That, and everything else. Nenda admitted defeat. Glenna was as single-minded in her own way as Quintus Bloom.

“We said we wouldn’t talk about the Zardalu, At, but I’m going to. Maybe a touch of them will slow her down.”

Nenda turned to Glenna. “You wouldn’t find a Zardalu exciting if you ran into one. You won’t, of course, because they live only on Genizee, here inside the Anfract. But they’re enough to make anybody jump. For starters, they’re huge. Seven meters long when they’re at full stretch. The head of a full-grown Zardalu is as wide across as this divan. They are land-cephalopods, so they stand or slither along on half a dozen thick tentacles. Fast, too, faster than a human can run. The tentacles are pale blue, strong enough to snap a steel cable. The head is a deep, deep blue, as blue as midnight on Pelican’s Wake. A Zardalu has two big blue eyes, each one as wide across as my outstretched hand. And under that is a big beak.”

Glenna’s hand had stopped moving on his thigh. Nenda glanced across to see her expression. She was staring at him with wide, avid eyes, mopping it up. So much for his theory that she would be frightened. The surprise came from the other side of her. Quintus Bloom was also staring at Nenda. He looked puzzled. His hand reached out to form a shape in the half-light.

“A beak with a hook on it,” he said slowly. “Like this.” His hand turned to curve downward. “Hard and blue, and big enough to seize and crack a human skull. And under it a long slit of a mouth, vertical. The head runs straight down to the torso, same width, but separating the two is a thing like a necklace of round openings, each one a bit bigger than your fist and running all around the body.”

“Breeding pouches.” Nenda stared across at Quintus Bloom, his annoyance with Glenna forgotten. “How the devil do you know all this? Have you been reading reports about the Zardalu that we took to Miranda?”

“Not a word. I’d never in my whole life read or heard any physical description of one.”

“You mean you’ve actually seen a live Zardalu?”

“No. A dead one. But I had no idea what it was.” Quintus Bloom’s eyes were wider than Glenna’s. “When I was exploring Labyrinth, I came across an interior chamber with five creatures in it. Each one had started out huge, but when I got to them they were shrunken and wizened. They had been vacuum-dried, and they looked like enormous desiccated plant bulbs. I didn’t even realize they were animals, until I came close and saw those eyes. That’s when I decided to hydrate one — pump warm water into each cell, until it came back to its original size and shape and color.” His gaze moved to Nenda. “Seven meters long, head and torso of midnight blue. Eyes with lids, like human eyes but a hundred times the size. Tentacles pale blue, ending in fine, ropy tips. Right?”

“Exactly right. That’s a Zardalu to the life. Or to the death.” Nenda caught a quick question from Atvar H’sial, who was following the conversation as best she could from Nenda’s scraps of pheromonal translation. He passed it on to Bloom. “What’s your interest in the Zardalu?”

“I care nothing for Zardalu — living or dead.” Bloom’s beaky nose jutted superciliously at Nenda. “My interest is in the Builders, and only the Builders. But you have raised a question that I cannot answer.”

“An unforgivable sin.” But Louis sent that remark only to Atvar H’sial, along with his translation of Bloom’s arrogant comments.

“You assert that the Zardalu live only in one place,” Bloom went on. “On Genizee. What makes you think that your statement is true?”

“I don’t think it, I know it. At the time of the Great Rising, the Zardalu were just about exterminated from the spiral arm. Only fourteen specimens were saved, and they were held in stasis until a year ago. They went straight from there to Genizee. I know all that, because I was there when it happened. The only one not on Genizee today is a baby, brought back to Miranda by Darya Lang and her party. Why does that get you so upset?”

Bloom glared back at Nenda. He seemed quite unaware of the flicker of the ship’s lighting, or the tentative moan of electrical systems returning to power. “Because, you ignoramus, of the implication of your words. Think, if you are at all capable of such a thing, of these facts. First, every Zardalu except one infant is to be found on Genizee, and only on Genizee. Second, I discovered the dried corpses of five Zardalu floating in an interior chamber of Labyrinth. Third, Labyrinth is a new artifact. It did not exist eleven thousand years ago, or a century ago, or even a year ago. Put those items together, and what do you get?”

One thing you got, very clearly, was that Glenna’s romantic evening was not going quite according to plan. But that was unlikely to be what Quintus Bloom had in mind for a conclusion. In any case, Nenda’s thoughts were moving to other things. He knew what the flicker of light meant: the Gravitas was emerging from the hiatus.

“What do you get?” His question was automatic. Whatever it was, it was less important than regaining control of the ship.

But now, after all that build-up, Quintus Bloom had apparently decided not to supply an answer. He rose to his feet, brushed off Glenna’s hold on his sleeve, and strode out of the boudoir.

“Use your tiny mind, and work it out for yourself,” he snapped over his shoulder.

“Quintus!” Glenna wailed, and ran out after him.

“Most interesting.” The drift of Cecropian pheromones came in more strongly. “I assume that you made the same deduction as Quintus Bloom?”

Nenda did not move, not even when the pheromonal question was followed a moment later by the stately entry of Atvar H’sial’s crouched form. The Cecropian’s yellow horns turned to face him, then Atvar H’sial shook her head and just as slowly departed.

There was no need for words. She knew that Louis had made no deductions at all. He couldn’t see what there was to be deduced.

He remained brooding on the divan. Live Zardalu only on Genizee. Dead Zardalu discovered on Labyrinth. Labyrinth a new artifact. So what? All that might say something to Bloom and to Atvar H’sial, but it didn’t offer one syllable to Louis. Anyway, with power restored the ship needed his attention. So maybe he had his own question: When there were so many smart-asses around, why was he only one who knew how to fly the Gravitas?

He was still asking himself that when Glenna returned. Her chin was up and her manner jaunty as she circled the room blowing out the candles.

It didn’t fool Louis for a second. She was upset as hell. He felt unexpected sympathy. “Hey, take it easy. You’ll get another shot at him. You know Quintus. He’s too wrapped up in his godawful Builders to take notice of anything.”

“It’s not just that.” Glenna sat down next to Nenda. She lifted the hem of her dress and dabbed at her eyes with it. “I was hoping we’d have a really pleasant evening, something to make us feel good. It started so nicely. And then it all fell apart.”

“Yeah. It just wasn’t your night. But don’t let it get to you. I’ve had nights like that. Lots of ’em.” Louis patted her warm shoulder consolingly, and flinched when she leaned back into the crook of his arm.

Glenna snuggled closer. “You know, you were the only one who even tried to tell a scary story, the way I wanted.” She reached up to put her hand over his. “I think that was really nice of you.”

Louis edged away along the divan. “Yeah, well. I dunno. Not that nice. We were stuck in the hiatus, we all had nothing to do. Might as well tell stories to each other. Now we’re clear, though, and I have to get busy. Gotta start figurin’ out how we make it through the Anfract.”

He was pulling his hand free of hers when all the lights went out again. There was a dying groan from the ship’s electrical system.