He led her into a large room where Alai stood waiting for her, with a dozen high officers standing along the walls.
She walked to the middle of the room. "Why are you afraid of one lone woman, Caliph Alai?"
Before he had time to answer the obvious truth—that far from being afraid, he had let her pass unmolested and uninspected through his headquarters complex and into his own presence—Virlomi began to unwrap her sari. It took only a moment or two before she stood naked before him. Then she reached up and loosened her long hair, and then swung it and combed her fingers through it. "You see that I have no weapon hidden here. India stands before you, naked and defenseless. Why do you fear her?"
Alai had averted his eyes as soon as it became clear that she was undressing. So had the more pious of the other officers. But some apparently thought it was their responsibility to make sure that she was, in fact, weaponless. She enjoyed their consternation, their embarrassment— and, she suspected, their desire. You came here to ravish India, didn't you? And yet I am out of your reach. Because I'm not here for you, underlings. I'm here for your master.
"Leave us," Alai said to the other men.
Even the most modest of them could not help but glance at her as they shuffled out of the room, leaving the two of them alone.
The door closed behind them. She and Alai were alone.
"Very symbolic, Virlomi," said Alai, still refusing to look at her. "That will get talked about."
"The offer I make is both symbolic and tangible," she said. "This upstart Peter Wiggin has gone as far as he should go. Why should Muslim and Hindu be enemies, when together we have the power to crush his naked ambition?"
"His ambition isn't as naked as you are," said Alai. "Please put on clothing so I can look at you."
"May not a man look at his bride?"
Alai chuckled. "A dynastic marriage? I thought you already told Han Tzu what he could do with that idea."
"Han Tzu had nothing to offer me. You are the leader of the Muslims of India. A large portion of my people torn away from mother India in fruitless hostility. And why? Look at me, Alai."
Either the force of her voice had power over him, or he could not resist his desire, or perhaps he simply decided that since they were alone, he need not keep up the show of perfect rectitude.
He looked her up and down, casually, without reaction. As he did, she raised her arms above her head and turned around. "Here is India," she said, "no longer resisting you, no longer evading you, but welcoming you, married to you, fertile soil in which to plant a new civilization of Muslim and Hindu united."
She faced him again.
He continued to look at her, not bothering to keep his eyes only on her face. "You do intrigue me," he said.
I should think so, she answered silently. Muslims never have the virtue they pretend to have.
"I must consider this," he said.
"No," she said.
"You think I'll make up my mind in an instant?"
"I don't care. But I will leave this room in moments. Either I'll do it dressed in that sari, as your bride, or I'll do it naked, leaving my clothing behind. Naked I'll pass through your compound, and naked I'll return to my people. Let them decide what they think was done to me within these walls."
"You'd provoke such a war as that?" said Alai.
"Your presence in India is the provocation, Caliph. I offer you peace and unity between our peoples. I offer you the permanent alliance that will enable us, together, India and Islam, to unite the world in a single government and along the way cast Peter Wiggin aside. He was never worthy of his brother's name; he's wasted enough of the time and attention of the world."
She walked closer to him, until her knees touched his.
"You have to deal with him eventually, Caliph Alai. Will you do it with India in your bed and by your side, or will you do it while most of your forces have to remain here to keep us from destroying you from behind? Because I'll do it. Either we're lovers or enemies, and the time to choose is now."
He made no idle threat to detain her or kill her—he knew that he could no more do that than let her walk out of the compound naked. The real question was whether he would be a grudging husband or an enthusiastic one.
He reached out and took her hand.
"You've chosen wisely, Caliph Alai," she said. She leaned down and kissed him. The same kiss she had given Peter Wiggin, and which he had treated as if it were nothing.
Alai returned it warmly. His hands moved on her body.
"Marriage first," she said.
"Let me guess," he said. "You want the wedding now."
"In this room."
"Will you dress so we can show video of the ceremony?"
She laughed and kissed his cheek. "For publicity, I'll dress."
She started to walk away, but he caught her hand, drew her back, kissed her again, passionately this time. "This is a good idea," he said to her. "It's a bold idea. It's a dangerous idea. But it's a good one."
"I'll stand beside you in everything," she said.
"Not ahead," he said. "Not behind, not above, not below."
She embraced him and kissed his headdress. Then she pulled it off his head and kissed his hair.
"Now I'll have to go to all the trouble of putting that back on," he said.
You'll take whatever trouble I want you to take, she thought. I have just had a victory here today, in this room, Caliph Alai. You and your Allah may not realize it, but the gods of India rule in this place, and they have given me victory without another soldier dying in useless war.
Such fools they were in Battle School, to let so few girls in. It left the boys helpless against a woman when they returned to Earth.
18
YEREVAN
From: [email protected]
Re: Can't believe you're at this address
When Bean told me what happened at that meeting, I thought: I know one guy who's never going to go along with any plan of Graff's.
Then I got your letter informing me of your change of address. And then I thought some more and realized: There's no place on Earth where Dink Meeker is going to fit in. You have too much ability to be content anywhere that they're likely to let you serve.
But I think you were wrong to refuse to be the head of the colony you're joining. Partly it's because: Who's going to do it better than you? Don't make me laugh.
But the main reason is: What kind of living hell will it be for the colony leader to have Mr. Insubordinate in his colony? Especially because everybody will know you were in Ender's Jeesh and they'll wonder why you AREN'T leader...
I don't care how loyal you think you're going to be, Dink. It's not in you. You're a brat and you always will be. So admit what a lousy follower you are, and go ahead and LEAD.
And just in case you don't know it, you stupidest of all possible geniuses: I still love you. I've always loved you. But no woman in her right mind would ever marry you and have your babies because NOBODY COULD STAND TO RAISE THEM. You will have the most hellish children. So have them in a colony where there'll be someplace for them to go when they run away from home about fifteen times before they're ten.
Dink, I'm going to be happy, in the long run. And yes, I did set myself up for hard times when I married a man who's going to die and whose children will probably have the same disease. But Dink—nobody ever marries anybody who ISN'T going to die.