floated back to him from the bedroom, as he headed the servants' quarters and the bath. "She'll be back morrow." He didn't even ask why. He didn't ask why a pla bothered to take off in the middle of a thunderstorm, second since noon, when it was presumably the aij plane, and could observe any schedule-it liked. Banic disappeared into the back hall, and after a while he he water running in the bath. The boiler must still be u Banichi didn't have to wait for his bath. As for himself, he went back to his ghost bells and I headless victims, and the shiploads of sailors lost to notorious luck of Maidingi, which always fed on the mi fortune of others when an aiji was resident in Malguri That was what the book said-, and atevi, who believ in no omnipotent gods, who saw the universe and quasi god-forces as ruled by baji and naji, believed least that naji could flow through one person to t next-or they had believed so, before they becan modem and cynical and enlightened, and realized that s perior firepower could redistribute luck to entirely und serving people. He had sat about in the dressing-robe all aftemoo developing sore,spots in very private areas. He declin to move, much less to dress for dinner, deciding that Banichi had invited himself, Banichi could certainly to erate his informality. Banichi himself showed up in the study merely in bla shirt, boots, and trousers, somewhat more formal, only just, without a coat, and with his braid dripping w down his back. "Paidhi-ji," Banichi said, bowing, an "Have a drink," *en said, since he was indulging, c 246 / C. 1. CHERRYH tiously, in a before-dinner drink from his own stock, which he knew was safe. He did have a flask of Dimagi, which he couldn't drink without a headache, and eventual morl- serious effects, very excellent Dimagi, he supposed, since Tabini had given it to him, and he poured a gener- ous glass of that for Banichi. "Nadi," Banichi said, taking the glass with a sigh, and invited himself to sit by the fire in the chair angled oppo- site to his. "So?" The liquor stung his cut lip. "A man's dead. Was he the same one who invaded my bedroom?" "We can't be sure," Banichi said. "No strayed tourist." "No tourist at all. Professional. We know who he is." "And still no filing?" "A very disturbing aspect of this business. This man was licensed. He had everything to lose by doing what he did. He'll be stricken from the rolls, he'll be denied ben- efits of the profession, his instructors will be disgraced. These are no small matters." "Then I feel sorry for his instructors," Bren said. "So do 1, nadi. They were mine." Dead stop, on that point. Banichi-and this unknown man-had a link of some kind? Fellow students? "You know him?" "We met frequently, socially." "In Shejidan?" "A son of distinguished family." Banichi took a sip and stared into the fire. "Jago is escorting the remains and the report to the Guild." Not a good day, Bren decided, having lost all appetite for suppe'r. Banichi regarded him with a flat, dark stare that he couldn't read-not Banichi's opinion, nor what obligation Ban ichi had relative to Tabini versus his Guild or this man, nor where the man'chi lay, now. "I'm very sorry," was all he could think to say. "You have a right to retaliate." , FOREIGNER / "I don't want to retaliate. I never wanted this quarre Banichi." "They have one now." "With you?" He grew desperate. His stomach was u set. His teeth ached. Sitting was painful. "Banichi, I don want you or Jago hurt. I don't want anybody killed." "But they do, nadi. That's abundantly clear. A profe sional agreed with them enough to disregard Guild I for man'chi, nadi. That's what we have to trace-t whom was his man'chi? That's all that could motiv him." "And if yours is to Tabini?" Banichi hesitated in his answer. Then, somberly: "Th makes them highly unwise." "Can't we arrest them? They've broken the la Banichi. Don't we have some recourse to stop thi through the courts?" "That," Banichi said, "would be very dangerous." Because it wouldn't restrain them. He understood tha It couldn't legally stop them until there was a judgment i his favor. "All they need claim is affront," Banichi said, "or busi ness interests. And how can you defend anything? No on understands your associations. The court hardly has means to find them out." "And my word is worth nothing? My man'chi is Tabini, the same as yours. They have to know that." "But they don't know that," Banichi said. "Even don't know that absolutely, nadi. I know only what y tell me." He felt quite cold, quite isolated. And angry. "I'm n a liar. I am not a liar, Banichi. I didn't contest with best my people have forfifteen years to come here to li to you." "For fifteen years." "To be sent to Sh6jidan. To have the place I have. T4 interpret to atevi. I don't lie, Banichi!" 248 1 C. J. CMERRYM Banichi looked at him a long, silent moment. "Never? I thought that was the paidhi's job." "Not in this." "How selective dare we be? When do you lie?" "Just find out who hired him." "No contract could compel his action." "What could?" Banichi didn't answer that question. Banichi only stared into the fire. "What could, Banichi?" "We don't know a dead man's thoughts. I could only wish Cenedi weren't so accurate." "Cenedi shot him." So Cenedi and Ilisidi's loyalties at least were accounted for. He was relieved. I But Banichi didn't seem wholly pleased with Cenedi. Or, at least, with the outcome. Banichi took a sip of the drink warming in his hands and never looked away from the fire. "But you're worried," Bren said. "I emphatically disapprove these delivery vehicles. This is an unwarrantable risk. The tourists at least have a person counting heads." "You think that's how he got in?" "Very possible." "They're not going to continue the tours. Are theyT' "People have had their reservations for months. They'd be quite unhappy." Sometimes he ran straight up against atevi mindset in ways he didn't understand. Or expect. "Those people were in danger, Banichi!" "Not from him or us." Finesse. Michi-ji. "There were children in that crowd. They saw a man shot." Banichi looked at him as if waiting for the concluding statement that would make sense. As if they had totally left the subject. FOREIGNER / 2 "It's not right, Banichi. They thought it was a machi They thought it was television!" "Then they were hardly offended. Were they?" Before he could follow that line of reasoning, Djin and Maigi arrived down the inner hall with the din cart. With a selection of dishes, the seasonal and slices fr 'the leftover joint. Banichi's eyes brightened at the o ing, as they seated themselves in the dining room and covers came off the dishes. State of mouming or m ous mtent, Banichi had no hesitation in loading his pla and no diminution of appetite. The cook had provided a selection of prepared frui very artistically arranged. That appealed. One could ha exempted the prepared head of the unseasonal game as cap for the stewpot, but Banichi lifted it by the ears set it delicately aside, gratefully out of view behind stewpot. Other dead animals stared down from the wal "This is excellent," Banichi said. Bren poked at the sliced meat. His nerves were jangl( The dining chair hurt. He took up his knife and cut bite, trying to put ghost stories and assassins out of mind. He found the first taste excellent, and helped hi self to the sliced meat and a good deal of the spicy s he enjoyed over the vegetables. "Is there," he asked, in the lull eating made, "possib any word on my mail? I know you've had your ban full, but-" "I have, as you quaintly express it, had my hands fu Perhaps Jago will remember to check the post." "You could call her." Temper flared up. Or, a sense muddled desperation. "Has anyone explained to my offi where I am, or why?" "I frankly don't know that, paidhi-ji." "I want you to convey a message to them. I want y to patch me through on your communications. I know y can do that, from the security station." "Not without clearance. It's a public move, if t 250 / C. 3. CHERRYH paidhi takes to our security channels. You understand the policy statement that would make, absolute encourage- ment to your detractors and Tabini's." "What happened to security?" "Courier is still far better. Far better, nadi. Prepare your statement. I'll send it the next time one of us carries a re- port." Banichi didn't refuse him. Banichi didn't say no. But it kept coming out to procrastination, I forgot, and, There's a reason. He ate the rest of the meat course in silence, favoring his sore mouth. And questions still nagged him. "Was it an accident, the power outage?" "Most probably. To put a quarter of the homes in Maidingi township in the dark? Hardly the Guild's style. " "But you knew it last night. You knew someone was loose on the grounds." "I didn't know. I suspected it. We had a perimeter alarrn." Did we? he thought bitterly. And asked, instead: "Where is Algini?" "He'll return with Jago." "Did he leave with Jago?" "He took the commercial flight. Yesterday." "Carrying a report?" "Yes. "For what? Forgive my frankness, Banichi-ji, but I don't believe there's any possible investigation to be done-to find the precise agency at work here, yes, but I don't for a moment believe Tabini doesn't know exactly what's wrong and who's behind it. I don't believe you don't know. I don't believe you didn't know where I was this morning." "Behind the ridge, mostly, for quite a while. I noticed your limping." Soreness didn't help his mood. "You might have warned me." FOREIGNER / "Regarding what? That Ilisidi would go riding? She ten does." "Dammit, if you'd told me there was the chance o sniper, if you'd told me we'd be leaving the house might have come up with a reasonable objection." "You had a reasonable objection. You might ha pleaded your recent indisposition. I doubt they wo have carried you to the stables." "You didn't tell me there was a danger!" "There's a constant danger, nadi." "Don't shove me off, dammit. You let me go out It's harder to find an excuse for tomorrow, when I'm a] committed to go. And am I safe then? I don't always derstand your sense of priorities, Banichi, and in this truly confess I don't." "The tea was Ilisidi's personal opportunity. And Cen( was with us last night, during the search. Cenedi wo have taken me if he'd intended to. I made that test." It took a moment for that to sink in. "You mean y gave Cenedi a chance to kill you?" "When you will make promises to strangers with( consulting me, paidhi-ji, you do make my job- more di cult. Jago was advised of the situation. Possibly Cent knew it, and knew that he had Jago yet to deal with, t Cenedi is not contracted against you, I made amply c tain of that. And I was between you and the estate at times this morning." "Banichi, I apologize. Profoundly." Banichi shrugged. "Ifisidi is an old and clever wonu What did you talk about? The weather? Tabini?" "Breakfast. Not breaking my neck. A mecheita call Babs--2' W Ba h b a s "I Babsidi." It meant 'lethal.' "And nothing else?' HH4 e desperately tried to remember. "How it was h land. What plants grow here. Dragonettes." "AndT "Nothing. Nothing of consequence. Cenedi talk about the ruin up there, and the cannon on the front law 252 / C 3. CHERRYH -She ran me up a hill, I cut my lip ... after that they were polite to me. And the tourists were polite to me. I gave them ribbons and signed their cards and we talked about families and where they came from. -Was either one a disaster, Banichi-ji-before some fool tried to cross the lawn? Advise me. I am asking for advice." Another of Banichi's long, sober stares. Banichi's eyes were the clearest, incredible yellow. Like glass. Just as expressive. "We're both professionals, paidhi-ji. You are quite good." "You think I'm lying?" "I mean that you're no more off duty than I am. Banichi lifted the flask and poured moderately for them both. "I have confidence in your professional instincts. Have confidence in mine." It came down to the fruit, and a creme and liqueur sauce. A man could be seduced by that, if his stomach weren't uncertain from dinner conversation. "If you're running courier," Bren said, when the atmo- sphere felt easier, "you can handle a written dispatch from me to my office on Mospheira." "We might," Banichi said. "If Tabini approves." "Any word about that solar unit I wanted?" "I'm afraid they're prioritied, if they can find one. We've donated the generator we have. We have homes in the valley without power, elderly and ill persons-'I "Of course." He couldn't fault that answer. It was en- tirely reasonable. Everything was. Confidence, Bren said to the creatures on the wall. Pa- tience. Glass eyes stared back at him, some angry, some placidly stupid, having awaited their hunters with equa- nimity, one supposed. Banichi said he had business to attend-reports to write. In longhand, one supposed. Or not. Djinana came and took the dishes away, and lit the oil lamps, having blown out the candelabra in the din- ing room. FOREIGNER / 2 "Will you need anything more?" Djinana asked; ai "No," Bren said, thinking to himself that of individu who didn't get regular hours or a fair explanation arou this place, Djinana was chief. One wondered where Ta was-Tano, who was supposed to be his personal sta While Algini was off in Shejidan. "I'm sure I won't. I read until bedtime." "I'll lay out your night things," Djinana said. "Thank you," he murmured, and picked up his bo and took the chair by the fire, where, if he sat at an angl with the lamps on the table beside him, the two lig sources made reading at least moderately possible. U flame flickered. He had discovered that primary good re son for light bulbs. Djinana whisked the cart away with the dishes-tt man never so much as rattled a glass when he worke The candles were out in the dining room, leaving it a dai cavern. Elsewhere the fire cast horned and large-eare shadows. about the room, and danced in the glass eyes the beasts. He heard Djinana open the armoire in the bedroom, an heard him go away again. After that was a curious quiet about the place. No raii no thunder, nothing but the crackle of the fire. He read, h turned pages-which sounded amazingly loud, on a rai romance in the histories, no one bent on feud, no intei clan struggles, no dramatic leaps from Malguri tower, an not a drowning to be had, just a romantic couple who in( and courted at Malguri, who happened to be the aijiin ( two neighboring provinces, and who had a plethora of ta' ented children. ' Pleasant thought, that someone who slept in thes rooms hadn't come to a bad end; interesting, to have notion of romantic goings-on, the gifts of flowers, th long and tender relationship of two people who, bein heads of state, never quite had a domicile except Malgur in the fall. It was a side of themselves atevi didn't shoi to the paidhi-unless one counted flirtations he neve 254 / C. 3. CMERRYH knew whether he should take seriously. But that was how it went, a number of small gifts, tied to each other's gates, or sent by third parties. Atevi marriages didn't always mean cohabitation. Often enough they didn't, except when there were minor children in question-and some- times then cohabitation lasted and sometimes it didn't. What atevi thought or what atevi felt still eluded him through the atevi language. But he liked the aijiin of Malguri the way he'd liked the old couple with the grandchildren, touring together, he supposed, looking for adventures ... maybe not cohab- iting: nothing guaranteed that. And long as paidhiin had been on the continent, they had discovered no graceful way to ask, through atevi ret- icence to dis6uss their living arrangements, their ad- dresses, their routines or their habits-it all fell under 'private business,' and no one else's. He thought he might ask Jago. Jago at least found amusement in his rude questions. And Jago was amaz_ ingly well read. She might even know the historic couple. He missed Jago. He wouldn't have had a near-fight with Banichi if Jago had been here. He didn't know why Banichi had insisted on inviting himself to supper, if he had to spend it in a surly mood. Something hadn't gone well, perhaps. In a day which had included Cenedi shooting a man and that man turning out to be one Banichi knew- damned right something hadn't gone right today, and Banichi had every reason to be in a rotten state of mind. That atevi didn't show it and habitually understated the case didn't mean Banichi wasn't upset-and didn't mean Banichi might not himself wish Jago were here. He sup- posed Banichi hadn't had a good time himself, having a surly human displaying an emotional load an atevi twelve-year-old wouldn't own to. He supposed he even owed Banichi an apology. Not that he wanted to give one. Because he understood didn't mean he was reconciled, and he wished twice over FOREIGNER / that Jago hadn't gone to Shejidan today, Jago being j slightly the younger, a little more reticent, as he read now, even shy, but just slightly more forthcoming Banichi once she decided to talk, whether Jago was m so by nature or because Tabini's man'chi didn't lie ligh on anyone's shoulders, least of all Banichi's. His eyes stung with reading in the flickering lig keeping the fire lively enough to cast light to the c made the fireside uncomfortably warm, and the lamps made the air thick. He found himself with a m headache, and got up and walked, quietly, so as not disturb the staff, into the cooler part of the roo restless to sleep, yet. He missed his late-night news. He missed being able call Barb, or even, God help him, Hanks, and say things he dared say over lines he knew were bugg He was all but down to talking to himself, just to hear sound of human language in the silence, to get aw however briefly, from immersion in atevi thoughts atevi reasoning. A motor started, somewhere. He stopped still and tened, decided someone was leaving the courtyard a going down to the town, or somewhere in between, who that was, he had a fair notion. Damn, hethought, and went to the window, but couldn't see the courtyard from there because of the sid ways jut of the front hall. A pin held the latch of the si window panels, and he pulled that to see if he could whether the car was going down the main road or off in the hills, or whether he was about to trigger a nonhis ical security alarm by opening the latch. Only the airline transport van, hell. MaIguri had a v of its own. Food and passengers came up the road. Th could have gotten him from the airport. But Banichi had thought otherwise, perhaps. Perh he wanted to sound things out before relying on Cene Perhaps he still had his doubts. The sound of the motor went up and around the wal 256 / C. 1. CHERRYH He couldn't tell. But the night air coming in was crisp and cold after the stuffiness of the room. He drew in a great breath and a second one. First night he had been here that it hadn't been raining, the first hour of full dark, and the sky above the lake and the mountains to the east were so clear and black and cold one could see Maudette aloft, faintly red, and Gabriel's almost invisible companion, a real test of eyesight, on Mospheira. The night air smelled wonderful, loaded with wildflow- ers, he supposed; and he hadn't realized how he'd missed the garden outside his room, or how pent up he'd felt. He'd been able, on clear nights on Mt. Allan Thomas, to see the station just around sunset or sunrise. He didn't keep up with its schedule the way he had in his youth, when Toby and he had used to go hiking in the hills, when they'd used to tell stories about the Landing, and imagine-it was embarrassing, nowadays-that there were atevi guerrillas hiding in the high hills. They had used to have imaginary wars up there, shooting atevi by the hundreds, being shot at by fictitious atevi villains, about as good as the atevi machimi about secret human guerrillas supported by egomaniacs secretly concealing their base aboard the station ... the Foreign Star, as atevi had called it in those long past and warlike days. At least they'd achieved a common mythology, a com- mon past, a common set of heroes and villains-and which was which only depending on point of view. He never had mentioned to Tabini that his father was Polanski's descendant several illegitimate generations down the line, the Polanski who'd generaled the standoff on Half Moon Beach, the one that had kept atevi rein- forcements off Mospheira. Nothing Polanski's remote descendant had anything to do with-nothing, in his present job, that he wanted to admit to. One made progress as one could. He wished atevi chil- dren didn't see humans as shadow-players and madmen; FOREIGNER 1 2 he wished human children didn't play at shooting atevi i the woods. The idea came to him of making that a majo theme in his winter speech to the assembly ... but h didn't know how one got at all the film and all the tele vision on both sides which kept reinforcing it all. But not totally smart, with realities as they were, to standing with the fire at his back. Jago had pulled hi away from this very window last night ... a danger fro the windows or the roof of the other wing seemed stupid But anybody could have a boat on the lake, he sup posed, though not close enough to give an assassin a goo target. Anybody could land on Malguri's shore, give o take the walls and the cliffs below the walls, which we formidable. He stepped back and began to close the window. Lights flashed on all about him. An alarm began to rin as he blinked in the glare of electric light, and slamm, the window shut and latched it, heart beating in utte startlement, with the sound of bare feet crossing th wooden floor of the next room. Tano showed up, stark naked, gun in hand, Djinan close behind him, and Maigi after that, Maigi drippin wet and wrapped in a towel, with the thump of peopl running out in the halls, everywhere in Malguri, the al still sounding. "Did you open a window?" Tano asked. "Nadiin, I did, I'm sorry." His rescuers drew a collective breath as the latch rat- tled in the next room, and Tano dismissed Djinana in that direction with a wave of his hand. "Nadi, they've brought us on-line again," Tano said "Your security had rather you not open the windows, for your own protection. Particularly at night." Djinana had let someone in from the outside hall. Cenedi showed up with Djinana and a couple of the dow- ager's guard, to hear Tano say, "The paidhi opened the window, nadi." "Nand' paidhi," Cenedi said. "Please, hereafter, don't." 258 / C. J. CMERRYM "I beg your pardons," he said. The alarm was still go- ing, jangling his nerves. "Can someone please turn off the alarm?" Cenedi gave the orders. It still took time to sort out, and the oil lamps all had to be put out before he could get his rooms clear of staff. He sank down on the side of his bed after the clatter and the commotion had died, after the doors and windows were shut, asking himself where Banichi had been and what black thoughts the dowager must be having about him at the moment. Damned sloppy, having an alarm system down with the power. It wasn't Banichi's style. He didn't think it was Cenedi's. He didn't think he'd seen everything that guarded Malguri. Solar-batteried security, he'd bet on it. They had the technology. It didn't keep the paidhi from waking the house and looking like a fool. It didn't make Ilisidi happier with him. He could bet on that, too. Vill A noisy night," Ilisidi said, pouring her own tea-the smell of it drifted with the steam, across the table, and Bren's stomach went queasy. "I'm extremely sorry," he said, "and embarrassed, aiji- mai." Ilisidi grinned, positively grinned, and added sugar. It was little barbs all during breakfast. Ilisidi was in an excellent humor. She wolfed down four fish, a bowl of cereal and two cakes with sweet oil, while he stayed to the cereal and the breakfast rolls, thinking that, consider- ing the pain he was in sitting on a hard chair this morn- FOREIGNER / 259 ing, he would almost rather drink Ilisidi's tea than get onto Nokhada's back again. .But it was downstairs, Ilisidi reveling in the stiff breeze blowing in off the lake, a breeze that tore at coat-skirts and knifed right through sweaters when one passed out of the sunlight and into the stable court. Nokhada at least was willing to get down for him this morning, and this time, at least, he was ready for the snap of Nokhada's rising before he was quite astride. It hurt. God, it hurt. Not exactly the kind of pain a man ,could admit to, or beg off from. He only hoped for early numbness, and told himself his human ancestors had been riders, and somehow continued the species. He brought a quick stop to Nokhada's milling about, determined to have the final word on their course this moming-which lasted until Ilisidi moved Babs out and Nokhada jostled Cenedi's mecheita for position at Babs' tail in a sudden dash out onto the road. Straight out. Ilisidi and Babs vanished over the cliff, a stride or two before Nokhada won out over Cenedi's mount and took the same downward plunge. Onto what thank God was trail and not empty air. He didn't yell, and didn't object, though his legs did, and for a moment the pain was acute, in a dozen jolting strides down a dusty slot of a trail that began above the point where Nokhada had thrown the fit yesterday about the rein. If they had gone off then, they would not have fallen, damn the creature. Gone an embarrassing long distance down to a second terrace above the lake, indeed they would, but there was such a terrace, whether or not, yes- terday, at the start of the ride, he might have had the abil- ity to stay on Nokhada's back. And he found it equally interesting that, with the plunge over the cliff available for the novice fooi, Ilisidi had taken them straight up the mountain yesterday, how- ever rough the course. A second chance missed, then. So maybe the tea was, after all, an accident. Although, given there had been an intruder on the grounds yesterday, maybe getting them over the ridge or above line-of-sight from the fortress had been a priority, And given Banichi's comment about having had them under direct surveillance ... "Why didn't you tell me yesterday that there was a possibility of someone out there?" he asked Cenedi, with the rest of the dowager's guard trailing behind. "You knew we were in danger yesterday. Banichi informed YOU." "The outriders," Cenedi said, "were well alert. And Banichi was never far." "Nadi, a risk to the dowager? In all respect, is that rea- sonable?" "With Tabini's man?" Cenedi's face had things in com- mon with Banichi's. Just as expressive. "No. It wasn't a risk." Not a risk? A compliment to Banichi, perhaps, but damned well a risk, under any human interpretation of the word, unless, the thought that had jogged his attention last night, there were more security systems about than ei- ther Banichi or Cenedi was going to own to. He rode by Cenedi in thinking silence, with the waves lapping the rocks below. The sky was blue. The waters danced. A dragonette soared past Nokhada's face and made her jump, a single heart-stopping moment, close to the edge. "Damn!" he said, and he and Nokhada had a silent war for a moment, at which Cenedi maintained complete lack of expression, and complete control of his mecheita. Ilisidi rode ahead of them, oblivious, seemingly, to all of it. When he tilted his head back and looked up he couldn't see the fortress walls at all, just the bowed face of the rocks and, behind them, the very edge of the mod- em wall that divided off the paved court from -the trail. Ahead, the trail wound higher on the mountain, until they came to a promontory with a dizzying view, where Ilisidi stopped and let Babs stand, and where, when he arrived, he sat doing the same with Nokhada, telling himself that fOREIGNER / 261 if Babs didn't fling himself over the cliff, Nokhad wouldn't, and he needn't worry. "Glorious day," Ilisidi said. "An unforgettable view," he said, and thought that h never would forget it, the chanciness of their height, the power of the creature under him, the startling panoram of the lake spread out around them as far as the eye could see. Skiing with Toby, he had had such sights, but nev one fraught with atevi significances, never one once eign and now freighted with names, and identity, and his- tory. The Bu-javid-with its pressures, its schedules, its crowds of political favor-seekers-had no such views, no such absolute, breath-taking moments as Malguri offered ... between hours, as yesterday, of cloistered, stifling si- lence, headaches from oil-buming lamps, cold, dark spots in the comers of cavernous halls and knees blistered from proximity to a warming fire. Not to mention the plumbing. But it had its charm. It had its moments, it had the in- credible texture of life that didn't measure by straight lines and standardized measures, that didn't go by streets and straight edges, with people living stacked up on top of each other, and lights blotting out the stars at night. Here, one could hear the wind and the waves, one could find endless variety in weathered stones and pebbles and there was no schedule but the inescapable fact that riding out and riding back were the same distance.... Ilisidi talked about the trading ships and the fishermen, while the high, thin trail of a jet passed above Malguri on its way east, across the continental divide, across the bar- rier that had held two atevi civilizations from meeting for thousands of years-a matter of four, five hours, now, that easy. But Ilisidi talked about crossings of Maidingi that took days, and involved separate aijiin's territory. "In those days," Ilisidi said, "one proceeded very care- fully into the territory of foreign aijiin." Not without a point. Again. "But we've learned so much more, nand' dowager." 262 / C. J. C-HERRYM "More than what?" "That walling others out equally walls.us in, nand' dowager." "Hah," Ilisidi declared, and with a move he never saw, spun Babs about and lit out along the hill, scattering stones. Nokhada followed. All of them had to. And it hurt, God, it hurt when they struck the downhill to the lake. Ahead of them, Ilisidi, with her white-shot braid fly- ing-no ribbon of rank, no adornment, just a red and black coat, and Babsidi's sleek black rump, tail switching for nothing more than excess energy-nothing more in Ilisidi's mind, perhaps, than the free space in front of her. Catching up was Nokhada's idea; but with the rest of the guard behind, and Cenedi beside, there was nothing to do but follow. At another time they stopped, on the narrow half-moon of a sandy beach, where the lake curved in, and a man thinking of assassins could only say to himself that there were places on the shore where a boat could land and reach MaIguri. But standing while the mecheiti caught their breaths, Ilisidi talked about the lake, its depth, its denizens-its ghosts. "When I was a child," she said, "a wreck washed up on the south shore, just the bow of it, but they thought it might be from a treasure ship that sank four hundred years ago. And divers went out for it, all up and down this shore. They say they never found it. But a number of antiquities turned up in MaIguri, and the servants were cleaning them in barrels in the stable court, about that time. My father sent the best pieces to the museum in Shejidan. And it probably cost him an estate. But most people in Maidingi province would have melted them for the gold." "It's good he saved them." 641 '"YT, "For the past," he said, wondering if he had misunder- FOREIGNER / 263 stood something else in a tevi mindset. "To save it. Isn't that important?" "Is it?" Ilisidi answered him with a question and left him none the wiser. She was off again up the hill, and he forgot all his philosophy, in favor of protecting what he feared might have progressed to blisters. Damn the woman, he thought, and thought that if he pulled up and lagged behind as long as he could hold Nokhada's in- stincts in check, the dowager might take that for a surren- der and slow down, but damned if he would, damned if he would cry help or halt. Ilisidi would dismiss him from her company then, probably lose all interest in him, and he could lie about in a warm bath, reading ghost sto- ries until his would-be assassins flung themselves against the barriers Banichi had doubtless set up, and killed them- selves, and he could go home to air-conditioning, the morning news, and tea he could trust. From moment to nkoment it seemed like the only escape. But he kept Ilisidi's pace. Atevi called it na'itada. Barb called it being a damned fool. He had never spent so long an hour as it took to get home again, an hour in which he told himself repeatedly he had rather fall off the mountain and be done. Finally the gates of the stable court were in front of them, then behind them, with the mecheiti anxious for, -stables and grain. He managed to get Nokhada to drop a shoulder, and climbed down off Nokhada's towering height onto legs he wasn't sure would bear his weight. "A hot bath," Ilisidi called out to him. "I'll send you some herbs, nand'. paidhi. I'll see you in the morning!" He managed to bow, and, among Ilisidi's entourage, to walk up the stairs without conspicuously limping. "Me soreness goes," Cenedi said to him quietly, "in four or five days." A hot bath was all he was thinking of, all the long way up to the front hall. A hot bath, for about an hour. A soft and motionless chair. Soaking and reading seemed an ex- 264 / C. 3. CHERRYM cellent way to spend the remainder of the day, sitting in the sun, minding his own business, evading aijiin and their athletic endeavors. He limped down the long h I and started the stairs up to his floor, at his own pace. Quick footsteps crossed the stone floor below the stairs. He looked back in some concern for his safety in the halls and saw Jago coming toward the stairs, all en. ergy and anxiousness. "Bren-ji," she called out to him. "Are you all-right?" The limp showed. His hair was flying loose from its braid and there was dust and fur and spit on his coat, "Fine, nadi-ji. Was it a good flight?" "Long," she said, overtaking him in a handful of dou- ble steps a human would struggle to make. "Did you fall, Bren-ji? You didn't fall off . . ." "No, just sore. Perfectly ordinary." He made a deter- mined effort not to limp the rest of the way up the stairs, and went beside her down the hall ... which was suppos- ing she wanted the company of sweat and mecheita fur. Jago smelled of flowers, quite nicely so. He'd never no- ticed it before; and he was marginally embarrassed-not polite to sweat, the word had passed discreetly from paidhi to.paidhi. Overheated humans smelled different and different was not good with atevi, in matters of per- sonal hygiene; the administration had pounded that con- cept into junior administrative heads. So he tried to keep as discreetly as possible apart from Jago, glad she was back, wishing he might have a chance for a bath before debriefing, and wishing most of all that she'd been here last night. "Where's Banichi? Do you know? I haven't seen him since yesterday." "He was down at the airport half an hour ago," Jago said. "He was talking to some television people. I think they're coming up here." 44why?" "I don't know, nadi. They came in on the flight. It could have to do with the assassination attempt. They didn't say." FOREIGNER / 26 Not his business, he concluded. Banichi would hand it with his usual discretion, probably put them on the ne flight out. "Not any other trouble here?" "Only with Banichi." "How?" "Just not happy with me. I seem to have done so thing or said something, nadi-ji, -I'm not even sure." "It isn't a comfortable business," Jago, said, "to repo an associate to his disgrace. Give him room, nand' p Some things aren't within your office." "I understand that," he said, telling himself he hadn understood: he'd been unreasonably focussed on his ov discomforts last night, to the exclusion of Banichi's ov reasonable distress. It began to dawn on him that Banic might have wanted things of him he just hadn't given, b fore they'd parted in discomfort with each other. "I thi I was very rude last night, nadi. I shouldn't have been. wasn't doing my job. I think he's right to be upset wi me. I hope you can explain to him." "You have no 'job' toward him, Bren-ji. Ours is tow you. And I much doubt he took offense. If he allowed y( to see his distress, count it for a compliment to YOU." Unusual notion. One part of his brain went ransacki memory, turning over old references. Another part we on vacation, wondering if it meant Banichi did after like him. And the sensible, workaday part of his brain told t other two parts to pay attention to business and quit e pecting human r ' esponses out of atevi minds. Jago mea what Jago said, point, endit; Banichi let down his gu with him, Banichi was pissed about a dirty business, ar neither Banichi nor Jago was suddenly, by being coop up with a bored human, about to break out in human se timent. It wasn't contagious, it wasn't transferable, ay probably he frustrated hell out of Banichi, too, who'd ju as busily sent him clues he hadn't picked up on. As a di ner date, he'd been a dismal substitute for Jago, who 266 / C. 1. CHERRYN been off explaining to the Guild why somebody wanted to kill the paidhi; and probably by the end of the evening, Banichi had ideas of his own why that could be. They reached the door. He had his key from his pocket, but Jago was first with hers, and let them into the receiv- ing room. "So glum," she said, looking back at him. "Why, nand' paidhi?" "Last night. We were saying things-I wished I hadn't. I wish I'd ~aid I was sorry. If you could convey to him that I am . . ." "Said and did aren't even brothers," Jago said. She pulled the door to, pocketed her key and took the portfo- lio from under her arm. "This should cheer you. I brought your mail." He'd given up. He'd accepted that it wasn't going to get through security; and Jago threw over all his supposi- tions about his situation in MaIguri. He took the bundle she handed him and sorted through it, not even troubling to sit down in his search for per- sonal mail. It was mostly catalogs, not nearly so many as he ordi- narily got; three letters, but none from Mospheira-two from committee heads in Agriculture and Finance, and one with Tabini's official seal. It wasn't all his mail, not, at least, his ordinary mail- nothing from Barb or his mother. No communication from his office, messages like, Where are you? Are you alive? Jago surely knew what was missing. She had to know, she wasn't that inefficient. And what did he say about it? She stood there, waiting, probably in curiosity about Tabini's letter. Or maybe knowing very well what was in it. He began to be scared of the answers-scared of his own ignorance and his own failure to figure out what the silence around him was saying, or what of Tabini's sig- nals he was supposed to have picked up. FOREIGNER He ran his thumbnail under the seal on Tabini's hoping for rescue, hoping it held some sort of explanati that didn't add up to disaster. Tabini's handwriting-was not the clearest hand he h ever dealt with. The usual declaration of titles. I hope fo your health, it began, with Tabini's calligraphic flourish I hope for your enjoyment of MaIguri's resources of su and water Thanks, Tabini, he thought sourly, thanks a lot. Th rainy season, no less. He rested a sore backside agains the table to read it, while Jago waited. Something about television. Television, for God's sake ... my intention by this interview to give people aroun the world an exposure to human thought and appearanc far diffierent than the machimi - have presented. I feel th is a useful opportunity which should not be wasted, an have great confidence in your diplomacy, Bren. Please as ftank with these professionals as you would be wi me, privately. "Nadi Jago. Do you know what's in this?" "No, Bren-ji. Is there a problem? "Tabini's sent the television crew!" "That would explain the people on the flight. I am s prised we weren't advised. Though I'm sure they h credentials." Under the circumstances which have made advisab your isolationfrom the City and its contacts, I can thin of no more effective counter to your enemy than the cul tivation of increased public favor I have spoken person ally to the head of news and public awareness at th national network and authorized a reputable and high regarded news crew to meet with you at MaIguri, for a interview which may, in my hopes and those of the es teemed lord Minister of Education, lead to monthly new conferences . . . "He wants me to do a monthly news program! Do y know about this?" "I. plead not, nadi-ji. I'm sure, however, if Tabini-aij 268 / C. J. CHERRYH has cleared these individuals to speak to you, they're very reputable people." "Reputable people." He scanned the letter for more devastating news, found only I know the weather in this season is not the best, but I hope that you have found pleasure in the library and accommodation with the es- teemed aiji-dowager, to whom I hope you will convey my personal good wishes. "This is impossible. I have to talk to Tabini. -Jago, I need a phone. Now." "I've no authorization, Bren-ji. There isn't a phone here, and I've no authorization to remove you from our---2' "The hell, Jago!" "I've no authorization, Bren-ji.