“There’s a reason I want him to take care of your twins,” said Gaet.

“Hoemei is gentle,” interjected Honey. “More than you know.” She ran her fingers shyly through Oelita’s hair, along the scalp, communicating gentleness. “He’ll love your children because they are his, too. He’ll see that they were raised in the desert and that way know your strength.”

“What good will that do!” cried Oelita morosely.

Gaet used one of his oldest tricks in reply. He reached into Oelita’s philosophy and picked out one of her dearest maxims. “You have told us that love changes us away from violence. That’s what I’m doing. While your children are with their father, you will be with Kathein.”

“No. I can’t do that! It’s too painful. I lived on struggle, not willing to die, not willing to hope. Joesai brought me a dream and now that dream is ashes. Either Kathein or I shall lose, and if one of us loses, we both lose.”

Gaet began a story. “Two men each dreamed a house and woke up at dawn intending to make real the house of their minds. They both planned to use the same tree as a center beam, each unaware of the dream of the other. How is such a problem resolved? They can fight and destroy each other’s foundations. They can fight and one can win. Or one can arbitrarily give up his dream. But that assumes there is but one tree on all of Geta and only one way of building a house. What if these two talked, bargained, explored? Maybe there is a second tree that two men can carry. Maybe a single conversation will suggest a whole new architecture. That’s why you must talk to Kathein.”

“Do that,” said Honey quietly. “Gaet is known as the best arbitrator in all of Kaiel-hontokae.”

Oelita looked at Teenae for support. “Kathein is a good woman,” said her friend.

Noe was waiting for her to say yes.

She turned away from them all. The dining room was gay with its oiled wooden tables and aroma of spices from the kitchen. Getasun had banished the fog. Sorrow was alive. “I’ll try.”

“We took the White Wound together. Remember? It wasn’t easy, either.”

GAET RENTED A SAILBOAT to take Oelita and her boy and girl up the coast to the bay of the Old Man, the Mother, and the Child of Death. He had little knowledge of sailing and gave command to Oelita who remembered her sailor motions as if she had never left the sea. They beached beneath the maran mansion. Gaet left a bewildered Hoemei to manage as best he could with two squalling infants. Kathein gave him instructions and then apprehensively followed Gaet back to the beach.

“I’ve never been in a boat before,” said Kathein, “not even to cross a river.”

“You’ll like it!” Oelita said with a smile, as she helped her rival aboard, glad that she was in command.

“Tell me what to do,” said Kathein.

Gaet was shoving the boat out into the waves again. “You should know all about the forces of tacking.”

“The boom adds and subtracts on its fingers faster than I do!”

“Where to?” asked Oelita.

Gaet was aboard, dripping, helping Oelita hoist the sail. “You once told me long ago that you found the Frozen Voice of God along the shore near here when you were a child.”

“I know exactly where.”

“I thought it might be a place to picnic. The Forge of War is the common meeting ground between you and Kathein.”

Kathein’s eyes brightened. “Do you really remember where you picked it up? That’s very exciting!” The boat was gathering speed, splashing a fine spray into her face when they crossed a wave. That was exciting, too. “We’ve never found more than the one we had and yours.”

“The cove has a sandy bottom. A lot could be buried there.”

“Maybe God will nudge your hand again.”

“We’ll try. It is a wonderful place to swim.”

“Is swimming in the sea different than swimming in a pool?”

“Oh yes. I’ll show you how.”

The cove was isolated and protected from the storms and, because of that, sheltered peculiar kinds of insect life. Oelita remembered why her father had been here, and found a green-backed digger for Kathein and then a whole colony of tunneling insects with peculiar clawed eyes.

“What are these?” Kathein was holding blades of an underwater grass on which grew a delicate band of silver flowers all the way up each spine.

“They are delicious when rotted for a week — and quite poisonous. A nerve poison. Long ago when the Stgal first took over Sorrow from the Nowee priests they gave a great feast in honor of the new pact between the Nowee and the Stgal and fed the Nowee a salad laced with such grasses. A tale among other tales — and the Stgal wonder why they have a devious reputation!”

The two women shed their sailing clothes and began a diving exploration of the shore bottom. Gaet built a fire on the sand and roasted a lunch in bundles of leaf packs. He watched the swimmers, pleased with the emotional smoothness of his venture. He could relax now and worry about trivial details like the penetration of the leaf aroma into the food.

Women were beautiful in different ways, he thought, watching them. The artists of the coast had used simple designs over Oelita’s flesh, leaving sweeping areas of plain or lightly etched skin for contrast. Kathein was decorated more in the high fashion of the Kaiel, delicate work, lavish detail, symbols, intricate dye work overlaying the scars so that not a patch of child’s flesh remained, showing her to be a true Master of Pain.

He spread mats on the sand. With the sun at highnode and the fire to dry them, they did not bother to dress when they returned. “Did you find anything?”

“No,” said Oelita. “There’s growth down there, more than when I was a child.”

Kathein laid up her wet hair on a lattice of fingers. “Sea life entrances me. I learned to swim with my eyes open! I’ll have to bring a dredge up here sometime. It’s a shame. I wonder how The Forge of War got into the sea? There is no sign of ruins or an old boat, or anything at all down there.”

“I’m glad you brought us,” said Oelita. “The problems of our men seem very remote out here. We’ve been talking about that.”

“Between mouthfuls of sea!” laughed Kathein.

Gaet unwrapped a leafy fish cake and let them smell its steamy fragrance. “I’m working on a compromise that will satisfy us all. I need new information. You two will have to be my source.”

“Do you want to know how Joesai feels?” asked Oelita.

“No. I know Joesai. I’m not sure I know what drives a Gentle Heretic.”

“You know me,” said Kathein.

“You’re positive?” asked Gaet. “You’ve been with Aesoe a long time.”

Kathein dropped her eyes and Oelita took her hand and confronted Gaet for the both of them. “What do you want to know about us? Just ask.”

“Let me go over some history first. We’ve had a Five that works well. I didn’t really understand it when I started it. A family was a misty dream, something to do as I climbed the ladder of Kaiel tradition. I was told that the bonds of a family created abilities that no single man could aspire to by himself, and I wanted to do everything — and be everything — and so a family was just a natural extension of myself.”