Armetrethe grabbed her wrist. Her sister's touch was a cold wind on her inner fire. “Finish your sentence, my Sister,” Armetrethe whispered in her ear, “and the conflict on our hands will be a civil war.”
Senejess panted wordlessly. Armetrethe kept her hold vise-tight.
“Majestic Sisters, Sister-Councilors, all, I beg you to forgive my pouch-sister. Her shame at the actions of Praeis Shin t'Theria has preyed on her for many years. It distracts her.” Armetrethe bowed her head. “She even, as you see, sometimes blames our Majestic Sisters who sent Praeis into that battle.”
The noise in the room gradually subsided. As it did, Senejess's vision cleared, and she could see Vaier Byu in front of her again. The Queen's face was tight, but it was clear she accepted the explanation. Senejess slid her gaze sideways toward Aires Byu and saw a triumphant quiver in her ears.
“Of course we forgive you,” said Aires Byu, all magnanimity. “We are all under considerable strain, are we not? The next few days will test the mettle and unity of the Queens and all our Councilors.” She stood. “We will be calling a special session in the Council Hall tomorrow to hear the final plans of the preparatory committee as wed as to discuss how we will further assist our familial-sisters to spend the remainder of their wait in peace and comfort.” She dipped her ears to the assembly. “You are dismissed.”
There was nothing to do but leave. Armetrethe still held Senejess's wrist as they filed out at the head of the procession of chastened, thoughtful Councilors.
Kieret Hur scurried up beside Armetrethe. “Sister Councilors,” she said, a little breathlessly. “We are returning to the Council Hall to talk about this. Will you join us?”
“Later,” said Armetrethe, before Senejess could even open her mouth. “First my sister, who is overtired, must rest.”
“Of course.” Kieret dipped her ears. “We will expect you later then.” She fell back, and Senejess was grateful.
They left the Home of Queens and were halfway across the courtyard, when Senejess finally said, “Sister, you are bruising me.”
Armetrethe relaxed her hand. “I'm sorry, Sister.” Her sleeve billowed as her stump beat uneasily at the cloth.
Senejess took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her toes curled and flexed. “What are we going to do?”
Armetrethe glanced sharply at the arms-sisters patrolling the wall around the courtyard. “We are going to take the car and start for home, Sister. What else can we do? The Queens have won this skirmish.”
Senejess closed her mouth. Armetrethe led her to the battered frame car that served the family as transport. Senejess drove through the gates and out onto the pocked streets.
They rode together in silence well into the grasslands. They came to a section of road bordered by the wall of a compound Senejess knew had been abandoned when the family had died of plague. She pulled the car over, shut the engine off, and turned to her sister.
“What is it, Sister? What couldn't you say inside the Queens’ wall?”
Armetrethe looked down the twisted road ahead of them. “If there is doubt that the Getesaph are still as much of a threat as ever, we must remove that doubt.” She focused ears and eyes on Senejess. “We must find out why they've changed the schedule.”
All the muscles across Senejess's chest tightened. “How?”
“One of us goes to the Hundred Isles and finds out,” said Armetrethe simply.
“That's impossible, Sister,” Senejess slapped Armetrethe's arm lightly. “Confederation or not, we could never get there in time to do anything useful.”
“Praeis could. The Humans would fly her.”
Senejess sat there for a moment, her ears straining as if trying to catch unspoken words.
“Sister, Praeis will not go.”
“Of course not.” Armetrethe rubbed her sister's back. “Think! We will write a letter to her pet Human, Lynn. Lynn will make the arrangements. You will go. I would, but,” she raised her stump, “Praeis has both arms. This much might be noticed.”
“But surely they'll check…”
“Check what?” Armetrethe tilted her ears forward. “They do not have any, what are they called?
databases
on us. I've heard them complain about it. To them, our names are what we say they are. They know what we tell them.”
Senejess felt the idea. It warmed her veins. She shook her head. “Praeis will call them as soon as she realizes what has happened.”
Armetrethe took her hand. “Not if we convince one of her daughters to go with you. That way, if she betrays us, she jeopardizes her own daughter. Even she is not that monstrous.”