- "Does Banichi?" "I doubt so, nadi-ji." "Well, neither do I. I can't talk to these people." Jago's frown grew anxious. "The paidhi tells me that Tabini-aiji has authorized these people. If Tabini-aiji has authorized this interview, the paidhi is surely aware that it would be a very great embarrassment to these people and their superior, extending even to the aiji's court. If the paidhi has any authorization in this letter to refuse this, I must ask to see this letter." "It's not Tabini. I've no authorization from Mospheira to do any interview. I absolutely can't do this without contacting my office. I certainly can't do it on any half- hour notice. I need to contact my office. Immediately." "Is not your man'chi to Tabini? Is this not what you said?" God, right down the predictable and unarguable slot. "My man'chi to Tabini doesn't exclude my arguing with him or my protecting my position of authority among my own peopfe. It's my o6figation to do tfiat, nadi-ji. I have no force to use. It's all on your side. But my man'chi gives me the moral authority to call on you to do my job." FOREIGNER / 269 The twists and turns of a trial lawyer were a necessary part of the paidhi's job. But persuading Jago to reinterpret man'chi was like pleading a brief against gravity. "Banichi would have to authorize it," Jago said with perfect composure, "if he has the authority, which I don't think he does, Bren-ji. If you wish me to go down to the airport, I will tell him your objection, though I fear the television crew will come when their clearance says to come, which may be before any other thing can be ar- ranged, and I cannot conceive how Tabini could withdraw a permission he seems to have granted without-" "I feel faint. It must be the tea." "Please, nadi, don't joke." "I can't deal with them!" "This would reflect very badly on many people, nadi. Surely you understand-2' "I cannot decide such policy changes on my own, Jago! It's not in the authority I was given---2' "Refusal of these people must necessarily have far- reaching effect. I could not ' possibly predict, Bren-ji, but can you not comply at least in form? This surely won't air immediately, and if there should be policy considerations, surely there could be ameliorations. Tabini has recom- mended these people. Reputations are assuredly at stake in this." Jago was no mean lawyer herself-versed in man'chi and its obligations, at least, and the niceties on which her profession accepted or didn't accept grievances. Life and death. Justified and not. And she had a point. She had se- rious points. "May I see the letter, Bren-ji? I don't, of course, insist on it, but it would make matters clearer." He handed it over. Jago walked over to the window to read it, net, he, theught, because she needed the light. "I believe," she said, "you're urged to be very frank with these people, nadi. I think I understand Tabini-aiji's thinking, if I may be so forward. If anything should hap- 270 / C. 3. CHERRY44 pen to you-it would be very useful to have popular sym- pathy-,, "If anything should happen to me." "Not fatally. But we have taken an atevi life." He stood stock still, hearing from Jago what he thought he heard. It was her impeccable honesty. She could not perceive that there was prejudice in what she said. She was thinking atevi politics. That was her job, for Tabini and for him. "An atevi life." "We've taken it in defense of yours, nand' paidhi. It's our man'chi to have done so. But not everyone would agree with that choice." He had to ask. "Do you, nadi?" Jago delayed her answer a moment. She folded the let- ter. "For Tabini's sake I certainly would agree. May I keep this in file, nadi?" "Yes," he said, and shoved the affront out of his mind. What did you expect? he asked himself, and asked him- self what was he. to do without consultation, what might they.ask and what dared he say? Jago simply took the letter and left, through his bed- room, without answering his question. An honest woman, Jago was, and she'd given him no grounds at all to question her protection. It wasn't pre- cisely what he'd questioned-but she doubtless didn't see it that way. He'd alienated Banichi and now he'd offended Jago. He wasn't doing well at all today. "Jago," he called after her. "Are you going down to the airport?" Atevi manners didn't approve yelling at people, either. Jago walked all the way back to answer him. "If you wish. But what I read in the letter gives me lit- tle grounds on which to delay these people, nand' paidhi. I can only advise Banichi of your feelings. I don't see how I could do otherwise." He was at the end of his resources. He made a small, FOREIGNER / 271 weary bow. "About what I said. I'm tired, nadi, I didn't express myself well." "I take no offense, Bren-ji. The opinion of these people is uninformed. Shall I attempt to reach Banichi?" "No," he said in despair. "No. I'll deal with them. Only suggest to Tabini on my behalf that he's put me in a po- sition which may-cost me my job." 641,11 certainly convey that," Jago said. And if Jago said it that way, he did believe it. I ~"Thank you, nadi," he said, and Jago bowed and went on through the bedroom. He followed, with a vacation advertisement and a crafts catalog, which he figured for bathtub reading. Goodbye to the hour-long bath. He rang for DJinana to advise him of the change in plans, he shed the coat in the bedroom, limped down the hall into the bathroom and shed dusty, spit-stained clothes in the hamper on the way to the waiting tub. The water was hot, frothed with herbs, and he would have cheerfully spent half the day in it, if Djinana would only keep pouring in warm water. He drowned the crafts catalog, falling asleep in mid-scan-just dropped his hand and soaked it: he found himself that tired and that little in possession of his faculties. But of course Tano came in to say a van had pulled up in the portico, and it was television people, with Banichi, and they were going to set up downstairs. Would the paidhi care to dress? The paidhi would care to drown, rather than put on court formality and that damned tailored coat, but Tabini had other plans. He'd not brought his notes on the transportation prob- lems. He thought he should have. It went to question after question, until at least numbness had set in where he met the chair and where an empty stomach protested the lack of lunch. "What," the interviewer asked then, "determines the 272 / C. 1. CHERRY'l-I rate of turnover of information? Isn't it true that all these systems exist on Mospheira?" "Many do." "What wouldn't?" "We don't use as much rail. Local air is easier. The in~ terior elevations make air more practical for us." "But you didn't present that as an option to the aiji two hundred years ago." "We frankly worried that we'd be attacked." "So there are other considerations than the environ- ment." Sharp interviewer. And empowered by someone to ask questions that might not make the broadcast, but-might, still. Tabini had confidence in this man, and sent him. "There's also the risk," he said, "of creating problems among atevi. You had rail-you almost had rail at the time of the Landing. If we'd thrown air travel into Shejidan immediately, it might have provoked distur- bances among the outlying Associations. Not everyone believed Barjida-aiji would share the technology. And better steam trains were a lot less threatening. We could have turned over rockets. We could have said, in the very first negotiations-here's the formula for dynamite. And maybe irresponsible people would have decided to drop explosives on each other's cities. We'd just been through a war. It was hard enough to get it stopped. We didn I want to provide new weapons for another one. We could have dropped explosives from planes, when we built them. But we didn't want to do that." "That's a good point," the interviewer said. He hoped it was. He hoped people thought about it. "We don't ever want a war," he said. "We didn't have much choice about being on this planet. We caused harm we didn't intend or want. It seems a fair repayment, what the Treaty asked." "Is there a limit to what you'll turn over?" He shook his head. "No." "What about highways?" FOREIGNER / Damn, that question again. He drew a breath to thin about it. "Certainly I've seen the realities of transporU tion in the mountains. I intend to take my observations t our council. And I'm sure the nai-aijiin will have recorr. mendations to me, too." A little laughter at that. And a sober next questiot "Yet you alone, rather than the legislature, determin whether a town gets the transport it needs." "Not myself alone. In consultation with the aiji, wit the councils, with the legislatures." "Why not road development?" "Because-" Because mecheiti followed the leader. Because Bab was the leader, and Nokhada hadn't a choice, withot fighting that Nokhada didn't want, damned stupid ide and he had to say something to that question, somethin that didn't insult atevi. "Because," he said, trapped. "We couldn't predict wh might happen. Because we saw the difficulties of regula tion." He panicked. He was losing the threads of it, n( making sense, and not making sense sounded like a li "We feared at the outset the allocation of road fund might cause division within the Association. A break down of an authority we didn't understand." The interviewer hesitated, politely expressionless. you saying, nand' paidhi, that this policy was based o misapprehension?" Oh, God. "Initially, perhaps." The mind snapped bac into focus. The village problem was the atevi concerr "But we don't think it would have led to a solution the villages. If there'd been highways a hundred, tw hundred years ago, there'd have been a growth in unreg ulated commerce. If that had happened-the commerck interests would build where the biggest highways wert and the straighter the highways, the more big populati centers in a row, the more attraction they'd be-while n one but the aiji would have defended the remote villages who still would have trouble getting transportation, ve 274 / C. 3. CHERRYH much what we have now, but we'd also havethe pollution from the motors and the concentration of even more polit- ical power into the major population strings, along those roads. I see a place for a road system-4n the villages, not the population centers, as spur lines to the centralized transport system." He didn't engage the interviewer's interest. He'd gotu too detailed, too technical, or at least promised to lead to technical matters the interviewer didn't want or felt his audience didn't want. He sensed the shift in intention, as the interviewer shifted position and frowned. He was glad of it. The interviewer posed a few more questions,'about where he lived, about family associations, about what he did on vacation, thank God, none of them critical. He was sweating under the lights when the interview wound to its close and the interviewer went through the obligatory courtesies. "Thank you, nand' paidhi," the man said, and Bren withheld the sigh of relief as the lights went out. 441'm sorry," he said at once, "I'm not used to cameras. I'm afraid I wasn't very coherent at all." "You speak very well, nand' paidhi, much better than some of our assignments, I assure you. We're very pleased you found the time for us." The interviewer stood up, he stood up, Banichi stood up, from the shadowed fringes, where the lights had obscured his presence. Ev- eryone bowed. The interviewer offered a hano to shake. Someone must have told him that. "You've been informed on our customs," he ventured to say, and the interviewer was pleased and bowed, shak- ing hands with a crushing grip. There was the commercial plane returning at sunset. The news crew had another assignment in Maidingi, on the electrical outage. Thank God. The crew was packing up lights, disconnecting cable run like an infestation of red and black vines across the ancient carpets, from the remote hallways. Maigi went to retrieve the far end some- where near the kitchens, where, Bren was sure, the staff FOREIGNER / 275 was not eager to admit strangers. Everything folded awa~ into boxes. The glass-eyed animals stared back from th walls, as amazed and dazed as the paidhi. What have I done? he asked himself, asked himself i he could justify everything he'd said, when he wrote hi report to Mospheira, but they'd kept off sensitive topics he'd accomplished that much, give or take his menta lapse on the highway question. "We'd like to do more such interviews," the ma said-he could not recall the name: Daigani or somethin like it. "We'd be delighted to tape one, nand' paidhi, ac tually in Mospheira. Perhaps reciprocal arrangement with your television, but one of our crews actually o site-interviews with ordinary people, that sort of thing. "Certainly if something of the sort could be worke out," he answered. It was the answer to any unlikely pro posal. He couldn't have it go to Mospheira as somethin 'he'd agreed to. "I could contact the appropriate people-2 It was a deliberate, Give me a phone, challenge to Banich and Jago and Tabini. A dozen uneasy thoughts slithere through the back of his mind. The news services had t know that someone had tried to kill him, and no one ha mentioned that fact. He hadn't. The Bu-javid's conspira torial attitude about security seeped into the blood an bone of those who lived there-one didn't talk to th press without authorization, one didn't carry gossip, on left it to the departments with authority to state officiz policy. But he couldn't tell the news that a man had died he yesterday? Or they knew and didn't ask? He didn't know what had gone out on the news in th last week. He didn't know what was common knowledg and what wasn't, and the,policy of his office said quiet when you didn't know. So he made polite expressions and bowed and sweatec still, in spite of the cooling of the air. A front was movin in. The crew hoped their flight would beat it out. They' ridden through the front this morning, a choppy, bump 276 / C. 3. CHERRYN flight, what Jago called 'long,' and the news crew called ,uncomfortable.' But the front doors were open now, with the wind blowing through, and the light coming in, brighter than the electric bulbs in this hall, which only managed a wan, golden glow. The crew carried out their lights, the inter- viewer lingered for small talk, and Tano and Algini had their heads together over by the door, watching the crew carry the equipment-Algini had come up with them. So had Banichi. Jago was ... somewhere, probably resting; and meanwhile the thoughts about what he'd said and what he'd thought kept jostling one another at the back of his mind, clamoring for attention and further analysis. Banichi carefully disengaged the interviewer, then, and walked him as far as the door, where one last round of bows was obligatory. Bren made his own courtesies, and, with the last of the crew outside, leaned his shoulders against the shadowed back of the door and sighed in relief. "Tano and Aligini will see them down to the airport," Banichi said, turning up as a shadow out of the sunlight. "They may stay down, for supper. I discovered a good restaurant." "That's fine," he said, and didn't ask Why don't we all go? because most patrons didn't like assassinations dur- ing the salad course. He realized he'd been nervous as hell about the interview, not alone because of the ques- tions that might turn up, but because he didn't trust the crew with all those boxes of equipment, and because he didn't know these people. He'd become, he decided, thoroughly paranoid. Afraid. And he didn't think a crew from the national news net- work was going to produce explosive devices. It was stupid. "You did very well, nand' paidhi." "I couldn't get my thoughts together. I could have done better." "Tabini thinks there should be more of these inter- FOREIGNER / 2 views," Banichi said. "He thinks it's time the paidhi b came more public. More in touch with the people." "Is that going to stop the people that don't want alive?" He didn't mean to be negative. Doubtless t] move was a good idea. Doubtless Tabini thought so. B his uneasy feeling persisted. "Why don't you go upstairs, nadi, and get out of coat? You can relax now." He didn't know if he could manage to relax, for the re of the day, but the coat collar chafed, and he'd go stiff, sitting still. It was more than a good idea, to go and change clothes. It was the only thing they'd let hi do or decide for the rest of the day. His grand single cision. Until tomorrow. He said, because it was politic at the moment and b cause he'd meant it, earlier, and sullenly told himself would, again: "I was rude last night, Banichi, forgi me. "I didn't notice," Banichi said. Banichi's attention w out the door, toward the van, the doors of which we slamming shut. "I'm sorry about your associate. And for your instru tors." "It was none of your doing. Or mine. One only wish he had been wiser-but no more successful." Banichi la a hand on his shoulder, only half welcome. "Go upstah nadi." Go away, don't bother me. The paidhi could transl Banichi's thoughts were elsewhere, and he-after the he of the lights-decided he was going to go back upst and finish the bath he'd had to leave. People didn't both him in the bath. He didn't have to talk philosophy in t! bath. And it helped a soreness he didn't want to discu with the servants. It took no little time to fire up the boiler again, and water. He took the time for a light lunch, in which he re 278 / C. J. CHERRYH the first committee letters, then thought-how quickly the mind dropped into familiar ruts-that he should take computer notes. But they didn't run extension cords from the kitchen for the paidhi, no, just for news cameramen, and no one mentioned going back to Shejidan. So he had his bath, leaned his head back on the rim of the tub, steam rising around him. He had a glass of the human-compatible liquor sitting by him, and a stack of catalogs ... the vacation catalog, among diem, plus one for sports equipment-not that he had any reasonable use for a second pair of skis, or another ski suit, but, then, al- most all his catalog-perusing was wishful. Thunder rumbled through the stones. He wondered idly if the news crew's commercial flight had made it out on schedule. He truly hoped so. He wanted them out and away. He wondered, too, what Algini and Tano were up to in the rustic pleasures of Maidingi township. Sightsee- ing around the lake shore, maybe. One hoped they wouldn't be soaked. He had a sip from the sweating glass-ice in good li- quor? Tabini had asked him incredulously, early in their acquaintance. Djinana, presented with such a request, had raised his brows and blinked, much more diplomatic. And with the power on again, and the lights working, ice did exist in the kitchens. He turned the page and considered ski boots, scanned the art and culture inset, a service of the company, which described the recovery of old art from the data banks. Read the article on the building of the Mt. Allan Thomas resort, the first-luxury establishment on Mospheira, where a hardy few had resurrected the idea of skiing. Atevi were lately showing an interest in the sport, on their own mountains. Tabini caffed it suicide-then seemed to show a grudging flicker of interest himself, when he'd seen the homemade skiing tapes the paidhi had cleared through the Commission. FOREIGNER / 2 A potential common passion, human and atevi. Goo for relations. He'd almost talked Tabini into trying it, if the damne security crisis hadn't blown up. He might yet. The were, supposedly, good slopes in the Bergid, only an ho away from Shejidan-where fools risked their necks, a Tabini put it. The interview still bothered him. He still worried ov what he'd said, or what expression he'd had, when atev didn't show expression ... and he wasn't used to televi sion cameras and talking to glaring lights.... Thunder crashed. The lights flickered. And went out. Incredible. He cast a baleful look at the dimmed ceil ing, in which the bulb was out. But he refused, this time, to be inconvenienced. H water didn't become unhot instantly. The candles we still in the sconce. He got out in the warm air, took a can dle from the candelabrum on the table, lit it from th boiler flame, and with the one candle, lit the candles i the sconce. He heard the servants shouting at each othe down the hall, not panicked, except perhaps the cook who probably had reason, at this hour. But come lig ning, come storm, Malguri managed. He settled back into the hot water, complacent an competent in his atevi past-the paidhi having learned world didn't stop when the power failed. He sipped hi iced drink, and went back to the contemplation of safet ski bindings, buyer's choice, black, white, or glowi green. Hurried footsteps arrived from the accommodation. looked up as a flashlight beam flared into his eyes, w a black, metal-sparked figure behind it. "Bren-ji?" Jago asked. "Our apologies. It's general I'm afraid. Are you all right?" "Perfectly fine," he said. '~-Do you mean to tell in that that piece of equipment they just freighted in an installed-just went out?" "We truly don't know, at this point. We suspect the firs 280 / C. J. CMERRYH incident was arranged. We're investigating this one. Please stay put." Away went the sense of security. The thought of intrud- ers in the halls, while he was sitting in the bath-was not comfortable. "I'm getting out." "I'm going to be here," Jago said. "You don't have to, nadi-Ji." "I'd rather. It's fine. I was just going to read." "I'll be in the reception room. I'll tell Djinana." Jago left. He climbed out and dressed by candlelight, took a candle with him, but someone had already lit the lamps in the bedroom and in the sitting room. Rain spattered the sitting room windows, a gray same- ness that began to seem natural. He felt sorry for Banichi-who was probably out in that. Sorry, and wor- ried for his safety. He didn't understand how someone faked a lightning strike, or what they could have found out that changed things. He walked into the reception room, found Jago stand- ing in front of the window, the clouded light making a mask of her profile and glittering on her uniform. She was staring out at the lake, or at the featureless sky. "They wouldn't try the same thing again," he said. "They can't be that crazy." Jago looked at him-gave a small, strange laugh. "Per- haps that makes them clever. They expect us not to take it for granted." "They?" "Or he or she. One doesn't know, nadi. We're trying to find out." Don't bother me, he decided that meant. He stood and looked out the window, which gave him nothing at all. "Go read if you like," Jago said. As if the mind could leap, that quickly, back to ski cat- alogs. His damned well couldn't. It didn't like informa- tional voids; it didn't like silent guards lurking in his re eption room, or the chance there was a reason to need them, possibly slipping up the stairs outside. FOREIGNER / 281 Read, hell. He wanted a window that overlooked some- thing but gray. He hadn't the disposition, he decided. He was far too nervous. "Nadi Bren. Come away from the window." He didn't think about such things. He was chagrined, to be caught twice, shook his head and walked back- Jago was staring,at him with disturbing worry-set to shepherd a fool, he supposed, who walked in front of windows. "Sorry," he said. "Think as one thinks trying to reach you," she said. "Do them no favors. Go, sit, relax." Guild assassin, Banichi had said. Someone Banichi knew. Socialized with. And didn't yet know why a man had broken the rules? "Jago,-how does a person get a license?" "To do what, Bren-ji?" "You know. The Guild." He wanted not to tread on sen- sibilities with Jago. He was sorry he'd wandered into the territory. '7o be licensed to the Guild? One elects. One chooses." It told him no more than before, what pushed a sane person in that direction. Jago didn't seem the type-if there was a type to the profession. "Bren-ji. Why do you ask?" "Wondering-what sort of person is after me." Jago seemed to ignore his question then, looking off to the window. Into rain-spatter and nothing. "We're not one kind, Bren-ji. We're not one face." None of your business, he supposed. "Nadi," he said, departing, willing to leave her to her own thoughts, if he could only shake his own. "What sort becomes paidhi?" she asked him, before he could take a second step. Good question, he thought- Solid hit. He had to think about it, and didn't find the answer he'd used to have ... couldn't even locate the boy who'd started down that track, couldn't believe in him, even marginally. 282 / C. J. CHERRYN "A fool, probably." "'One doubts, nadi-ji. Is that a requirement?" "I think so." 64so ... how do you vie for this honor? In what foolish- ness?" "Curiosity. Wanting to know more than Mospheira. Doing good to the planet we're on, the people we live next to. " "Is this also Wilson?" Dead bit. What could he say? "You," Jago said, "do not act like Wilson-paidhi." "Valasi-aiji," he countered, "wasn't Tabini, either." "True," Jago said. "Very true." "Jago, 1--2' He was up against that word, which only governed salad courses. He shook his head and started to walk away. "Bren-ji. Please finish." He didn't want to talk. He wasn't sure of his rational- ity, let alone his self-control. But Jago waited. "Jago-ji, I've worked all my life, best I can do. I don't know what else I can do. Now we've lost the lights again. I don't think I've deserved this. But I ask myself, nadi, is, it my fault, have I gone too far and too fast, have I done Tabini harm by trying to help him, and is someone that damned persistent in trying to kill me? Why, Jago? Do you have the remotest notion?" "You bring change," Jago said. "To some, this is fright- ening. "The damned railroad?" The emphasis of the interview bewildered him. Jago was all but a shadow to him, ex- pressionless, unreachable. He made a frustrated dismissal with his hand and walked away toward the sitting room, only to gain a space to think, to sit down and read and take his mind off the day's bizarre turn, maybe before supper, which she might share, if no one poisoned. the cook. But he stopped again, fearing he might insult her. "if someday," he said, "this television business ever works fOREIGNER / 283 out to bring news crews onto Mospheira, I'll ask for you and Banichi to come visit my family. I'd like you to see what we are. I'd like you to know us, nadi-ji." "I'd be most honored," Jago said solemnly. So perhaps he'd patched things. He walked away into the sitting room and7threw another piece of wood onto the fire, while thunder echoed off the walls. Jago had fol- lowed him in, evidently conceiving that as what he wanted, but she said nothing, only took up looking through the sitting room library shelves instead. There was no interfering with Jago's notions of duty, or what she might conceive as being sociable. He took up his book, began to sit down. The lights came on again. He looked up, frustrated, at the ceiling fixtures. "It must have been a fuse," Jago said, from across the room. "That's good." He recalled dusty old wires running beside bare natuml gas pipes, along the hall ceiling, and envisioned the whole apartment going up in an electrical disaster. "Malguri needs a new electrical system," he muttered. "Where do they have that gas tank?" "What gas?" "Methane." "In the cellar," Jago said. "Under the building. It's a damned bomb, nadi. The place needs electric furnaces. If they've installed electric lights, surely electric furnaces can't hurt." "Funding," Jago said. "While they're looking for assassins--Ao they watch that tank?" "Every access to this building," Jago said, "is under surveillance." "Except when the power's out." Jago made a small shrug. "Those windows," he said, "aren't watched. I found that out last night, when the power came back on." Jago frowned, went close to the window, and ran a fin- 284 / C. 1. Cf4ERRYH ger around the edge of the casement, looked up an around-at what, he couldn't see. "How did you find out, Bren-ji?" "I opened a window to look out. The power came back on. The alarm went off. I take it that's an old system." "It certainly is," Jago said. "Did you report this?" "It woke the whole staff." Jago didn't look happier, but what she saw, examining the window, he couldn't tell. "Except Banichi," he said. "Except Banichi." "I don't know where he was. I told you. We had an ar- gument. He went off somewhere." He had an entirely un- welcome thought but kept his mouth shut on it, watched while Jago walked to the door, pulled it half-shut, and looked at the wall behind it, still frowning. Security didn't talk about security. He doubted an explanation was forth- coming. . "Nadi Jago," he said. "Banichi wasn't here. Do you have any notion where he was last night?" He might have remarked it was raining outside. Jago's expression never varied. She opened the door again to its ordinary position, walked out and into the reception room. The lights went out again. He looked up in frustration, then followed her into the other room to protest the si- lence and the confusion of his security. She was at the window. She unlatched the side panel, opened it and shut it again, without an alarm. "What in hell's going on, Jago?" Jago took out her pocket-com and thumbed it on, rat- tled off a string of code he didn't understand. Banichi answered. He was relatively certain it was Banichi's voice. And Jago's stance showed some small reassurance. $he answered, and cut the corn off, and put it away. "It did register," she said. "Our system registered." FOREIGNER / 285 "Yours and Banichi's?" he asked-but the com beeped and Jago thumbed it on again and answered it, frowning. Banichi's voice replied. Jago's frown deepened. She answered Banichi shortly, a sign-off, clipped the com to her belt and headed for the door. "What was that?" he asked. "What's happening? Jago?" She crossed back in two strides, seized his shoulders and looked down at him. "Bren-ji. I've never betrayed you. I will not, Bren-ji." After which she was out the hall door at the same pace. She shut it. Hard. Jago? he thought. His shoulders still felt the force of her fingers. And her footsteps were fading at a rapid pace down the hall outside, while he stood there asking himself where Banichi had been last night when he'd set the alarm off. If there was another system-Banichi had known about him opening that window, if Banichi had been monitonng it. And for whatever reason-Banichi hadn't come back when the general alarm went. Maybe because Banichi had already discounted it as a threat. But that wasn't the Banichi he knew, to take some- thing like that for granted. It was craziness, from breakfast with the dowager,to the television crew arriving in the middle of a security so tight he couldn't get a telephone. He didn't like the feel- ing he was having. He didn't like the reasons that might make Jago go running out of here, saying, in a language that didn't have a definite word for trust-trust me to take care of you. He double-checked the window latch. What kind of person could get in on the upper floor overlooking a sheer drop, he didn't know, but he didn't want to find out. He checked the outer door lock, although he'd heard it click. But what good that was when everyone on staff had keys to the back hall of this place- He had a sudden and anxious thought, went straight to 286 / C. J. CHERRYN his bedroom and, on his knees by the bed, reached under the mattress. The gun Banichi had given him ... wasn't there. He searched, thinking that the Malguri staff, mak- ing the bed, might have shifted it without knowing it was there. He lifted the mattress to be sure-found nothing; no gun, no ammunition. He let the mattress back down and arranged the bed- clothes and the furs-sat down then, on the edge of the bed, trying to keep panic at arm's length, reasoning with himself that he had as much time to discover the gun missing as they thought it might take him, before they grew anxious; and if they hadn't devised visual surveil- lance in the rooms he didn't know about, whoever had taken it didn't know yet that he'd discovered the fact. Fact: someone had it. Someone was armed with it, more to the point, who might or might not ordinarily have access to that issue pistol, or its caliber of ammunition. It was Banichi's-and if Banichi hadn't taken it himself, then somebody had a gun with an identification and a dis- tinctive marking on its bullets that could report it right back to Banichi's commander in the Bu-javid. No matter what it was used for. If Banichi didn't know what had happened-Banichi needed to know it was gone-and he didn't have a phone, a pocket-com, or any way he knew to get one, except to walk out the door, go violate some security perimeter and hope it was Banichi who answered the alarm. Which was the plan he had. Not the most discreet way to attract attention. But, again, so long as he called no one's bluff-things might stay quiet until Banichi or Jago got back. The miss- ing gun wasn't a thing to bring to the staff's attention. He could probably trust Tano and Algini, who'd come with them from Shejidan-but he didn't know that. He was rattled. He was tired, after an uneasy night and a nerve-wracking afternoon. He wasn't, perhaps, making FOREIGNER / his best decisions-wasn't up to cleverness, withou knowing more than he did. His nerves twitched to distant thunder-that also wa how tired he was. He could go try to trip alarms-bu Banichi and Jago were out in the rain, chasing someone or worse, chasing someone inside the house. His imagina tion pictured a tank of methane sitting in the basement someone with explosives-- But they mustn't deface MaIguri. Atevi wouldn't talo that route. Mishidi. Awkward. Messy. No biichi-ji. So they wouldn't explode the place. If anything hap pened, and a bullet turned up where it shouldn't, wit] marks that could trace it to Banichi, he could swear t4 what had really happened. Unless he was the corpse in question. Not a good time to go walking the halls, he decided, o startling his own security, who thought they knew when he was. He'd planned to spend the afternoon reading. Hi found he had no better or wiser plans. He got his dressin gown for a little extra warmth, went back to the sitting room fire and picked up his book, back in the histories o MaIguri. About atevi. And loyalty. And expectations that didn' work out. Expectations on his side, too-about feelings that jus weren't there. Flat weren't there, and no use-no possi bility-of changing anything to do with biology. Wha could one do? Pour human hormones into atevi blood streams, crosswire atevi brains to send impulses atev brains didn't have? And ask how humans had to fail atevi expectations, a what emotional level. There had to be an emotional level No. There didn't have to be. Terracentric thinkin again. There was nothing in the laws of the universe tha said what let atevi achieve a very respectable society o their own had to have human attributes, or respond whei humans tried to attach to them in human ways. In a rea sonable universe, it didn't have to happen; more, in 288 / C. 3. CHERRYH reasonable universe, it was more reasonable for atevi lo- comotives to resemble human-built locomotives than for atevi to resemble humans psychologically. Locomotives, designed by whatever species, had tracks for easy rolling, shafts to drive the wheels, steam or diesel, and gears to power the shafts, and a pipe to vent the smoke-that was physics. Airplanes flying through an equal density of air wouldn't tend to look like locomotives. Rockets wouldn't resemble refrigerators. Physics had its constraints for ma- chines and structures with one job to do, and physics on old Earth and physics on the earth of the atevi wasn't a smidge different. But biology, for intelligent beings with a whole damned lot of jobs to do, with microenvironments, evolu- tionary pressures, and genetic baroque sifted into the mix-had one hell of a lot of variables in potential makeup. Not anybody's fault. Not anybody's fault they'd come to this star-wormhole, discontinuity of some kind-the physics people had their theories, but no human could prove the cause from where they sat, which was on the far side of God-knew-what galac tic disk, for all they knew: no spectrum matched Sol or its neighbors, the pul- sars, which the physicists said could peg their location ... hadn't. They hadn't known where they were then, and they didn't know now-as if where they were had any abso- lute referent when they didn't know how long it had taken them to get there: hundreds of years in subspace, for all anyone knew-stuck here, able to cobble the station together- But it was a long, slow haul to the star's frozen debris belt and back to the life-zone, where they'd built the sta- tion: that, the way he'd understood it, had been the real politics, whether to build in the life-zone or at the edge of it; and the life-zone had won out, even knowing it was around a living world, even knowing someday it was go- FOREIGNER / 289 ing to mean admitting they were making a dangerous choice on very little data.... Political compromise. Accepting a someday problem to solve a near-term worry. Add in the refinery wreck and the solar storms, which no one at the time knew the limit of, and the attractive planet just lying there under their feet, hell-they'd do no damage, they'd get along, the natives already had steam, they were bound to encounter anyway, and why should they risk their precious lives trying to hold together against the odds. At least, that was how a descendant nine or so genera-, tions down reconstructed the decision-making process ... the atevi couldn't be too different. They had locomotives. They had steam mills. They had industry. They had one hell of a different hard-wiring, but you couldn't tell that from the physics they used. Couldn't tell that meeting an atevi. Hello, how are you, how's the weather? Nice people. Arrange a little trade, a little tech for an out-of-season game animal or two ... Right bang into the cultural rift. Try to settle it-make it right with the local leaders: right into the cultural whirlpool. Count the ways the first settlement had screwed it up. Count the ways they'd gotten good and deep into the in- terface before they'd begun to figure out betrayal wasn't betrayal and murder wasn't murder and that you couldn't promote one local aiji and fight another one without in- volving a continent-spanning Association with everything that conflict dragged into it. You didn't expect a steam- powered civilization to have world government ... But, then, if you were an early human colonist, maybe you didn't expect anyone to behave in any way you wouldn't. Fifty years and two paidhiin ago, Mospheira had taken a collective deep breath and thrown satellite communica- tions and rocket science onto the table, with the fervent hope that by hooking it to advanced communications, 290 / C. J. CHERRY#4 bUchi-ii and kabiu together would keep some enterprisin atevi entity from combining the explosive with the pro pellant technology and blowing their rivals to hell. Because they thought now they'd gotten to know th atevi. God help fools and tourists. He flipped an unread page of the history, realized hadn't read it, and flipped it back again, trying to concen trate on the doings of aijiin and councillors long since drifting on the Malguri winds, washed into its soil with the rains, down to the sea from Lake Maidingi rather more rapidly in this season than in fall. He was bitterly angry and his mind was wandering, back and forth inside known limits, like a caged creature, when the real answers had to lie outside the bars of his understanding. Maybe it was a point all paidhiin got to. Maybe he was the most naive, maybe because he'd gone into a relation- ship with the most friendly of aijiin, and it was so damned easy to ignore the warnings in every text he'd ever studied and fall right into the same trap as the first humans on the planet ... expecting atevi to be human. Expecting atevi to do what one naturally expected nice, sane human people to do and, God help him twice, what he wanted atevi to do, what he emotionally needed atevi to do, instead of himself waking up, paying attention to danger signals, and doing the job he'd been sent here for. He should have made that phone call, back in SheJidan, if he'd had to make it with Bu-javid guards battering down the door. He shouldn't be thinking, even at this hour, that Tabini was under some sort of pressure and desperately needed him back in Shejidan, because if that was the case, then the television network Tabini tightly managed wouldn't be looking for interviews to prove the paidhi was a nice, easy-going friendly fellow, not some shadow-villain plotting world domination or contriving death-rays to level cities. I will not betray you, Bren-ji? FOREIGNER / 291 What in hell did that mean, before Jago lit out the dooi and down the hall at the next thing to a dead run? And where's the gun, Jago? Where is Banichi's gun? The logs burned down and fell, showering sparks up the flue. He put on another, and settled back to his book. Not a word back from Banichi or Jago about what was wrong out there-whether someone had breached the se- curity perimeter, or whether someone odd had simply ar- rived at the airport or whether they'd had some dire word from Tabini. He flipped the page, figured out he'd stopped reading the second time somewhere in the middle of it, and turned it back, with a dogged effort to concentrate on the text, in atevi directions, and to make sense out of the antique, or- nate type style. The lights went on again, out again. Damn, he thought, and looked at the window. The rain was down to spatters now, gray cloud and a scattering of bright drops on the glass. The candles cast a golden glow. White light came from the window, as if the clouds were finally thinning up there. He laid the book down, got up with the intention of having a look at the weather-heard someone in his bed- room and saw DJinana coming through from the back hall. "The transformer or a bad wire?" he asked Djinana conversationally. "One hopes, a wire," DJinana said, and bowed, at the door. "Nadi, a message for you." Message? In this place of no telephones? Djinana offered him a tiny scroll-Ilisidi's seal and rib- bon, he judged before he even looked, because the red and black was Tabini's house. He opened it with his thumbnail, wondering was it something to do with the after-breakfast engagement. A cancellation, perhaps, or postponement due to the weather. 