The Crucible of Empire (60 page)

The strange tale chased itself round and round inside Grijo's old head. The Eldests shifted in their orderly rows, gazing up at him, waiting for him with all his accumulated experience to make sense of this bizarre situation. "They conquered your world and not even that long ago," he said finally. "The havoc they created sounds much like the savage persecution of our people. You would have us believe they have changed, but I see no reason why we should trust that they will not destroy the Lleix yet again."

"They regret what they long ago did to the Lleix," Caitlin said. "You must trust in their good will and let us evacuate your population to Terra, or once the Ekhat return, they will certainly murder you—"

The Starsifter Eldest, Sayr, rose from his bench. "They gave untruth at the moment of first meeting when the truth would have better served," he said, aureole rippling. "This apparent rescue is most likely also untruth. They mean to either enslave or do away with us at their own leisure, trusting that we will walk aboard their ships calmly and lend our own wills to our destruction."

"It is all untruth!" Alln of Ekhatlore cried, also jerking up from his bench. "By this, they prove themselves as duplicitous as ever were the Ekhat! Better that we should take our own ships and seek sanctuary as we have always done. Then the Jao will not know where we have gone. Otherwise, we put ourselves at their nonexistent mercy."

One after the other Eldests rose, speaking their objections, presenting their only too logical fears. Patternmakers, Wordthreaders, Waterdirectors, Groundtillers, all spoke eloquently against the offered assistance. The Human gazed about the echoing hall with her round little eyes, then retreated to the doorway with her Human and Jao companions, dwarfed by the building's vastness.

Some of the Eldests had remained seated, though, and left their voices silent, Grijo noticed. Not very many, but some of them were notable—including Childtenders and Weaponsmakers, who were very important
elian
.

He turned to Caitlin. "Most of the
elian
, as you can see, are against accepting this offer." His sonorous voice carried enough even in this immense space to quiet the others. "Please take your ships and go while we make preparations to do as we must."

"You will all die," Caitlin said, once Jihan had translated. "If we leave, as you request, we abandon your people and culture to their deaths."

"It may well be Last-of-Days," Grijo said, "but we have thought that before and survived."

The wind gusted, howling around the hall. Then another one of the Humans spoke, in its high fluting little voice. Oddly, it was accompanied by a Lleix clad in the gray shift of an unassigned.

"This is Tully," the young unassigned female said, planting her legs in a bold stance. "He says—you speak of the colony leaving. What of the
dochaya
?"

Grijo blinked. The question had no meaning. All through the great hall, aureoles flattened in confusion.

The one named Tully spoke again and the unassigned translated. "What will happen to the
dochaya
when the Lleix flee this world?"

"What always happens," Grijo said. "There is not room in our ships for all to leave. Even the
elian
will have to select among their membership for passage, each sending only a representative to carry on their skills and crafts. Unassigned have no such knowledge. Those of the
dochaya
must remain behind."

The Tully human spoke again, very briefly. The translation came immediately. "He says that is completely unacceptable."

Tully gazed into the vast hall filled with the silvery Eldests, all clad in their elaborately brocaded robes, sitting in orderly rows, calmly considering whether or not they would allow the Jao to save them or just go off to die on their own. Late morning light slanted down from broad open windows that lined the walls just below the vaulted ceiling and it was so cold, he could see the white plume of his breath.

Ed Kralik had come with them, and Caitlin had been giving him a quiet translation throughout. Judging from the sourness of Ed's expression, things weren't going smoothly. Well, Tully could have predicted that. The Jao had a bad history with these folks. That damned tall tale Kaln constructed had eased things at first, but was now making everything worse.

At least fifty unassigned crowded in around the doors, having followed him along with Miller, Mallu and Kaln up the winding mountain path. They'd had to come on foot the whole freaking way because all the available transports had already gone up the mountain.

"You cannot abandon those in the
dochaya
to their deaths without their consent," he said to the Lleix leadership, trusting Lim to translate.

Her voice rang out through the hall. The Eldests jerked around to stare at him, apparently in shock at being so rudely addressed. Then Lim spoke for herself and her fellow unassigned. "We will go with the Humans and Jao to Terra," she said, pausing every few words to translate for Tully, "even if the
elian
would rather push their faces into the snow and pretend that they have better choices from which to choose. We of the
dochaya
do not plan to remain here and die!"

"Graceless creature, you know that you are not permitted to speak in this sacred place!" Old Grijo lurched to his feet.

"We have been permitted nothing except labor, food, and sleep!" Lim cried, "yet we are your children, the same as any ever accepted into an
elian
!"

"You are not the same!" an immense Lleix elder boomed. "You were turned away at the Festival of Choosing, quite rightly refused, because you have been judged by those with knowledge to be without sufficient value. And such behavior as this proves that judgment correct!"

Caitlin saw Lim's fleshy corona tremble, but the unassigned darted into the hall to confront the elder, even though he towered over her. "Humans have an
elian
for such as we." She pointed back at Caewithe Miller. "That one belonged to it at one time, before she joined their soldier
elian
."

"What is this nonsense?" demanded one of the huge elders. "How can unassigned belong to an elian? You do no work."

Lim wasn't giving an inch. "That is nonsense. We do whatever work is needed for the other
elian.
That is a task of its own, which we organize—not you! So we should be an
elian
also."