Senejess froze. “Arme, we cannot jeopardize her children. The Ancestors would rear up out of the ground at us.”
Armetrethe's face had gone smooth and hard. “We are jeopardizing them by leaving them with her. They have come to live with us, but they have no understanding. They are as ignorant and cold as Humans. If we do not pull them out of their ignorance, they will be among the first to die.”
“But they will not go without their mother's consent…”
“They would. Resaime is most likely, I think. A little persuasion, and she will see this as an adventure.”
Senejess felt herself relax. She squeezed her sister's hand and laughed. “Then we should get home at once, Sister.”
She unlocked the engine and fired it up. They drove down the road, silent, but this time easy in their minds.
“It's good!” called Resaime. Jiau shinnied down the rain gutter, and all the cousins crowded around, gazing up at her handiwork. The concave comm transceiver sat firmly clamped to the corner of the eaves.
Theia wrapped her arm around her sister. Res was loving this. The comm station had arrived that morning, carried by Humans, in a van sent by Lynn. The cousins were all extremely reluctant to let Humans in to install the unit. They were afraid of being poisoned. So, Res had assured them that she and Theia could put the unit together.
There really wasn't much to it; yank off a whole lot of organic packaging and assure the cousins it was perfectly all right to bury the stuff. It made pretty good fertilizer. Then, they needed to clamp the transceiver somewhere it wouldn't be overshadowed by a wall or a tree. Wiring the station into the house had been trickier, but, again that was something Res was good at, and there wasn't any danger in messing around with a knife and the house's extremely old-fashioned carrier wires until darkness fell and the electricity came on.
Doing everything by hand during the day had been hard to get used to. The place had running water, but everything had to be heated using charcoal or wood, unless you wanted to wait until after dark. She and Res had been learning the intricacies of hand-washing, hand-cooking, hand-sewing, and hand-hauling of more stuff man she could easily name.
The only place they hadn't had to be constantly watched and instructed was the garden. That had been their job at home… in the colony, and Mother had never been willing to lay out for the fancy tools some of their neighbors coveted. As a result, they could turn soil, dig a row, and pull weeds with the best of them.
Everybody knew they only had two or three weeks until the relocation started, and so they seemed to be trying to keep as busy as possible.
“Wait until we get to the ships,” Res whispered on the sleeping mats at night “Then we'll really show them.”
Res had become increasingly interested in “showing them,” something, anything, and Theia still couldn't understand why. They had enough other things to worry about. Their mother was going through the Change, in the name of the Ancestors, and trying to delay it with a hormone compound they weren't sure would work. The aunts were not acting like sisters to Mother. Mother was all alone except for her daughters, but Res didn't seem able to concentrate on that. She just worried about impressing their cousins. Theia had tried to ask her why, but Res wouldn't say. So Theia could only stand near her sister and feel her own skin shiver.
“Good, good, everybody,” said Ceian. She was the First Named. Her pouch-sister had died of lung chills and plague. “But there'll be nothing else to see until the lights come on. So, it's back to the books. Good?” She also was going to be taken to one of the father-houses to be made a mother next week, and had excitement wafting around her like a perfume.
A general groan went up, but no real argument. They all trooped back into the house and resumed their places around the tables in the main room with open books: math, history, language, geography.
That was the weirdest part, learning at home, and Ancestors! what they learned! There seemed to be three categories: basic, boring, and stuff Res and she had finished up five years ago, except for the history and geography. Those were completely new. Ceian had been appalled at how little they knew. She set them copying information out of big, elaborately printed books. Two for one learning, she called it, because she was not happy with their writing either. It was deadly dull, but it felt good to be part of the studious atmosphere that permeated the house.
Mother was over at the Home of Queens with Neys and Silv, who were almost as good as blood family. She had made Theia and Res stay behind, explaining her day would be spent organizing drafts of essays, speeches, and appropriation requests, and that their time would be better spent becoming closer to their cousins. So, there was no way out of it. It was books until Ceian said otherwise.
Outside, a wheezy engine coughed and sputtered up to the gate and fell silent. All the cousins raised ears and heads.