292 / C. ). CMERRYH I need to speak with you immediately, it said. I'll meet you in the downstairs hall. It had Cenedi's signature. Ix Downstairs all the oil lamps were lit and a fire burned in the hearth. The outer hall, with its ancient weap- ons and its trophy heads and its faded, antique banners, was all golds and browns and faded reds. The upward stairs and the retreating hall below them were cast in shadow, interrupted by circles of lamplight from upstairs and down. Power was still out. Power looked to stay out, this time, and Bren regretted not wearing his coat down- stairs. Someone must have had the front door open re- cently. The whole lower hall was cold. But he expected no long meeting, no formality, and the fire moderated the chill. He stood warming his hands, waiting-heard someone coming from ' Ilisidi's part of the house, and cast a glance toward that recessed, main-floor hallway. It was indeed Cenedi, dark-uniformed, with sparks of metal about his person, epitome of the Guild-licensed per- sonal bodyguard. He thought that Cenedi would come as far as the fire, and that Cenedi would deliver him some private word and then let him go back to his supper-but Cenedi walked only far enough to catch his eye and beck- oned for him to follow. Follow him-where? Bren asked himself, not as easy about this little shadow-play as about the simple sum- mons downstairs-as difficult to refuse as the rest of Ilisidi's invitations. But in this turn of events he had a moment's impulse to excuse himself upstairs on the pretext of getting his coat, FOREIGNER / 29 and to send Djinana to find Banichi or Jago-which h knew now he should already have done. Dammit, he sai to himself, if he had been half thinking upstairs ... But he no longer knew which side of many sides wa dealing in truth tonight-no longer knew for certain ho many sides there were. The gun was missing. Someon had it ... possibly Cenedi, possibly Banichi. Possibl Banichi had taken it to keep Cenedi from finding it: th chances were too convoluted to figure. If Djinana Maighi had discovered it and taken it to Cenedi, he be lieved in his heart of hearts that Djinana could not hav faced him without some visible sign of guilt. Not eve atevi was as self-controlled as Banichi or Jago. But while his guards were out and about on whateve business they were pursuing, he had been making his ow decisions this far and come to no grief, and if Cenedi di want to talk to him about the gun, best not try to blu about it and make Cenedi doubt his truthfulness, botto line. He could take responsibility on himself for it bein there. Cenedi had no way of knowing he hadn't packe the luggage himself. If the paidhi had to leave office i scandal ... God knew, it was better than seeing Tabin implicated, and the Association weakened. It was his ow mess. He might have to face the consequences of it. But if Cenedi had the gun and the serial number, surel the aiji-dowager's personal guard had the means to con tact the police and have that gun traced throug records-by the very computers the paidhi had hoped t make a universal convenience. And a lie trying to cove Banichi could make matters worse. There were just too damn many things out of place Banichi's behavior, Jago's rushing off like that, this man dead in the driveway, being some old schoolmate o Banichi's ... or whatever licensed assassins called the] fellows. Cenedi at least had missed opportunity after opportu nity to fling the paidhi off the mountainside with no on the wiser. The near-fatal tea could have been stronger. I 294 / C. J. C44ERRYH there was something sinister going on within the house- hold, if Tabini had sent him here simply to get Banichi and Jago inside Ilisidi's defenses-that was his own nightmare scenario-the paidhi was square in the middle of it; he liked Ilisidi, dammit, Cenedi had never done him any harm, and what in the name of God had he gotten himself into, coming down here to talk to Cenedi in pri- vate'? He could he with an absolutely innocent face when he had an official, canned line to hand out. But he couldn't lie effectively about things like guns, and whether Banichi was up to anything ... he didn't know any answers, either, but he couldn't deal with the ques- tions without showing an anxiety that an ateva would read as extreme. He walked through the circles of lamplight, back and back into the mid-hall where Cenedi stood waiting for him, a tall shadow against the lamplight from an open door, a shadow that disappeared inside before he reached the door. He expected only Cenedi. Another of Hisidi's guards was in the office, a man he'd ridden with that morning. He couldn't remember the name, and he didn't know at first, panicked thought what that man should have to do with him. Cenedi sat down and offered the chair at the side of his desk. "Nand' paidhi, please." And with a wry irony: "Would you-I swear to its safety---care for tea?" One could hardly refuse that courtesy. More, it ex- plained the second man, there to handle the amenities, he supposed, in a discussion Cenedi might not want bruited about outside the office. "Thank you," he said gratefully, and took the chair, while the guard poured a cup for him and one for Cenedi. Cenedi dismissed the man then, and the man shut the door as he left. The two oil lamps on the wall behind the desk cast Cenedi's broad-shouldered shape in exagger- ated, overlapping shadows, emitted fumes that made the air heavy, as, one elbow on the desk, one hand occasion- FOREIGNER / 29 ally for the teacup, Cenedi sorted through papers on hi desk as if those had the reason of the summons and h had lost precisely the one he wanted. Then Cenedi looked straight at him, a flash of lamben yellow, the quirk of a smile on his face. "How are you sitting this evening, nand' paidhi? An better?" "Better." It set him off his guard, made him laugh, little frayed nerves, there, and he sat on it. Fast. "Only one way to get over it," Cenedi said. "The dow ager's guard sympathizes, nand' paidhi. They laugh. B we've suffered. Don't think their humor aimed at you." "I didn't take it so, I assure you." "You've a fair seat for a beginner. I take it you don' spend all your time at the desk." He was flattered. But not set off his guard a secon time. "I spend it on the mountain, when I get the chance About twice a year." "Climbing?" "Skiing. "I've not tried that," Cenedi said, shuffling more pape trimming up a stack. "I've seen it on television. Som young folk trying it, up in the Bergid. No offense, but F rather a live instructor than a picture in a contraband cat alog and some promoter's notion how not to break yo neck." "Is that where my mail's been going?" "Oh, there's a market for it. The post tries to be care ful. But things do slip." Is that what this is about? Bren asked himselL Some one stealing mail? Selling illicit catalogs? "If you get me to the Bergid this winter," he said, "I'd be glad to show you the basics. Fair trade for the ridin lessons." Cenedi achieved a final, two-handed stack in his desk straightening. "I'd like that, nand' paidhi. On more th one account. I'd like to persuade the dowager back Shejidan. MaIguri is hell in the winter." 296 / C. 3. CHERRYH They still hadn't gotten to the subject. But it wasn't un- common in atevi business to meander, to set a tone. Atevi manners. "Maybe we can do that," he said. "I'd like to." Cenedi sipped his tea and set the cup down. "They don't ride on Mospheira." "No. No mecheiti." "You hunt." 'Sometimes." On Mospheira?" Were they talking about guns, now? Was that where this was going? "I have. A few times. Small game. Very small." "One remembers," Cenedi said-as if any living atevi could remember. "Is it very different, Mospheira?" "From Malguri?" One didn't quite go off one's guard. "Very. From Shejidan-much less so." "It was reputed--quite beautiful before the War." "It still is. We have very strict rules-protection of the rivers, the scenic areas. Preservation of the species we found there." Cenedi leaned back in his chair. "Do you think, nadi, there'll be a time Mospheira will open up-to either side of the strait?" "I hope it will happen." "But do you think it will happen, nand' paidbi?" Cenedi might have gotten to his subject, or might have led away from the matter of the gun simply to make him relax. He couldn't figure-and he felt more than a mild unease. The question touched policy matters on which he couldn't comment without consultation. He didn't want to say no to Cenedi, when Cenedi was being pleasant. It could target whole new areas for Cenedi's curiosity. "It's my hope. That's all I can say." He took a sip of hot tea. "It's what I work very hard for, someday to have that happen, but no paidhi can say when-it's for aijiin and presidenti to work out." FOREIGNER / 297 "Do you think this television interview is-what is your expression?-a step in the right direction?" Is that it? Publicity? Tabini's campaign for association with Mospheira? "Honestly, nadi Cenedi, I was disap- pointed. I don't think we got to any depth. There are things I wanted to say. And they never asked me those. I wasn't sure what they wanted to do with it. It worried me-what they might put in, that I hadn't meant." "I understand there's some thought about monthly broadcasts. The paidhi to the masses." 0 "1 don't know. I certainly don't decide things like that on my own. I'm obliged to consult." "By human laws, you mean." 'Yes. "You're not autonomous." "No. I'm not." Early on, atevi had expected paidhiin to make and keep agreements-but the court in Shejidan didn't have this misconception now, and he didn't believe Cenedi was any less informed. "Though in practicality, nadi, paidhiin aren't often overruled. We just don't prom- ise what we don't think our council will accept. Though we do argue with our council, and sometimes we win." "Do you favor more interviews? Will you argue for the idea?" flisidi was on the conservative side of her years. Prob- ably she didn't like television cameras in MaIguri, let alone the idea of the paidhi on regular network broad- casts. He could imagine what she might say to Tabini. "I don't know what position I'll argue. Maybe I'll wait and see how atevi, like the first one. Whether people want to see a human face---or not. I may frighten the children." Cenedi laughed. "Your face has already beer! on televi- sion, nand' paidhi, at least the official clips. 'The paidhi discussed the highway program with the minister of Works, the paidhi has indicated a major new release forthcoming in microelectronics . ..' " "But that's not an interview. And a still picture.. I can't understand why anyone would want to hear me discuss 298 / C. 1. CHERRYM the relative merits of microcircuits for an hour-long pro- gram.11 "Ali, but your microcircuits work by numbers. Such in- tricate geometries. The hobbyists would deluge the phone system. 'Give us the paidhi,' they'd say. 'Let us hear the numbers.' 11 He wasn't sure Cenedi was joking at first. A few days removed from the Bu-javid and one could forget the in- tensity, the passion of the devout number-counters. He de- cided it was a joke-Tabini's sort of joke, irreverent of the believers, impatient of the complications their factions created. "Or people can think my proposals contain wicked numbers," Bren said, himself taking a more serious turn. "As evidently some do think." And a second diversion, Cenedi delaying to reveal his reasons. '~-Is it a blown fuse, this time, nadi?" "I think it's a short somewhere. The breaker keeps go- ing off. They're trying to find the source." "Jago received some message from Banichi a while ago that distressed her, and she left. It worried me, nadi. So did your summons. Do you have any idea what's go- ing on?" "Banichi's working with the house maintenance staff. I don't know what he might have found, but he's ex- tremely exacting. His subordinates do hurry when they're asked." Cenedi took another drink of tea, a large one, and set the cup down. "I wouldn't worry about it. He'd have advised me, I think, if he 'd found anything ir- regular. Certainly house maintenance would, indepen- dent of him. -Another cup, nadi?" He'd diverted Cenedi from his conversation. He was obligated to another cup. "Thank you," he said, and started to get up to get his own tea, in the absence of a servant, and not suggesting Cenedi do the office, but Cenedi signaled otherwise, reached a long arm across the comer of the desk, picked up the pot and poured for him and for himself. FOREIGNER / 299 "Nadi, a personal curiosity-and I've never had the paidhi at hand to ask: all these years you've been dealing out secrets. When will you be out of them? And what will you do then?" Odd that no one had ever asked the paidhiin that quite that plainly ... on this side of the water, although God knew they agonized over it on Mospheira. And perhaps that was Cenedi's own and personal ques- tion, though not the question, he was sure, which Cenedi had called him downstairs specifically to answer. It was the sort of thing an astute news service might ask. The sort of thing a child might ... not a political sophisticate like Cenedi, not officially. But it was very much the sort of question he'd already begun to hint at in technical meetings, testing the waters, beginning, one hoped, to shift attitudes among atevi, and knowing atevi couldn't go much farther down certain paths, without developments resisted for years by vested interests in other departments. "Things don't only flow one way across,the strait, nadi. We learn from your scientists, quite often. Not to say we've stood still ourselves since the Landing. But the es- sential principles have been on the table for a hundred years. I'm not a scientist-but as I understand it, it's the intervening steps, the things that atevi science has to do before the principles in other areas become clear-4hose are the things still missing. There's materials science. There's the kind of industry it takes to support the sci- ence. And the education necessary for new generations to understand it. The councils are still debating the shape of baffles in fuel tanks-when no one's teaching the students in the schools why you need a slosh baffle in the first place." "You find us slow students?" That trap was obvious as a pit in the floor. And damned right they'd expected atevi to pick things up faster-give or take aijiin who wouldn't budge and committees that wouldn't release a process until they'd debated it to 300 / C. 3. CHERRYH death. An incredibly short path to flight and advanced metallurgy. An incredibly difficult one to get a damn bridge built as it needed to be to stand the stresses of heavy-hauling trains. "Extremely quick students," he said, "interminable de- baters." Cenedi laughed. "And humans debate nothing." "But we don't have to debate the technology, nadi Cenedi. We have it. We use it." "Did it bring you success?" Watch it, he thought. Watch it. He gave a self- deprecating shrug, atevi-style. "We're comfortable in the association we've made. The last secrets are potentially on the table, nadi. We just can't get atevi conservatives to accept the essential parts of them. Our secrets are full of numbers. Our numbers describe the universe. And how can the universe be unfortunate? We are confused when certain people claim the numbers add in anything but fe- licitous combination. We can only believe nature." He was talking to Ilisidi's seniormost guard, Ilisidi, who chose to reside in Malguri. Ilisidi,,who hunted for her table-but believed in the necessity of dragonettes. "Surely, in my own opinion, not an expert opinion, nadi, someone must have added in what nature didn't put in the equations." It was a very reckless thing to say, on one level. On the other, he hadn't said which philosophy of numbers he faulted and which he favored, out of half a dozen he per- sonally knew in practice, and, human-wise, couldn't do in his head. He personally wanted to know where Cenedi, personally, stood-and Cenedi's mouth tightened in a rare amusement. "While the computers you design secretly assign un- lucky attributes," Cenedi said wryly. "And swing the stars in their courses." "Not that I've seen happen. The stars go where nature has them going, nadi Cenedi. The same with the reasons for slosh baffles." FOREIGNER / 301 "Are we superstitious fools?" "Assuredly not. There's nothing wrong with this world. There's nothing wrong with MaIguri. There's nothing wrong with the way things worked before we arrived. It's just-if atevi want what we know- "Counting numbers is folly?" Cenedi wanted him to adniit to heresy. He had a sud- den, panicked fear of a hidden tape recorder-and an equal fear of a lie to this man, a lie that would break the pretense of courtesy with Cenedi before he completely understood what the game was. "We've given atevi true numbers, nadi, I'll swear to that. Numbers that work, although some doubt them, even in the face of the evidence of nature right in front of them." "Some doubt human good will, more than they doubt the numbers." So it wasn't casual conversation Cenedi was making. They sat here by the light of oil lamps-he sat here, in Cenedi's territory, with his own security elsewhere and, for all he knew, uninformed of his position, his conversa- tion, his danger. "Nadi, my predecessors in the office never made any secret how we came here. We arrived at this star com- pletely by accident, and completely desperate. We'd no idea atevi existed. We didn't want to starve to death. We saw our equipment damaged. We knew it was a risk to us and, I admit it, to you, for us to go down from the station and land-but we saw atevi already well advanced down a technological path very similar to ours. We thought we could avoid harming anyone. We thought the place where we landed was remote from any association-since it had no buildings. That was the first mistake." "Which party do you consider made the second?" They were charting a course through ice floes. Nothing Cenedi asked was forbidden. Nothing he answered was controversial-right down the line of the accepted truth as paidhiin had told it for over a hundred years. 302 / C. 1. CHERRYN But he thought for a fleeting second about the mecheiti, and about atevi government~ while Cenedi waited-too long, he thought, to let him refuse the man some gain. "I blame the War," he said, "on both sides giving wrong signals. We thought we'd received encouragement to things that turned out quite wrong, fatally wrong, as it turned out." "What sort of encouragement?" "We thought we'd received encouragement to come close, encouragement to treat each other as . . ." There wasn't a word. "Known. After we'd developed expecta- tions. We went to all-out war after we'd had a promising beginning of a settlement. People who think they were betrayed don't believe twice in assurances." "You're saying you weren't at fault." "I'm saying atevi weren't, either. I believe that." Cenedi tapped the fingers of one hand, together, against the desk, thinking, it seemed. Then: "An accident brought you to us. Was it a mistake of numbers?" He found breath scarce in the room, perhaps the oil lamps, perhaps having gone in over his head with a very well-prepared man. "We don't know," he said. "Or I don't. I'm not a scien- tist." "But don't your numbers describe nature? Was it a su- pernatural accident?" "I don't think so, nadi. Machinery may have broken. Such things do happen. Space is a vacuum, but it has dust, it has rocks-like trying to figure which of millions of dust motes you might disturb by breathing." "Then your numbers aren't perfect." Another pitfall of heresy. "Nadi, engineers approxi- mate, and nature corrects them. We approach nature. Our numbers work, and nature doesn't correct us constantly. Only sometimes. We're good. We're not perfect." "And the War was one of these imperfections?" "A very great one. -But we can learn, nadi. I've in- sulted Jago at least twice, but she was patient until I fig- FOREIGNER / 303 ured it out. Banichi's made me extremely unhappy-and I know for certain he didn't know what he did, but I don't cease to value associating with him. I've probably done harm to others I don't know about,-but at least, at least, nadi, at very least we're not angry with each other, and we each know that the other side means to be fair. We make a lot of mistakes ... but people can make up their minds to be patient." Cenedi sat staring at him, giving him the feeling ... he didn't know why ... that he had entered on very shaky ground with Cenedi. But he hadn't lost yet. He hadn't made a fatal mistake. He wished he knew whether Banichi knew where he was at the moment. "Yet," Cenedi said, "someone wasn't patient. Someone attempted your life." "Evidently.,, "Do you have any idea why?" "I have no idea, nadi. I truly don't, in specific, but I'm aware some people just don't like humans." Cenedi opened the drawer of his desk and took out a roll of paper heavy with the red and black ribbons of the aiji's house. Ilisidi's, he thought apprehensively, as Cenedi passed it across the desk to him. He unrolled it and saw instead a familiar hand. Tabini's. I send you a man, 'Sidi-ji, for your disposition. I have filed Intent on his behalf, for his protection from facele agencies, not, I think, agencies faceless to you, but I make no complaint against you regarding a course of action which under extraordinary circumstances you personally may have considered necessary. What is this? he thought and, in the sudden, frantic sense of limited time, read again, trying to understand was it Tabini's threat against Ilisidi or was he saying Ilisidi was behind the attack on him? And Tabini sent him here? Therefore I relieve you of that unpleasant and danger- 304 / C. 3. CHERRYM ous necessity, 'Sidi-ji, my favorite enemy, knowing that others may have acted against me invidiously, or for per- sonal gain, but that you, alone, have consistently taken a stand of principle and policy against the Treaty. Neither I nor my agents will oppose your inquiries or your disposition of the paidhi-aiji at this most dangerous juncture. I require only that you inform me of your con- sidered conclusions, and we will discuss solutions and choices. Disposition of the paidhi? Tabini, Tabini, for God's sake, what are you doing to me? My agents have instructions to remain but not to inter- fe re. Tabini-aiji with profound respect To Ilisidi of MaIguri, in Malguri, in Maidingi Prov- ince ... His hands shook. He tried not to let them. He read the letter two and three times, and found no other possible in- terpretation. It was Tabini's handwriting. It was Tabini's seal. There was no possible forgery. He tried to memorize the wording in the little time he reasonably had to hold the document, but the elaborate letters blurred in his eyes. Reason tried to intervene, interposing the professional, intellectual understanding that Tabini was atevi, that friendship didn't guide him, that Tabini couldn't even comprehend the word. That Tabini, in the long run, had to act in atevi inter- ests, and as an ateva, not in any human-influenced way that needed to make sense to him. Intellect argued that he couldn't waste time feeling, anything, or interpreting anything by human rules. Intel- lect argued that he was in dire and deep trouble in this place, that he had a slim hope in the indication that Banichi and Jago were to stay here-an even wilder hope in the possibility Tabini might have been compelled to be- tray him, and that Tabini had kept Banichi and Jago on hand for a reason ... a wild and improbable rescue ... But it was all a very thin, very remote possibility, con- JW Am, FOREIGNER / 3 sidering that Tabini had felt constrained to write such letter at all. And if Tabini was willing to risk the paidhi's life a along with it the advantage of Mospheira's technolog one could only conclude that Tabini's power was thre ened in some substantial.way that Tabini couldn't resi Or one could argue that the paidhi had complete failed to understand the situation he was in. Which offered no hope, either. He handed Cenedi back the letter with, he hoped, n quite so obvious a tremor in his hands as might ha, been. He wasn't afraid. He found that curious. He w aware only of a knot in his throat, and a chill lack of se sation in his fingers. "Nadi," he said quietly. "I don't understand. Are y the ones trying to kill me in Shejidan?" "Not directly. But denial wouldn't serve the truth, e ther." Tabini had armed him contrary to the treaty. Cenedi had killed an assassin on the grounds. Hadn he? The confusion piled up around him. "Where's Banichi? And Jago? Do they know abo this? Do they know where I am?" "They know. I say that denial of responsibility wou be a lie. But I will also own that we are embarrassed b the actions of an associate who called on a licensed pri fessional for a disgraceful action. The Guild has been en barrassed by the actions of a single individual acting f( personal conviction. I personally--embarrassed my~elf, i the incident of the tea. More, you accepted my apolog which makes my duty at this moment no easier, nan paidhi. I assure you there is nothing personal in this co frontation. But I will do whatever I feel sufficient to fin the truth in this situation." "What situation?" "Nand' paidhi. Do you ever mislead us? Do you ev tell us less-or more-than the truthT' 306 / C. 3. CHERRY+I His hazard didn't warrant rushing to judgment head- long---or dealing in on-the-spot absolutes, with a man the extent of whose information or misinformation he didn't know. He tried to think. He tried to be absolutely careful. "Nadi, there are times I may know ... some small technical detail,, a circuit, a mode of operation- sometimes a whole technological field-that I haven't brought to the appropriate committee; or that I haven't put forward to the aiji. But it's not that I don't intend to bring it forward, no more than other paidhiin have ever withheld what they know. There is no technology we have that I intend to withhold---ever." "Have you ever, in collaboration with Tabini, rendered additional numbers into the transmissions from Mos- pheira to the station?" God. "Ask the aiji." "Have those numbers been supplied to you by the aiji?" "Ask him." Cenedi looked through papers, and looked up again, his dark face absolutely impassive. "I'm asking you, nand' paidhi. Have those numbers been supplied to you by the aiji?" "That's Tabini's business. Not mine." His hands were cold. He worked his fingers and tried to pretend to him- self that the debate was no more serious than a council meeting, at which, very rarely, the questions grew hot and quick. "If Tabini-aiji sends to Mospheira, I render what he says accurately. That's my job. I wouldn't misrepresent him, or Mospheira. That is my integrity, nadi Cenedi. I don't lie to either party." Another silence, long and tense, in which the thunder of an outside storm rumbled through the stones. "Have you always told the truth, nadi?" "In such transactions? Yes. To both sides." "I have questions for you, in the name of the aiji- dowager. Will you answer diemT' FOREIGNER / 30 The walls of the trap closed. It was the nightmare eve paidhi had feared and no one had yet met, until, God he him, he had walked right into it, trusting atevi eve though he couldn't translate the concept of trust to the persisting in trusting them when his own advisors said n standing so doggedly by his belief in Tabini's personal a tachment to him that he hadn't called his office when he' received every possible warning things were goin wrong. If Cenedi wanted to use force now ... be had no hel If Cenedi wanted him to swear that there was a hum plot against atevi ... he had no idea whether he coul hold out against saying whatever Cenedi wanted. He gave a slight, atevi shrug, a move of one hand. "A best I can," he said, "I'll answer, as best I personall know the answers." "Mospheira has . . . how many people?" "About four million." "No atevi." "No atevi." "Have atevi ever come there, since the Treaty?" "No, nadi. There haven't. Except the airline crews." "What do you think of the concept of a paidhi-atevi? "Early on, we wanted it. We tried to get it into th Treaty as a condition of the cease fire, because we wante to understand atevi better than we did. We knew we' misunderstood. We knew we were partially responsibl for the War. But atevi refused. If atevi were willing, no absolutely I'd support the idea." "You've nothing to hide, you as a people? It wouldn provoke resentment, to have an ateva resident o Mospheira, admitted to your councils?" "I think it would be very useful for atevi to learn ot customs. I'd sponsor it. I'd argue passionately in favor it." "You don't fear atevi spies any longer." "I've told you-there are no more secrets. There' nothing to spy on. We live very similar lives. We hav 308 / C. J. CHERRYM very similar conveniences. You wouldn't know the differ- ence between Adams Town and Shejidan." "I would not?" "We're very similar. And not-2' he added deliberately, "not that all-the influence has come from us to you, nadi. I tell you, we've found a good many atevi ideas very wise. You'd feel quite at home in some particulars. We have learned from you." He doubted Cenedi quite believed that. He saw the frown. "Could there," Cenedi asked him, "regarding the se- crets you say you've provided-be any important area held back?" "Biological research. Understanding of genetics. That's the last, the most difficult." "Why is that the last?" "Numbers. Like space. The size of the numbers. One hopes that computers will find more general acceptance among atevi. One needs computers, nadi, adept as you are m mathematics-you still need them. I confess I can't follow everything you do in your heads, but you have to have the computers for space science, for record-keeping, and for genetics as we practice it." "The number-counters don't believe that. Some say computers are inauspicious and misleading." "Some also do admit a fascination with them. I've heard some numerologists are writing software ... and criticizing our hardware. They're quite right. Our scien- tists are very interested in their opinions." "In atevi invention." "Very much so." "What can we possibly invent? Humans have done it all." "Oh, no, no, nadi, far from all. It's a wide universe. And our ship did once break down." "Wide enough, this universe?" He almost said-beyond calculation. But that was her- 4 FOREIGNER / 30 esy. "At least beyond what I know, nadi. Beyond an limit we've found with our ships." "Is it? But what use is it?" Occasionally he met a new atevi attitude-inevitabl astonishing. "What use is the earth, nadi? What use is whole world except that we're in it? It's where we a nadi. Its use is that we exist. There may be more impor. tant positions in the universe, but from where we stan it's all that is important." "You believe that some things are uncountable?" The heresy pit again. He reached for an irrefutable aT swer, knowing that, if the wrong thing went -down o tape-the extremists had him. "If one had the vision see diem, I'm sure one could count them." "Does anyone have universal vision?" Another atevi sect, for all he knew. "I wouldn't kno nadi. I'm certainly not that person." Damned if Cenedi believed the numerologists. Bt what Cenedi might want for political reasons, he had n way to guess. He wanted out of this line of questionin~ "More tea?" Cenedi asked him. "Nadi, thank you, I have some left." "Do you suspect me personally as an enemy?" "I don't know. I certainly hope not. I've found yo company pleasant and I hope it to continue." "There is nothing personal in my position, nand paidhi. "I trust so. I don't know how I could have offende you. Certainly not by intent." "Heresy is not the charge here, understand. I find al the number-counting complete, primitive foolishness." "But tapes can be edited." "So can television," Cenedi said. "You provide Tabini-aiji with abundant material today." The television? He'd put it from his mind, in the shoc of reading Tabini's letter. But now that Cenedi said it, h factored it in with that letter-all the personal, easy ques tions, about himself, his life, his associations. 310 / C. ). CHERRYN Double-cross, by the only ateva he absolutely trus with his life, double-cross by the aiji who held all the agreements with human civilization. Tabini had armed him against assassins-and in the light of that letter he couldn't prove the assassins weren't Tabini's. Tabini gave him a gun that could be found and' traced by the markings on its bullets. But when he'd used it, and drawn blood, Banichi had given him another. He didn't understand that. Although perhaps Banichi hadn't understood then, ei- ther, and done the loyal thing, not being in on the plot. All his reckonings ran in circles--and now Banichi's gun was gone from under his mattress, when they could pho- tograph anything, plant any piece of evidence, and fill in the serial numbers later ... he knew at least some of the tricks they could use. He'd studied them. The administra- tion had made him study them until his head rattled with them, and he hadn't wanted to believe he'd ever need to know. Not with Tabini, no. Not with a man who confided in him, who told him of- ficial secrets he didn't, out of respect for this man, con- vey to Mospheira. . . . "How many people live on Mospheira?" Cenedi asked. "You asked that, nadL About four million. Four million three hundred thousand." "We'll repeat questions from time to time, just to be sure.-Does that count children?" Question after question, then, about support for the rail system, about the vetoes his predecessor had cast, about power plants, about dams and highways and the ecologi- cal studies, on Mospheira and on the mainland. About the air link between the island and the mainland, and the road system in Mospheira's highland north and center. Nothing at any point that was classified. Nothing they couldn't find out from the catalogs and from his pri- vate mail, wherever that was going. -10MIGNER / 311 fore the satellites. They might have, out of the vacation catalogs, assembled a mosaic of Mospheira's roads, cities, streets, might have photographed the coastal cities, where regular cargo flights came in from Shejidan and flew out with human-manufactured electronics, textiles, seafood and pharmaceuticals. "Do you have many associates on Mospheira, nadi? What are their names?" "What do you do regularly when you go back to Mospheira, nadi? Surely you spend some official time... T' "You had a weapon in your quarters, nadi. What did you plan to do with it?" Admit nothing, he thought. There was no friendly ques- tion. "I'm unaware of any gun." "An object that size, under your mattress." "I don't know. Maybe it arrived and departed the same day." "Please don't joke, nadi. This is an extremely serious business." "I'm aware it is. But I assure you, I didn't bring it here and I didn't put it under my mattress." "It appeared spontaneously." "It must have. I've no other answer. Nadi, what would I do with it? I'm no marksman. I'm no danger with a gun, except to myself and the furniture." "Nadi. We know this gun didn't originate in MaIguri. We have its registration." He looked elsewhere, at the double-edged shadows on the wall. Maybe Tabini had lost politically, somehow, in some way that,mandated turning him over to a rival en- tity. He didn't know who he was defending, now, in the matter of the disappearing gun, whether Tabini from his rivals or Banichi from prosecution, or whether Banichi's substitution of that gun had muddied things up so badly that everyone looked guilty. But he had no question now where the gun had gone. And, as for lying, he adopted his own official line. Probably they had found it out from his mail, long be- 312 C. 3. CHERWH .J, "Nadi," i"_enedi said. "Answer the question." "I thought it was a statement, nadi. Forgive me. I don't own a gun. I didn't put it there. That's all I can say." "You fired at the assassin in Shejidan, nand' paidhi." "No. I raised an alarm. Banichi fired when the man ran. 99 "Banichi's aim is not, then, what I'd expect of him." "It was dark, it was raining, and the man was running." "And there was no one but yourself in the room." "I heard a noise. I roused the guard." "Banichi regularly stands guard by your door at night?" "I don't know, I suppose he had some business in the halls-some lady. I didn't ask him." "Nadi, you're lying. This doesn't help anyone." "Only dime people in the world know what happened that night: myself, Banichi, and the man on that balcony-who was surely not you, Cenedi-ji. Was it?" "No. It's not my method of choice." That was probably a joke. He didn't know whether to take it as one. He was scared, and sure that Cenedi had information from sources he didn't know about. Cenedi was building a case of some kind. And while there were laws against kidnapping, and against holding a person by force, there were none against what Tabini had done in sending him here. "You have no idea how the gun got there," Cenedi said. "You state emphatically that you didn't know it was there." "Yes.,' Cenedi leaned back in his chair and stared at him, a long, long moment. "Banichi gave you the gun." "No, nadi. He did not." "Nand' paidhi, there are people of the dowager's ac- quaintance, closely associated people, whose associations with Tabini-aiji are through the aiji-dowager. They don't accept this piece of paper, this Treaty with Mospheira. Pieces of paper don't impress them at all, and, quite fDREIGNER I frankly, they don't consider the cession of Mospheira gitimate or effective." That crowd, he thought with a chill. The conservati fringe. The attack-the-beaches element. He didn't want believe it. "We've received inquiry from them," Cenedi said. fact, their agents have come to Malguri requesting you turned over to them, urging the aiji-dowager to ab association with Tabini altogether. They argue the is valueless. That Tabini-aiji is leading in a wrong di tion. We've arranged a compromise. They need certain formation, I've indicated we can obtain it for them, they'll not request you be turned over to them." It was a nightmare. He didn't know what aspect of it try to deal with. Finding out where Cenedi stood s foremost. "Are you working for the aiji-dowager, nadi?" "Always. Without exception.,' "And what side is she taking? For or against Tabini "She has no man'chi. She acts for herself." "To replace him?" "That would be a possibility, nadi. She would do n ing that reduces her independence." Nothing that reduces her independence. Ilisidi had I the. election in the hasdrawad. Twice. Once five ye ago, to Tabini. And Tabini had to write that letter and send him Ifisidi? "Will you give me the statements I need, nan paidhi?" It wasn't an easy answer. Possibly-possibly Tabi hadn't really betrayed him. Possibly Tabini's admini tion was on its way down in defeat, and he'd never the earthquake. He couldn't believe that. But atevi po tics had confounded paidhiin before him. "Nand' paidhi," Cenedi said. "These people have se to Malguri to bring you back to their authorities. If I gi you over to them, I don't say we can't get you back-b 314 / C. 3. CHERRYH in what condition I can hardly promise. They might carry their questioning much further, into technology, weapons, and space-based systems, things in which we have no in- terest, and in which we have no reason to believe you haven't told the truth. Please don't delude yourself: this is not machimi, and no one keeps secrets from profession- als. If you give me the statement I want, that will bring Tabini down, we can be cordial. If I can't show them that-2' His mind was racing. He was losing bits of what Cenedi was saying, and that could be disastrous. '~-I've no choice but to let them obtain it their way. And I had much rather keep you from that, nand' paidhi. Again: who fired the gun?" "Banichi fired the gun." "Who gave you the gun?" "No one gave me a gun, nadi." Cenedi sighed and pressed a button. Not a historical relic, a distracted comer of his mind objected. But prob- ably a great deal else around Cenedi's office wasn't