“I just thought she was a deft cook,” he muttered.
“Deft indeed, de-Etienne. I have seen her demonstrate her skill on things bigger than vegetables.” He looked away. “I was to help in all this, of course.”
“Of course,” Etienne said dryly. He reached out and pushed a button. A tired moan came from the grid.
“What is it? I was just getting into a really decent dream.”
“Would you come up here a minute, hon? I’m observing something I think you’d find intriguing.”
“Come on, Etienne. Maybe tomorrow night.”
“It may be less visible tomorrow night. I wish you’d come up now. Our position tomorrow will be radically different.”
“All right, all right,” she snapped back at him. “This better be good.”
He waited in the enclosure with the nervous Homat until a sleepy-eyed Lyra had ascended the mast to join them. There was very little room to move around with three of them atop the platform.
“What now?” She was still blinking sleep from her eyes, but her expression turned to one of confusion when she noticed Homat.
“Where’s Irquit?” Etienne asked her.
“Irquit? What’s she got to do with? … On the stern deck, I would imagine, blissful in the arms of the local representative of Morpheus. What the hell’s going on up here?”
“Homat has something to tell you.”
Lyra listened quietly as the guide repeated the tale he had told Etienne. She considered quietly for several long moments once he’d finished.
“We could turn back. We’re scientists, not soldiers-of-fortune and not hard-contact explorers. We’re not prepared to deal with large-scale local antagonism. If this town is linked by treaty and duplicity to Po Rabi, we can apply for clearance and protection with the Zanur of Losithi.”
Etienne looked doubtful. “Wouldn’t work. Word will reach Po Rabi and they’ll know we found them out. That could put them into open conflict with Losithi. We don’t want to be responsible for starting a major local war. Besides which there’s no guarantee we’d fare any better with the Zanur of Losithi than we already have with Po Rabi. Better the devil you know, et cetera.”
“They are as envious of your technology as is the Zanur of Po Rabi,” Homat agreed.
“Then there’s the distance we’ve already come. Returning and retracing our steps would take at least a month, even if we were lucky enough to obtain immediate permission from Losithi. We’ve passed the equator and we’re above the worst of the climate. Not that this oven has suddenly become comfortable, but it’s bound to improve.
“I’ve no desire to retrace our steps, restudy what we’ve already thoroughly recorded, and I’m sure you don’t either, Lyra. And there’s always the chance that Losithi could arrange a similar kind of ambush when we resumed our journey, and they’d be better prepared for us than these Changritites are likely to be. The geology’s finally starting to get interesting, Lyra. I don’t want to go back to taking mud samples for an additional two months. Despite Homat’s fears I don’t imagine we’ll have any trouble passing through whatever barrier of nets and ropes the locals can erect.”
“I know that,” Lyra agreed. “It’s not that. I just don’t want to harm any natives. You know what a resident commissioner would have to say about that.”
“There’s no resident commissioner on Tslamaina. Not advanced enough yet. No one’s going to know anything, and even if we were found out we’d just tell them that we had to defend ourselves, which is likely to be the truth.”
Lyra turned her attention to Homat. “What happens once we’re safely past Changrit? What about the next town? Could it be in alliance with Po Rabi too?”
Homat spoke with conviction. “No. Changrit is the only far north city allied with Po Rabi. Beyond Changrit much is unknown and all are independent of the city-states that line the Groalamasan. And Changrit was chosen because it alone can muster enough strength for such an attack.”
“Everything you’ve told us makes sense,” she murmured. “It’s what you haven’t told us that worries me.”
“I do not understand your words, de-Lyra.”
“Why are you so eager to betray your own city?”
“I have told you that I have come to like you, and that you have given me a sense of self-importance and true worth that I have never felt before.”
“That’s not good enough.” For emphasis she added a powerful Mai gesture of disbelief. “You could have kept silent and fulfilled the dictates of your masters. If we had succumbed to this trap you would have enjoyed much honor in Po Rabi, and if we had escaped you would still be safe. Why risk the one by throwing in so openly with us when you’d have been safe both ways by keeping quiet? I’m glad that you ‘like’ us, but I’ve studied Mai society for too many months now to believe that you’re doing this out of the goodness of your heart.”
Homat looked uncertain, turned to Etienne for guidance.
“You’d better tell us the truth, Homat.”
“Don’t you believe me, de-Etienne?”
“Yes, I do, but my wife’s a born skeptic. Unlike intelligent beings, rocks and minerals aren’t intentionally deceptive. You’re going to have to convince her to convince me.”
Homat nodded. When he spoke again much of the nervousness and all of the soft deference had vanished from his voice.
“I told the truth about coming to like you, and about not wishing to be a party to such a vile deception. But de-Lyra suspects me rightly. I have another reason for confessing this now.
“It is true I would risk nothing by keeping my silence, but also would I gain nothing. Po Rabi is my home, but I have traveled widely and have come to think of the world as my home. There are many great city-states where one may make a fine life. In Po Rabi I have little chance to rise above my station. Trae, if the attack on your spirit boat were to succeed I would return home to a fine reward, but in you off-worlders I see the chance to do much better. With the knowledge I can gain from you I can make myself valuable beyond mere ‘rewards.’ Thus far only Losithi and Po Rabi have dealt with your hard-shelled friends. Suphum would welcome my knowledge and make me a member of their Zanur, as would Tolm and many others. I could not hope to rise so high in Po Rabi on the results of my labors as an assassin.
“I have provided you with information which may save your lives as well as your expedition. In return for this information and for my loyalty, I expect suitable recompense.”
Lyra looked satisfied. “Now I believe you, Homat.” She added to Etienne in terranglo. “Typical power-wealth decision. Very Mai. The fact that we’re not of his race doesn’t enter into the equation. Business takes precedence over vague feelings of loyalty to home and kind.” She switched back to her very fluent Mai.
“You are a more complex person than you’ve led us to believe, Homat. You’re a very effective deceiver.” This last was, in Mai, a compliment, and Homat looked quite pleased with himself.
“All of us carry deceptions. They are worth little. Truth is all that can be sold. I am only a simple one seeking to lift himself from the depths in which he was born.”
“Having deceived us this long, how can we be certain you won’t try to strike your own bargain with some village Moyt?”
