“It was most properly done,” said Tejef, and Toshi gave a sigh of utmost relief and bowed almost double, long hands folded on her breast.

“But sir—the other nas kame—I confess fault: we lost him in the dark. Our agents are scouring Weissmouth for him at this moment. We felt pressed to lift off before the great lords your enemies could resolve to stop us. I think it was our good fortune we escaped even so.”

“Few things are random where Chimele is concerned. This kallia that escaped: his name?”

“Aiela.”

“Aiela.” Tejef searched his memory and found no such name. “Go back to Weissmouth and make good your omission, Toshi. You acted wisely. If you had waited, you would surely have been taken. Now see if you can manage this thing more discreetly.”

“Yes, sir.” Toshi gave a deep breath of relief and bowed, then backed a pace and turned, hurried off shouting orders at the crew of her aircraft. Tejef dismissed the matter into her capable hands.

There was still the unpleasant necessity of Mejakh. Harshly he ordered the kamethi to stand aside, and he knelt and gathered the shattered body into his arms.

Tejef washed meticulously and changed his clothes before he entered the paredreagain. The remembrance of Mejakh’s face, the knowledge of Khasif a prisoner in the room down the corridor, worked at his nerves and his temper with the corrosive effect of takkhenesout of agreement. It grew stronger. Khasif must be coming out from under the effect of the drug.

Tejef mind-touched the projection apparatus where he stood and connected it to the unit in Khasif’s cell.

The nasithwas a sorry sight. He had gained his feet, and he was dusty and bruised and bleeding, but he attempted a show of hostility.

Tejef was amazed to find that he did have the advantage of his proud iq-sra.Perhaps it was the drug still dulling Khasif’s mind, or perhaps it was the knowledge that Mejakh was dead and that he had fallen to m’metaneiand amaut. Undoubtedly Khasif had already attempted the door with his mind, and found its mechanism proof against an iduve’s peculiar kind of tampering—the lock primitive and manual. Now Khasif simply withdrew to the farthest corner, stumbled awkwardly into the wall he could not see in his vision of the paredre.He leaned there as if it were difficult to hold his feet.

“I have sent Mejakh hence,” Tejef said softly, “but she had nothing for serachbut what she wore and the blanket they wrapped her in, and I vented the residue world-bound. Hail Mejakh, who was srato us both.”

Khasif ought to have reacted to that pretty vaikka.He did not move. Tejef felt his own strength coursing along his nerves, felt Khasif’s weakness and his fear.

“You could be free,” Tejef assured him, “if you declared yourself arrhei-nasuland made submission to me. I would take it.”

Khasif made a small sound of anger. That was all. It was a beaten sound.

“Sir.” Gordon’s voice sounded beyond the walls of Khasif’s room, and Tejef ceased the projection and stood in the paredreonce more, facing Gordon and the man Daniel.

“Let him go,” said Tejef. “The restraint is not necessary.”

Gordon released his prisoner, who showed a disheveled appearance that had no reasonable connection with his having been aroused from sleep. There was blood on his mouth. The human wiped at it at his first opportunity, but he seemed indisposed to quarrel with an iduve. Tejef dismissed Gordon with a nod.

“I assume you are in contact with your asuthe,” said Tejef.

“Is Isande on this ship?” the human demanded, and Tejef would have corrected his belligerence instantly had the man worn the idoikkhe.He did not, and risked a chastisement of more damaging nature if his insolence persisted.

“Isande is here; but I would surmise that the man who asked that question is named Aiela.”

“I thought arastietheforbade guesswork.”

“Hardly an unreasonable assumption. And I am not wrong, am I? It was Aiela who asked.”

“Yes,” Daniel admitted.

“Tell this Aiela that should he wish to surrender himself, I will appoint him the place and the person.”

“Arle—the little girl.” Daniel ignored the barb to make that broken-voiced plea. “Where is she? Is she alive?”

Vaikkawas practically meaningless against such a vulnerable creature as this, one so lacking in pride. Tejef had allowed himself to be vexed; now he dismissed his anger in disgust, made a gesture of inconsequence. He dealt with humans—it was all that could be expected.

“Chimele sent you to Priamos with asuthi to guide you, but without the idoikkhe—without its danger and its protection. Was it in order to kill me—to draw near to me, and to seem only human?”

“Yes,” said Daniel, so plainly that Tejef laughed in surprise and pleasure. And at once the human’s face changed, anger flaring ; unprepared for the creature’s maniacal lunge, Tejef slapped the human in startled reaction—open-handed, not to kill. The blow was still hard enough to put the fragile being to the floor, and Tejef waited patiently until the human began to stir, and bent and seized his arm, dragging him to his feet.

“Probably you are recently kameth, for I cannot believe that Chimele would have chosen a stupid being to serve her. I could have broken your neck, m’metane.I simply did not choose to.”

And he let the human go, steadying him a moment until he had his balance; the m’metaneseemed more defensive now than hostile; he stumbled backward and nearly tripped over a chair.

“I should prefer to reason with you,” said Tejef.

“If that’syour aim, try reasoning with Chimele. Haven’t you sense enough to know you’re going to get yourself killed?”

“Then it is important,” said Tejef, “to do so properly, is it not? What does your asuthe say to that?”

Daniel told him, plainly; and Tejef laughed.

“Please,” Daniel pleaded. “Where is Arle? Is she all right?”

“Yes. Quite safe.”

“Please let me see her.”

“No,” said Tejef; but he knew his anger on the subject was, in human terms, irrational. The child herself incessantly begged for this meeting, and, child of the dhisas she was, she was human, only human, and knew Daniel for nas—a friend, as she put it. It was not the same as if she had been iduve young, and it was well for him to remember it.

Then it occurred to him that a human according to his peculiar ethic would feel a certain obligation for the favor: nisethkame,paradoxical as the term was.

“Arle is not from Ashanome,” Daniel persisted. “She is no possible harm to you.”

Tejef reasoned away his disgust, reminding himself that sometimes it was necessary to deal with m’metaneias m’metanei,expecting no arastiethein them.

“I shall take you where she is,” said Tejef.

Margaret answered the call to the door of the dhis,but Arle was not far behind her, and Tejef was quite unprepared for the child’s wild shout and her plunge out the door into Daniel’s arms. The man embraced her tightly, asking over and over again was she well, until she had lost her breath and he set her back. But then the child turned to Tejef and wanted to embrace him too. He stiffened at the thought, but as he recoiled she remembered her manners and refrained, hands still open as if she did not know what else to do with them.

“You see,” Tejef told her. “Daniel walks; he is well. Be not so uncontrolled, Arle.”

She dried her face dutifully and crept back to the shelter of Daniel’s arm: the touch between them frayed at Tejef’s sensibilities.

“He hasn’t hurt you—he hasn’t touched you?” Daniel insisted to know, and when Arle protested that she had been treated very well indeed, Daniel seemed both confused and relieved. He caressed the side of her face with the edge of his hand and gave a slight nod of courtesy to Margaret and to Tejef. “Thank you,” he said in the kalliran tongue. “But when your time is up and Chimele attacks—what is your kindness to her worth?”