his- torical, or outmoded. They waited. He could, he thought, change his mind. He could give Cenedi what he wanted, change sides-but he had Cenedi's word ... and that letter ... to tell him what was really going on, and he didn't believe it, not wholly. Tabini had been too canny, too much the politi- cian, to go down without a maneuver tried, and he might, for all he knew, be a piece Tabini still counted his. Still relied on. Which was stupid to think. If Tabini wanted him to take any active role in this, if that letter wasn't to take se- riously, Tabini could have told him, Banichi or Jago could hav6 told him-someone could have told him what in hell they wanted him to do. And he could have called his office, the way he was supposed to, and filed a report. The door behind him opened. He had no illusions ab making an escape from Malguri-half the c away from human territory, with no phone and no one rely on except Jago and Banichi-and that was, a chance; but out-muscling two strong atevi who head and shoulders taller than he did, who loomed him and laid hands on his arms as he got up from chair . . . that hardly felt like a sane chance, either. Cenedi looked at him, and said nothing as they him out into the dim hall. They were taking him back into MaIguri's farther wing, outside the territory knew, farther and farther from the outside door, and had at least a notion Banichi might be on the grounds Cenedi had told the truth, working wherever the po lines came into the building. He might reach Banichi, least raise an alann-if he could overpower two three, counting Cenedi, and one had better count C And get out of Cenedi's hearing. I need the restroom," he said, planting his feet, heart beating like a hammer. It was stupid, but after cups of tea, it was also the truth. "Just wait a minute, 1-need the restroom ...... "Restroom," one said, and they brought him down the hall to a backstairs room he judged must under his own accommodation, and no more modem. The one shut the outside door. The other stayed cl to him, and stood by while he did what he'd complai he needed to, and washed his hands and desperately sured his chances against them. It had been a long since he'd studied martial arts, a long time since he'd I worked out, and not so long for them, he was certain that. He walked back toward the door in the hope the would make the mistake of opening it in advance 316 / C. 3. CHERRYM him-the man didn't, and that moment of transition was the only and last chance. He jabbed an elbow into the man at his leftj tried to come about for a kick to clear the man from the door, and knew he was in trouble the split second before he found his wrist and his shoulder twisted around in a move that could break his arm. "All right, all right," he gasped, then had the unforgiv- ing stone wall against the side of his face and found the breath he desperately needed to draw brought that trapped arm closer to breaking. A lot of breathing then, theirs, his. The venue didn't lend itself to complex reasoning, or argument about any- thing but the pain. He felt a cord come around his wrist, worse and worse, and he made another try at freeing him- self as the one man opened the bathroom door. But the cord and the twist and lock on his arm gave the other guard a compelling argument. He went where they wanted: it was all he could do-a short walk down the hall and to a doorway with lamplit stone steps leading downward to a basement he hadn't known existed in MaIguri. "I want to talk to Banichi," he said at the top step, and balked. Which convinced him they had no idea of the fragility of human joints and the guard was imminently, truly go- ing to break the arm. He tried to take the step and missed it, lost his balance completely, and the guard shoved him along regardless, using the arm for leverage until he got his feet marginally under him and made the next several steps down on his own. Vision blurred, a teary haze of lamplight from a single hanging source. Stone walls, no furniture but that solitary, hanging oil lamp and a table and chair. Thunder shook the stones, even this deep into the rock, seeming like a last message from the outside world. There was another doorway, open on a dark corri- dor. They shoved him at it. There wasn't any help. Unless Banichi was on some side of this he couldn't figure, there wasn't going to be any. He'd lost his bipat bid, thrown it away in a try at FOREIGNER / fighting two atevi hand to hand-but if he could get Ic erage to get free ... before they could get a door shut him-and he could get the door behind them shut- It wasn't a good chance. It wasn't any chance. But was desperate as they took him aside, through a door a dark cell with no light except from the room down hall. He figured they meant to turn him loose here, he prepared to come back at them, duck low and see if could get past them. But when the guard let go, he kept the wrist co swung him about by that and backed him against the w while his fellow grabbed the other arm. He kicked got a casual knee in the gut for his trouble, the atevi hf ing their hands full. "Don't," that one said, while he was trying to get wind back. "No more, do you hear me?" After which they hooked his feet out from under hi stretched his one arm out along a metal bar, while the s ond guard pulled the other arm in the other direction, tied it tight with cord from wrist to elbow. For most of it, he was still trying to breathe--damn mess, was all he could think, over and over, classic ati way of handling a troublesome case, only the bar was average human height and he couldn't get his knees the ground or his feet under him. Just not damned co fortable, he thought-couldn't get out of it by any me he could think of-couldn't even find a place to put knees to protect vital parts of his body from the worki over he expected. But they went away and left him instead, withou word, only brushing off their hands and dusting clothes, as if he had ruffled their dignity. He dreaded shutting the door and leaving him in the dark ... but th loft it as it was, so there was an open door within si and their shadows retreating on the hall floor outside. heard their voices echoing, the two of them talking ab having a drink, in the way of workmen with a job f ished. 318 1 C. ). CHERRYH He heard them go away up the door shut. After that was-just-silence. steps, and heard the They had told him at the very outset of his training, that if the situation ever really blew up like this, suicide was a job requirement. They didn't want a human in atevi hands spilling technological information ad lib and indefinitely-a very serious worry early on, when atevi hadn't reached the political stability they had had for a century, and when rivalry between associations had been a constant threat to the Treaty ... oh, no, it couldn't hap- pen, not in remotest imagination. But they still taught the course-he knew a dozen pain- less methods-and they still said, if there was no other option, take it-because there was no rescue coming and no way anyone would risk the peace to bring him out. Not that there was much he could tell anybody, except political information against Tabini. Technology nowa- days was so esoteric the paidhi didn't know it until he had his briefing on Mospheira, and he worked at it until be could translate it and make sense of it to atevi experts. There was no way they could beat atomic secrets out of him, no more than he could explain trans-light technol- ogy. But he couldn't let them use him politically, either- couldn't make statements for them to edit and twist out of context, not without marks on him to show the world he was under duress. And he'd made the television interview-sitting there quite at ease in front of the cameras. He'd let Cenedi get his answers on tape, including his damning refusal to attribute the gun. They had all the vi- suals and sound bites they could want. Damn, he thought. He'd screwed it. He'd screwed it beyond any repair. Hanks was in charge, as of now, and damn, he wished there was better, and more imaginative, and somebody to realize Tabini was still the best bet they had. Emir JEWP_ FOREIGNER Overthrow Tabini, replace him with the humanophob and him with Deana Hanks, and watch everything 9 ations had built go to absolute hell. He believed it. A the hard-liners among humans who thought he'd go entirely too friendly with Tabini ... they weren't right, refused to believe they were right; but they'd have thi field day saying so. The irony was, the hard-liners, the nuke-the-oppositi factions, were alike on both sides of the strait. And- couldn't turn the situation over to diem. Mistake to have taken himself out of Cenedi's ban( He believed that now. He had to tough it out someho find out if Banichi was involved, or a prisoner, or wh get them to bring Cenedi back in, get the ear of so who'd listen to reason. Plenty of time for the mind to race over plans and p and plans. But when the cold got into his bones and the muscl started to stiffen and then to hurt-the mind found things to occupy it besides plans for how to fix what he screwed up, the mind found the body was damned u comfortable, and it hurt, and he might never get out this cellar if he didn't give these people everything wanted. But he couldn't do that. He couldn't, wouldn't, had] done his job half right or he wouldn't be here, but wasn't going to finish it by bringing Tabini down. Only hope he had, he kept telling himself. Tabini w a canny son of a bitch when he had to be. Damn hi he'd given up a card he'd known he had to cede-kn humans wouldn't fight over him; and having not a hum bone in his body, didn'tfeel what a human would. He gotten his television interview. He'd show the world a the humans that Bren Cameron was well-disposed him--he'd slipped that television crew in neatly as con be and gotten his essential interview just before the o side moved in their agents with their demands on Ilisi who was probably fence-sitting and playing neutral. f 320 / C. 1. CHERRYM Check, and mate. Put him in one hell of a position, Tabini had. Thanks a lot, he thought. Thanks a lot, Tabini. But we need you. Peace-depends on you staying in power. You know they'll replace me. Give you a brand new paidbi, a new quantity for the number-counters to figure out and argue over. Switch the dice on them-leave them with a new puzzle and humans not reacting the way atevi would. You son of a bitch, Tabini-ji. The time seemed to stretch into hours, from terror to pain, to boredom and an acute misery of stiffened mus- cles, numb spots, cold metal and cold stone. He didn't hear the thunder anymore. He couldn't find an angle to put his legs that didn't hurt his back or his knees or his shoulders, and every try hurt. Imagination in the quiet and the dark was no asset at all-too much television~ Banichi would tell him. But Banichi had either turned coat-which meant Banichi's man'chi had always been something other than even Tabini thought-or Banichi had landed in the same trouble as he was. In his fondest hope, Banichi or Jago would come through that door and cut him free before the opposition put him on their urgent list. Maybe the delay in dealing with him was because they were looking for Banichi and Jago. Maybe Jago's quick exit when he'd last talked with her, and that com message from Banichi-had been be- cause Banichi knew something, and Banichi had called her, knowing they had to be free in order to do anything to free him.... It was a good machimi plot, but it didn't happen. It wasn't going to happen. He just bung there and hurt in various sprained places, and finally heard the outer hall door open. Footsteps descended the stone steps into the outer room-two sets of footsteps, or three, he wasn't entirely i FOREIGNER / 32 sure, then. decided on three: he heard voices, saying some thing he couldn't make out. He reached a certain pitch o panic fear, deciding whatever was going to happen wa about to happen. But no one came, so he thought the he with it and let his head fall forward, which could reliev the ache in his neck for maybe five minutes at a time. Then voices he'd decided were going to stay in th next room became noises in the hall; and when he looke up, a shadow walked in-someone in guard uniform, h couldn't see against the light, but he could see the sp of metal off the shadows that filled his field of vision. "Good evening," he said to his visitor. "Or is it middle of the night?" The shadow left him, and nerves ratcheted to the poir of pain began a series of tremors that he decided must b the stage before paralysis set into his legs, like that in hi fingers. He didn't want that. He hoped maybe that wa just a guard checking on him, and they'd go away. The steps came back. He was supposed to be scared b this silent coming and going, he decided-and that, wit the pain, made him mad. He'd hoped to get to mad ... h always found a state of temper more comforting than state of terror. But this time more arrived, bringing a wooden cha from somewhere, and a tape recorder-all of them sha( ows casting other shadows in the light from the doorwa~ The recorder cast a shadow, too, and a red light glowe on it when one of them bent and pressed the button. "Live, on tape," he said. He saw no reason to forbe anything, and he'stayed angry, now, though on the edge terror. He'd not deserved this, he told himself-not d served it of Tabini, or Cenedi, or Ilisidi. "So who a you? What do you want, nadi? Anything reasonable? I' sure not." "No fear at all?" the shadow asked him. "No remors no regret?" "What should I regret, nadi? Relying on the dowager 322 / C. 3. CHERWH k hospitality? Lf I've passed my welcome here, I apologize, and I'd like to-leave-" One shadow separated itself from the others, picked up the chair, turned it quietly face about and sat down, arms folded on the low back. "Where did you get the gun?" this shadow asked, a stranger's voice. "I didn't have a gun. Banichi fired. I didn't." "Why would Banichi involve himself? And why did it turn up in your bed?" "I've no idea." "Has Banichi ever gone with you to Mospheira?" "No." "Gone to Mospheira at allT' "No. No ateva has, in my lifetime." "You're lying about the gun, aren't you?" "No," he said. The tic in his left leg started again. He tried to stay calm and to think, while the questions came one after the other and periodically circled back to the business of the gun. The tape ran out, and he watched them replace it. The tic never let up. Another one threatened, in his right arm, and he tried to change position to relieve it. "What do you project," the next question was, on a new tape, "on future raw metals shipments to Mospheira? Why the increase?" "Because Mospheira's infrastructure is wearing out." It was the pat answer, the simplistic answer. "We need the raw metals. We have our own processing requirements." "And your own launch site?" Wasn't the same question. His heart skipped a beat. He knew he took too long. "What launch site?" "We know. You gave us satellites. Shouldn't we know?" "Don't launch from Mospheira latitude. Can't. Not practical." "Possible. Practical, if that's the site you have. Or do FOREIGNER / 323 any boats leave Mospheira that don't have to do with fishing?" What damned boats? he asked himself If there was anything, he didn't know it, and he didn't rule that out. "We're not building any launch site, nadi, I swear to you. If we are, the paidhi isn't aware of it." "You slip numbers into the dataflow. You encourage sectarian debates to delay us. Most clearly you're stock- piling metals. You increase your demands for steel, for gold-you give us industries, and you trade us micro- circuits for graphite, for titanium, aluminum, palladium, elements we didn't know existed a hundred years ago and, thanks to you, now we have a use for. Now you im- port them, minerals that don't exist on Mospheira. For what? For what do you use these things, if not the same things you've taught us to use them for, for light-lift aircraft you don't fly, for--2' "I'M not an engineer. I'm not expert in our manufactur- ing. I know we use these things in electronics, in high- strength steel for industry---2' "And light-lift aircraft? High-velocity fan blades for jets you don't manufacture?" He shook his head, childhood habit. It meant nothing to atevi. He was in dire trouble, and he couldn't tell anybody who urgently needed to know the kind of suspicions atevi were entertaining. He feared he wouldn't have the chance to tell anybody outside this room if he didn't come up with plausible, cooperative answers for this man. "I've no doubt-no doubt there are experimental air- craft. We haven't, anything but diagrams of what used to exist. We build test vehicles. Models. We test what we think we understand before we give advice that will let some ateva blow himself to bits, nadi, we know the dan- gers of these propellants and these flight systems-" "Concern for us." "Nadi, I assure you, we don't want some ateva blowing up a laboratory or falling out of the sky and everybody saying it was our fault, People find fault with the pro- f t 324 / C. 3. CHERRYM grams. There are enough people blaming us for planes that don't file flight plans and city streets piled full o grain because the agriculture minister thought the com puter was making up the numbers-damned right we have test programs. We try to prevent disasters before we ask you to risk your necks-it's not a conspiracy, it's pub- lic relations!" "It's more than tests," the interrogator said. "The aiji is well aware. Is he not?" "He's not aware. I'm not aware.- There is no launch site. There's nothing we're holding back, there's nothing we're hiding. If they're building planes, it's a test pro gram." "Who gave youthe gun, nadi?" "Nobody gave me a gun. I didn't even know it was under my mattress. Ask Cenedi how it got there." "Who gave it to you, nadi-ji? Just give us an answer, Say, The aiji gave it to me, and you can go back to bed and not be concerned in this." 1 don't know. I said I don't know." The man nearest drew a gun. He saw the sheen on the barrel in the almost dark. The man moved closer and he felt the cold metal against his face. Well, he thought nat's what we want, isn't it? No more questions. "Nand' paidhi," the interrogator said. "You say Banichi fired the shots at the intruder in your quarters. Is tha true?" Past a certain,point, to hell with the game. He shut his eyes and thought about the snow and the sky around win- ter slopes. About the wind, and nobody else in sight. Told him something, that did, that it wasn't Barb his mind went to. If it mattered. It was, however, a curious, painful discovery. "Isn't that true, nand' paidhi?" He declined to answer. The gun barrel went away. A powerful hand pulled his head up and banged it against the wall. "Nand' paidhi. Tabini-aiji has renounced you. He's FOREIGNER / 325 given your disposition into our hands. You've read the letter. Have you not?" 'Yes. "What is our politics to you? -Let him go, nadi. Let go. All of you, wait outside." The man let him go. They changed the rules of a sud- den. The rest of them filed out the door, letting light past, so that he could see at least the outlined edges of the in- terrogator's face, but he didn't think he knew the man. He only wondered what the last-ditch proposition was going to be, or what the man had to offer him he wasn't going to say with the others there. He wasn't expecting to like it. The interrogator reached down and cut off the recorder. It was very quiet in the cell, then, for a long, long wait. "Do you think," the man said finally, "that we dare re- lease you now, nand' paidhi, to go back to Mospheira? On the other hand, if you provided the aiji-dowager the necessary evidence to remove the aiji, if you became a re- source useful on our side-we'd be fools to turn you over to more radical factions of our association." "Cenedi said the same thing. And sent me here." "We support the aiji-dowager. We'd keep you alive and quite comfortable, nand' paidhi. You could go back to Shejidan. Nothing essential would change in the relations of the association with Mospheira--except the party in power. If you're telling the truth, and you don't know the other information we'd like to have, we're reasonable. We can accept that, so long as you're willing to provide us statements that serve our point of view. It costs you noth- ing. It maintains you in office, nand' paidhi. All for a simple answer. What do you say?" The interrogator bent, complete shadow again, and turned the tape recorder back on. "Who provided you the gun, nand' paidhi'?' "I never had a gun," he said. "I don't know what you're talking about." The interrogator cut off the tape recorder, picked it up, got up, and left him. 1 326 / C. ). C+W.RRYM He hung against the bar, shaking, telling himself he just been a complete fool, telling himself Tabini didn't deserve a favor that size, if there was a real chance that he could get himself out of this alive, stay in office, and go back to dealing with Mospheira, business as usual- The hell they'd let him. Trust was a word you couldn't translate. But atevi had fourteen words for betrayal. He expected the guards would come back, maybe shoot him, maybe take him somewhere else, to the less reason- able people the man had talked about. If you had a poten- tial informer, you didn't turn him over to rival factions. No. It was all Cenedi. It was all the dowager. All the same game, no matter the strategy. It just got roughm Cenedi had warned him that people didn't hold out. He heard someone go out of the room down the hall, heard the doors shut, and in the long, long silence asked himself how bad it could get--and had ugly, ugly answers out of the machimi. He didn't like to think about that. Breathing hurt, now, but he couldn't feet his legs. A long while later the outer room door opened. Again the footsteps, descending the stone steps-he listened to them, drawing quick, shallow breaths that didn't give him enough oxygen, watched the shadows come down the darker corridor, and tried to keep his wits about him- find a point of negotiation, he said to himself. Engage the bastards, just to get them talking-stall for time in which Hanks or Tabini or somebody could do something. The guards walked in. -Cenedi's, he was damned sure, now. "Tell Cenedi I've decided," he said, as matter of factly as if it was his office and they'd shown up to collect the message. "Maybe we can find an agreement. I need to talk to him. I'd rather talk to him." "That's not our business," one said-and he recognized the attitude, the official hand-washing, the atevi official who'd taken a position, broken off negotiations, and told his subordinates to stonewall attempts, officially. Cenedi might have given orders not to hear about the methods. FOREIGNER / 327 He didn't take Cenedi for that sort. He thought Cenedi would insist to know what his subordinates did. ... fbere's an intermediate position," he said. "Tell him there's a way to solve this." Anything to get Cenedi to send for him. But the guards had other orders. They started untying his arms. Going to take him somewhere else, then. Inside MaIguri, please God. Four of them to handle him. Ludicrous. But his legs weren't working well. One foot was asleep. His hands wouldn't work. He tried to get up before they found a way of their own, and two of them dragged him up and locked arms behind him to hold him on his feet, although one of them could have carried him. "Sorry," he said, with the foot collapsing at every other step as they took him out the door, and he felt the fool for opening his mouth-he was so damned used to courtesies, and they seemed so damned useless now. "Just tell Cenedi," he said as they were going down the corridor. "Where are we going?" "Nand' paidhi, just walk. We're ordered not to answer YOU." Which meant they wouldn't. They owed him nothing. That they gave him back courtesy was comforting, at least indicating that they didn't personally hold a grudge, but it didn't mean a thing beyond that. Man'chi was everything-wherever theirs was, you couldn't argue that. At least they took him up the steps, into the hall. He held out a hope they might pass Cenedi's office, and they did-but that door, was shut, and no light showed under it. Dawn, he thought, one more hope gone to nothing-it shook him, ever so small a shaking of his remaining un- derstanding, but the thoughts kept wanting to scatter to what was happening, what might happen, whose these men were-and that wasn't important, because he couldn't do anything about it. He could sort through the questions they'd asked, and try to figure what they would ask-4hat ... that was the only thing that would do any 328 / C. 3. CMERRYH good; and he couldn't trust that the persistent question about the, gun was even the important one-it might be what they wanted him to focus on while they chipped away at what he did know ... while they figured out where the limits of his knowledge were and how useful he was likely to be to them. There wasn't any damned launch facility-that was the scariest question, and they were wrong about that, they had to be wrong about that: he couldn't make it true by any stretch of the imagination. But the stockpiling-they had the trade figures. He couldn't lie about that. Atevi had finally gotten the lesson humans had taught, knew they were accumulating materials useful in certain kinds of development, and he could tell them far too much, if they asked the right questions and used the right drugs. Cenedi had said the same thing his own administrators had said: he wasn't going to be any hero, unless he could think of a better lie than he'd thought of, impromptu, al- ready ... and build on what he'd said. God, only hope tying the gun to Tabini was their imme- diate objective, and not the rest of it---they hadn't beaten Tabini, couldn't have, and still be asking what they were asking- But he couldn't give them any more on that score. Couldn't. Daren't. Couldn't play the game down that dangerous path. He needed to use his head, and his head wasn't all that clear at the moment-he hurt, and the thoughts went tumbling and skittering at every distrac- tion, into what might happen and what he could do and daren't do and how much choice he might have. They brought him around by the kitchens, and down the corridor to the stairs he'd once suspected might be wired-Ilisidi's back stairs, her apartment, and her wing of the fortress, completely away from the rest of MaIguni. "Banichi!" he yelled as they began that climb-and his guards took a numbing, tighter grip on him. "Banichi! Tano! Help!" He shoved to pitch them all down the stairs-grabbed the railing with one hand and couldn't fOREIGNER / 32 tore hir hold on to it. One guard got an arm around him, loose and squeezed the breath out of him as his partne recovered his balance. "Banichi!" he yelled till his throat cracked; but h wasn't strong enough to throw them once they were o their guard. They carried him upstairs between them, an down the upstairs hall, and through the massive doors t Ilisidi's apartments. Thick doors. Soundproof doors, once they shut. Ilisiff premises smelled of floral scent, of wood fire, of lam oil. There was no more point in fighting them. He caugl his breath and went on his own feet as best he could- he'd done his best and his worst: he let them steer hil without violence, now that they were out of hearing ( help-across polished wooden floors and antique carpet past delicate furniture and priceless art and, as evei, where in MaIguri, the heads of dead animals-sorr extinct, hunted out of existence. A gasping breath caught the clean, cold scent of rah washed air. Windows or balcony doors were open somi where, wafting a breeze through the rooms, the next 4 which were in shadow, lamps unlit, air colder and coldi as they went, finally through a dark drawing room he P membered, and toward the open-air chill of the balcon A table was set there, in the dark-a dark figure, ha streaked with white, sat having tea and toast, wrapped ~ robes against the cold. Ilisidi looked up at their intrusi( on her before-dawn breakfast and, quite, quite madly, his eyes, waved a gesture toward the empty chair, whi icy gusts whipped at the lace table-covering. "Good morning," she said, "nand' paidhi. Sit. Wb lovely hair you have. Does it curl on its own?" He fell into the chair as the guards deposited him thei His braid had come completely undone. His hair flew the wind that whipped the steam off Disidi's cup. Guar, stood behind his chair while the dowager's serva poured him a cup. The wind took that steam, too, Chilli, him to the bone as it skirled in off the shadowed lake, o 330 / C. 3. CHERRY1H of the mountains. The faintest redness of dawn showed in the lowest notches. "It's the hour for ghosts," Ilisidi said. "Do you believe in them?" He caught a quick, cold breath-caught up the pieces of his sanity ... and engaged. "I believe in unrewarded duty, nand' dowager. I believe in treachery, and invitations one shouldn't take at face value. -Come aboard my ship, said the lady to the fish- erman." He picked up the teacup in a shaking hand. Tea spilled, scalding his fingers, but he carried it to his lips and sipped it. He tasted only sweet. "Not Cenedi's brew. What effect does this one have?" "Such a prideful lad. I heard you enjoyed sweets. -Hear the bell?" He did. The buoy bell, he supposed, far out in the lake. "When the wind blows, it carries it," Ilisidi said, wrapped in her robes, and wrapping themcloser. "Warn- ing of rocks. We had the idea long before you came bringing gifts." "I've no doubt. Atevi had found so much before us." "Shipwrecked, were you? Is that still the story? No buoy bells?" "Too far from our ordinary routes," he said, and took another, warming sip, while the wind cut through his shirt and trousers. Shivers made him spill scalding liquid on his fingers as he set the cup down. "Off our charts. Too far to see the stars we knew." "But close enough for this one." "Eventually. When we were desperate." The tinging came and went by turns, on the tricks of the wind. "We never meant to harm anyone, nand' dowager. That's still the truth." "Is it?" "When Tabini sent me to you-he said I'd need all my diplomacy. I didn't understand, then. I understood his grandmother was simply difficult." Ilisidi gave him no expression, none that human eyes FOREIGNER / 33 could see in the dim morning. But she might have beei frequently amused at such odd points amused. Ilisidi was ain, maybe The cold had penetrated all the way to his br or it was the tea: he found no particular terror left, wit) her. 64I)o you mind telling me," he asked her above thi wind, "what you're after? Launch sites on Mospheira is ~ piece of nonsense. Wrong latitude. Ships leaving for othe places is the same. So, is arresting me just politics, 0 what?" 44MY eyes aren't what they were- When I was your ag, I could see your orbiting station. Can YOU, from here?" He turned his head toward the sun, toward the IBM tains, searching above the peaks for a star that didn' twinkle, a star shining with reflected sunlight. ths vision blurred on him. He saw it distorted , and h looked instead for dimmer, neighboring stars. He had n trouble seeing them, the sky was still so dark, withot electric lights to haze the dawn with city-glow. And when he looked fixedly at the station he could sti see its deformation, as if-he feared at first thought- had yawed out of its habitual plane, making a minute e3i aggeration of its round into an ellipse. Was it: possibly the central mast coming into view? Th station tilted radically out of plane? Logical explanations chased through his head-4he sti tion further along to deterioration than they had reckone.( a solar storm, maybe-and Mospheira might be transim ting like mad, trying to salvage it. it would engage ate, notice: they had perfectly adequate optics. Maybe it was some solar panel come loose from d station and catching the sun. The station rotated once ei ery so many minutes. If it was something loose, it oug] to go away and come back. 6'Well, nand' paidhi?" Ile got up from his chair and stared at it, trying not I blink, trying until his eyes hurt in the gusts that blaste cold through his clothing. 332 / C. J. CHERRYIH But it didn't do those things-didn't dim, or change. It remained a steady, minute irregularity that stayed on the same side of a station that was supposed to be spinning on its axis ... slower and slower over the centuries, as entropy had its way, but- But, he thought, my God, not in my lifetime, the station wasn't supposed to break apart, barring total, astronomi- cal calamity.... And it wouldn't just hang there like that-unless I am looking at the mast.... He took a step toward the balcony. Atevi hands moved to stop him, and held his arms, but it wasn't flinging him- self off the side of Malguri that he had in mind, it was in- sulation from the very faint light still reaching them from the farther rooms. He still couldn't resolve it. His brain kept trying to make sense out of the configuration. "Eight days ago," Ilisidi said, "this-appeared and joined the station." Appeared. Joined the station. Oh, my God, my God- X1 ransmissions between Mospheira and the station "Thave been frequent," Ilisidi said. "An explanation, nand' paidhi. What do you see?" "It's the ship. Our ship-at least, some ship-" He was speaking his 'own language. His legs were numb. He couldn't trust himself to walk-it was a good thing the guards caught his arms and steered him back to safety at the table. But they didn't let him sit. They faced him toward Ilisidi, and held him there. FOREIGNER / 333 "Some call it treachery, nand' paidbi- What do you call i~I t? Eight days ago. The emergency return, bringing him and Tabini back from Taiben. The cut-off of his mail. Banichi and Jago with him constantly. "Nand' paidhi? Tell me what You see-" e-he was "A ship," he managed to say in their languag bone-cold, incapable of standing, except for the atevi hands holding him. He was almost incapable of speaking, the breath was so short in his chest. "It's the ship that left us here, aiji-mai, that's all I can think." "Many of us think many more things," Ilisidi said, 41nand' paidhi. What do you suppose they're saying ... this supposed ship ... and your people across the strait9 Do you suppose we figure in these conversations at allT He shivered and looked at the sky again, thinking, It's impossible- And looked at Hisidi, a darkness in the dawn, excepI only the silver in her hair and the liquid anger in her eyes. "Aiji-mai, I don't understand. I didn't know this was happening. No one expected it. No one told me." "Oh, this is a little incredible, paidhi-ii, that no one knew, that this appearance in our skies is so totally, ut. terly a surprise to you." "Please." His legs were going. The blood was cut off R his hands. For what he knew, the dowager would have tht guards pitch him off the edge from here, a gesture of atev: defiance, in a war the world couldn't win, a war th( paidhiin were supposed to prevent. "Nand' dowager, I'n telling you the truth. I didn't expect this. But I know wh~ they're here. I know the things you want to know." ~"Do you, now. And the paidhiin are only interpreters! "And human, aiji-mai. I know what's going on ul there, the way I know what humans did in the past an( what they want for the future-nothing in their plans is V your detriment." "As the station wasn't. As your coming here wasn't. A your interference in our affairs wasn't, and your domina 334 1 C. 1. CHERRYN tion of our trade, our invention, our governance of our- selves wasn't. You led us to the technology you wanted, you lent us the industry you needed, you perverted our needs to your programs, you pushed us into a future of television and computers and satellites, all of which we grow to love, oh, to rely on-and forget every aspect of our own past, our own laws, our own course that we would have followed to use our own resources. We are not so stupid, nand' paidhi, not so stupid as to have de- stroyed ourselves as you kept counseling us we would do without your lordly help, we are not so stupid as to be- lieve we weren't supplying you with materials for which you had your own uses, in an agenda we hadn't set. Tabini placed great confidence in you-too damned much confidence in you. When he knew what had happened he sent you to me, as someone with her wits still about her, someone who hasn't spent her life in Shejidan watching television and growing complacent. So tell me your truth, nand' paidhi! Give me your assurances! Tell me why all the other lies are justified and why the truth in our skies this morning is good for us!" The blasts of wind came no colder than Ilisidi's anger. It was the truth, all of it, all justified, he knew that the way he'd known the unspoken truth of his dealings with atevi--4hat the paidhiin were doing the best they could do in a bad bargain, keeping a peace that wasn't viable be- tween ordinary people of their two species, saving what they'd almost entirely destroyed, things like this reality around him, the ancient stones, the lake, the order of life in an atevi fortress, remote from the sky and the stars he couldn't reach from here. He looked up at that truth and the lights blurred in his eyes. The wind gave him no di- rection, whether up or down, whether he was falling into the sky or standing on stones he couldn't feel. He was afraid-terrified as atevi must be of that human presence up there-and didn't comprehend why. "Aiji-mai, I can't say it's good that it's there, it'sjust there, it's just what's happened, and if you kill me, it FOMIGNER / 335 won,t make anything any better than it is- MOsPheira didn,t plan this. Yes, we've guided Your technology- we wanted to get back into space, aiji-mai, we didn't have the resources ourselves, our equipment was half- destroyed, and we didn't think the ship still existed. We took a chance coming down here-it was a disaster for us and for you. Two hundred years we've worked to get back up there, and we never wanted to destroy the atevi- only to give you the same freedom we want for our- selves." "Damned nice of you. Did you ask?" "We were naive. But we hadn't a choice as we saw it, and we hadn't a way to leave once we were down. It's easier to fall onto a planet than to fly free of one. It was our calculated decision, aiji-mai, and we thought we could build our way back to space and bring atevi with us. We never intended to go to war-we didn't want to take anything from you ... 