Ouanda was climbing the fence.

“Go back,” said Ender. “We've already got him over.”

“If you're going to see the wives,” said Ouanda, “I'm going with you. You need my help.”

Ender had no answer to that. She dropped down and came to Ender.

Navio was kneeling by Miro's body. “He climbed the fence?” he said. “There's nothing in the books for that. It isn't possible. Nobody can bear enough pain to get his head right through the field.”

“Will he live?” demanded Novinha.

“How should I know?” said Navio, impatiently stripping away Miro's clothing and attaching sensors to him. “Nobody covered this in medical school.”

Ender noticed that the fence was shaking again. Ela was climbing over. “I don't need your help,” Ender said.

“It's about time somebody who knows something about xenobiology got to see what's going on,” she retorted.

“Stay and look after your brother,” said Ouanda.

Ela looked at her defiantly. “He's your brother, too,” she said. “Now let's both see to it that if he dies, he didn't die for nothing.”

The three of them followed Human and the other piggies into the forest.

Bosquinha and the Bishop watched them go. “When I woke up this morning,” Bosquinha said, “I didn't expect to be a rebel before I went to bed.”

“Nor did I ever imagine that the Speaker would be our ambassador to the piggies,” said the Bishop.

«The question is,» said Dom Crist o, «will we ever be forgiven for it.»

“Do you think we're making a mistake?” snapped the Bishop.

«Not at all,» said Dom Crist o. «I think we've taken a step toward something truly magnificent. But humankind almost never forgives true greatness.»

“Fortunately,” said the Bishop, “humankind isn't the judge that matters. And now I intend to pray for this boy, since medical science has obviously reached the boundary of its competence.”

Chapter 17

The Wives

Find out how word got out that the Evacuation Fleet is armed with the Little Doctor. That is HIGHEST PRIORITY. Then find out who this so-called Demosthenes is. Calling the Evacuation Fleet a Second Xenocide is definitely a violation of the treason laws under the Code and if CSA can't find this voice and put a stop to it, I can't think of any good reason for CSA to continue to exist.

In the meantime, continue your evaluation of the files retrieved from Lusitania, It's completely irrational for them to rebel just because we want to arrest two errant xenologers. There was nothing in the Mayor's background to suggest this was possible. If there's a chance that there was a revolution, I want to find out who the leaders of that revolution might be.

Pyotr, I know you're doing your best. So am I. So is everybody. So are the people on Lusitania, probably. But my responsibility is the safety and integrity of the Hundred Worlds. I have a hundred times the responsibility of Peter the Hegemon and about a tenth of his power. Not to mention the fact that I'm far from being the genius he was. No doubt you and everybody else would be happier if Peter were still available. I'm just afraid that by the time this thing is over, we may need another Ender. Nobody wants Xenocide, but if it happens, I want to make sure it's the other guys that disappear. When it comes to war, human is human and alien is alien. All that raman business goes up in smoke when we're talking about survival.

Does that satisfy you? Do you believe me when I tell you that I'm not being soft? Now see to it you're not soft, either. See to it you get me results, fast. Now. Love and kisses, Bawa.

– Gobawa Ekimbo, Chmn Xen Ovst Comm, to Pyotr Martinov, Dir Cgrs Sec Agc, Memo 44:1970:5:4:2; cit. Demosthenes, The Second Xenocide, 87:1972:1:1:1

Human led the way through the forest. The piggies scrambled easily up and down slopes, across a stream, through thick underbrush. Human, though, seemed to make a dance of it, running partway up certain trees, touching and speaking to others. The other piggies were much more restrained, only occasionally joining him in his antics. Only Mandachuva hung back with the human beings.

“Why does he do that?” asked Ender quietly.

Mandachuva was baffled for a moment. Ouanda explained what Ender meant. “Why does Human climb the trees, or touch them and sing?”

“He sings to them about the third life,” said Mandachuva. “It's very bad manners for him to do that. He has always been selfish and stupid.”

Ouanda looked at Ender in surprise, then back at Mandachuva. “I thought everybody liked Human,” she said.

“Great honor,” said Mandachuva. “A wise one.” Then Mandachuva poked Ender in the hip. “But he's a fool in one thing. He thinks you'll do him honor. He thinks you'll take him to the third life.”

“What's the third life?” asked Ender.

“The gift that Pipo kept for himself,” said Mandachuva. Then he walked faster, caught up with the other piggies.

“Did any of that make sense to you?” Ender asked Ouanda.

“I still can't get used to the way you ask them direct questions.”

“I don't get much in the way of answers, do I?”

“Mandachuva is angry, that's something. And he's angry at Pipo, that's another. The third life– a gift that Pipo kept for himself. It will all make sense.”

“When?”

“In twenty years. Or twenty minutes. That's what makes xenology so fun.”

Ela was touching the trees, too, and looking from time to time at the bushes. “All the same species of tree. And the bushes, too, just alike. And that vine, climbing most of the trees. Have you ever seen any other plant species here in the forest, Ouanda?”

“Not that I noticed. I never looked for that. The vine is called merdona. The macios seem to feed on it, and the piggies eat the macios. The merdona root, we taught the piggies how to make it edible. Before the amaranth. So they're eating lower on the food chain now.”

“Look,” said Ender.

The piggies were all stopped, their backs to the humans, facing a clearing. In a moment Ender, Ouanda, and Ela caught up with them and looked over them into the moonlit glen. It was quite a large space, and the ground was beaten bare. Several log houses lined the edges of the clearing, but the middle was empty except for a single huge tree, the largest they had seen in the forest.

The trunk seemed to be moving. “It's crawling with macios,” said Ouanda.

“Not macios,” said Human.

“Three hundred twenty,” said Mandachuva.

“Little brothers,” said Arrow.

“And little mothers,” added Cups.

“And if you harm them,” said Leaf-eater, “we will kill you unplanted and knock down your tree.”

“We won't harm them,” said Ender.

The piggies did not take a single step into the clearing. They waited and waited, until finally there was some movement near the largest of the log houses, almost directly opposite them. It was a piggy. But larger than any of the piggies they had seen before.

“A wife,” murmured Mandachuva.

“What's her name?” asked Ender.

The piggies turned to him and stared. “They don't tell us their names,” said Leaf-eater.

“If they even have names,” added Cups.

Human reached up and drew Ender down to where he could whisper in his ear. “We always call her Shouter. But never where a wife can hear.”

The female looked at them, and then sang– there was no other way to describe the mellifluous flow of her voice– a sentence or two in Wives' Language.

“It's for you to go,” said Mandachuva. “Speaker. You.”

“Alone?” asked Ender. “I'd rather bring Ouanda and Ela with me.”

Mandachuva spoke loudly in Wives' Language; it sounded like gargling compared to the beauty of the female's voice. Shouter answered, again singing only briefly.

“She says of course they can come,” Mandachuva reported. “She says they're females, aren't they? She's not very sophisticated about the differences between humans and little ones.”