The door opened and the aunts came in. The cousins surrounded them, hugging and laughing and tussling. Res nodded to Theia when she felt it was all right for them to get up and join in. They both loved the boisterous greetings, but Theia agreed with Res. Since the aunts had turned away from Mother, it was not right that they should be as enthusiastic with them as they were with her.
They joined the swirl of cousins and were happily shoved to the front so they could receive their hugs from the aunts.
When the loudest part of the ritual was over with, Theia and Res had learned, they were supposed to stand around and wait for some pronouncement, good or bad, about the state of the house, their general industry, or some errand that needed doing.
“Important news today, daughters.” Aunt Senejess laid a hand on Res's shoulder and one on tight-skinned Jaiu's. “The relocation schedule has been changed.”
The cousins eyed one another, and Theia eyed Res. Were they leaving early? Nobody'd even started packing yet.
“Not for us,” said Senejess. “For the ‘Esaph. They want to be relocated right away. The Humans have agreed. Their coordinator is going to the Hundred Isles to work with them.”
A ripple of anger tinged with fear ran around the room. Theia squirmed uncomfortably. Res squeezed her hand to remind her it would probably be gone in a minute.
“What we do not know,” Armetrethe went on, “is why this is being done. Mother Senejess and I are agreed that we must find out.”
Senejess drew herself up straight and proud. “I am leaving for the Hundred Isles as soon as I have packed.”
“Alone?” Ciean seized her mother's hands. “You can't, Mother, it's not possible! You wouldn't…”
“I won't be alone,” said Senejess. “If your Cousin Res or Theia agrees to go with me.”
“WHAT?” Theia and Res chorused. Confusion pressed them together.
“Why us?” asked Res, while Theia's head was still swimming.
Aunt Senejess turned both ears to Res. “Because to facilitate my movements, I will be traveling under your mother's name.”
“Why would you do …” Theia let the sentence die. “You're going to spy on them.” She felt her eyes and nostrils open very wide. “You want us to help.”
“We need one of you to come with me for two reasons,” Senejess said gently. “First to complete the illusion that it is your mother traveling. Second, because you understand Humans and the way Human technology works far better man we do. We will be beginning our work at the spaceport; it will be filled with Human machinery, and I will need help finding my way around.”
Theia could feel Res's excitement. It ran up her arm like an electrical current and set her heart beating fast. But could Res feel her fear? Could she make that swim upstream against all this eagerness?
Res shivered.
Remember,
Theia willed her.
Remember what Mother said to Neys and Silv. The aunts think the Humans are conspiring with the Getesaph. They want to prove it. This is wrong. Res! This is a Jupiter-sized bad idea!
“Our mother doesn't know about this, does she?” Res's ears dipped toward her scalp.
“No.” Aunt Armetrethe didn't even twitch. “If you can tell us honestly that she'd agree to such a plan, we will go back to the Home of Queens and tell her about it.”
No, she'd never agree, and you know it, and we know it. Res, stop thinking about this.
Aunt Senejess turned her ears toward Theia. “Things are not good in t'Aori, you know this.” She opened her hands to the ground to appeal to the Ancestors. “Why are things not good? Because nobody knows whether we can truly trust the ‘Esaph. Some say yes, some say no, and they pull against each other.” She shook her head until her ears flopped.
“If we go and search out the ‘Esaph's reasons for changing the schedule, and there is nothing dangerous, then we know we can trust them. If there is something dangerous, then we know we cannot trust them.” She spread her hands. “Either way, we will know, and we will put an end to this division in the Great Family.”
Her aunt leaned close. Theia could feel how Senejess needed, wished, willed her to understand. She wanted to, badly, but it was wrong. Res wanted to do this, she could feel it running hot through her veins and into her brain, washing away all her own thoughts.
Theia bolted. She ran out the door and into the yard. The sprawling
heutai
tree loomed in her path. She caught hold of one of the smooth-skinned lower branches and swung herself up. The tree had plenty of branches, and she was barefoot, so she climbed easily from one to the other until she felt them bending under her weight. She perched on a limb as thick around as her forearm, and waited for Res to catch up with her.