11 "Baji-naji, nand' paidhi. Fortune has a human face and bastard Chance whores drunken down your streets. -Let him go, nadiin. Let him go where he likes. If you want to go down to the township, nand' paidhi,-diere's a car that can take you." He blinked into the wind, staggering in a freedom that all but dumped him down to his knees. The guards' grip lingered, keeping him steady. It was all that did. It was like the other crazed things Ilisidi had done-sending him out of here, setting him free. But he didn't know he'd reach theairport. She didn't pro- mise more than freedom to leave Maiguri. She didn't say his leaving was what she wanted-If you want to go still rang in Ins ears; and she'd given him crazy signals before this, challenging him to stay behind her-atevi-fashion: fol- low me if you dare. He shook off the guards and stumbled forward to grab the vacant chair at the table, as guns came out and safe- ties went off. He slid it back and fell into it, too cold to feel the lace-covered glass under his arms, his sense of 336 1 C. 1. C1HERRYH balance tilting this way and that on this narrow strip of a balcony. "Tabini sent me here," he said. "Aiji-mai, your grand- son couldn't believe his own judgement, so he sent me here, relying on yours. So I do rely on it. What do you want me to do?" A long, long moment Ilisidi stared at him, a shadow wrapped in robes, immune to the cold. He was too cold to shiver. He only flinched in the blasts and hunched his anhs together. But he didn't doubt what he was doing. He didn't doubt the challenge Ilisidi had laid in front of him, offering him an escape-by everything he'd learned of her and of atevi, Ilisidi would write off him and every hu- man alive if he took her up on that invitation to escape. "In reasonable fear of harm," Ilisidi said finally, "you would not give us a simple statement against my grand- son. In pain, you refused to give it. What good is man'chi to a human?" "Every good." Of a sudden it was dazzlingly, person- ally clear to him. "A place to stand. An understanding of who I am, and where I am. If Tabini-aiji sent me here, he relied on your judgement---of me, of the situation, of the use I am to him." Another long silence. "I'm old-fashioned. Impractical. Without appreciation of the modern world. What can my grandson possibly want from me?" "Evidently," he said, and found, after all, the capacity to shiver, "evidently he's come to value your opinion." llisidi's mouth made a hard line. That curved. "In Maidingi there are people waiting for you-who expect me to turn you over to them, who demand it, in fact- people who rely on me as my grandson hasn't. Your choice to stay here-is wise. But what excuse for holding you should I tell them, nadi?" The shivers had become violent. He gave a shake of his head, tried to answer, wasn't sure Ilisidi wanted an an- swer. The rim of the sun cast a sudden, fierce gleam over the mountains across the lake, flaming gold. FOREIGNER / 33 46This young man is freezing," Ilisidi said. "Get him i, side. Hot tea. Breakfast. I don't know when he may 9~ another." When he may get another'? He wanted explanation, bi Ilisidi's bodyguard hauled him out of his chair-the ont he knew, who knew him, not the ones who had brougi him from below. He couldn't coordinate his getting ul He couldn't walk without staggering, the cold had set s deeply into his joints. "MY apartment, he protested. want to talk to Banichi. Or Jago." ards too Ilisidi said nothing to that request, and the gu him from the balcony into the dead air of the insidi guided him by the arms through the antiques and the de icate tables-opened a door to a firelit room, Ilisidi study, he supposed, by the books and the papers abou They brought him to the chair before the fire, wrapped robe about him and let him sit down and huddle in tt warmthless wool. They piled more logs on the fire, sel embers flying up the chimney, and he was still numl scarcely feeling the heat on the soles of his boots. A movement in the doorway caught his eye. Cenet was watching him silently. How long Cenedi had bee there he had no idea. He stared back, dimly realizing & Cenedi along with Ilisidi had just gained his agreement- and Cenedi had arranged the whole damned shadov show. Cenedi only nodded as if he'd seen what he came i see, and left, without a word. Anger sent a shiver through him, and he hugged tt robe closer to hide the reaction. One of Ilisidi guards-he remembered the name as Giri-had lingerei working with the fire. Giri looked askance at hin "There's another blanket, nadi," Giri said, and in his su len silence got up and brought it and put it over hit "Thin folk chill through faster," Giri said. "Do you w9i the tea, nand' paidhi? BreakfastT' "No. Enough tea. Thank you." Cenedi's presence hk upset his stomach. He told himself-intellectually-th 338 / C. ). CHERRYH Cenedi could have done him far greater hurt: Cenedi could have put enough pressure on to make him confess anything Cenedi wanted. He supposed Cenedi had done him a favor, getting what he needed and no more than that. But he couldn't be that charitable, with the livid marks of atevi fingers on his arms. He'd little dignity left. He made a desultory, one-handed twist of his hair at the nape of his neck-he wanted to make a plait or two to hold it, but the arm they'd twisted wouldn't lift while he was shivering. He was angry, in pain, and in the dim, dazed way his brain was working, he didn't know who to blame for it: not Cenedi, ultimately; oot Ilisidi-not even Tabini, who had every good reason to suspect human motives, with the evidence of human space operations over his head and his own government tottering around him. While he'd been doing television interviews with news- casters and talking to tourists who hadn't said a damned thing about it. His office had probably rung the phone off the desk trying to get hold of him, but atevi news was controlled. Nothing of that major import got out until Tabini wanted it released, not in this Association and not in others: atevi notions of priority and public rights and the duties of aiiiin to manage the public welfare took precedence over democracy. The tourists might not have known, if they hadn't been near a television for some number of days. Even the tele- vision crew might not have known. The dissidents who must have gravitated to Ilisidi as a rival to Tabini . . . they would have had their sources, in the hasdrawad, in the way atevi associations had no borders. They would have wanted to get to the paidhi and the information he had, urgently. At any cost. Maybe the rival factions had wanted to silence his ad- vice, the character of which they might believe they knew without hearing him. Or maybe they had wanted something else. Maybe fOREIGNER / 3 there had never been an assassination attempt again him-maybe they'd wanted to snatch him away to que tion, to find out what a human would say and what meant to their position, before Tabini took some acti( they didn't know how to judge. Tabini had ordered their rushed and early return fro Thiben-after arming him against the logical actions the people Tabini already intended to send him to? Had the attempt on his bedroom been real in ax sense--or something Tabini himself had done for an e cuse? And why did someone of Banichi's rank just happen be in his wing that night? The cooks and the clerks didr merit Banichi's level of security. It was his room they been guarding-Tabini had already been advised of goings-on in the heavens. But somebody of Banichi's experience let a man was guarding sleep with the garden doors and the latti open? Things bluffed. He felt a clamminess in his hands, w overwhelmed, of a sudden, with anger at the game playing. He'd believed Cenedi. He'd believed the game the cellar, when they'd put the gun to his head-diey made him think he was going to die, and in such a merit, dammit, he'd have thought he'd think of Barb, he have thought he'd think of his mother or Toby or so one human, but he hadn't. They'd made him stand fac to-face with that disturbing, personal moment of tru and he hadn't discovered any noble sentiments or ev human reactions. The high snows and the sky was he'd been able to see, being alone was all he cou imagine-just the snow, just the sky and the cold, where he went to have his solitude from work and h own family's clamoring demands for his time, th was the truth they'd pushed him to, not a warm hum thought in him, no love, no humanity- His hand flew up to his face scarcely in time to bu the sudden rush of helpless, watery reaction that he to 340 / C. 3. CHERRYH himself at once was nerves, the psychological crash after the crisis-that, at least, was human, if anything he did was human, or natural, if anything he did was anything but one damned calculated move after technologically, politically calculated move- "Nadi." Giri was hovering over him. He didn't know Giri. Giri didn't know him. Giri just saw the paidhi acting oddly, and the dowager didn't want him to die because she had use for him. It was good that someone did. He wiped his eyes, leaned his head back against the chair and composed his face, mentally severing the nerves to it, drawing smaller and smaller breaths until he could be as statue-calm as Banichi or Tabini. "Are you hurting, nand' paidhi? Do you need a doc- tor?19 Giri's confusion was funny, so wildly, hysterically funny, it all but shattered him. He laughed once, a stran- gled sound, and got control of it, and wiped his eyes a second time. "No," he said, before Giri could escape in alarm. "No, dammit, I don't need a doctor. I'm all right. I'm just tired. He shut his eyes against further ministrations, felt th leak of tears and didn't open his eyelids, just kept his breathing calm, down a long, long, head-splitting spiral of fire-warmth and lack of oxygen, that bottomed out some- where in a dizzy dark. He heard a confused set of voices talking in the background, probably discussing him. Hell, why not? he asked himself. Usually it was the servants that betrayed you, the likes of DJinana and Maigi, Tano and Algini. But in the flutter of banners, the clashing of weapons, the smoke of shat- tered buildings, the rules of all existence changed. Hell broke loose. Or maybe it was television. Machimi and shadows. Blood on the terrace, Jago had said, coming back out of the rain, and Banichi's face had turned up in the mirror. The beast walked Malguri's halls after midnight, when FOREIGNER / 3 everyone was asleep ... looking for its head, and damn upset about it. It's my gun, Banichi had said, and it was. He'd be used, Banichi had been used, Jago had been used-eve one had been used, in every way. It was all machimi, ordinary atevi didn't know the game either-ordin atevi had never understood the feud between the hum who'd had to stay on the station and those who'd t the ship and gone, for two hundred cursed, earthbou years .... . They'd fallen through a hole in space and found not single star they knew, in the spectra of a thousand su that fluttered on atevi banners, banners declaring war, claring ownership of the world that seemed, for stran strangers, the surest chance to live in freedom. He lay still in the chair, listening to the snap of the fir letting the tides of headache come and go-exhaust emotionally and physically-aching in a dozen place now that he was warm, but hurting less than he did wh he moved. Build the station for a base and go and search for r sources at the next likely star, that was what the Pilot Guild had decided they would do. The hell with the no crew technicians and construction workers. Every kid Mospheira knew the story. Every kid knew how Phoen had betrayed them, and why Phoenix wasn't a factor their lives any longer. Time ran long between the st and age didn't pass the way it ought to-like in the st ries, the man that slept a hundred years and never kne An atevi story or human, he wasn't personally sure. Goseniin and eggs. They daren't kill the paidhi. wise, how could they find out anything they needed know? "Bren-ji." He flashed on the cellar, and the shadows around hi and the cold metal against his head. No. A less defin touch than that, brushing his cheek. "Bren-ji." 342 / C. 3. CHERRYH A second touch. He blinked at a black, yellow-eyed face, a warm and worried face. "Jago!" "Bren-ji, Bren-ji, you have to leave this province. Some people have come into Maidingi, following rumors-the same who've acted against you. We need to get you out of here, now-for your protection, and theirs. Far too many innocents, Bren-ji. We've received advise- ment from the aiji-dowager, from her people inside the rebel movement ... certain of them will take her orders. Certain of that group she knows will not. The aijiin of two provinces are in rebellion-they've sent forces to come up the road and take you from Malguri." The back of her fingers brushed his cheek a third time, her yellow eyes held him paralyzed. "We'll hold them by what tac- tics we can use. Rely on Ifisidi. We'll join you if we can." &'Jago?" "I've got to go. Got to go, Bren-ji.- He tried to delay her to ask where Banichi was or what they meant by hold them-but her fingers slipped through his, and Jago was away and out the door, her black braid swinging. Alarm brought him to his feet-sore joints, headache, and lapful of blankets and all-with half that Jago had said ringing and rattling around a dazed and exhausted brain. Hold them? Hold a mob off from Malguri? How in hell, Jago? And for what? One damned more illusion, Jago? Is this one real? Innocents, Jago said. People who wanted to kill him? Innocents? People who were just scared, because the word had be- gun to spread of what had arrived in their skies. MaIguri was still candle-lit and fire-lit. The countryside around about had had no lights. People in cities didn't spend their time on rooftops looking at a station you couldn't see in city haze without a telescope, no, but a quarter of Mai- FOREIGNER / 34! dingi township had been in blackout, and ordinary atev could have had pointed out to them what astronomers an( amateurs would have seen in their telescopes days ago. Now the panic began, the fear of landings, the rumor ol attack on their planet from an enemy above their reach. What were they to think of this apparition, absent i communication from the paidhi's office, but a resumptiol of the War, another invasion, another, harsher impositiol of human ways on the world? They'd had their experi ence of humans seeking a foothold in their territory. He stood lost in the middle of a nightmare-realize( Ilisidi's guards were watching him anxiously, and didn' know what to do, except that the paidhi was the onl~ voice, the only voice that could represent atevi interests t( Mospheira's authorities-and to that ship up there. No contact, the Guild had argued; but that principle ha( fallen in the first stiff challenge. To get the deal thel wanted out of the station ... to go on getting the meant to search for Earth, they'd given in and allowed the initia personnel and equipment drops. And two hundred years now from the War of the Land, ing, what did any human on earth know ... but thii world, and a way of life they'd gotten used to, and neigh, hors they'd reached at least a hope of understanding a distance? Damn, he thought, angry, outraged at the intrusion ove their heads, and he didn't imagine that there was over much joy in Mospheira's conversations with the ship, ei, ther. Charges and counter-charges. Charges his office coult answer with some authority-but when Phoenix asked =te, this interpreter, where is the paidhi-aiji, wha op n7onisdoes he hold and why can't we find him? . . what could Mospheira say? Sorry-we don't know? Sorry, we've never lost track of him before? And couldn't the Commission office, knowing wha they knew, realize that, with that ship appearing in th( skies, they'd better call his office in Shejidan? Or realize 3" 1 C. 1. CNERRYH if their call didn't go through, that he was in trouble, that atevi knew what was going on, and that he might be un- dergoing interrogation somewhere? Damned right, Hanks knew. Deana Nuke-the-Opposition Hanks was making decisions in his name on Mospheira, because he was out of touch. He needed a phone, a radio, anything. "I have to talk to my own security," he said, "about that ship up there. Please, nadiin, can you send someone to bring Jago back, or Banichi ... any one of my staff? I'll talk to Cenedi. Or the dowager." "I fear not, nand' paidhi. Things are moving very quickly now. Someone's gone for your coat and for heav- ier clothes. If you'd care for breakfast . . ." "My coat. Where are we going, nadiin? When are we going? I need to get to a phone or a radio. I need to reach my office. It's extremely important they know that I'm all right. Someone could take very stupid, very dangerous actions, nadiin!" "We can present your request to Cenedi," Giri said. "In the meantime, the water's already hot, nand' paidhi. Tea can be ready in a very small moment. Breakfast is wait- ing. We would very much advise you to have breakfast now. Please, nand' paidhi. I'll personally take your re- quest to Cenedi." He couldn't get more than that. The chill was back, a sudden attack of cold and weakness that told him Giri was giving him good advice. He'd gone to see Cenedi last night before supper. His stomach was hollow to the back- bone. And if they'd kept breakfast waiting and water hot since his meeting with Ilisidi, it wasn't that they meant to take the usual gracious forever about bringing it. "All right," he said. "Breakfast. But tell the dowager!" Giri disappeared. The other guard stood where he'd been standing, and Bren strayed back to the fireside, with his hair inching loose again, falling about his shoulders. His clothes were smudged with dust from the cellars. His FOROGNER / 345 shirt was torn about the front, somewhere in the exchange-most likely in his escape attempt, he thought. It wasn't humanity's finest hour. Atevi around him, no matter the sleep they'd missed, too, looked impervious to dirt and exhaustion, impeccably braided, absolutely ram- rod straight in their bearing. He lifted sore arms, both ot them, this time, wincing with the effort, and separating his tangled hair, braided three or four turns to keep it out of his face---God knew what had happened to the clip. He'd probably lost it on the stairs outside. If they went out that way he might find it. A servant carried in a heavy tray with a breakfast ot fish, cheese, and stone-ground bread, along with a demi- pot of strong black tea, and set it on a small side table for him. He sat down to it with better appetite than he'd thought he could possibly find, in the savory smell and the recollection of Giri's warning that meals might not be on schedule again ... which, with the business about get- ting his coat, meant they were going to take action to gel him out, maybe through the opposition down in Maidingi ... on Ilisidi's authority, it might be. But breaking through a determined mob was a scary prospect. Trust an atevi lord to know how far he or she could push ... atevi had that down to an art form. Still, a mob under agitation might no.t respect the aiji- dowager. He gathered that Ilisidi had been with them and changed her mind last night; and if she tried to lie oi threaten her way through a mob who might be perfectl) content with assassinating the paidhi, there could well be shooting. A large enough mob could stop the van. In which case the last night could turn out to be only 2 taste of what humanity's radical opposition might do tc him if it got its hands on him. If things got out of hand, and they. couldn't get to a plane-he could end up shol dead before today ended, himself, Ilisidi, God knew whc else ... and that could be a lot better than the alternative. He ate his breakfast, drank his tea, and argued witt. himself that Cenedi knew what he was doing, at least. A C. I CHERRYM man in Cenedi's business didn't get that many gray hairs or command the security of someone of flisidi's rank without a certain finesse, and without a good sense of what he could get away with-legally and otherwise. But he wanted Banichi and Jago, dammit, and if some political decision or Cenedi's position with Ilisidi had meant Banichi and Jago had drawn the nasty end of the plan- If he lost them ... "Nand' paidhi." He turned about in the chair, surprised and heartened by a familiar voice. Djinana had come with his coat and what looked like a change of clothes, his personal kit and, thank God, his computer-whether Djinana had thought of it, whether Banichi or Jago had told him, or whoever had thought of it, it wasn't going to lie there with every- thing it held for atevi to find and interpret out of context, and he wasn't going to have to ask for it and plead for it back from Cenedi's possession. "Djinana-ji," he said, with the appalled realization that if he was leaving and getting to safety this morning, MaIguri's staff wouldn't have that option, not the servants whose man'chi belonged to Malguri itself. "They're say- ing people down in Maidingi are coming up here looking for me. That two aijiin are supporting an attack on Malguri. You surely won't try to deal with this your- selves, nadi. Capable as you may be-" Djinana laid his load on the table. "The staff has no in- tention of surrendering Malguri to any ill-advised rabble." Djinana whisked out a comb and brush from his kit, and came to his chair. "Forgive me, nand' paidhi, please con- tinue your breakfast-but they're in some little hurry, and I can fix this." "You're worth more than stones, Djinana!" "Please." Djinana pushed him about in the chair, pushed his head forward and brushed with a vengeance, then braided a neat, quick braid,' while he ate a piece of FOREIC44ER / bread gone too dry in his mouth and washed it down w bitter tea. "Nadi-ji, did you know why they brought me here? Di you know about the ship? Do you understand, it's not attack, it's not aimed at you." "I knew. I knew they suspected that you had the answ to it. -And I knew very soon that you would never our enemy, paidhi-ji." Djinana had a clip from some where-the man was never at a loss. Djinana finished braid, brushed off his shoulders, and went and took up hi coat. "There's no time to change clothes, I fear, and be you wait until you're on the plane. I've packed w clothing for a change this evening." He got up from the chair, turned his back to Djinana and toward the window. "Are they sending a van up?" "No, paidhi-ji. A number of people are on their way here now, I hear, on buses. I truly don't think they're th ones to fear. But you're in very good hands. Do as the say." Djinana shoved him about by the shoulder, help him on with the coat, and straightened his braid over collar. "There. You look the gentleman, nadi. Perhap you'll come back to Malguri. Tell the aiji the staff de mands, it." "Djinana, -" One couldn't even say I like. "I'll c tainly tell him that. Please, thank everyone in my name. He went so far as to touch Djinana's arm. "Please see th you're here when I come visiting, or I'll be greatl distressed." That seemed to please Djinana, who nodded and qui etly took his leave past a disturbance in the next roo flisidi's voice, insisting, "They won't lay a hand on me! And Cenedi's, likewise determined: " 'Sidi-ji, we're getting out, damned if they won come inside! Shut up and get your coat!" "Cenedi, it's quite enough to remove him out o range ...... "Giri, get 'Sidi's coat! Now!" The guards' eyes had shifted in that direction. Nothi 328 / C. J..F good- e~-,509' lie .j. He gathered up his change of about his computer, waiting with .j his kit in his hand, listening as -for the locking of doors and the extin- s voice, distantly, said that the staff would ,natters, that they should go, quickly, please, anu 4e paidhi to safety. He st,od there, the center of everyone's difficulty, the reason for the danger to Malguri. He felt that the absolute least he could do was put himself conveniently where they wanted him. He supposed that they would go out through the hall and down; he ventured as far as the door to the reception room, but Cenedi burst through that door headed in the opposite direction, bringing Ilisidi with him, on a clear course toward the rearmost of Ilisidi's rooms, with a number of guards following. "Where's Banichi?" he tried to ask as they went through the bedroom, with the guards trailing him, but Cenedi was arguing with llisidi, hastening her on through the hallways at the back of the apartments, to a back stairs. A man he thought he recognized from last night stood at the landing, holding a weapon he didn't know, shoving shells into the butt from a box on the post of the stairs. That gun wasn't supposed to exist. He had never seen that man on staff in Malguri. Banichi and Jago, and pre- sumably Tano and Algini, with them, had gone some- where he didn't know, a mob wanted to turn him over to rebels against Tabini-and they were bound down to the back side of Malguri, down, he realized as Cenedi and Ilisidi opened the doors onto shadowed stone-to a stair- way beside the stable, where the hisses and grumbling of mecheiti out in the courtyard told him how they were leaving Malguri, unless they were taking this route only to divert pursuit- This is mad, he thought as they came out onto the land- ing overlooking the courtyard, seeing that the mecheiti were rigged out in all their gear, with, moreover, saddl( trements they'd never used on thei: FOREIGNER / 344 packs and other accou morning rides. This isn't two,hundred years ago. They've planes they've guns like that one back on the stairs ... Something exploded, shaking the stones, a vibratioi that went straight to his knees and his gut. Someont wasn't waiting for the mob in the buses. "Come on!" Cenedi yelled up at them from the court. yard, and he hurried down the steps, with some 01 Cenedi's men behind him, and the handlers trying to gei the mecheiti sorted out. It was a crazed plan. Reason told him it was beyond lu. nacy to take out across the country like this. There w&, the take. They might have arranged a boat across to an. other province. If the provinces across the take weren't the ones in re- bellion. A second explosion hammered at the stones. Ilisid looked back and up, and swore; but Cenedi grabbed hei arm and hurried her along where handlers held Babs wait. ing. He spotted Nokhada, darted, arms encumbered, arnonj the towering, shifting bodies; and wondered how he ww to load the saddle packs with his bundled clothes and tht computer, but the handlers took his belongings from him, "Careful!" he said, wincing as the handler almos dropped the computer, the weight of which he hadn't an ticipated. His computer went into one bag, the clothes an( the kit went into, the other, on the other side of Nokhada'~ lean and lofty rump, Nokhada fidgeting and fighting thi rein. The mecheiti this morning all had a glinimer o brass about the jaw, not blunt caps on the rooting-tusks but a sharp-pointed fitting he'd seen only in machimi- brass to protect the tusks. In war. it was surreal. The fighting-brass was, with Nokhada'i head-butting tendencies, not a weapon he wanted to argut 350 / C. 1. CHERWIH with or even stay on the ground with. He took the rein one handler gave him, couldn't manage it with the sore arm, shifted hands and hit Nokhada with his fist, trying to make the creature drop a shoulder. Riders all around him were already up. Nokhada objected, fidgeted up again, and resisted a second order, circling him, wild-eyed in all the surrounding haste and excitement. That was how things were going to go, he thought, unsure he could re- strain the creature in an emergency-scared of its strength and that jaw as he hadn't been since the first. "Nadi," a handler said, offering a hand, and atevi strength snared and held the rein. He grabbed the mounting-strap, relied on the uncere- monious shove of the handlers, shoved his foot in the stir- rup on the way up and landed, sore-boned, and with a wrench of his sore shoulders, on the pad, with his heart pounding. He took a quick fistful of rein to bring Nokhada under control in the general confusion, as some- one opened the outward gate. Cold morning wind blasted through the court, stinging his face as all the mecheiti began to move. He looked dis- tractedly for Babs and Ilisidi. He brought Nokhada an- other circle, and Nokhada found a fix on Babs before he even saw Ilisidi. He couldn't hold Nokhada, then, with Babs headed for the gate. Nokhada shouldered other mecheiti and struck a loping pace in Babs' wake, into the teeth of an incoming gust that felt like a wall of ice. The arch passed around him as a blur of shadow and stone. The vast gray of the lake was a momentary, giddy nothingness first in front of him and then at his right as Nokhada veered sharply along the edge and up the moun- tainside. Follow Babs to hell, Nokhada would. X11 t was across the mountainside, and up and up the brushy slope, across the gully, the very course he'd bashed his lip taking, the first time he'd ridden aftei Ifisidi. hed o And ten or so of Ilisidi's guard, when he snatc glance back on the uphill, were right behind him along with a half a dozen saddled but riderless mecheiti, They'd turned out the whole stable to follow, leaving nothing for anyone to use catching them--he knew thai trick from the machimi. He found himself in a machimi war-gear and armed riders and all of it. It only wanted dit banners and the lances ... no place for a human, he kepi thinking. He didn't know how to manage Nokhada if the3 had to break through a mob, he didn't know whether lit could even stay on if they took any harder obstacles. And ride across a continent to reach Shejidan? No damned likely. Jago had said believe Ilisidi. Djinana had said believi Cenedi. But they were headed to the north and west, cut off, bI the sound of the explosions, from the airport-cut Of. from communications, from his own staff, from every thing and everyone of any resource he knew, unlesi Tabini was sending forces into Maidingi province to ge possession of the airport-which the rebels held. . Which meant the rebels could go by air-While the] went at whatever pace mecheiti flesh and bone could sus tain. The rebels could track them, harass them as the] liked, on the ground and from the air. Only hope they hadn't planes rigged to let them shoo at targets. Damned right they could think of it-ni damned biichi-gi about it: Mospheira had designed atev planes to make that modification as difficult as possible- 352 1 C. 3. CIHERRY+i they'd stuck to fixed-wing and generally faster aircraft, but it couldn't preclude some atevi with a reason putting his mind to it. Finesse, he'd heard it said in the machimi, didn't apply in war-and war was what two rebel aijiin were trying to start here. Push Tabini to the brink, break up the Western Associ- ation -and reform it around some other leader-like Ilisidi? And she, twice passed over by the hasdrawad, was double-crossing the rebels? Dared he believe that? An explosion echoed off MaIguri's walls. He risked a second glance back and saw a plume of smoke going up until the wind whipped it completely away over the western wall. That was inside, he thought with a rising sense of panic, and as he swung his head about, he saw the crest of the ridge ahead of them, loom- ing up with its promise of safety from weapons-fire that might come up at them from MaIguri's grounds. And maybe their disappearance over that ridge would stop the attack on MaIguri, if the staff could convince a mob and armed professionals they weren't there- God help Djinana and Maighi, who had never asked to be fighters, who had strangers like that man with the gun standing on the stairway, people Ilisidi and Cenedi must have brought in ... people who might not put MaIguri's historic walls at such a high premium. Cold blurred his eyes. The shooting pains in his shoul- ders took on a steady rhythm in Nokhada's lurching climb. There was one craggy knoll between them and sharpshooters that might be trying to set up outside MaIguri's mountainward walls-but Banichi and Jago were seeing to that, he told himself so. Brush and rock came up in front of them, then blue sky. Perspective went crazy for a moment as first Ilisidi and Cenedi went over the edge and then Nokhada nosed down and plunged down the other side, a giddy, intoxicating flurry of strides down a landscape of rough rock and scrub that his sub- FOREIGNER / 354' conscious Painted snow-white and sanity jerked int( browns and earth again- Pain rode the jolts of Nokhad.a'~ footfalls-torn joints, sore muscles, hands and legs losinj feeling in the cold. suffered a momen No damned place to take a fall. He of panic, then felt the mountain, God save his neck- Nokhada ran with the same logic and the same necessitiei as he knew, and he clenched the holding strap in his goo( hand and wrapped the rein into the fingers of the weakei one, beginning to take the wind in his face with an adren. aline rush, hyper-awareness of the slope and whert Nokhada's feet had to touch, however briefly, to make th( next stride. He was plotting a course down the mountain, drunk 01 understanding, that was the crazed part, his eye saw th' course and his heart was racing. His ears felt the shock ai as hellbent fa. explosion made, but it was distant and he w Not responsi catching the riders ahead Of hm_nOt sane' ble. Enjoying it- He'd damned near caught up to Ilisid when Babs gave a whip of the tail and took a course tha Nokhada nearly killed them both trying to reach. " 'Sidi!" he heard Cenedi yell at their backs behin( them. He suffered a second of sane, cold panic, realizing tha he'd maneuvered part Cenedi and Ilisidi knew he was a her tail. A rock exploded near them, just blew up as it sat on thi hillside. Babs, took the slot beside a narrow waterfall am struck out uphill among stones the size of houses, highe and higher into ' the mountains. Sniper, sanity said. They were still in range. But he followed Ilisidi, slower now, more sheltere4 among the boulders, and he had time and breath to realizi the foolishness he'd just committed, that he'd pushe( himself next behind Hisioli, that Cenedi was at his back and that Nokhada was sensibly unwilling to slow dowi now and lose momentum on the uphill climb. Fool, he thought. He'd lost his good sense on th( 354 / C. 1. C44EQRY+I mountain. Knowing the responsibility he carried, he'd risked his neck because he carried it, and because of the things he couldn't do and didn't have, and he didn't care, didn't damned well care, during those few selfish high- speed minutes that were nothing but now, risking his life, damn them all, damn Tabini, damn the atevi, damn his mother, Toby, Barb, and the whole human race. He could have died. He could easily have died in that crazed course. And he discovered so much bitter, secret anger in him-so much rage he shook with it, while Nokhada's saner, more reasoned strides carried him up and up among the protecting rocks. What sent him down a mountain wasn't, then, the delirious freedom he told himself it was, it was what he'd just experienced: a spite- ful, irrational death wish, aiming his own destruction at everyone and everything he served-that was what he was courting. Not damned fair. The only thing in his life he enjoyed with complete abandon. And it was a damned death wish. He hated the pressures at home on Mospheira, the job- generated pressures and most of all the emotional, human ones. At the moment he hated atevi, at least in the ab- stract, he hated their passionless violence and the lies and the endless, schizophrenic analysis he had to do, among them, of every conclusion, every emotion, every feeling he owned, just to decide whether it came of human hard- wiring or logical processing. And most of all he hated hurting for people who didn't hurt back. He didn't trust his feelings any longer, He was drained, he was exhausted, he hurt, and he wasn't dealing with either reality sanely anymore. It was the second personal truth he'd faced-since that dark moment with the gun at his head. It told him that the paidbi wasn't handling the job stress. That the paidhi was scared as hell and not sure of the people around him, and no longer sure he'd done the right thing in anything he'd done. You didn't know, you didn't damned well know with FOREIGNER / 35! atevi, what went on at gut level, on any given point, noi because you couldn't translate it, but because Yot couldn,t feel it, couldn't resonate to it, couldn't remotel) guess what it felt like inside. war, atevi were shootinj . on the verge of They were ans, and the paidh each other over what to do about hum . , apart-they'd taken too much away f"n was coming to do it~ mayb4 him last night. Maybe they hadn9t meant they didn't know they'd done it, and he could reason witl himself, he knew all the psychological labels: that then ch unresolved that there were even physiOlOg was too mu fear and th, ical reasons behind the sudden fit of chill and morbid self-dissection this morning that had their only Of igins in the business last flight. s last night. I Andl no, they'd not been playing game had never been a false threat they'd posed; Cenedi wa damned good at what he did, and Cenedi hadn't weighei his mental condition heavily against the answers Cene~ had to have. didn,t change the fact they'd shaken things 100s it ere still racketing about a psych inside-ric0chets that w with. that hadn't been all that steady to start uldn,t afford to break. Not now. Ignore the intrC He co spection and figure out the minimal things he was goin to tell atevi and humans that would silence the guns an discredit the madmen who wanted this war. That was what he had to do. At least the gunshots had stopped coming. They' passed out of earshot of the explosions, whatever migi be happening back at Maiguri, and struck a slower, san( pace on easier ground, where they might have run- more level course, interspersed with sometimes a joltin climb, sometimes a jogging diagonal descent-general] much more to the south now, and only occasionally to d west, which seemed to add up to a slant toward Maidinj Airport, where the worst trouble was. And maybe to a meeting with help from Tabini, Tabini had any idea what was happening here ... ai 356 / C. 1. CHERQYH trust Banichi that Tabini did know, in specifics, if Banichi could get to a phone, or if the radio could reach someone who could get the word across half a continent. "We're heading south," he said to Cenedi, when they came close enough together. "Nadi, are we going to Maidingi?" "We've a rendezvous point on the west road," Cenedi said. "Just past a place called the Spires. We'll pick up your staff there, assuming they make it." That was a relief. And a negation of some of his suspi- cions. "And from there?" "West and north, to a man we think is safe. Watch out, nand' paidhi!" They'd run out of space. Cenedi's mecheita, Tali, forged ahead, making Nokhada throw up her head and back-step. Nokhada gave a snap at Tali's departing rump, but there was no overtaking her in that narrow space be- tween two room-sized boulders. Pick up his staff, Cenedi said. He was decidedly re- lieved on that score. The rest, avoiding the airport, getting to someone who might have motorized transport, sounded much more sane than he'd feared Cenedi was up to. Rather than a mapless void, their course began to lie to- ward points he could guess, toward provinces the other side of the mountains, westward, ultimately-he knew his geography. And firmer than borders could ever be among atevi, where individual towns and houses hazed from one man'chi to another, even on the same street-Cenedi knew a definite name, a specific man'chi Cenedi said was safe. Cenedi, in his profession, wasn't going to make that judgment on a guess. llisidi might be double-crossing her associates-but aijiin hadn't a man'chi to anyone higher, that was the nature of what they were: her associates knew it and knew they had to keep her satisfied. Which they hadn't, evidently. Tabini had made his play, a wide and even a desperate one, sending the paidhi to Malguri, and letting Uisidi satisfy her curiosity, ask her FOREIGNER / 3 questions-running the risk that llisidi might in fact de liver him to the opposition. Tabini had evidently bee sure of something-perhaps (thinking as atevi and not a a human being) knowing that the rebels couldn't satis Ilisidi, or meant to double-cross her: never count tha llisidi wouldn't smell it in the wind. The woman was to sharp, too astute to be taken in by the number-counter and the fear-merchants ... and if he was, personally, th overture Tabini made to her, llisidi might have foun Tabini's subtle hint that he foreknew her slippage tow the rebels quite disturbing; and found his tacit offer o peace more attractive at her age than a chancier deal wit some ambitious cabal of provincial lords who meant challenge a human power Tabini might deal with. A deal with conspirators who might well, in the way atevi lords, end up attacking each other. He wasn't in a position with llisidi or Cenedi to as those critical questions. Things felt touchy as they wert He tried now to keep the company's hierarchy of impo tance, always Babs first, Cenedi's mecheita mostly see ond, and Nokhada politicking with Cenedi's Tali fo number two spot every time they took to a run, politic that hadn't anything to do with the motives of their rider but dangerous if their riders' personal politics got into i he had sopped that fact up from the machimi, and kne that he shouldn't let Nokhada push into that dual assoc ation ahead of him, not with the fighting-brass on th tusks. Cenedi wouldn't thank him, Tali wouldn't tole it, and he had enough to do with the bad arm, just to hol on to Nokhada. , He'd recovered from his insanity, at least by the me sure he now had some idea where they were going. But he daren't push. He'd gotten llisidi's help, but was a chancy, conditional support for him and for Tabi that he still daren't be sure of ... never trust that woman Tabini called 'Sidi-ji wasn't pursuing some cours toward her own advantage, and toward her own power i the Western Association, if not in some other venue. 