Of Mejakh’s great vaikkashe gained such arastiethethat she met in katasakkewith Chaxal-Orithain of Ashanome,and of that mating came Khasif, firstborn of Ashanome’s present ruling sra,but not his heir. Chaxal took for his heir-mate Tusaivre of Iqhanofre,who bore him Chimele before she returned to her own nasul.Other katasakke-mates produced Rakhi, and Ashakh and Chaikhe.

But the nameless child survived within the dhis,and when he emerged he chose to be called Tejef.

Isande’s mind limned him shadowlike, much resembling Rhasif, his younger half-brother, but a quiet, frightened man despite his physical strength, who suffered wretchedly the violence of Mejakh and the contempt of Chaxal. Only Chimele, who emerged two years later, treated him with honor, for she saw that it vexed Mejakh—and Mejakh still aspired to a kataberihewith Chaxal, as heir-mating which threatened Chimele.

Until Chaxal died.

New loyalties sorted themselves out; a younger sracame into power with Chimele. There were changes outside the nasultoo—all relations with the orith-nasuli,the great clans, must be redefined by new oaths. There must be two years of ceremony at the least, before the accession of Chimele could be fully accomplished.

Death.

The dark of space.

Reha.

Screens went up. Isande flinched from that. Aiela tore back. No,he sent, shielding Daniel. Don’t do that to him.

Isande reached for her glass of maritheand trembled only slightly carrying it to her lips. But what seeped through the screens was ugly, and Daniel would gladly have fled the room, if distance and walls could have separated him from Isande.

“An Orithain cannot assume office fully until all vaikkaof the previous Orithain is cleared,” Isande said in a quiet, precise voice, maintaining her screens. “ Tashavodh’s Orithain—Kharxanen, full brother to Sogdrieni—had been at great niseth—great disadvantage—for twenty years because Chaxal had eluded all his attempts to settle. But now that Ashanome’s new Orithain was needing to assume office, settlement became possible. Chimele needed it as badly as Kharxanen.

“So Tashavodhand Ashanomemet. Something had to be yielded on Ashanome’s side. Kharxanen demanded Mejakh and Tejef; Chimele refused—Mejakh being bhan-srato her own nas-katasakkeKhasif, it struck too closely at her own honor. Even Tashavodhhad to recognize that.

“But she gave them Tejef.

“Tejef was stunned. Of course it was the logical solution; but Chimele had always treated him as if he were one of her own nasithi,and he had been devoted to her. Now all those favors were only the preparation of a terrible vaikkaon him—worse than anything that had ever been done to him, I imagine. When he heard, he went to Chimele alone and unasked. There was a terrible fight.

“Usually the iduve do not intervene in male-female fights, even if someone is being maimed or killed: mating is usually violent, and violating privacy is e-chanokhia,very improper. But Chimele is no ordinary woman; all the sraof an Orithain have an honorable name, and taphrek-nasiqhis applicable only to paternity: the thing Tejef intended would give his offspring the name he lacked; and if he died in the attempt, it would still spite Chimele, robbing her of her accommodation with Tashavodh.

“But Chimele’s nasithi-katasakkebroke into the paredre.What happened then, only they know, but probably there was no mating—there never was a child. Tejef escaped, and when Mejakh put herself in his way trying to keep him from the lift, he overpowered her and took her down to the flight deck. The okkitani-ason duty there knew something terrible was wrong—alarms were sounding, the whole ship on battle alert, for the Orithain was threatened and we sat only a few leagues from Tashavodh.But the amaut are not fighters, and they could do little enough to stop an iduve. They simply cowered on the floor until he had gone and then the bravest of them used the intercom to call for help.

“My asuthe Reha was already on his way to the flight deck by the time I reached Chimele in the paredre.He seized a second shuttlecraft and followed. A kameth has immunity among iduve, even on an alien deck, and he thought if he could attach himself to the situation before Tashavodhcould actually claim Mejakh, he could possibly help Chimele recover her and save the arastietheof Ashanome.

“But they killed him.” Screens held, altogether firm. She sipped at the marithe,furiously barring a human from that privacy of hers; and Daniel earnestly did not want to invade it. “They swore later they didn’t know he was only kameth. It did not occur to them that a kameth would be so rash. When he knew he was dying he fired one shot at Tejef, but Tejef was within their shields already and it had no more effect than if he had attacked Tashavodhwith a handgun.

“The iduve—when the stakes are very high—are sensible; it is illogical to them to do anything that endangers nasulsurvival. And this was highly dangerous. Vaikkahad gotten out of hand, Tashavodhwas well satisfied with their acquisition of Mejakh and Tejef, but in the death of a kameth of Ashanome,Chimele had a serious claim against them. There is a higher authority: the Orithanhe; and she convoked it for the first time in five hundred years. It meets only in Cheltaris, and the ships were four years gathering.

“When the Orithanhe reached its decision, neither Chimele nor Kharxanen had fully what they had demanded. Mejakh had been forced into katasakkewith a kinsman of Kharxanen; and by the Orithanhe’s decision, Tashavodh’s dhisobtained her unborn child for its incubators and Ashanomeobtained Mejakh—no great prize. She has never been quite right since. Chimele demanded Tejef back; but the Orithanhe instead declared him out-kindred, outlaw— e-nasuli.

“So by those terms, by very ancient custom, Tejef was due his chance: a Kej year and three days to run. Now Ashanomehas its own: two years and six days to hunt him down—or lose rights to him forever.”

“And they have found him?” asked Daniel.

“You—may have found him.” Isande paused to pour herself more marithe.She scarcely drank, ordinarily, but her shaken nerves communicated to such an extent that they all breathed uneasily and struggled with her to push back the thoughts of Reha. Revengeran cold and sickly through all her thoughts; and grief was there too. Aiela tried to reach her on his own, but at the moment she thought of Reha and did not want even him.

“There is the vra-nasul Chaganokh,” said Isande. “Vassal-clan, a six-hundred-year-old splinter of Tashavodh,nearby and highly suspect. We have sixty-three days left. But you see, Chimele can’t just accuse Chaganokhof having aided Tejef with nothing to support the claim. It’s not a matter of law, but of harachia—seeing. Chaganokhwill look to see if she has come merely to secure a small vaikkaand annoy them, or if she is in deadly earnest. No Orithain would ever harm them without absolute confidence in being right: orithaineido not make mistakes. Chaganokhwill therefore base its own behavior on what it sees: by that means they will determine how far Ashanomeis prepared to go. If she shows them truth, they will surely bend: it would be suicide for a poor vra-nasulto enter vaikkawith the most ancient of all clans—which Ashanomeis. They will not resist further.”

“And what does she mean to show them?”

“You,” she said; Aiela instinctively flung the chiabres-link asunder, dismayed by that touch of willful cruelty in Isande: she enjoyeddistressing Daniel. The impulse he sent in her direction carried anger, and Isande flinched, and felt shame. “We searched to find you,” she said then to Daniel. “Oh, not you particularly, but it came to Chimele’s attention that humans from beyond the Esliph were turning up—we have followed so many, many leads in recent months, through the iduve, kallia, even the amaut, investigating every anomaly. We traced one such shipment toward Kartos—economical: Chimele knew she would at least find Kartos’ records of value in her search. You were available; and you have pleased her enormously—hence her extraordinary patience with you. Only hope you haven’t misled her.”