Several of the elders started to speak but little Lim's voice was loud enough to rise over them. "We have accepted the name the Human Caitlin proposed for us. We are the Workorganizers. And we insist we have the same rights as all other
elian.
"

The booming voices of huge elders finally rode her down. For a while, the hall rocked with terms like "nonsense" and "preposterous" and "outrageous."

But Lim fought out from under it. "And it doesn't matter, anyway!" she shrilled. "Accept us, or don't." She pointed at Tully. "He accepts us, and he commands the Human and Jao soldiers on this world. And he has spoken with the commander of the fleet"—she didn't mention that the commander was Jao; no mean diplomat herself, it seemed—"and the commander says we will be given passage to Terra. So we are leaving—whether you say we can or not. It doesn't matter!"

A lifetime of misery gave the next sentence a tone that was harsher and more bitter than even the wind. "You no longer command here. You have hardly any ships, even for yourselves. So stay here and die. No unassigned will mourn you, be sure of that."

She turned and left the hall, the other unassigned following. Had she been human or Jao, Caitlin would have said she "stalked off." But that phrase just couldn't be applied to the graceful gliding walk that the Lleix always seemed to use, no matter how mad they might be.

After Caitlin gave Tully a quick explanation of what had happened, he looked around at the elders gathered in the hall. Truth be told, he had no use for them either. "What she said. Die and be damned."

He left then, following Lim and the people of the
dochaya.
To hell with it. He was no diplomat. If the pig-headed
elian
elders could be persuaded not to commit suicide, Caitlin would have to do it.

Tully looked down the mountain trail and saw a long line of silvery forms that stretched all the way back to the city. I'll be damned, he thought. The whole blasted
dochaya
had apparently decided to come up to the hall. But now, as Lim and the ones around her moved down the line toward the city, Tully could see the unassigned starting to turn around and go back. The word was obviously spreading.

That was probably a good thing for the elders, he thought, if there was any parallel at all between the Lleix and humans. The big crowd of unassigned would have easily been able to storm into the hall and physically overpower the elders. As enormous as they were, the
elian
leaders were almost all very old as well.

I wonder what the Lleix term for "lynch mob" is
?
he wondered, quite cheerfully.

Ed Kralik put an arm around Caitlin's shoulders and pulled her close. "I can signal
Lexington
and bring down the jinau to round them up," he said. "The Lleix have weapons on their ships, but so far I haven't seen any sign of hand guns. I doubt there would be much hand-to-hand resistance."

"They need to come of their own free will," Caitlin said, "not as prisoners. That would be a terrible start, especially given their past history with the Jao. It would be years before they'd ever come close to trusting us again."

The Eldests were still arguing, more softly now, though they clearly were not even close to running out of steam. They had a such a civilized, fastidious way of disagreeing with each other—like old ladies squabbling in a sewing circle. Caitlin wanted to personally shake the teeth out of every single one of them.

Jihan was watching the proceedings with narrowed black eyes. Her body very still. Finally, she strode up to Grijo's immense chair, tilted her head back so that she could look straight up at him, and spoke in a clear, ringing voice. All other conversation died.

"Jaolore will go to Terra also. We will join the unassi—the new Workorganizers
elian
.
"

Jihan tried to say more then, but the chamber filled with another uproar, much louder than before, the agitated voices rolling like a great wave. Jihan waited it out, gazing steadily at the elders. Then she spoke again.

"I belong to a new
elian
," she said, "so maybe that is why it is being given to me to think so many new thoughts. And, as most of you know, because there was much work for Jaolore and I could not wait for the Festival of Choosing, I accepted one from the
dochaya
. Rather than being unworthy for such elevation, I find Pyr talented and hard-working, industrious beyond understanding."

She gazed around the hall. "I have to order him to stop working and take care of his nutritional needs. I have to demand that he sleep at least a short time each night. My former
elian
, the Starsifters, were competent and focused, doing their duty for the colony without fail, but no one there, including me, had that kind of dedication." Her corona flared with determination. "I believe the
dochaya
harbors many such individuals and we have been forcing them to live in quiet desperation when they could have been giving their talents to the colony and enriching us all. When the
dochaya
goes to Terra, they will need to understand the Jao. I will take Jaolore and go with them to see what they build there."

"You would choose the
dochaya
over the combined wisdom of the colony's Eldests?" Grijo rose, his body stiff.

"I choose life over a so-called graceful death," Jihan said. "I choose the chance to think new things and experience a world that welcomes us. I choose to avoid Last-of-Days."

"You are breaking
sensho
again, child, even more grievously than before," an elder said, rising from a bench in the front. His robes were embroidered with starbursts and planets. "Have your errors these past days taught you nothing?"

Jihan started to shrink under his scrutiny, then raised her head. "What you forget, Eldest, is that I was right when I broke
sensho
. The Jao
had
returned. The information I possessed was crucial to understanding our situation.
Sensho
is useless when it causes us to turn away from the truth."

"Truth," Grijo said, seizing control again. "Which we were not given by these creatures, these Jao and Humans."

"Because they feared it would lead to this," Jihan said. "Pointless, endless bickering while the Ekhat prepare to kill us all. And look at yourselves! Think how you have spent your time this day, invaluable, irreplaceable moments, when we could have been saving ourselves. Instead, they are just slipping away so that each can stand and make themselves heard, saying the same thing over and over! The Jao and Humans were right to mislead us. I only wish they had kept the truth to themselves until we had reached Terra—but they were too honorable to do that."