358 / C. 3. CHERWH From one giddy moment to the next, he trusted none of them. Fourteen words, the language had for betrayal, and one of them doubled for 'taking the obvious course.' XIII f Ilisidi was following any established trail at all, Bren couldn't see it even when Nokhada was in Babs' very tracks. He spotted Ilisidi high up among towering boul- ders, Babs moving like one of MaIguri's flitting ghosts past gaps in the rocks. He didn't see the crest of the hill-he only lost track of Ilisidi and Cenedi at the same moment, and, following them, at the head of their column of twenty-odd riders, came out on a windy, boulder-littered hillside above a shallow brook and a set of brush-impeded wheel-ruts. .The road? he asked himself. Was that track the west road Cenedi had talked about, where they were to meet the rest of their party? Other riders arrived at the crest of the hill behind him, and Cenedi sent a rider down to, as he heard Cenedi say, see whether they saw any recent tracks. Machine-tracks, that specific word implied. A truck could possibly survive that road, given a good suspension and heavy tires. And if service trucks were all the opposition had at their disposal, and they didn't take a plane out of Maidingi Airport, God, Ilisidi could lead them back over the ridge mecheita-back and outrun any pursuit afoot. So their means of transport out of Malguri wasn't crazy. This wasn't Mospheira's well-developed back country. There wasn't a phone line or a power line or a paved road or a rail track for days. fOREIGNER / 359 They sat up on their mountainside and waited, while the man Cenedi had sent rode down, had his look, and rode uphill again, with a hand signal that meant negative. Bren let go a breath, and his heart sank in suppositions and suspicions too ready to leap up. He was ready to ob- ject that, considering the fight back at MaIguri, they couldn't hold Banichi to any tight schedule, and they shouldn't go on without waiting. But Cenedi said, before he had a chance to object, that they should get down and wait. That bettered his opinion of Cenedi. He felt a hundred- fold happier with present company and their priorities, in that light, whatever motivated them. He began to get down, the way Cenedi had said, attempted with kicks to get Nokhada to drop a shoulder, but that wasn't a propo- sition Nokhada seemed to favor. Nokhada ripped the rein forward with an easy toss of her head, sent pain knifing through his sprained shoulder and circled perversely on the slope until her head was uphill and he couldn't get down over the increased height, in the condition his legs were in,.damn the creature. He kicked Nokhada. They made one more embarrass- ing and vainly contested three-sixty on the hillside. At which point one of the other riders took pity on him and got down to take Nokhada's rein. "Nand, paidhi." It was the same man, he realized by the voice, who'd beaten hell out of him in the restroom, who faced Nokhada sideways, with the dismount-side to the upslope of the hill, then stood waiting to steady him as he slid down. He wasn't damned well ready to forgive anyone who'd helped in that charade last night. But he wasn't among enemies, either, that was the whole point of what Cenedi had been trying to determine; and the man hadn't in point of fact beaten him unneces- sarily, only dissuaded him from further contest. So he gave up his quarrel and surrendered his grudge 360 / C. J. CHERRYH with a quiet, "Thank you, nadi," and slid down and dropped. He'd thought he could at least stand up. The knees went-he'd have been down the slope under Nokhada, except for Cenedi's man keeping him upright, and sensa- tion arrived in his lower body about the same moment his legs straightened. He managed to take Nokhada's rein into his own hand and, with a mumbled thanks for the rescue, to limp aside to a place to be alone and to sit down. It was a very odd pain, he thought-not quite bad, at one moment, blood getting back where it belonged, or flesh figuring out there was supposed to be more of it over certain previously un- discovered bones in the human anatomy. But he decided he didn't want to sit down at the mo- ment. His eyes watered in the chill wind, and he wiped them, using the arm he hadn't just wrenched getting down. For a moment he was temporally lost-flashed on the cellar and on remembered anger and went dizzy and uncertain of time-sense as he looked down the slope. He settled for shifting from one foot to the other as a way to rest, holding Nokhada's rein while Nokhada lowered her head and rooted with metal-capped tusks after a small woody shrub until it gave up its grip on the hillside. Nokhada manipulated it in her muscular upper lip and happily destroyed it. Cold helped the pain. He just wanted to stand there mindlessly and watch Nokhada kill shrubs, but conscious thought kept creeping in-about the road down there, and the chance Banichi and Jago might not have made it away from Malguri. The chance also that Ilisidi's position wasn't a simple or even a settled question. She was absolutely a wild card, dangerous to everyone with the Association trying, as it was, to fragment. It was only the fact that they were waiting for Banichi and waiting with a great deal of pa- tience, for atevi, that persuaded him that he was in safe hands at all. Being atevi, Cenedi could return to his pro- MMIGNER / 361 ject of last night and Peel another layer of truth out of him without a qualm if he needed to, at any moment, be- cause, being atevi, Cenedi held his morality was Ilisidi's welfare-consideration of which could shift any time the wind shifted. How many people on Mospheiral nand' paidbi? He earnestly wished he had the gun from his bed- room-but that hadn't been in the kit Djinana gave him, he'd felt the weight of it, and he didn't know where it had ultimately gone. Back to Banichi, he hoped, before it turned up in evi- dence in some court case Tabini-aiji couldn't prevent. A scatter of pebbles came down the slope-a riderless mecheita was rooting after something up above. Nokhada hardly twitched an ear, busy chewing. Then every mecheita's ears came up, and the heads came up, the whole lot of them looking toward the bot- tom of the hill, where the curve of the slope hid the far- ther end of the road. Men all around him ducked into cover behind the rocks. Cenedi arrived in two fast strides, jerked him away from Nokhada and jerked him down with him behind the shelter of a large lump of stone. He heard an engine then, in all that silence. At the first intimation of danger, the riderless mecheiti had tended to- gether with Babs, and Ilisidi ' kept hold of Babs--holding the whole pack together on the slope above them. The engine grew louder, nearer. Cenedi signaled a query from another man with a hand motion to stay down. Something rattled and popped and echoed, over the hills. What was that? Bren wondered for half a heartbeat. Then he heard the thump of an explosion. Muscles jerked, and his heart began to beat heavily in fright as Cenedi retreated from the post he had and moved rapidly from cover to cover, directing the company back uphill to the mecheiti. 362 / 'C. ). CHERRYM They were leaving-pulling out. That rattle was gun- fire; he knew it when that sound repeated itself. An ex- change of fire. Cenedi had signaled him first of all. He felt a tremor in his legs he put down to sheer terror. He read Cenedi's signal in retrospect, but he kept hoping for Banichi and Jago to appear from around the hill. They couldn't leave now, so close-if people were shooting, they were shooting at enemies, and that meant Banichi and Jago were there, just beyond the hill, that close to them.... A veil of black smoke rolled along the road below, car- ried on a stiff wind. In it, from the edge of the hill, he saw someone running, a single black-uniformed figure- Not an attack, only a single atevi headed around the rocks and then uphill toward them at a desperate, stum- bling run-a lighter someone than the average atevi man. Jago, he realized in a heartbeat; and sprang up and ran, loosing small landslides of gravel, slipping and sliding and losing skin on his hands. He met her halfway to the bottom, dusty, gasping for breath as she caught herself against a boulder. "Ambush," she breathed, "at the Spires. Get up there! Tell Cenedi go, get clear! Now!" "Where's Banichi?" "Go, dammit! The tank's blown, it's afire, he can't walk, he'll hold them till you get a start-" "Hell! What, hold them? Is he coming?" "He can't, dammit. Bren-ji,-" He didn't listen to atevi logic. He lit out running, down to the brush-choked road, down into the smoke. He heard Jago running behind him, swearing at him and telling him he was a fool, get back, don't risk himself. Then he heard riders following. He skidded in the peb- bles on the last of the slope and ran, catching at a boulder to make the sudden turn onto the road, into the smoke, afraid of the mecheiti running him down, afraid most of all of Cenedi catching him, forcing a retreat and leaving Banichi behind for no damn reason. fOREIGNER / 363 He felt heat in the smoke, saw a hot red center in the black, rolling cloud that turned into the burning skeleton of a truck with the doors open. The rattle of gunfire echoed off the surrounding hills, and amid that, he heard the sharp report of gunfire close at hand, from the area around the truck. "Banichi!" he yelled, rubbing tears and soot, trying to make out detail through the stinging smoke. He saw something dark against the gray of the rocks, off the road, a black figure aiming a pistol up at the hills. Dirt kicked up around him, an explosion of gravel-a shot hitting the ground-and he ran for that figure, with the smoke for his only cover. Chips exploded off the rocks ahead of him. One stung his leg as he ducked behind the rocks where Banichi sheltered. "You damned fool!" Banichi yelled at him as he ar- rived, but he didn't care. He grabbed Banichi's sleeve and his arm, trying to pull him up, onto his feet. Banichi w&, clearly in pain, catching at the rocks and waving him of] as pieces exploded off the boulders around them. They weren , t alone, then-Jago was beside him, grab. bing Banichi on the other side, and, overwhelmed witt help, Banichi gave up and cooperated with them, the dim of them laboring across the ruts, while gunfire broke oui loudly on their left, at ground level. Bullets shattered roci and thudded into the burning wreckage of the truck, tht heat of the fire blasting breath away and stinging the skit as they crossed the road, using the smoke for cover. More shots hit the truck. "That's Cenedi!" Jago gasped "He's on the road!" "Along the stream!" Banichi yelled, limping heavily taking both of them downslope as, just past the truck they slid down the bank of the strewn, among boulder, and knee-deep into cold water, all in a haze of smoke. Lungs burned. Eyes watered. Bren choked bacl coughs, hanging onto Banichi, trying to cope with the un even ground and Banichi's lurching steps, Jago's heigh giving her more leverage on Banichi's other side. 364 / C. 1. CHERRY" But they were out of the firing. Coughing and stum- bling, they came beyond the area where the bullets were hitting. Banichi slipped to his knees on the stony bank, and, coughing, collapsed on the rocks, trying to get his gun back in its holster. "Nadi, where are you hit?" Bren asked. "Not hit," Banichi said between coughing fits. "They were ready for us. At the Spires. Explosives. -Dammit, is that Cenedi's lot?" "Yes," Jago said shortly, and tried to get Banichi up again. Banichi tried, on one knee. Whatever was wrong, his leg on Jago's side couldn't bear his weight, and Bren shoved with all his strength to help Banichi up the bank toward Cenedi's position in the windborne haze of smoke. Gunfire kicked up the dirt around them. Bren flung himself down with Banichi and Jago, flattened himself as much as he could among the humped rocks at the edge of the road, expecting a bullet to find his back as round after round kicked up the earth and ricochets went in random directions, chipping rock, disturbing the weeds. Then a moment's quiet. He started to get up, and to pull Banichi up with him, but a man came running out of the smoke, and immediately after, two mecheiti, rider- less-one caught the man with its head and threw him completely into the air. He landed and the mecheiti were on him, ripping him with their bronze-capped tusks, tram- pling him under them. "Move!" Jago yelled, as Banichi flung himself up and forward, and Bren caught him as best he could on the right side. Banichi lost his footing on Jago's side and cost them more effort to get him up. Mecheiti were coming at them, riderless shapes in the haze. Banichi was yelling something about his gun. Then another mecheita was into it-Nokhada, ripping with her tusks, spinning and butting and slashing at re- treating rumps-it was that fast, and Bren grabbed Banichi by the belt and tried to get him up and out of the road-but another mecheita darted in on Nokhada's flank, FOREIGNER / 365 raked Nokhada's side with a glancing blow; and then, God, Babs was into it~ riderless, laying about him at both combatants, forcing them apart, driving Nokhada off the road downslope, Tah off into the smoke, others scattering, as they struggled to get Banichi toward the rocks-4he mecheiti had gone amok-and a barrage of fire came from somewhere in the smoke as they reached the boul- ders, at the foot of the hill. Bren heard someone yelling orders to draw back, not to pursue, get the mecheiti. Another voice shouted, "They'll be up our backs nadi!" "They've already radioed!" Banichi yelled as loudly he could, resting his arms against a boulder. "Dammit Get out of here!" "We were clear!" a man protested, Giri turning up Bren's elbow, catching at his arm. "Nand' paidhi, wha were you doing?" "He lost his wits," Jago said sharply. Giri brushed p Bren, took his place supporting Banichi on that side. Oth ers of their company were arriving out of the smoke, stil firing down the road, but nothing seemed to be comin back. "They're going to try to get behind us, or they've g a van farther back," he heard Jago say to someone, on gasped breath. "We've got to get out of here-they'l have called our location in. We'll have planes in h faster than we can think about it. Those are no amateurs.' Men were running, sorting out the mecheiti. Bren spot ted Nokhada in the milling about and ran and caugh Nokhada's trailing reins-Nokhada had a raking woun down her shoulder, and a bleeding puncture from a blo to the neck, and she resisted any signal to lower a shoul der for him, circling on the pivot of the rein and throwi her head. He tried again, holding on to the mounting straps with his sore arm, trying not to require anyone' help. Someone grabbed him by the right arm, spun hi against Nokhada's shoulder, and hit him in the side of th 366 / C. I CHERRYM d S, head-he didn't even see it coming. He came to braise and on the stony ground with Jago's voice in his ear, ar guing with someone. "Tell me what he's up to!" Cenedi's voice, then. "Tell me where he thinks he's going-when the shooting start a man takes his real direction-or do they say that Shejidan?" His eyes were bluffed, his ear was ringing, and he put his hand on a sharp rock, trying to prop himself on the better arm. "He doesn't know better," Jago was saying. "I don't know what he'll do next, nadi! He's not atevi! Isn't that the point of all this?" "Nadi," Cenedi said coldly, "infonn him what he'll do next. Next time I'll shoot him in the knee and not discuss the matter. Take me very seriously." A towering shadow came between them and the sun. Babs, and Ilisidi, only watching, while Bren staggered to his feet. "Aiji-ma," came Jago's quiet voice from beside him,. and Jago's hard grip on his arm, pulling him aside. He stood there with the side of his face burning, with hearing dimmed in one ear, as Ilisidi drifted past and Cenedi stalked off from him. "Damned fool!" Jago said with a shake at his arm. "They'd have left him!" "Did you bear him?" Another shake at his arm. "He'll cripple you. It's not an idle threat!" Two of Cenedi's men had caught Nokhada, and brought her, shaking her head and fighting the restraint. He groped after the rein a man offered bim, and made a shaken effort to get the stirrup turned to mount-one of them got Nokhada to drop the shoulder, and he got his toe in the stirrup, but he slipped as Nokhada came up, a thor- ough botch. He hung from the mounting-straps with both feet off the ground, until someone shoved him from be- low and he landed far enough on to drag himself the rest of the way aboard. I He, saw Jago getting onto another of the spares, the last 1, fOREIGt4ER / 367 two men mounting up, as Ifisidi started into motion and Nokhada started to move with the group. His vision grayed out on him in the sudden motion--had been gray- ing out since Jago had lit into him, for reasons doubtless valid to her. His hands shook, and balance faltered. oyou stay on," Jago said, drawing near him. "You stay with the mecheita, do you hear me, nadi?" He didn't answer. It made him mad. He could under- stand Cenedi hitting him, he knew damned well what he'd done in going after Banichi. He'd violated Ilisidi's chain of command-he'd forced them into a fight Cenedi would have avoided, because Cenedi was looking out for the dowager-and possibly, darker suspicion, because Cenedi would all along as soon leave Banichi and Jago in the lurch and have him completely to himself and the dowager's politics. Cenedi personally would gladly sell him to the highest bidder, that was the gut-level fear that had sent him down that hill, he thought now, that and the equally gut-level human conviction that the treason he was committing was, humanly speaking, minor and ex- cusable. It wasn't, for Cenedi. It wasn't, for Jago, and that was what he couldn't understand--or accept. "Do you hear me, nadi, do you understand9' "Where's Algini and TanoT' he challenged her. "On a boat," Jago snapped, her knee bumping his, as the mecheiti moved next to each other. "Likewise provid- ing your enemies a target, and a direction you could have gone. But we'll be damned lucky now if-_21 .fago stopped adlarig and looked styward. And said a word he'd never heard from Jago. He looked. His ears were still ringing. He couldn't hear what she heard. "Plane," Jago said, "darrurrit!" She reined back in the column as Ilisidi put Babs to a fast jog into the stream and across it, close to the moun- tain. Nokhada took a sudden notion to overtake the lead- ers, jostled others despite a hard pull on the rein. 368 / C. 3. CHERRYM He could hear the plane coming now. There wasn't anything they could do but get to the most inconvenient angle for it that they could find against the hills, and that seemed to be their leaders' immediate purpose. It wasn't a casually passing aircraft. It sounded low, and terror be- gan to increase his heartbeat. He wondered whether Ilisidi and Cenedi were doing the right thing, or whether they should let the mecheiti run free and get into the rocks. It wasn't damned fair, being shot at without any weapon, any cover, any way to outrun it-it wasn't anything like kabiu, it wasn't the way atevi had waged war in the past-he was the object of contention, and it was human tech atevi were aiming at each other, human tactics ... They kept their course along the mountainside, Ilisidi and Cenedi holding a lead Nokhada wasn't contesting now, the rest of the column behind, strung out along the trearnside. Cenedi was worried. He saw Cenedi turn and look back and up at the sky. The engine sound came clearer and clearer, illegal use, unapproved use, to fire from the air-they'd designed the stall limits to discourage it, considering that Mospheira was situated as it was, easily within reach of small air- craft. They'd kept the speed up, not transferred anything to do with targeting-no fuses, no bomb sights; it was the aidhi's job to keep a thing like this from happening.... His mind was busy with that train of thought as the plane came down the stream-cut roadway, low, straight at them. Its single engine echoed off the hills. The riders around him drew guns, a couple of them lifted hunting rifles-and he didn't know to that moment whether atevi had figured out how to mount guns on aircraft, or whether it was only a reckless pilot spotting them and trying to scare them. The plane's skin was thin enough bullets might get to the pilot or hit something vital, like the fuel tanks. He didn't know its design that intimately. It hadn't been on his watch. Wilson's, it had probably been Wilson's ten- ure . . . fOREIGMER / 369 His heart thudded in panic. Their column had stopped entirely now and faced about to the attack. He held Nokhada on a short rein, while gunfire racketed around him, aimed aloft. The plane roared over them, and explosions went off in midair, over their heads, making the mecheiti jump and all but bolt. Puffs of smoke lingered after the fireballs. Rocks rolled down the mountain, dislodging slides of gravel. "Dropping explosives," he heard someone say. Bombs. Grenades. Above all, trust that atevi handled numbers. They wouldn't make that many mistakes. "They haven't got the timing down," he said urgently to Banichi, who'd reined in near him. "It blew above us. They'll fig- ure it. They'll reset those fuses. We can't give them any more tries at us." "We haven't got a choice," Banichi said. Atevi didn'i sweat. Banichi was sweating. His face was a color he'd never seen an atevi achieve, as he methodically shoved ir another clip, from the small number remaining on hi~ belt. The plane was coming around again, and'their groul moved as Babs started out at a fast pace, descending w the stream-cut road descended. The mecheiti bunched ur now, as close as the terrain allowed, trampling shrubs. Changing the altitude, changing the targeting equation, Bren thought to himself-it was the best thing they coul~ do, besides find cover the land didn't offer them, while that atevi pilot was trying to work out the math of where his bombs had hit. Somebody behind him was yelling something about concentrating fire on the fusilage and the pilot, not the wings, the fuel tanks were closer in. It was all crazed. He heard the roar of the engine and looked up as the plane came streaking down at them, thi,,; time from the side, over the mountain opposite them, and gave them only a brief window of fire. Explosions pounded the hill above them and showered 370 / C. 1. CHERRYM them with rock chunks and dirt-Nokhada jumped and threw her head at an enemy she couldn't reach., "Getting smart, the bastard," someone said, and Ilisidi, in the lead, led them quickly around the shoulder of the hill, off the road now, while they could hear the plane coming back again. Then came a distant rumble out of the south, the sound of thunder. Weather moving in. Please God, Bren thought. Clouds and cover. He'd nerved himself for the bombs. The prospect of rescue had his hands trembling and the sweat breaking out under his arms. Another pass. A bomb hit behind them and set brush burning. A second plane roared over immediately behind that, and dropped its bombs the other side of the hill. "There's two of them," Giri cried. "Damn!" "That one's still figuring it out," Banichi said. The number one plane was coming back again. They were caught on an open hillside, and Banichi and Jago and Cenedi and the rest of them drew calm aim, tracked it as it came-Cenedi said, at the last moment, "Behind the cowling." They opened up, gunfire echoing off the other hill. The plane roared over and didn't drop its bombs. It ripped just above the crest of the hill and a second later a loud explosion shook the ground. Nobody cheered. The second plane was coming in fast and they were on the move again, picking their way over the rocks, traveling as fast as they could. Thunder boomed again. One assumed it was thunder. The second plane came over again and dropped its bombs too soon. They hit the hill crest. They descended the steep way, then, into a narrow ra- vine, a smaller window for the plane at its speed than it was for diem. They heard a plane coming. Its engine was sputtering as thunder-it had to be thunder-rolled and rumbled in the distance. FOREIC.NER / 371 That plane's crippled, Bren thought. Something's wrong with it. God, there's hope- He didn't think it would drop its bombs. He watched it make its pass in the narrow sky above thern. Then an explosion went off right over them and Nokhada jumped. A sharp impact hit his shoulder, and the rider next to him went down-he didn't see why-brush came at his face and he put up a hand to protect himself as Nokhada ran him up the hill and stopped close to Babs. He was half-deaf from the blast, but not so he couldn't hear mecheiti screaming in fright or pain. He looked back, saw riders down where he'd been, and tried to turn back. Nokhada had other ideas and fought him on the slope, until other riders went back. But Banichi was still in sight; he saw Jago among those afoot, heard a single gunshot. The screaming stopped ab- ruptly, leaving 6e silence and the ringing of his ears; then, after a moment of milling about, and another of Nokhada's unwilling turn-abouts on the slope, he saw people mounting up again, the column reorganizing itself. A rider came forward in the line, and reported to Cenedi and Ilisidi three men dead , and one of the names was Giri. He felt-he didn't know what, then. An impact to the gut. The loss of someone he knew, a known quantity when so much was changing around him-he felt it per- sonally; but he was glad at the same time it wasn't Banichi or Jago, and he supposed in a vague, dazed way, that his sense of loss was a selfish judgement, on selfish human standards that had nothing to do with man'chi, or what atevi felt or didn't feel. He didn't know right and wrong any longer. His head ached. His ears were still ringing and there was a stink Of smoke and gunpowder in every breath he drew. Dirt had spattered him and Nokhada, even this far up the column, dirt and bits of leaves-he wasn't sure what else had, and he didn't want to know. He only kept remembering the shock of the bomb bursting, a wall of air and fragments 372 1 C. 3. CHERRYM that made itself one with the explosions on the road- recalled the shock of something hitting his arm with an impact that still ached. It was a fluke, that single accurate bomb. It might not happen again. Or it might on the next such strike-he didn't know how much farther they had to ride or how long their en- enues could keep putting up planes from Maidingi Air- port and hitting at them over and over again, with nothing, nothing they could do about it. But the second plane didn't come back, whether it had crashed in the mountains or made it back to the airport, and in the meantime the rumbling of thunder grew louder. In a while more, clouds swept in, bringing cold air, first, then a spatter of rain, a crack of thunder. The riders around him delved into packs without getting down, pulled out black plastic rain-cloaks and began to settle them on as the drops began to fall. He hoped for the same in his gear, and discovered it in the pack beside his knee, someone's providence in this season of cold mountain rains. He sorted it out in the early moments of the rain, settled it over his head and over as much of him and the riding-pad as he could, latching it up about his throat as the chill deluge began, blinding him with its gusts and trickling down his neck. The plastic kept body heat in, his and Nokhada's, the turbulence and the cloud cover up above the hills was a shield from aircraft, and if he froze where the stiff gusts plastered the plastic against his body or whipped up the edges of it on a shirt and coat beginning to be soaked from the trickle down his neck, any discomfort the storm brought on them was better than being hammered from the air. For the most part he trusted Nokhada to follow Babs, tucked his hands under his arms and asked himself where Ilisidi's strength possibly came from, because the more he let himself relax, the more his own was giving way, and the more the shivers did get through. Thin bodies FOREIGNER / 372 chill faster, Giri had said that, he was sure it had beer Giri, who was dead, now, spattered all over a hillside. His brain kept re-hearing the explosions. Kept falling into black patches, when he shut his eyes, kept being back in that cellar, listening to the thunder., feeling a gun against his head and knowing Cenedi would do it again and for real, because Cenedi's anger with hu- mans was tied up with Ilisidi's ambition and what had and hadn't been possible for atevi to achieve even before that ship appeared in the skies, he read that much, Cenedi's man'chi was with Ilisidi, the rebels offered Ilisidi association with them, Ilisidi had told Cenedi find out what the paidhi was, and in Cenedi's eyes, it was hiq fault he'd convinced her not to take that rebel offer. Hence Cenedi's anger-at him, at Ilisidi's surrendering her fight for the seat in Shejidan-to age, to time, to God knew what motive. The paidhi had no confidence he could interpret anything, not even himself, lately. He'd become a commodity for trade among atevi factions. He didn't even know who owned him at the moment-didn'i know why Cenedi had waited on the hill for Banichi. Didn't know why Jago had been angry at him, for go- ing after Banichi. Jago ... make a deal with Cenedi? Betray Tabini and Banichi? He didn't think so. He refused to think so, for no logical reason, only a hu- man one-which didn't at all apply to her. He knew that, if he knew nothing else, in the confusion of his thoughts. But he didn't change his opinion. Hill after hill after hill in the blinding rain. Then another deeply cut ravine, where a tall growth of ironheart sheltered them from the blasts, and the thready leaves streamed and clumped with water, dumping it, when they chanced to brush against them, in small, icy floods that found their way down, necks, more often than not. But that cover of brush was the first relief from the wind they'd found, and Ilisidi called a rest and bunched 374 / C. 1. CMERRYH them up, the twelve of them-only twelve surviving rid- ers, he was dismayed to realize, and six mecheiti on their own, trailing them through brush and along the stony hill- sides. He hadn't realized the losses, he hadn't counted ... he didn't know where they might have lost the others, or whether, at some silent signal he'd missed, the party had divided itself. He held on to the mounting-straps and slid down Nokhada's wet side, not sure he could get up again un- aided, but glad enough to rest. For the first moment he had to stand holding to Nokhada's harness just to keep his feet, his legs were so rubbery from riding. Lightning flickered and the thunder muttered over their heads. He could scarcely walk on the rain-slick hillside without grabbing onto branches and leaning on one rock and the next. He wandered like a drunken man along the steep slope, seeking a warm spot and a place a little more out of the wind. He saw that Banichi had gotten down-and he worked his way in that direction, where four other men had gathered, with Jago, one of them squatting down be- side her and holding Banichi's ankle. The water-soaked boot was stretched painfully tight over the joint. "Is it broken, Jago-ji?" he asked, getting down beside her. "Probably," she said darkly, not looking at him. By the stablehands' foresight, she and Banichi both had rain- cloaks, and she huddled in hers, not looking at him, not speaking, not willing to speak; he read that in the shoul- der she kept toward him. But it was no place to argue with her, when Banichi was in pain, and everything seemed short-fused. The man who was dealing with Banichi at least seemed sure of what he was doing-might even be a real medic, Bren thought. Tabini had one in his guard. It made sense the aiji-dowager might take such a precaution, consider- ing her breakneck rides and considering the politics she had a finger in. FOREIGNER / 375 "The boot stays on," Banichi said, to a suggestion they cut it off. "It's holding it together. I can at least--2' At which the man made a tentative probe that sent Banichi's head back and his breath hissing through his teeth. "Sorry," the man said, and spoke to another of the guards kneeling by him. "Cut me a couple or three splints." One more of their company walked up to watch, steps whispering over sodden leaves, disturbing the occasional rock. Jago squatted, blowing on her clasped hands to warm them. Banicfii wasn't enjoying being the center of attention. He ebbed backward onto the ground and lay there staring up into the drizzle, ignoring all of it. The ground chill had to come through the plastic rain-cloak. But the staff's providence hadn't extended to blankets, or to tents. Ilisidi limped over, using her cane, and Cenedi's arm, on the uneven ground. There ensued another discussion between Ilisidi and the perhaps-medic as to whether Banichi's ankle was broken; and Banichi, propping him- self glumly on his elbows, entered the argument to say it had gone numb when the truck blew up and he'd finished the job when he'd jumped out under fire and hit a rock. Which was more detail of what had happened in the ambush than he'd yet heard from Banichi. "Can you walk on it?" Cenedi asked. "In an emergency," Banichi said, which proved nothing at all about how bad it was. It was broken, Bren thought The ankle didn't rest straight. "Not what I'd choose, nadi What walking did you have in mind?" "Outside Maidingi Airport, which seems unavailable there are two, remotely three ways we can go from here! Thunder rumbled, and Cenedi waited for it, while the rain fell steadily. "We'd confirmed Wigairiin as reliable, with its airstrip-hence the feints we asked for lakeward a southwest. But our schedule is blown to hell now. rebels in Maidingi township have no doubt now that 376 / C. J. C44ERRYH answer to their association is no and that we're going west. They can't be so stupid as to forget our association with Wigairiin." "North of here," Banichi said. "North and west. On the edge of the hills. The rebels are bound to move to take Wigairiin's airstrip-or to take it out." "Foolish to strike at Wigairiin," Ilisidi said, "until they're sure both MaIguri and Wigairiin aren't going with them. And they won't have known that until we went out the stable gate." "Not an easy field to take from the air," Cenedi said. "Expensive to take." "Unless they moved in forces overland, in advance of MaIguri's refusal," Banichi said. "Possible," Cenedi said. "But let me tell you our other choices. There's the border. Fagioni province, just at the foot of Wigairiin height. But it could be a soft border. Damned soft in a matter of hours if Wigairiin falls, and we're left with the same guess where the border into loyal territory firms up after that if Wigairiin falls. There's also the open country, if we ignore both Wigairiin and Fagioni township and head into the reserve there. That's dm hundred miles of wilderness, plenty of game. But no cover." "More air attacks," Ilisidi said. "We might as well resign the fight if we take that route." Banichi shifted higher, to sit up, winced, and set- tled on an elbow. "Railhead at Fagioni. They'll have infil- trated, if they've got any sense. Major force is already launched. Rainstorm won't have stopped the trains. They know we didn't take the lake crossing. They know the politics on this side. You were the only question, nand' dowager." "So it's Wigairiin," Cenedi said. "There's south," Banichi said. "Maidingi." "With twelve of us? They'd hunt us out in an hour. We've got this storm until dark, if the weather reports FOREIGNER / hold. That long we've got cover. We can make Wigairii We can get out of there." "In what?" Banichi asked. "Forgive me. A plane that a low-flying target?" "A jet," Cenedi said. Banichi frowned and drew in a slow breath, seen-fing think about it then. "But what is it," Banichi 46since they took Maidingi? Four, five hours? Tabini commercial aircraft at his disposal. He might be Maidingi by now. He could have landed a force at the port!, "And the whole rebellion could be over," Ilisidi sai "but I wouldn't bet our lives on it, nadiin. The Associ tion is hanging together by a thread of public c in Tabini's priorities. To answer a rising against him w brutal force instead of negotiation, while the axe han over atevi heads, visibly? No. Tabini's made his move, sending Bren-paidhi to me. If that plane goes out Wigairiin, if I personally, with my known opposition the Treaty, deliver the paidhi back to him-the wind out of their sails, then and there. This is a political nadiin." "Explosives falling on our heads, nand' dowager, w not a sudden inspiration. They were made in adv The preparation to drop them from aircraft was made advance. Surely they informed you the extent of th preparations." "Surely my grandson informed you," Ilisidi said, "n the extent of his own.". What are we suddenly talking about? Bren asked hi self. What are they asking each other? About betrayal? "As happens," Banichi said, "he informed us very tle. In case you should ask." My God. "We go to Wigairiin," Cenedi said. "I refuse, w 'Sidi's life, to bet on Maidingi, or what Tabini may may not have done." 378 / C. 3. CHERRYIH "I have to leave it to you," Banichi said with a grimace and a shift on the elbow. "You know this area. You know your people." "No question, then," Ilisidi said, and punctuated it with a stab of her walking-stick at the sodden ground. "To- night. If this rain keeps up-it's not an easy airfield in turbulence, Cenedi assures me. Not at all easy when they're shooting at you from the ground. If we get there we can hold the airstrip with two rifles, take the rest of the night off, and radio my lazy grandson to come get Us.91 "I've flown in there," Cenedi said. "Myself. It's a nar- row field, short, single runway, takeoffs and landings right out over a cliff, past a steep rock where snipers can sit. The house is a seventeenth-century villa, with a gravel road down to Fagioni. The previous aiji was too aristo- cratic to fly over to Maidingi to catch the scheduled flights. She had the airstrip built, knocked down a four- teenth century defense wall to do it." "Hell of a howl from the Preservation Commission," Ilisidi said. "Her son maintains the jet and uses it. It seats ten. It can easily handle our twelve, Cenedi's rated for it, and it's going to be, fueled." "If," Cenedi said, "if the rebels haven't gotten some- body in there. Or sent them down, as you say, into Fagioni, to come up overland. If we have to scramble to take that field, nadiin, will you be with us? That's the walk that could be necessary." "No question," Banichi said glumly. "I'm with you." "None," said Jago. "The paidhi will take orders," Cenedi said. 61V9 Bren started to answer, but Jago hit his knee with the back of her hand. "The paidhi," she said coldly, "will do what he's told. Absolutely what he's told." "1-" He began to object on his own behalf, that he un- derstood that, but Jago said, "Shut the hell up, nadi." He shut up. Jago embarrassed him. The anger and ten- sion between Banichi and Cenedi was palpable. He FOREIGNER / looked at the rain-soaked ground and watched the drops settle on last year's fallen leaves and the sc stones, while they discussed the geography of Wig riin, and the airstrip, and the aiji of Wigairiin's ties to isidi. Meanwhile the putative medic had brought splints, three straight sticks, and elastic bandage, and ceeded to wrap Banichi's ankle----~'Tightly, nadi," B interrupted the strategy session to say, and the medic s shortly he should deal with what he knew about. Banichi frowned and leaned back, then, because seemed to hurt, and was out of the discussion, while J asked pointed questions about the lay of the land. There was an ancient wall on the south that cut off approach to Wigairiin, with a historic and functional gate; but they didn't expect it to be shut against Just before that approach, they were going to send mecheiti with one man, around the wall, north and east, get them home to Malguri. I Why not stable them at Wigairfin? Bren asked himse Why not at least have them for a resource for escape things went wrong there, and they had to get away? For a woman who seemed to know a lot about 4aulting fortresses, and a lot about airstrips and strategy removing that resource as a fall-back seemed a s idea. Cenedi letting her order it seemed more stupid that, and Banichi and Jago not objecting to it-he di understand. He almost said something himself, but J had said shut up, and he didn't understand what was ing on in the company. Best ask later, he thought. The dowager valued Babs probably more than she any of them. That part was even understandable to hi She was old. If anything happened to Babs, he thou Ilisidi might lose something totally irreplaceable in life. Which was a human thing to think. In point of any when he was dealing with atevi feelings, he didn't kn what Ilisidi felt about a mecheiti she'd attacked a man 380 / C. 1. C+iERRY+i damaging. Forgetting that for two seconds was a trap, a disturbing, human miscalculation, right at the center of a transaction that was ringing alarm bells up and down his spine, and he couldn't make up his mind what was going on with the signals he was getting from Banichi and Jago. God, what was going on? But he couldn't put it together without understanding what Ilisidi's motive was, what she valued most, what she was logical about and what she wouldn't be. 00 such exaggerated threads his mind was running, chasing down invalid chains of logic, stretching connec- tions between points that weren't connected, trying to re- member what specific and mutable points had persuaded him to believe what he believed was true-the hints of motivation and policy in people who'd been lying to him when they told him the most basic facts he'd believed. Go on instinct? Worst, worst thing the paidhi could ever do for a situation. Instinct was human. Feelings were human. Reasonable expectations were definitely hu- man.... Ilisidi said they should get underway, then. It was a good fifty miles, atevi reckoning, and she thought they could get there by midnight. "Speed's what we can do," she said, "that these city- folk won't expect. They don't think in terms of mecheiti crossing hills like this that fast. Damn lot they've forgot- ten. Damn lot about this land they never learned." She leaned on her cane, getting up. He wanted to be- lieve in Ilisidi. He wanted to trust the things she said. Emotionally ... based in human psyche ... he wanted to think she loved the land and wanted to save it. Intellectually, he wanted answers about sending the mecheiti back to Malguri-where there were, supposedly, rebels having breakfast off the historic china. He didn't get up with the rest. He waited until the medic packed up and moved off. "Banichi-ji," he said on his knees and as quietly as he FDREIGNER / could. "She's sending the mecheiti away. We might st need them. Is this reasonable, nadi-ji?" Banichi's yellow eyes remained frustratingly expre sionless. He blinked once. The mouth-offered not thing. "Banichi. Why?" "Why-what?" "Why did Tabini do what he did? Why didn't