Part 13 (2/2)

”Our claims are prior.”

”That, too,” I said. ”Of course.”

”And when your people came here, and your vessel fell into the

Outward Deeps, and only by the grace of the G.o.ddess did any one of you escape to set foot on our land, your people made treaties, Responsible of Bright.w.a.ter. Solemn treaties. We ask that they be honored.”

Oh, dear. Never mind the slight conflict in the myths of the

Landing, this was no time to compare tales and quibble over the ident.i.ty of rescuers. The question was, what did she mean-they asked that the treaties be honored? That any Ozarker would have violated the treaties was beyond conception, I would have staked my life on that. We do not break our word.

”My friend T'an K'ib,” I asked, ”do you come here to tell me that my people have violated their sworn oaths? A Gentle does not lie- but I find that hard to believe.”

And if I was wrong, and they had? I thought of bl.u.s.tering Delldon Mallard Smith, the ugly man of the ugly name... and I thought of the easy malicious ways of Michael Stepforth Guthrie, and I cast around in my mind for other possibilities. No Granny would of tampered, but the men were another matter. And if they had-what was I to do? I felt four years old on the outside and four hundred years old on the inside, and I hoped my brain was not as cold as the rest of me. I longed for a pentacle, and my own Granny Hazelbide, and the safe walls of my own Castle around me. And here I was, of all unhandy places, at Castle Purdy.

”Responsible of Bright.w.a.ter,” she said, ”I would not tell you that we are certain; I would not go so far. It may be that there has as yet been no violation. It is to forestall such a thing that I am come to you this night.”

”Tell me, then,” I said. ”I will listen until you have told me everything that disturbs you; and I will not interrupt.” And she began to talk, in the faintly foreign archaic Panglish the First Granny had taught her people, and that I had learned from many boring hours listening to the microtapes while I begged to be let go out and play instead. I blessed every one of those hours now, seeing as I understood her with ease, and I supposed she'd spent fully as many hours herself listening to the Teachers of her people, who pa.s.sed down the knowledge of Panglish without benefit of tapes or any other thing but their wondrous memories and their supple throats.

There was trouble, she told me. Much trouble on Arkansaw, where the Guthries and the Farsons were even more openly feuding than had been admitted to me, by her acount. Where the Purdys were frantic, trying desperately to play both sides of the feud, but faced with an eventual choice made under great pressure. There were, she told me, strange comings and goings in the nights.

”There was a meeting in what you choose to call the Wilderness Lands of Arkansaw,” she said, ”not three nights ago. The men there were not all of Arkansaw, some had come very far... some wore the crests of Kintucky and Tinaseeh, the Families known as Wommack and Traveller. It went on all the night long-our children had no sleep-and then, as thieves comport themselves, all stole away at first light. A Gentle does not spy, I remind you; thus, I cannot tell you what they spoke of. What we heard we heard only because a loud voice in the night carries far in an ill-mannered throat... but they were not telling each other pleasant tales to while away the hours. That much was clear.”

She stopped for a moment, and I waited, and then she went on. ”It was sworn, Responsible of Bright.w.a.ter, sworn and sealed- the Gentles were to be left alone. And none of your magic was to touch our people, for all of time. Nor were we ever to be part of your... feuding. If you have forgotten, I am here to remind you -so readthe treaties.”

I let my breath out, slowly, wondering where in me the knowledge was that I supposely could put to use in circ.u.mstances such as these.

I felt no revelations bubbling within me, no sealed-off memories with their locks dropping away.

”Has a hand been raised against you?” I asked T'an K'ib. ”Any hand? Any weapon?”

”Not as of this night.”

”Has any sharp word been spoken? Any threat made? Has any Ozarker actually breached the privacy of your homes, T'an K'ib?”

”Not as of this night.”

”None?”

”You must understand,” she said, no edge to her voice, but firm,

”that what you consider a hand raised, or a sharp word, or privacy breached, may not be the same as what a Gentle would so judge. There are many, many thousands of us in the caves of the Wilderness Lands of Ozark, daughter of Bright.w.a.ter, and we live in peace, and our lives are not tainted by sorcery. We have made adjustments unasked, when the mines of your people cut well beyond the limits given them, and we have not begrudged those adjustments, though no law held us to them.”

I could imagine, thinking of the Farsons and Guthries and Purdys, always wanting to cut just a little deeper into a vein, probably shaking the Gentles in their sleep and filling their homes with

gemdust, or worse. And I was ashamed.”When I return to Castle Bright.w.a.ter,” I said, my voice harsh in my throat, ”I will see that that is put right. That I can do. There will be no more encroachments on your territory, and where such has taken place, your 'adjustments' will be readjusted. My word on it, and my apologies.”

She made an easy gesture with her head, as if to show how little this

mattered; I, the Ozarker, felt bigger and greedier, as I was no doubt

meant to feel.”If it can be done, so be it,” she said, ”if not-what is past is past But if the three Families of the continent of Arkansaw go to open war among themselves, and if the Families of Kintucky and Tinaseeh join them, blood will flow in the Wildernesses and it may well be our blood. That we cannot allow, daughter of Bright.w.a.ter. That would be in violation of all treaties.”

”War, T'an K'ib? Your people fear war?”I suppose I sounded foolish; she sounded indulgent.”It is not an exotic word,” she said. ”Think of guns and lasers and bombs and gases and missiles. All very small and simple Panglish

words, and well known to you.””Dear friend, dear T'an K'ib,” I protested, ”Ozarkers do not go to war-it was the violence of one human hand raised against another, much of it part of war and much of it without any explanation but madness, that drove us here in The s.h.i.+p one thousand years ago. As a Gentle does not lie, T'an K'ib-an Ozarker does not war!”

”You yourself,” she pointed out, ”have let pa.s.s the word 'feud'

without protest. Our Teachers are quite clear on the meaning of that

word, and it is violent.”

”Ah, T'an K'ib,” I said, almost weak with relief, ”it is not what it appears to be atall. This is a misunderstanding.”

”Explain, please.”

”You know of the Confederation of Continents of Ozark?”

”Your government,” she said flatly.

”As much government as we have,” I said, ”and hard won. We are

at a tricky political crossroads, we of the Confederation. And the Families you name, the ones that have so disgracefully disturbed the harmony of your homes, they are not plotting violence. They are plotting against the Confederation... they are plotting the casting of votes, not the launching of missiles! Nothing more, T'an K'ib; nothing less. There is not even a question of dominance among them.”

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