he j damn ask me where I stood?" "Go get on, nadi." "Why did you get mad when I came to help yo Cenedi would have left you, with no help, no--2' "I said, Get on. We're leaving." "Am I that totally wrong, Banichi? Just answer Why is she sending the mecheiti back, before we kn we're. safe?" "Get me up," Banichi said, and reached for Jag hand. Bren caught the other arm, and Banichi made it wobbly, testing the splinted ankle. It didn't work. Banic gasped, and used their combined help to hobble over his mecheita and grab the mounting-straps. "Banichi-ji." It was the last privacy he and Banichi Jago might have for hours, and he was desperate. "Ba chi, these people are lying to us. Why?" Banichi looked at him, and for one dreadful mome he had the feeling what it must be to face Banichi ... p fessionally. But Banichi turned then, grasped the highest of straps on the riding-pad, and with a jump that belied size and weight, managed to get most of the way up wi out even needing the mecheita to drop the shoulder. J gave him the extra shove that put him across the pad Banichi caught up the rein, letting the splinted leg dang Banichi didn't need his help. Atevi-didn't have frie atevi left each other to die. The paidhi was supposed reason through that fact of life and death and find a nale other humans could accept to explain it all. But at the moment, with bruises wherever atevi h 382 / C. 3. CHERRYH laid hands on him, the paidhi didn't understand, couldn't understand, refused to understand why Banichi should have died back there, for no damned reason, or why Banichi was lying to him, too. Men were getting up, ready to move out. If he wasn' on Nokhada, Nokhada would leave him, he had no doubt of it, they'd have to come back to get the reason-he still supposed-of this whole exercise, and nobody was going to be damned happy with him. He quickened his pace, limped across the slant of the hill and caught Nokhada. Then he heard the tread of someone leading a mecheita in his tracks across the sodden leaves. He faced around. It was Jago. A very angry Jago. "Nadi," she said. "You don't have the only valid ideas in the world. Tabini-ji told you where to be, wnat to do. You do those things." He shoved up the rain-cloak plastic and the sleeve of his coat, showing the livid marks still on his wrist. "That, for their hospitality last night, that, for the dowager's questions-which I've -answered, Jago-ji, answered well enough that they believe me. It's not my damn fault, whatever's going on. I don't know what I've done since the dowager's apartment, that you look at me like that." Jago slapped him across the face, so hard he rocked back against Nokhada's ribs. "Do as you're told!" Jago said. "Do I hear more ques- tions, nadi?" "No," he said, tasting blood. His eyes were watering. Jago walked off from him in his bluffed vision and got on her mecheita, her back to him the while. He hit Nokhada harder than his wont. Nokhada dropped her shoulder and stayed down until he had his foot in the stirrup and landed astride. He kicked blindly, angrily, after the stirrup, fought the rain-cloak out of his way as he felt Nokhada jolt into motion. A low vine raked his head and defensive arm. Jago hadn't hit with all her force-left the bum of her hand on his face, but that was nothing. It was the anger- FOREIGNER / 3 hers and his, that found a vital, Painful spot and dug deep. He didn't know what he'd said-or done. He di know how he'd come to deserve her temper or her cah lated spite, except Jago didn't like the questions ht asked Banichi. He'd trod on something, a saner vo tried to say to him. He might have vital keys if he s down any personal feeling, remembered exactly w he'd asked, or exactly what anyone had said. It was job to do that. Even if atevi didn't want him doing Even if he wasn't going to get where they promised h he was going. He lost the hillside a moment. He was on Ilisidi's b cony, in the biting wind, in the dark, where Ilisidi c lenged him with facts, and the truth that he couldn't now to be the truth, the way he couldn't pull the pieces recent argument out of his memory. He was on the mountain, alone, seeing only the sn On the rain-drenched hillside, with Jago deserti Banichi, cursing him for going after her own partn and in the smoke, with the ricocheting bullets left right of him. The cellar swallowed him, a moment of dark, of he less teffor-he didn't know why the images tumbled over the other, flashed up, replacing the rainy thicket the sight of Ilisidi and Cenedi ahead of him. The shock of last night had set in-a natural reacti he told himself, like the details of an accident com back, replaying themselves over what was going around him-only he wasn't doing it in safety. Th wasn't any safety anywhere around him. There mi never be again, only the bombs had stopped falling, he had to focus and deal with what was ringing al bells through the here and now. Banichi had challenged Ilisidi on the preparation those bombs for a reason. Banichi wasn't a reckless man. He'd been probing something, and he'd gotten it: Ilisidi had come back 384 / C. 1. CHERRYN him with a What do you know? and Banichi had claimed to know nothing of Tabini's plans, implicitly challenging Ilisidi again to take him to that cellar and see what they could get. Where was Banichi's motive in the confrontation? Where was Ilisidi's in the question, with so much tot- tering uncertain? Putting Tabini's intentions in question.... God, the mind was going. He was losing the threads. They were multiplying on him, his thoughts darting this way and that way ... not making sense and then making him terribly, irrationally afraid he still hadn't figured the people he was with. Jago hadn't backed Banichi, anywhere in the argument Jago had attacked him, told him to shut up, followed him across the hill to say exactly what she'd already told him and then hit him in the face. Hard. Nobody had objected to Jago hitting him. Ilisidi hadn't. Banichi hadn't. They'd surely seen it. And nobody stopped her. Nobody objected. Nobody cared, because the human in the party didn't read the signals and maybe ev- erybody else knew why Jago had done it. The threads kept running, proliferating, tangling. The dark was all around him for a moment, and he lost his balance-caught himself, heart thumping, with a hand on Nokhada's rain-wet shoulder. It was the cellar again. He heard footsteps, but they were an illusion, he knew they were. He'd taken a knock on the head and it hurt like hell, shooting pains through his brain. The footsteps went away when he insisted to see the storm-gray of the hills, to feel the cold drops off the branches above him trickling down his neck. Nokhada's Jarring gait scarcely hurt him now. But Banichi was alive. He'd made that choice, what- ever atevi understood. He couldn't have gone off and left him and Jago, to go off with Ilisidi-he didn't know what part of a human brain had made that decision, the way atevi didn't consciously know why they, like mecheiti, FOREIGNER / 385 darted after the leader, come hell come havoc-he hadn't thought, hadn't damned well thought about the transac- tion, that the paidhi's life was what aijiin were shooting each other for. It hadn't mattered to him, in that moment, running down that slope, and he still didn't know that it mattered-not to Tabini, who could get a replacement for him in an hour, who wasn't going to listen to him in any- one else's hands, and who wasn't going to pay a damn thing to get him back, so the joke was on the people who thought he would. He didn't know anything. It was all too technical-so that joke was on them, too. The only thing he had of value was in the computer- which he ought to drop into the nearest deep ravine, or slam onto a rock, except it wouldn't take out the storage-and if they collected it, it wasn't saying ate.v experts couldn't get those pieces to work. And experts weren't the people he wanted to have their hands on it. He should have done a security erase. If he'd had th power to turn it on. God, do what to save that situation, tip them off it wa valuable? Make an issue, then botch getting rid of it? Just leave it in the bag, let Nokhada carry it back t Malguri? The rebels were sitting in Malguri. Dark. The steps coming and going. The beast on the wall. Lonely after all these centuries He couldn't talk to Banichi. Banichi couldn't walk couldn't fight them-he couldn't believe Banichi lyin back like that, resigning the argument and all their live to Cenedi. But Cenedi was a professional. Like Banichi. Mayb together they understood things he couldn't. Jago crossed the width of the hill to blame him and hi him in the face. Cold and dark. Footsteps in the hall. Voices discussin having a drink, fading away up the steps. A gun was against his skull and he thought of snow 386 / C. 1. CHERRYM snow all around him. And not a living soul. Like Banichi. Just shut it out. Give it up. He didn't understand. Giri was dead. Bombs just dropped and spattered pieces all over the hill, and he didn't know why, it didn't make any sense why a bomb fell on one man and not another. Bombs didn't care. Kill- ing him must be as good as having him, in the minds of their enemies. Which wasn't what Cenedi had said.' There began to be a sea-echo in his skull, the ache where Cenedi had hit him and the one where Jago had, both gone to one pain, that kept him aware where he was. In his own apartment, before Cenedi's message had come, before she'd left, Jago had said ... I'll never be- tray you, nadi Bren. I'll never betray you ... X1V Not doing well, he wasn't-with one pain shooting through his eyes and another running through his el- bow to the pit of his stomach, while two or three other point-sources contested for his attention. The rain had whipped up to momentary thunder and a fit of deluge, then subsided to wind-borne, drizzles, a cold mist so thick one breathed it. The sky was a boiling gray, while the mecheiti struck a steady, long-striding pace one behind the other, Babs leading the way up and down the rain- shadowed narrows, along brushy stretches of strearnside, where frondy ironheart trailed into their path and dripped water on their heads and down their necks. But there wasn't the same jostling for the lead, now, among the foremost mecheiti. It seemed it wasn't just FOREIGNER / 387 Nokhada, after all. None of them were fighting, whether Ilisidi had somehow communicated that through Babs, or whether somehow, after the bombs, and in the misery of the cold rain, even the mecheiti understood a common ur- gency. The established order of going had Nokhada fourth in line behind another of Ilisidi's guards. One, two, three, four, regular as a heartbeat, pace, pace, pace, pace. Never betray you. Hell. More tea? Cenedi asked him. And sent him to the cellar. His eyes watered with the throbbing in his skull and with the wind blasting into his face, and the desire to beat Cenedi's head against a rock grew totally absorbing for a while. But it didn't answer the questions, and it didn't get him back to Mospheira. Just to some damned place where Ilisidi had friends. Another alarm bell, he thought. Friends. Atevi didn't have friends. Atevi had man'chi, and hadn't someone said-he thought it was Cenedi himself-that Ilisidi hadn't man'chi to anyone? They crossed no roads-with not a phone line, not a tilled field, not the remote sound of a motor, only the reg- ular thump of the mecheiti's gait on wet ground, the creak of harness, even, harsh breathing-it hypnotized, mile after rain-drenched and indistinguishable mile. The dwindling day had a lucent, gray sameness. Sunlight spread through the clouds no matter what the sun's angle with the hills. Ilisidi reined back finally in a flat space and with a gri- mace and a resettling on Babs' back, ordered the four heavier men to trade off to the unridden mecheiti. That included Cenedi; and Banichi, who complained and elected to do it by leaning from one mecheita to the other, as only one of the other men did-as if Banichi and mecheiti weren't at all unacquainted. Didn't hurt himself. Expecting that event, Bren 388 / C. 3. CHERRYM watched with his lip between his teeth until Banichi had straightened himself around. He caught Jago's eye then and saw a biding coldness, total lack of expression-directed at him. Because human and atevi hormones were running the machinery, now, he told himself, and the lump he had in his throat and the thump of emotion he had when he re- acted to Jago's cold disdain composed the surest prescrip- tion for disaster he could think of. Shut it down, he told himself. Do the job. Think it through. Jago didn't come closer. The whole column sorted it- self out in the prior order, and Nokhada's first jerking steps carried him out of view. When he looked back, Banichi was riding as he had been, hands braced against the mecheita's shoulders, head bowed-Banichi was suffering, acutely, and he didn't know whether the one of their company who seemed to be a medic, and who'd had a first aid kit, had also had a pain-killer, or whether Banichi had taken one or not, but a broken ankle, splinted or not, had to be swelling, dan- gling as it was, out of the stirrup on that'side. Banichi's condition persuaded him that his own aches and pains were ignorable. And it frightened him, what they might run into and what, with Banichi crippled, and with Ilisidi willing to leave him once, they could do if they met trouble at the end of the ride-if Wigairiin wasn't in allied hands. Or if Ilisidi hadn't told the truth about her intentions- because it occurred to him she'd said no to the rebels in Maidingi, but she'd equally well been conspiring with Wigairiin, evidently, as he picked it up, as an old associ- ate only apt to come in with the rebels if Ilisidi did. That meant queasy relationships and queasy alliances, fragile ties that could do anything under stress. In the cellar, they'd recorded his answers to their questions-they said it was all machimi, all play-acting, no validity. FOREIGNER / 38 But that tape still existed, if Ilisidi hadn't destroyed i She'd not have left it behind in MaIguri, for the peopl that were supposedly her jilted allies. If Ilisidi hadn't destroyed it-they had that tape, an they had it with them. He reined back, disturbing the column. He feigned difficulty with the stirrup, and stayed bent over as rid after rider passed him at that rapid, single-minded pact He let up on the rein when Banichi passed him, and th hindmost guards had pulled back, too, moving in on hin "Banichi, there's a tape recording," he said. "Of me. 11 terrogation about the gun.,, At which point he gave Nokhada a thump of his he and slipped past the guards, as Nokhada quickened pac Nokhada butted the fourth mecheita in the rump as sh arrived, not gently, with the war-brass, and the other ma had to pull in hard to prevent a fight. "Forgive me, nadi," Bren said breathlessly, heart thuml ing. "I had my stirrup twisted." It was still a near fight. It helped Nokbada's flaggin spirits immensely, even if she didn't get the spot in lin It didn't at all help his headache, or the hurt in his arn half of it now, he thought, from Nokbada's war for th rein. The gray daylight slid subtly into night, a gradual dim ming to a twilight of wind-driven rain, a ghostly hal light that slipped by eye-tricking degrees into blackest starless night. He had thought they would have to slo down when night fell-but atevi eyes could deal with th dark, and maybe mecheiti could: Babs kept that steady ground-devouring pace, laboring only when they had t climb, never breaking into exuberance or lagging on th lower places; and Nokhada made occasional sallies for ward, complaining with tosses of her head and jolts in he gait when the third-rank mecheita. cut her off, one con stant, nightmare battle just to keep control of the creature to keep his ears attuned for the whisper of leaves ahe 390 / C. 3. C44ERRY+I that forewarned him to duck some branch the first riders had ducked beneath in the dark. The rain must have stopped for some while before he even noticed, there was so much water dripping and blowing from the leaves generally above them. But when they broke out into the clear, the clouds had gone from overhead, affording a panorama of stars and shadowy hills that should have relieved his sense Of claustrophobic dark-but all he could think of was the ship presence that threatened the world and the fact that, if they didn't reach this airstrip by dawn, they'd be naked to attack from Maidingi Airport. By midnight, llisidi had said, they'd reach Wigairiimi,, and that hour was long since past, if he could still read the pole stars. Only let me die, he began to think, exhausted and in pain, when they began to climb again, and climb, and climb the stony hill. llisidi called a halt, and he supposed that they were going to trade off again, and that it meant they'd as long to go as they'd already ridden. But he saw the ragged edge of ironheart against the night sky above them on the hill, and llisidi said they should all get down, they'd gone as far as the mecheiti would take them. Then he wished they had a deal more of riding to go, because it suddenly dawned on him that all bets were called. They were committing themselves, now, to a course in which neither Banichi nor Jago was going to object, not after Banichi had argued vainly against it at the outset. God, he was scared of this next part. Banichi didn't have any help but him-not even Jago, so far as he could tell. He had the computer to manage ... his last chance to send it away with Nokhada and hope, hope the handlers, loyal to llisidi, would keep it from rebel attention. But if rebels did hold Malguri now, they'd be very in- terested when the mecheiti came in-granted anything had gone wrong and they didn't get a fast flight out of FOREIGNER / 391 here, the computer was guaranteed close attention. And things could go wrong, very wrong. Baji-naji. Leaving it for anyone else was asking too much of Fortune and relying far too much on Chance. He jerked the ties that held the bags on behind the riding-pad, gathered them up as the most ordinary, the most casual thing in the world, his hands trembling the while, and slid off, gripping the mounting-straps to steady his shaking knees. Breath came short. He leaned on Nokhada's hard, warm shoulder and blacked out a moment, felt the chill of the cellar about him, the cords holding him. Heard the footsteps- He tried to lift the bags to his shoulder. A hand met his and took them away from him. "It's no weight for me," the man said, and he stood there stupidly, locked between believing in a compassion atevi didn't have and fearing the canniness that might well have Cenedi behind it-he didn't know, he couldn't think, he didn't want to make an issue about it, when it was even remotely possible they didn't even realize he had the ma- chine with him. Djinana had brought it. The handlers had loaded it. The man walked off. Nokhada brushed him aside and wandered off across the hill in a general movement of the mecheiti: a man among Ilisidi's guard had gotten onto Babs and started away as the whole company began to move out, afoot now, presumably toward the wall Ilisidi had foretold, where, please God, the gate would be open, the way Ilisidi had said, nothing would be complicated and they could all board the plane that would carry them straight to Shejidan. The man who'd taken the bags outpaced him with long, sure strides up the hill in the dark, up where Cenedi and llisidi were walking, which only confirmed his worst sus- picions, and he needed to keep that man in sight--he needed to advise Banichi what was going on, but Banichi Eli 392 / C. J. QHERRYM A was leaning on Jago and on another man, further down the slope, falling behind. He didn't know which to go to, then-he couldn't get a private word with Banichi, he couldn't keep up witb both. He settled for limping along halfway between the two groups, damning himself for not being quicker with an answer that would have stopped the man from taking the saddlebags and not coming up with anything now that would advise Banichi what was in that bag without advis- ing the guard with him-as good as shout it aloud, as say anything to Banichi now. Claim he needed something from his personal kit? It might work. He worked forward, out of breath, the hill going indistinct on him by turns. "Nadi," he began to say. But as, he came up on the man, he saw the promised wall in front of them, at the very crest of the hill. The an- cient gate was open on a starlit, weed-grown road. They were already at Wigairiin. XV The wall was a darkness, the gate looked as if it could never again move on its hinges. The shadows of Ifisidi and Cenedi went among the first into an area of weeds and ancient cobblestones, of old buildings, a road like the ceremonial road of the Bu-javid, maybe of the same pre-Ragi origin-4he mind came up with the most irrational, fantastical wanderings, Bren thought, desperately tagging the one of Ifisidi's guards who had his baggage, and his computer. Banichi and Jago were behind him somewhere. The ones in front were going in as much haste as Ilisidi could manage, using her cane and Cenedi's assistance, which fOREIGNER / be quite brisk when Ilisidi decided to move, she had. "I can take it now, nadi," Bren said, trying to lib the strap of his baggage from the man's shoulder mui as the man had gotten it away from him. "It's no gre difficulty. I need something from the kit." 99 "No time now to look for anything, nand' paidhi, man said. "Just stay up with us. Please." It was damned ridiculous. He lost a step, totally off balance, and then grew angry and desperate, which di at all inform him what was reasonable to do. Stick clo to the man, raise no more issue about the bags until stopped, try to claim there was medication he had to h as soon as they got to the plane and then stow the under his seat, out of view ... that was the only plan could come up with, trudging along with aches in ev bone he owned and a headache that wasn't improvi with exertion. They met stairs, open-air, overgrown with wee where the walk began to pass between evidently doned buildings. That went more slowly-Ilisidi deal well with steps; and one of the younger guards s ply picked her up after a few steps and carried her in arms. Which with Banicbi wasn't an option. Bren loo back, lagged behind, and one of the guards near him his arm and pulled him along, saying, "Keep with us, nand' paidhi, do you need help?" "No," he said, and started to say, Banichi does. Something banged. A shot hit the man he was t to, who staggered against the wall. Shots kept comi could racketing and ricocheting off the walls beside the walk, the man, holding his side, jerked him into cover in a way and shoved his head down as gunfire broke out every quarter. "We've got to get out of here," Bren gasped, but guard with him slumped down and the fire kept up. tried in the dark and by touch to find where the man 394 / C. J. CHERRYM hit-he felt a bloody spot, and tried for a pulse, and couldn't find it. The man had a limpness he'd never felt in a body-dead, he told himself, shaking, while the fire bounced off walls and he couldn't tell where it was com- ing from, or even which side of it was his. Banichi and Jago had been coming up the steps. The man lying inert against his knee had pulled him into a protected nook that seemed to go back among the weeds, and he thought it might -be a way around and down the hill that didn't involve going out onto the walk again. He let the man slide as he got up, made a foolish at- tempt to cushion the man's head as he slid down, and in agitation got up into a crouch and felt his way along the wall, scared, not knowing where Disidi and Cenedi had gone or whether it was Tabini's men or the rebels or what. He kept going as far as the wall did, and it turned a comer and went downhill a good fifty or so feet before it met another wall, in a pile of old leaves. He retreated, and met still another when he tried in the other direction. The gunfire stopped, then. Everything stopped. He sank down with his shoulders against the wall of the cul de sac and listened, trying to still his own ragged breaths and stop shaking. It grew so still he could hear the wind moving the leaves about in the ruins. What is this place?, he asked himself, seeing nothing when he looked back down the alleyway but a lucent slice of night sky, starlight on old brick and weeds, and a sec- tion of the walk. He listened and listened, and asked him- self what kind of place Ilisidi had directed them into, and why Banichi and Jago didn't realize the place was an an- cient ruin. It felt as if he'd fallen into a hole in time-a personal one, in which he couldn't hear the movements he thought he should hear, just his own occasional gasps for breath and a leaf skittering down the pavings. No sound of a plane. No sound of anyone moving. W" FOREIGNER / 3 They couldn't all be dead. They had to be hiding, way he was. If he went on moving in this quiet, so body might hear him, and he couldn't reason out who laid the ambush-only it seemed likeliest that if they just opened fire, they didn't care if they killed the pai and that sounded like the people out of Maidingi Airp who'd lately been dropping bombs. So Ilisidi and Cenedi were wrong, and Banichi w right, and their enemies had gotten into the airport he if there truly was an airport here at all. I Nobody was moving anywhere right now. Which co mean a lot of casualties, or it could mean that e was sitting still and waiting for the other side to mo first, so they could hear where they were. Atevi saw in the dark better than humans. To eyes, there was a lot of light in the alley, if somebo looked down this way. He rolled onto his hands and a knee, got up and w as quietly as he could back into the dead end of the all sat down again and tried to think-because if he could to Banichi, or Cenedi, or any of the guards, granted th were Ilisidi's enemies no less than his-there was chance of somebody knowing where he was going, he didn't; and having a gun, which he didn't; and havi the military skills to get them out of this, which he didn If he tried downhill, to go back into the wood they were fools if they weren't watching the gate. If he could possibly escape out into the countryside . there was the township they'd mentioned, Fagioni but there was no way he could pass for atevi, and Ce or Ifisidi, one or the other, had said Fagioni wouldn't safe if the rebels had Wigairiin. He could try to live off the land and just go until he to a politically solid border-but it had been no few ye since botany, and he gave himself two to three samp before he mistook something and poisoned himself. Still, if there wasn't a better chance, it was a chanc man could live without food, as long as there was w 396 / C. 3. CHERRY+4 to drink, a chance he was prepared to take, but-atevi night-vision being that much better, and atevi hearing be- ing quite acute-a move now seemed extremely risky. More, Banichi must have seen him ahead of him on the steps, and if Banichi and Jago were still alive ... there was a remote hope of them locating him. He was, he had to suppose, a priority for everyone, the ones he wanted to find him and the ones he most assuredly didn't. His own priority ... unfortunately ... no one served. He'd lost the computer. He had no idea where the man with his baggage had gone, or whether he was alive or dead; and he couldn't go searching out there. Damned mess, he said to himself, and hugged his arms about him beneath the heat-retaining rain-cloak, which didn't help much at all where his body met the rain-chilled bricks and paving. Damned mess, and at no point had the paidhi been any- thing but a liability to Ilisidi, and to Tabini. The paidhi was sitting freezing his rump in a dead-end alley, where he had no way to maneuver if he heard a search coming, no place to hide, and a systematic search was certainly going to find him, if he didn't do something like work back down the hill where he'd last seen Banichi and Jago, and where the gate was surely guarded by one side or the other. He couldn't fight an ateva hand to hand. Maybe he might find a loose brick. if- He heard someone moving. He sat and breathed qui- etly, until after several seconds the sound stopped. He wrapped the cloak about him to prevent the plastic rustling. Then, one hand braced on the wall to avoid a scuff of cold-numbed feet, he gathered himself up and went as quickly and quietly as his stiff legs would carry him, in the only direction the alley afforded him. He reached the guard's body, where it lay at the entry to the alley, touched him to be sure beyond a doubt he fOREIGNER / 3T hadn't left a wounded man, and the man was alread3 cold. That was the company he had, there in the entry wherc old masonry made a nook where a human could squeezc in and hide, and a crack through which he could see tht wali outside, through a scraggle of weeds. Came the least small sound of movement somewhere up or down the hill, he wasn't sure. He found himsell short of breath, tried to keep absolutely still. He saw a man then, through the crack, a man with i gun, searching the sides and the length of the walk- man without a rain-cloak, in a different jacket than any. one in Cenedi's company. One of the opposition, for certain. Looking down ever3 alley. And coming to his. He drew a deep, deep breath, leaned his head bac) against the masonry and turned his face into the shadow tucked his pale hands under his arms. He heard the stept come very close, stop, almost within the reach of his arm He guessed that the searcher was examining the guard'~ body. God, the guard was armed. He hadn't even though about it. He heard a soft movement, a click, from when the searcher was examining the body. He daren't risl turning his head.'He stayed utterly still, until finally thi searcher went all the way down the alley. A flashligh flared on the walls down at the dead end, where he ha( recently hidden. He stayed still and tried not to shiver ii his narrow concealment while the man walked bac] again, this time'using the flashlight. The beam stopped short of him. The searcher cut th flashlight off again, perhaps fearing snipers, and, steppinj over the guard's body, went his way down the hill. Mopping up, he thought, drawing ragged breaths When he was as sure as he could make himself that th search had passed him, he got down and searched th( dead guard for weapons. 398 / C. ). CHERRYN The holster was empty. There was no gun in either hand, nor under the body. Damn, he thought. He didn't naturally think in terms of weapons, they weren't his ordinary resort, and he'd made a foolish and perhaps a fatal mistake-he was up against professionals, and he was probably still making mistakes, like in being in this dead end alley and not thinking about the gun before the searcher picked it up; they were doing everything right and he was doing everything wrong, so far, except they hadn't caught him. He didn't know where to go, had no concept of the place, just of where he'd been, but he'd be wise, he de- cided, at least to get out of the cul de sac; and following the search seemed better than being in front of it. He got up, wrapped the cloak about him to be as dark as he could, and started out. But the same instant he heard voices down the street and ducked back into his nook, heart pounding. He didn't know where the solitary searcher had gone. He grew uncertain what was going on out there now- whether the search might have turned back, or changed objectives. He didn't know what a professional like Banichi might know or expect: having no skill at stealth. he decided the only possible advantage he could make for himself was patience, simply outlasting them in staying still in a concealment one close search hadn't penetrated. They hadn't night-scopes, none of the technology humans had known without question atevi would immediately ap- ply to weaponry. They didn't use any tracking animals, except mecheiti, and he hoped there were no mecheiti on the other side. He'd seen one man ripped up. He stood in shadow while the searchers passed, also bound downhill, and while they, too, checked over the dead man almost at his feet, and likewise sent a man down to look through the alley to the end. They talked to- gether in low voices, some of it too faint to hear, but they talked about a count on their enemies, and agreed that this was the third sure kill. FOREIGNER / 399 They went away, then, down the hill, toward the gate. A long while later he heard a commotion from thal quarter, a calling out of instructions, by the tone of it. The voices stopped; the movements went * on for some time, and eventually he saw other men, not their own, walking down toward the gate. That way of escape was shut, then. There wasn't a way out the gate. If any of their party was alive, they weren'l going to linger down there, he could reason that. The force was concentrating behind him for a sweep forward, and he visualized what he in his untrained and native in- telligence would do-hold that gate shut until morning and scour the area inside the gate by daylight. He took a breath, looked through the screen of weeds growing in the chinks in the wall near his head, and ducked out again onto the walk, wrapped in his plastic cloak and aiming immediately for the next best cover, 0 nook further on. He found another alley. He took it, trying to find some- where in it a small dark hole that a searcher might not au- tomatically think to look into even in a daylight search, He could fit where adult atevi wouldn't fit. He could squeeze into places searchers couldn't follow and mighi not realize a human could fit. He followed the alley around two turns, feared it mighl dead-end like the other one, then saw open space ahead- saw flat ground, blue lights, and a hill, and a great houst sprawling up and up that hill, with its own wall, and white lights showing. Wigairiin, he said to himself, and saw the jet down al the end of the runway, sitting in shadow, its window;, dark, its engines silent. Risidi hadn't lied, then. Cenedi hadn't. There was a plane and it had waited for them. But something had gone terribly wrong, the enemy had moved in, taken Wigairflin the way Banichi had warned them they might. BanichJ had been right and no one had listened, and he was here, in the mess he was in. 400 / C. ). CMERRYH Banichi had said Tabini would move against the rebels-but there was that ship up in the heavens, and Tabini couldn't talk to Mospheira unless they'd sent Hanks, and, damn the woman, Hanks wasn't going to be helpful to an aiji fighting to solidify his support, to a pop- ulation dissolving uneasy associations and lesser aijiin trying to position themselves to survive the fall of the aiji in Shejidan. Hanks had outright said to him that the coun- try assocations didn't matter, he'd argued otherwise, and Hanks had refused to understand why he adamantly took the position that they did. All around him was the evidence that they did. And Ilisidi and Cenedi hadn't lied to him. The plane existed-no one had lied, after all, not their fault the reb- els had figured their plan. It got to his gut that, at least that far, the atevi he was with hadn't betrayed him. Ilisidi had possibly meant all along to go to Shejidan-until something had gone mortally wrong. He leaned against the wall with a knot in his throat, light-headed, and trying to reason, all the same, it didn't mean they didn't mean to go somewhere else, but after hours convinced they were being dragged into a trap, knowing at least that the trap closing around him was not the doing of people he'd felt friendly ... Felt friendly, felt, firiendly ... Two words the paidhi didn't use, but the paidhi was clearly over the edge of personal and professional judgment. He wiped at his eyes with a shaking hand, ventured as carefully as he knew along the frontage of abandoned buildings, among weeds and past old machinery, still looking for that place to hide, with no idea how long he might have to hold out, not knowing how long he could hold out, against the hope of Tabini taking Maidingi and moving forces in to Wigairiin along the same route they'd come. Give or take a few days, a few weeks, it might happen' if he could stay free. Rainy season. He wouldn't die of thirst, hiding out in the ruins. A man could go unfed for a week or so, just not move much. He just needed a FOREIGNER / 401 place-any place, but best one where he might have some view of what came and went. He saw old tanks of some kind ahead, facing the field, oil or jet fuel or something, he wasn't sure, but the ground was grown up with weeds and they didn't look used. They offered a place, maybe, to hide in the shadows where they met the wall-his enemies might expect him down closer to the gate, not on the edge of the field, watching them, right up in an area where they probably worked.... Another, irrational flash on the. cellar. He didn't see where he was, saw that dusty basement instead and knew he was doing it. He reached out and put his hand on the wall to steady himself-retained presence of mind enough at least to know he should watch his feet, there'd been other kinds of debris around, in a disorder not ordi- nary for atevi. Old machine parts, old scrap lumber, old building stone, in an area Wigairiin clearly didn't keep UP- Knocked down an ancient wall to build the airstrip, Ilisidi had said that. Didn't care much for the old times. Ilisidi did. Didn't agree with the aiiiin of Wigairfin on that point. They'd talked about dragonettes, and preserving a na- tional treasure. And the treasure was being blasted with explosives and atevi were killing each other-for fear of humans, in the name of Tabini-aiji, sitting where Ilisidi had worked all her life to be- Dragonettes soaring down the cliffs. Atevi antiquities, leveled to build a runway, so a pro- gressive local aiji didn't have to take a train to Maidingi. He reached the tanks, felt the rusted metal flake on his hands-blind in the dark, he slid down and squirmed his way into the nook they made with the wall-lay down, then, in the wet weeds underneath the braces. Wasn't sure where he was for a moment. He didn't hurt as much. Couldn't see that conveniently out of the hole he'd found, just weeds in front of his face. His heart beat 402 / C. 1. CHERRYM so heavily it jarred the bones of his chest. He'd never felt it do that. Didn't hurt, exactly, nothing did, more than the rest of him. Cold on one side, not on the other, thanks to the rain-cloak. He'd found cover. He didn't have to move from here. He could shut his eyes. He didn't have to think, either, just rest, let the aches go numb. He wished he'd done better than he'd done. Didn't know how he could have. He was alive and they hadn't found him. Better than some of the professionals had scored. Better luck than poor Giri, who'd been a de- cent man. Better luck than the man who'd dragged him to cover before he died-the man hadn't thought about it, he sup- posed; he'd just done, just moved. He supposed it made most difference what a man was primed to do. Call it love. Call it duty. Call it-whatever mecheiti did, when the bombs fell around them and they still followed the mecheit'-aiji. Man'chi. Didn't mean duty. That was the translation on the books. But what had made the man grab himmith the last thought he had-that was man'chi, too. The compul- sion. The drive that held the company together. They said Ilisidi hadn't any. That aijiin didn't. Cosmic loneliness. Absolute freedom. Babs. Ilisidi. Tabini. I send you a man, 'Sidi-ji.... Wasn't anything Tabini wouldn't do, wasn't anything or anyone Tabini wouldn't spend. Human-wise, he still liked the bastard. He still liked Banichi. If anybody was alive, Banichi was. And Banichi would ,have done what that man had done with the last breath in him-but Banichi wouldn't make dying his first choice: the bastards would pay for Banichi's life, and Jago's. ~ Damn well bet they were ftee. They were Tabini's, and Tabini wasn't here to worry about. Just him. FOREIGNER / 403 They'd have found him if they could. Tears gathered in the comers of his eyes. One ran down and puddled on the side of his nose. One ran down his cheek to drip off into the weeds. Atevi didn't cry. One more cosmic indignity nature spared the atevi. But, over all, decent folk, like the old couple with the grandkids, impulses that didn't add up to love, but they felt something profound that humans couldn't feel, either. Something maybe he'd come closer to than any paidhi be- fore him had come Don't wait for the atevi to feel love. The paidhi trained himself to bridge the gap. Give up on words. Try feeling man'chi. Try feeling why Cenedi'd knocked hell out of him for going after Banichi on that shell-riddled road, try feeling what Cenedi had thought, plain as shouting it: identical man'chi, options pre-chosen. The old question, the burn- ing house, what a man would save ... Tabini's people, with their own man'chil together, in Ilisidi's company. Jago, violate man'chi? Not Banichi's partner. I won't betray you, Bren-ji.... Shut up, nadi Bren. Believe in Jago, even when you didn't understand her. Feel the warm feeling, call it whatever you Wanted; she was on your side, same as Banichi. Warm feeling. That was all. There was early daylight bouncing off the pavings. And someone running. Someone shouting. Bren tried to move-his neck was stiff. He couldn't move his left arm from under him, and his right arm and his legs and his back were their own kind of misery. He'd slept, didn't re- member picking the position, and he couldn't damned move. "Hold it!" came from somewhere outside. He reached out and cautiously flatteried the weeds in 404 / C. J. CHERRYN front of his nose, with the vast shadow of the tank over his head and the wall cramping his ankle and his knee at an angle. Couldn't see anything but a succession of buildings along the runway. Modem buildings. He didn't know how he 'd gotten from ruins to here last night. But it was cheap Modem, concrete prefab-two buildings, a windsock. Electric power for the landing lights, he guessed; maybe a waiting area or a machine shop. The wall next to the tank above him was modem, he discovered, sinking down again to ease the strain on his back. Left arm hurt, dammit. Good and stiff. The legs weren't much better. Couldn't quite straighten the one and couldn't, with the one shoulder stiff, conveniently turn over and get more room. Gunshots. SeveraJ. Someone of their company, still alive out there. He hs- tened to the silence after, trying to tell himself it wasn't his affair, and wondering who'd be the last caught, the last killed-he couldn't but think it could well be Banichi or Jago, while he hid, shivering, and knowing there wasn't a damned thing he could do. He felt-he didn't know what. Guilty for hiding. Angry for atevi having to die for him. For other atevi being will- ing to kill, for mistaken, stupid reasons, and humans doing things that had nothing to do with atevi-in human minds. Someone shouted-he couldn't hear what. He wriggled up on the elbow again, used the back of his hand to flat- ten the weeds on the view he had of the space between his building and the other frontages. He saw Cenedi, and llisidi, the dowager leaning on Cenedi's arm, limping badly, the two of them under guard of four rough-looking men in leather jackets, a braid with a blue and red ribbon on the one of them with his back to him- Blue and red. Blue and red. Brominandi's province. Damn him, he thought, and saw them shove Cenedi FOREIGNER / 405 against the wall of the building as they jerked llisidi by the arm and made her drop her cane. Cenedi came away from the wall bent on stopping them, and they stopped him with a rifle butt. A second blow, when Cenedi tried to stand up. Cenedi wasn't a young man. "Where's the paidhi?" they asked. "Where is he?" "Shejidan, by now," he heard llisidi say. They didn't swallow it. They hit Ilisidi, and Cenedi swung at the bastards, kicked one in the head before he took a blow from a rifle butt full in the back and another one on the other side, which knocked him to one knee. They had a gun to llisidi's head, then, and told him stop. Cenedi did stop, and they hit him again and once more. "Where's the paidhi?" they kept asking, and hauled Cenedi up by the collar. "We'll shoot her," they said. But Cenedi didn't know. Couldn't betray him, even to save llisidi, because Cenedi didn't know. "Hear us?" they asked, and slapped Cenedi in the face, slamming his head back i ' nto the wall. They'd do it. They were going to do it. Bren moved, bashed his head on the tank over him, hard enough to bring tears to his eyes, and, finding a rock among the weeds, he flung it. That upset the opposition. They shoved Cenedi and llisidi back and went casting about for who'd done it, talking on their radio to their associates. He really had hoped Cenedi could have taken advan- tage of that break., but they'd had their guns on llisidi, and Cenedi wasn't leaving her or taking any chances with her life-while the search went up and down the frontage and back into the alley. Boots came near. Bren flattened himself, heart pound- ing, breaths not giving him air enough. Boots went away, and a second pair came near. "Here!" someone shouted. Oh, damn, he thought. 406 / C. 3. CHERRYH "You!" the voice bellowed, and he looked up into the barrel of a rifle poking through the weeds, and a man ly- ing flat, the other side of that curtain, staring at him down that rifle barrel, with a certain shock on his face. Hadn't seen a human close up, Bren thought-it always jarred his nerves, to see that moment of shock. More so to know there was a finger on the trigger. "Come out of there," the man ordered him. He began to wiggle out of his hole, not noble, nothing gallant about the gesture or the situation. Damned stupid, he said to himself. Probably there was something a lot smarter to have done, but his guf couldn't take watching a man beaten to death or a brave old woman shot through the head: he wasn't built that way. He reached the daylight, crawling on his belly. The ri- fle barrel pressed against his neck while they gathered around him and searched him all over for weapons. Besides, he said to himself, the paidhi wasn't a fighter. The paidhi was a translator, a mediator-words were his skiR, and if he was with Ilisidi, he might even have a chance to negotiate. Ilisidi had some kind of previous tie to the rebels. There might be a way out of this.... They jerked the rain-cloak off him. The snap resisted, the collar ripped across his neck. He tried to get a knee under him, and two men caught him by the arms and jerked him to his feet. "He's no more than a kid," one said in dismay. "They come that way," red-and-blue said. "I saw the last one. Bring him!" He tried to walk. Wasn't doing well at it. The left arm shot blinding pain, and he didn't think they'd listen to ar- gument, he only wanted to get wherever they were going-and hoped they'd bring Cenedi and Ilisidi with him. He needed Ilisidi, needed someone to negotiate for, himself and his loyalties being the bargaining chip.... Claim man'chi to Ilisidi: they'd read his actions that way-they could, at least, if he lied convincingly. They hauled him into the next building, and Cenedi fOREIGNER / 407 and Ilisidi were behind him, held at gunpoint, shoved up against the wall, while they said someone's neck was broken-the man Cenedi had kicked, Bren thought daz- edly, and tried to make eye contact with Ilisidi, staring at her in a way atevi thought rude. She looked straight at him. Gave a tightening of her mouth he didn't immediately read, but maybe she caught. his offer- Someone grabbed him by the shirt and spun him around and back against the furniture-red-and-blue, it was. A blow exploded across his face, his sight went out, he wasn't standing under his own power, and he heard Cenedi calmly advising the man humans were fragile and if he hit him like that again he'd kill him. Nice, he thought. Thanks, Cenedi. You talk to him. Son of a bitch. Tears gathered in his eyes. Dripped. His nose ran, he wasn't sure with what. The room was a blur when they jerked him upright and somebody held his head up by a fist in his hair. "Is this yours?" red-and-blue asked, and he made out a tan something on the table where red-and-blue was point- ing. His heart gave a double beat. The computer. The bag beside it on the table. They had it on recharge, the wire strung across the ta- ble. "Mine," he said. "We want the access.' He tasted blood, felt something running down his chin that swallowing didn't stop. Lip was cut. "Tell us the access code," red-and-blue said, and gave a jerk on his shirt. His brain started functioning, then. He knew he wasn't going to get his hands on the computer. Had to make them axe the system themselves. Had to remember the axe codes. Make them want the answer, make them be- lieve it was all-important to thern. "Access code!" red-and-blue yelled into his face. I 408 / C. 3. CHERRYM Oh, God, he didn't like this part of the plan. "Fuck off," he said. They didn't know him. Set himself right on their level with that answer, he did--he had barely time to think that before red-and-blue hit him across the face. Blind and deaf for a moment. Not feeling much. Except they still had hold of him, and voices were shouting, and red-and-blue was giving orders about hanging him up. He didn't entirely follow it, until somebody grabbed his coat by the collar and ripped it and the shirt off him. Some- body else grabbed his hands in front of him and tied them with a stiff leather belt. He figured it wasn't good, then. It might be time he should start talking, only they might not believe him. He stood there while they got a piece of electrical cable and flung it over the pipes that ran across the ceiling, using it for a rope. They ran the end through his joined arms and jerked them abruptly over his head. The shoulder shot fire. He screamed. Couldn't get his breath. A belt caught him in the ribs. Once, twice, three times, with all the force of an atevi arm. He couldn't get his feet under him, couldn't get a breath, couldn't organize a thought. "Access code," red-and-blue said. He couldn't talk. Couldn't get the wind. There was pain, and his mind went white-out. "You'll kill him!" someone screamed. Lungs wouldn't work. He was going out. An arm caught him around the ribs. Hauled him up, took his weight off the arms. "Access," the voice said. He fought to get a breath. "Give it to him again," someone said, and his mind whited out with panic. He was still gasping for air when they let him swing, and somebody was shouting, scream- ing that he couldn't breathe. Arm caught him again. Wood scraped, chair hit the fDREIGNER I floor. Something else did. Squeezed him hard around chest and eased up. He got a breath. Who gave you the gun, nand' paidhi? Say it was Tabini. "Access," the relentless voice said. He fought for air against the arm crushing his ches The shoulder was a dull, bone-deep pain. He didn't re member what they wanted. "No," he said, universal an swer. No to everything. They shoved him off and hit him while he swung free two and three times. He convulsed, tore the shou couldn't stop it, couldn't breathe. "Access," someone said, and someone held him so could get to his lungs, while the shoulder grated and se pain through his ribs and through his gut. The gun, he thought. Shouldn't have had it. "Access," the man said. And hit him in the face. hand came under his chin, then, and an atevi face w vered in his swimming vision. "Give me the acces code." "Access," he repeated stupidly. Couldn't think w he was. Couldn't think if this was the one he was goin to answer or the one he wasn't. Second blow across the face. "The code, paidhi!" "Code . . ." Please, God, the code. He was going to b sick with the pain. He couldn't think how to explain to fool. "At the prompt . . ." "The prompt's up," the voice said. "Now whatT' "Type . . ." He remembered the real access. Kept seei white when he shut his eyes, and if he drifted off into blizzard they'd go on hitting him. "Code ..." The co for meddlers. For thieves. "Input date." "Which?" "Today's." Fool. He heard the rattle of the keyboard Red-and-blue was still with him, someone else holdin his head up, by a fist in his hair. "It says 'Time,' " someone said. I I I 410 / C. 3. CHERRY+I "Don't. Don't give it. Type numeric keys "What's thaff "That's the code, dammit!" Red-and-blue looked away. "Do it." Keys rattled. "What have you got?" red-and-blue asked. "The prompt's back again." "Is that iff red-and-blue asked. ... 1024." "You're in," he said, and just breathed, listening to the keys, the operator, skillful typist, at least, querying the computer. Which was going to lie, now. The overlay was en- gaged. It would lie about its memory, its file names, its configuration ... it'd tell anyone who asked that things existed, tell you their file sizes and then bring up various machine code and gibberish, that said, to a computer ex- pert, that the files did exist, protected under separate passcodes. The level of their questions said it would get him out of Wigairiin. Red-and-blue was out of his depth. "What's this garbage?" red-and-blue demanded, and Bren caught a breath, eyes shut, and asked, in crazed de- light: "Strange symbols?" 'Yes. "You're into addressing. What did you do to it?" They hit him again. "I asked the damned file names!" "Human language." Long silence, then. He didn't like the silence. Red- and-blue was a fool. A fool might do something else foolish, like beat him to death trying to learn computer programming. He hung there, fighting for his breaths, try- ing to get his feet under him, while red-and-blue thought about his options. "We've got what we need," red-and-blue said. "Let's pack them up. Take them down to Negiran." Rebel city. Provincial capital. Rebel territory. It was the FOREIGNER / answer he wanted. He was going somewhere, out of cold and the mud and the rain, where he could deal w someone of more intelligence, somebody of ambiti somebody with strings the paidhi might figure how pull, on the paidhi's own agenda ... "Bring them, too?" He wasn't sure who they meant. He turned his he while they were getting him loose from the pipes, saw Cenedi's bloodied face. Cenedi didn't have any e pression. Ilisidi didn't. Mad, he said to himself. He hoped Cenedi didn't any heroics at this point. He hoped they'd just tie Ce up and keep him alive until he could do somethin to think of a way to keep Cenedi alive, like ask for Ilisi Make them want Ilisidi's cooperation. She'd been of theirs. Betrayed them. But atevi didn't take that so P sonally, from aijiin. He couldn't walk at first. He yelled when they grab the bad arm, and somebody hit him in the head, but more reasonable voice grabbed him, said his arm w broken, he could just walk if he wanted to. "I'll walk," he said, and tried to, not steadily, held the good arm. He tried to keep his feet under him. heard red-and-blue talking to his pocket-com as they w out the door into the cold wind and the sunlight. He heard the jet engines start up. He looked at plane sitting on the runway, kicking up dust from its e haust, and tried to look back to be sure Cenedi and Ilis were still with them, but the man holding his arm j him back into step and bid fair to break that arm, too Long walk, in the wind and the cold. Forever, until ramp was in front of them, the jet engines at the t screaming into their ears and kicking up an icy wi against his bare skin. The man holding him let go his and he climbed, holding the thin metal handrail 'with good hand, a man in front of him, others behind. He almost fainted on the steps. He entered the sh tered, shadowed interior, and somebody caught his ri 412 / C. 3. CHERRYM arm, pulled him aside to clear the doorway. There were seats, empty, men standing back to let them board- Cenedi helped llisidi up the steps, and the other men came up after Cenedi. A jerk on his arm spun him away. He hit a seat and missed sitting in it, trying to recover himself from the moveable seat-arm as a fight broke out in the doorway, flesh meeting bone, and blood spattering all around him. He turned all the way over on the seat arm, saw Banichi standing by the door with a metal pipe in his hand. The fight was over, that fast. Men were dead or half- dead. llisidi and Cenedi were on their feet, Jago and three men of their own company were in the exit aisle, and an- other was standing up at the cockpit, with a gun. "Nand' paidhi," Banichi gasped, and sketched a bow. "Nand' dowager. Have a seat. Cenedi, up front." Bren caught a breath and slumped, bloody as he was, into the airplane seat, with Banichi and Cenedi in eye-to- eye confrontation and everyone on the plane but him and Jago in llisidi's man'chi. llisidi laid a hand on Cenedi's arm. "We'll go with them," the dowager said. Cenedi sketched a bow, then, and helped the aiji-dowager to a seat, picking his way and hers over bodies the younger men were dragging out of the way. "Don't anybody step on my computer," Bren said, holding his side. "There's a bag somewhere . . . don't step on it." "Find the paidhi's bag," Banichi told the men, and one of the men said, in perfect solemnity, "Nadi Banichi, there's fourteen aboard. We're supposed to be ten and two ___2' crew "Up to ten and crew," somebody else called out, and a third man, "Dead ones don't count!" On Mospheira, they'd be crazy. "So how many are dead?" the argument went, and Cenedi shouted from up front, "The pilot's leaving! He's from Wigairiin, he wants to see to the household." FOREIGNER / "That's one," a man said. "Let that one go," Bren said hoarsely, with the back his hand toward the one who'd said his arm was broke the only grace they'd done him. They were tying up living, stacking up the dead in the aisle. But Banichi s throw out a dead one instead. So they dragged red-and-blue to the door and toss him, and the live one, the one who'd resigned as their p lot, scrambled after him. Banichi hit the door switch. The door started up. engines whined louder, the brake still on. Bren shut his eyes, remembering that height llisidi h said rose beside the runway. That snipers could stop landing. They could stop a takeoff, then, too. The door had shut. Engine-sound built and buil Cenedi let off the brakes and gunned it down the runw Banichi dropped into the seat next the window, sph leg stiff. Bren gripped his seat arm, fit to rip the fabric, rock whipped past the windows on one side, buildings the other. Then blue-white sky on the left, still rock o the right. Sky on both sides, then, and the wheels coming up. "Refuel, probably at Mogaru, then fly on to Shejidan Banichi said. Then, then, he believed it. XV1 He hadn't thought of Barb when he'd thought he w dying, and that was the bitter truth. Barb, in h mind and in his feelings, went off and on like a li switch ... No, off was damned easy. On took a fantasy he flog 414 / C. 3. CHERRYH to desperate, dutiful life whenever the atevi world closed in on him or whenever he knew he was going back to Mospheira for a few days' vacation. 'Seeing Barb' was an excuse to keep his family at arms' length. 'Seeing Barb,' was the lie he told his mother when he just wanted to get up on to the mountain where his family wasn't, and Barb wasn't. That was the truth, though he'd never added it up. That was his life, his whole humanly-speaking emo- tional life, such of it as wasn't connected to his work, to Tabini and to the intellectual exercise of equivalencies, numbers, and tank baffles. He'd known, once, what to do and feel around human beings. Only lately-he just wanted the mountain and the wind and the snow. Lately he'd been happy with atevi, and successful with Tabini, and all of it had been a house of cards. The things he'd thought had made him the most successful of the paidhiin had blinded him to all the dangers. The people he'd thought he trusted ... Something rough and wet attacked his face, a strong hand tilted his head back, something roared in his ears, familiar sound. Didn't know what, until he opened his eyes on blood-stained white and felt the seat arm under his right hand. The bloody towel went away. Jago's dark face hovered over him. The engine drone kept going. "Bren-ji," Jago said, and mopped at a spot under his nose. Jago made a face. "Cenedi calls you immensely brave. And very stupid." Saved his damn-" Wasn't a nice word in Ragi. He looked beside him, saw Banichi wasn't there. "Skin." "Cenedi knows, nadi-ji." Another few blots at his face, which fairly well prevented conversation. Then Jago hung the towel over the seat-back ahead of him, on the other side of the exit aisle, and sat down on his arm rest. "You were mad at me," he said. FOREIGNER / 4 "No," jago said, in Jago-fashion. "God.." "What is 'God?"' Jago asked. Sometimes, with Jago, one didn't even know where I begin. "So you're not mad at me." 6'Bren-ji, you were being a fool. I would have 9011 with you. You would have been all right." "Banichi couldn't!" "True," Jago said. Anger. Confusion. Frustration, or pain. He wasn't sui what got the better of him. Jago reached out and wiped his cheek with her finger! Business-like. Saner than he was. "Tears," he said. "What's 'tears'?" "God.." " 'God' is 'tears'?" He had to laugh. And wiped his own eyes, with th heel of the hand that worked. "Among other elusive coil cepts, Jago-ji." "Are you all right?" "Sometimes I think I've failed. I don't even know. I't supposed to understand you. And most of the time I don' know, nadi Jago. Is that failure?" Jago blinked, that was all for a moment. Then: "No." "I can't make you understand me. How can I make oth ers?" "But I do understand, nadi Bren." "What do you understand?" He was suddenly, irration ally desperate, and the jet was carrying him where he ha( no control, with a cargo of dead and wounded. "That there is great good will in you, nadi Bren." Jag( reached out and wiped his face with her fingers, brushe( back his hair. "Banichi and I won over ten others to g( with you. All would have gone. -Are you all right, nad Bren?" 416 / C. 3. CHERRYH His eyes filled. He couldn't help it. Jago wiped his face repeatedly. "I'm fine. Where's my computer, Jago? Have you got it?" "Yes," Jago said. "It's perfectly safe." "I need a communications patch. I've got the cord, if they brought my whole kit." "For what, Bren-ji?" "To talk to Mospheira," he said, all at once fearing Jago and Banichi might not have the authority. "For Tabini, nadi. Please." "I'll speak to Banichi," she said. They'd charged the computer for him. The bastards had done that much of a favor to the world at large. Jago had gotten him a blanket, so he wasn't freezing. They'd passed the border and the two prisoners at the rear of the plane were in the restroom together with the door wedged shut, the electrical fuse pulled, and the guns of two of Ilisidi's highly motivated guards trained on the door. Ev- erybody declared they could wait until Moghara Airport. Reboot, mode 3, m-for-mask, then depress, mode-4, si- multaneously, SAFE. Fine, easy, if the left hand worked. He managed it with the right. The prompt came up, with, in Mosphei': Input date. He typed, instead, in Mosphei': To be or not to be. System came up. He let go a long breath and started typing, five- fingered, calling up files, getting access and communica- tions codes for Mospheira's network, pasting them in as hidden characters that would trigger response-exchanges between his computer and the Mospheira system. The rebels, if they'd gotten into system level, could have flown a plane right through Mospheira's defense line. Could have brought down Mospheira's whole network. Fouled up everything from the subway system to the earth FOREIGNER / 417 station dish-unless Mospheira, being sane, had long since realized he was in trouble and changed those codes. But that didn't mean they were totally out of commis- sion. They'd just get a different routing until he got clear- ance. . He hunted and pecked, key at a time, through the initial text. Sorry I've been out of touch.... Banichi had been forward in the plane, standing up, talking to Ilisidi and one of her men, who was sitting at the front. Now he came down the aisle, leaning on seat- backs, favoring the splinted ankle. "Get off your feet, damn it!" Bren said, and muttered, politely, "Nadi." Banichi worked his way to the seat beside him, in the exit aisle, and fell into it with a profound sigh, his face beaded with sweat. But he didn't look at all unhappy, for a man in excruciating pain. "I just got hold of Tabini," Banichi said. "He says he's glad you're all right, he had every confidence you'd settle the rebels single-handed." He had to laugh. It hurt. "He's sending his private plane," Banichi said. "We're re-routed to Alujisan. Longer runway. Cenedi's doing fine, but he says he's getting wobbly and he's not sorry to have a relief coming up. We'll hand the prisoners over to the local guard, board a nice clean plane and have some- one feed us lunch. Meanwhile Tabini's moving forces in by air as far as Bairi-magi, three-hour train ride from Maidingi, two hours from Fagioni and Wigairiin. Watch him offer amnesty next-if, he says, you can come up with a reason to tell the hasdrawad, about this ship, that can calm the situation. He wants you in the court. To- night." "With an answer." He no longer felt like laughing. "Banichi-ji, atevi have all the rights with these strangers on the ship. We on Mospheira don't. You know our pres- ence in this solar system was an accident ... but our land- 418 / C. 1. CHERRYM ing wasn't. We were passengers on that ship. The crew took the ship and left us here. They said they were going to locate a place to build. We weren't damned happy about their leaving, and they weren't happy about our threat to land here. Two hundred years may not have im- proved our ^relationship with these people." "Are they here to take you away?" "That would make some atevi happy, wouldn't it?" "Not Tabini." Damned sure not Tabini. Not the pillar of the Westem Association. That was why there were dead men on the plane with them: fear of humans was only part of it. "There are considerable strains on the Association," Banichi said somberly. "The conservative forces. Ile jealous. The ambitious. Five administrations have kept the peace, under the aijiin of Shejidan and the dictates of the paidhiin. . . "We don't dictate." "The iron-fisted suggestions of the paidhiin. Backed by a space station and technology we don't dream of." "A space station that sweeps down from orbit and rains fire on provincial capitals at least once a month-we've had this conversation before, Banichi. I had it with Ilisidi's men in the basement. I just had it, abbreviated version, with the gentlemen in the back of the plane, who broke my arm, thank you very much, nadi, but we don't have any intention of taking over the planet this month." He was raving, losing his threads. He leaned his head back against the seat. "You're safe from them, Banichi, At least as far as them coming down here. They don't like planets to live on. They want us to come up there and maintain their station for them, free of charge, so they can go wherever they like and we fix what breaks and supply their ship." "So they will make you go back to the station?" Banichi asked. "Can't get at us, I'm thinking. No landing craft. At least thev didn't have one. Thev'll have to wait for our FOREIGNER / 419 lift capacity." He began to see the pieces, then, in a crazed sort of way, while the arm hurt like bloody hell. "Damned right they will. The Pilots' Guild will negotiate. They're scared as hell of you." "Of us?" Banichi asked. "Of the potential for enemies." He turned his head on the head rest. "Time works differently for space travelers. Don't ask me how. But they think in the long term. The very long term. You're not like them, and they can't keep you at the bottom of a gravity slope forever." He gave a dry, short laugh. "That was the feud between us from the outset, that some of us said we had to deal with atevi. And the Pilots' Guild said no, let's slip away, they'll never notice us." "You're joking, nadi." "Not quite," he said. "Get some sleep, Banichi-ji. I'm going to do some computer work." "On what?" - "Long-distance communications. Extreme long dis- tance. " Ilisidi was on her feet, hovering over Cenedi's shoul- der, Banichi and Jago were leaning over his. He had the co-pilot's seat. It was a short patch cord. "So what do you do?" Ilisidi asked. "I hit the enter key, nand' dowager. Just now. It's talk- ing." "In numbers. "Essentially." "How are these numbers chosen?" "According to an ancient table, nand' dowager. They don't vary from that model-which I assure you we long ago gave to atevi." He watched the incorming light, wait- ng, waiting. The yellow light flickered and his heart urnped. "Hello, Mospheira." "Can they hear us?" Ilisidi asked. "Not what we say, at the moment. Only what we in- 420 / C. ). CHERRYH "Dreadful changes to the language." " 'Put in,' then, nand' dowager." Lights flashed in al- ternation. ID, came up. The plane was on autopilot, and Cenedi diverted his attention to watch the crawl of letters and numbers on a small screen, all of which ended in: -the further content of the lines wasn't available to the screen. Humans had, 4t least in design, set up the atevi system. It answered very well when a human transmission wanted through. The systems were talking to each other, thank God, thank God. The plane hit bumpy air. Pain jolted through the nerve ends in the shoulder. Things went gray and red, and for a moment he had to lean back, lost to here and now. "Nand' paidhi?" Jago's hand was on his cheek. He opened his eyes. Saw a message on the screen. The Foreign Office wanted to talk on the radio. He'd a headset within reach. He raked it up and fumbled with it, one-handed. Jago helped him. He told Cenedi the fre- quency, heard the hail sputtering with static. "Yeah," he said to the voice that reached him, "it's Cameron. A little bent but functioning on my own. Where's Hanks?" There was a delay-probably for consultation. They hadn't, the report was, finally, heard from Hanks. She'd gone into Shejidan and dropped into a black hole four days ago. "Probably all right. The atevi have noticed we've got company upstairs. Ours, I take it?" The Foreign Office said: "That's Phoenix, in a high-handed mood. "What's the situation with it?" he asked, and got back: "Touchy. "You want atevi cooperation? You want an invitation to be here?" Are you under duress? the code phrase came back at him. He laughed. It hurt, and brought tears to his eyes. "Pri- FOREIGNER / 421 ority, priority, priority, FO One. Just bust Hanks' codes back to number two and give me the dish on Adams, to- night, in Shejidan. I am not under duress." The Foreign Office alone couldn't authorize it-so the officer in charge claimed. "FO, I'm sitting here talking in Mosphei' with a half a dozen extremely high-ranking atevi providing me this link on their equipment. I'd say that's a fair amount of trust, FO, please relay to the appropriate levels." Atevi didn't have a word for trust. The Foreign Office said so. "They've got words we don't have either, FO. Go with Hanks or go with me. This is a judgement call I'm re- quired to make. We need the aiji's permission to be on this planet, FO. Then where's Phoenix' complaint?" The Foreign Office thought they'd talk to the President. "Do that," he said. "Much nicer if my call to Phoenix goes out through the dish on Adams. But the intersat dish on Mogari-nai is the aiji's alternative, and I think he'll use it, directly. Atevi could deal without me in the loop. If they wanted to. Do you understand? Tabini's govern- ment is under pressure. That's the disturbance in Maidingi Province. That's where I've been. Tabini has to make a response to this ship. He'll offer Mospheira a chance for input in that response. United front, FO. I think I can get that arrangement." Three hours, the Foreign Office said. They'd have to talk to the President. Assemble the council. "Three hours max, FO. We're in the Western Associa- tion, let me remind you. Tabini will act ultimately in the best interests of the Association. I earnestly suggest we join them." The Foreign Office signed off. The computer exchange tailed off. He shut his eyes, felt a little twinge of human responsibility. Not much. He'd be human after the hasdrawad met. After he'd talked to Tabini. He'd get a plane to Mospheira ... trust the hospitals there to know where to put the pieces. 422 / C. ). CHERRYM "Nand' paidhi," Banichi said after a moment. They couldn't have followed that exchange. Banichi might have followed every third word of it, but none of the rest of them. Damned patient, they were. And very reasonably anxious. "Tell Tabini," he said, "prime the dish on Mogari-nai to talk to that ship up there, tonight. I think we'll get the one on Allan Thomas, but when you're dealing with Mospheira, nadiin, you always assure them you have other choices." "What other choices," Ilisidi said, "do we tell that ship up there we have?" Sharp woman, Ilisidi. "What choice? The future of relations between atevi and humans. Cooperation and association and trade. The word is 'treaty,' nand' dowager. They'll listen. They have to listen." "Rest," Jago said, behind him, and brushed his hair back from his forehead. "Bren-ji." Didn't want to move for the moment. It hurt enough getting up here to the cockpit. Figure that Tabini probably knew everything they'd just said-give or take the computer codes; and don't bet heavily on that, once the experts got after it. Anything you used, numerically speaking, to get past atevi, you couldn't go on using. . But peace was in everyone's interests. Certainly it was in Tabini's. And in the interest of humans, ship's crew and planet-bound colonists a long, long way from the homeworld. He'd told Djinana they might walk on the moon. Lay bets on it, now, he would. Granted Malguri was still standing. He made an effort to fold up the computer. Jago shut the case for him, and disconnected the cord. After that- the necessity of getting up. He made it that far. Ended up with Banichi's arm around him, Banichi standing on one leg. The dowager- fOREIGNER / 423 aiji said something rude about young men falling at her feet, and go sit down, she was in command of the plane. "Let me," Jago said, and got an arm about his middle, which stabilized the aisle considerably. Banichi limped after them. Sat down beside him. "'Long distance, is it?" Banichi said. "If you go up there, we go, nadi." He couldn't say he understood Jago or Banichi, or Tabini. Couldn't say they understood him. Scary thought, Banichi had. But he suddenly saw it as possible, even likely, when negotiations happened, when Mospheira got that lift vehicle, or the ship up there built one in order to deal with them. Atevi were going into space. No question. In his lifetime. Baji-naji. The lots came down, Fortune and Chance made their pick. You weren't born with your associates. You found man'chi somewhere, and you entered into something humans didn't quite fathom with an altogether atevi understanding. But in the way of such things, maybe atevi hadn't found the exact words for it, either. Pronunciation t e d a y A=ah after most sounds; =ay after j; e=eh or =ay; i var ies between ee(hh) (nearly a hiss) if final, and ee if not O=oh and u=oo. Choose what sounds best. _J is a sound between ch and zh; -ch=tch as in itch; - should be almost indistinguishable from -d and vice versa. G as in go. -H after a consonant is a palatal (tongu on roof of mouth). as: paidhi=pait'-(h)ee. The symbol ' indicates a stop: a'e is thus two separate syllables, ah-ay; but ai is not; ai=English long i; ei=ay. The word accent falls on the second syllable from the last if the vowel in that syllable is long or is followed by two consonants; third from end if otherwise: Ba'nichi (ch is a single letter in atevi script and does not count as two consonants); Tabi'ni (long by nature)--all words ending in -ini are -i'ni; Brominan'di (-nd=two consonants) mechei'ti (because two vowels sounded as one vowel count as a long vowel. If confused, do what sounds best you have a better than fifty percent chance of being right by that method, and the difference between an accente and unaccented syllable should be very slight, any way. Also, a foreign accent if at least intelligible can sound quite sexy. Plurality: There are pluralities more specific than sim ply singular and more-than-one, such as a set of three, thing taken by tens, and so on, which are indicated b endings on a word. The imprecise more-than-one is par ticularly chosen when dealing in diplomacy, speaking to children, or, for whichever reason, to the paidbi. In the non-specific plural, words ending in -a usually go to -i words ending in -i usually go to -iin. Ateva is, for in PRONUNCIATION / 42 stance, the singular, atevi the plural, and the adjectival descriptive form. Suffixes: -ji indicates intimacy when added to a or good will when added to a title; -mai or -ma is more reverential, with the same distinctions. Terms of respect: nadi (sir/madam) attaches to a stati ment or request to be sure politeness is understood at moments; nandi is added to a title to show respect for dignity of the office. Respectful terms such as nadi or title or personal name with Ji should be inserted at eac separate address or request of a person unless there is established intimacy or unless continued respect is cle within the conversation. Nadi or its equivalent should a ways be injected in any but the mildest objection; othe wise the statement should be taken as, at the leas brusque or abrupt, and possibly insulting. Prominciati varies between nah'-dee (statement) and nah-dee'? (as d final word in a question.) There are pronouns that show gender. They are used nouns which show gender, such as mother, father; or situations of intimacy. The paidhi is advised to use genderless pronouns as a general precaution. Dectension of sampte noun Singular aiji Nominative aijiia Genitive aiji Accusative aijiu Ablative Non-specific plural aijiin Norn pl. Subject The aiji aijiian Gen pl. Possession's, The aiji aijiin Acc. Pl. Object of action (to/ against) the aiji aijiiu Abl. Pl. From, origins, spec preposition often omitted: (eman from, by) the aiji Gtossary Adjaiwaio Algini Alujis agingi'ai aiji aijna ateva, pl. atevi Babsidi Banichi Barjida Bergid Brominandi baJi bihawa biichi-gi bloodfeud bowing DaJoshu dahemidei Didaini Dimagi daJdi haronniin hasdrawad hei Ilisidi insheibi a remote atevi population glum servant's name, security agent river Brominani disputes re water rights felicitous numerical harmony lord of central association aiji's name of species "Lethar'; a mecheita security agent aiji of Shejidan during the War mountain range visible from Shejidan provincial governor, long-winded Fortune impulse to test newcomers finesse in removing obstacles principal means of social adjust- ment done, if deep, with hands on knees township of Banichi's origin a believer in the tnidei heresy a province visible from Malguri an intoxicant an alkaloid stimulant systems under stress, needing ad- justment lower house of atevi legislature of course grandmother of Tabini indiscreet, provoking attention GLOSSARY / Intent, filing of Jago kabiu Maidingi Maiguri Matiawa Moni Mospheira Mosphei' machimi man'chi man'china man'chini mecheita midarga midedeni midei mishidi Nisebi nadi nadi-ji nai'aijiin nai'arn nai'danei na'itada nai-Ji naJi nand', nandi Nokhada legal notification to the victim Feud security agent 'in the spirit of good traditional example' Lake Maidingi estate at Lake Maidingi breed of Hisidi's horse servant of Bren human enclave on island; also name of island human.language historical drama with humor an revenge primary loyalty to association leader grammatical form of man'chi grammatical form of man'chi riding animal an alkaloid stimulant, noxious humans a supporter of the midei heresy a heresy regarding association awkward, regarding others' pos tion province that allows processed meat mister honored mister provincial lords, pl. form I am you two are refusing to be shaken respected person Chance honorable "Feisty"; a mecheita o'oi-ana paidhi paidhi-ji Ragi 428 / GLOSSARY Ragi Association ribbons, document ribbons, braid ribbon, color rings, finger Shejidan Shigi sigils, document somai Tabini Tachi tadiiri Tadiiri Thigi Thimani Talidi Tano Toby Transmontane tashrid Valasi Weinathi Bridge wi'itkiti Wilson Wingin -ji -ma nocturnal quasi-lizard, likes vines interpreter sir interpreter culture to which Tabini belongs; eats game only Tabini, s area, also known as the Western Assc'n important in culture, on braids, documents status, class says who's in what class ornamental and official: used as seals City of the Ragi Association township in weather report marks on documents, seals together aiji of the Ragi herding community once on Mospheira sister The Sister, fortress near Malguri previous servant of Bren province visible from Malguri Province of Banichi more cheerful partner of Algini Bren's brother crossmountain Highway upper house of the legislature Tabini's father bridge in the city, site of air crash dragonette Bren's predecessor city mentioned in weather report sir; miss; ma'am honored sir, honored lady CA. 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(~Arrl A Fxn- Datp 6t;, State Zip - For faster service when ordering by credit card call 1-800-253-6476 Please allow a minimum of 4 to 6 weeks for delivery. W "CHERRy NEWCASTLE REGION LIBRARY IEVABL ALIEN ( nd her characte ire and con_ir,,,%,111%4 11011U. V UU11*11al a VVUVk1y It had been 'ship Phoe lost in space and desperately searching for the nearest G5 star, had encountered the planet of the atevi. this alien world, law was kept by the use of registered assassination, alliances were defined by individual loyalt not geographical borders, and war became inevitable once humans and one faction of atevi established a worl relationship. It was a war that humans had no chance of winning on this planet so many light-years from hom Now, nearly two hundred years after that conflict, humar has traded its advanced technology for peace and an island refuge that no atevi will ever visit. Then the so human the treaty allows into atevi society is marked for an assassin's bullet. The work of an isolated lunaticZ. interests of a particular factionZ.,. Or the consequenci of one human's fondness for a species which has fourte words for betrayal and not,a single word for love? Cover art by Michael Whelan