"Lutya, my friend, isn't life complicated here in the king's house?"

"It's probably just as complicated for the poorest peasants. Down in their holes in the ground the most powerless ex-slaves probably have exactly the same problems. Grudges, loves, anger, fear, hate-"

"But when they quarrel in their tunnels, the whole kingdom doesn't quake," said Edhadeya.

"Well, that's your family. Not mine."

Edhadeya picked another worm off another leaf. "There are people eating holes in the kingdom, Lutya. What if our brothers turn out to be among the worms?"

"That's what you're afraid of, isn't it? Deny the Keeper. Then we don't have to associate with diggers and angels and-"

"Mon loves the angels. It would kill him not to be with them."

"But does he love the sky people more than Akma hates the earth people?"

"When it comes down to it, Mon won't give up his love for the angels."

"Still. It would be a terrible thing if they started-"

"Don't even think about it," said Edhadeya. "Our brothers would not commit treason."

"Then you're not afraid," said Luet.

Edhadeya sat on a bench and sighed. "I am afraid."

A new voice came from behind them. "Of what?"

They turned. It was Chebeya, Luet's mother. "Done already?" Luet asked.

"Poor Dudagu is exhausted," said Chebeya.

Edhadeya snorted.

"Don't make that sound in the woods," said Chebeya, "or a jaguar will find you."

"I don't see why you think it's so unnatural for me to despise my stepmother," said Edhadeya.

"Your father loves her," said Chebeya.

"A sign of his infinite capacity for love," said Edhadeya.

"What were you talking about when I came out here?" asked Chebeya. "And don't deny it was important, I could see how you were bound together."

Luet and Edhadeya looked at each other.

"Trying to decide how much to tell me?" asked Chebeya. "Let me make it easy for you. Start with everything."

So they told her.

"Let me watch them a little," said Chebeya, when they were done. "If I see them together, I can learn a lot."

"How can Mon not believe in true dreams?" asked Edhadeya. "He knows when things are true-he knew my dream about your family was a true one."

"Don't underestimate my son's powers of persuasion," said Chebeya.

"Mon isn't any man's puppet," said Edhadeya. "I know him."

"No, not a puppet," said Chebeya. "But I know Akma's gift."

"He has one?" asked Luet.

"The little sister is the last to see," said Edhadeya.

"He has the same gift as me," said Chebeya.

"He's never said so!" cried Luet.

"No, because he doesn't realize it. It's different with men, I think. Men don't form communities as easily as women do. Human men, I'm speaking of-angels aren't like this. Or maybe they are, it's not as if I've had much experience. I just know that when a man has the raveling gift, he doesn't see the connections between people the same way. What he does is he starts unconsciously finding ways to gather up all those scattered threads in his own hands."

"So he can't see the web of people," said Luet. "He just becomes the spider?"

Chebeya shuddered. "I haven't explained to him what it is he does. I'm afraid that if he ever becomes conscious of it, it'll be much worse. He'll become more powerful and... ."

"Dangerous," said Edhadeya.

Chebeya turned away from her. "He gathers people up and they want to please him."

"Enough that Mon would give up his love for the sky people?" asked Edhadeya.

"I'll have to see them together, with that in mind. But if Akma really cared about something and needed Mon's help, then I think Mon would help him."

"But that's horrible," said Edhadeya. "Does that mean that the times I thought I loved him-"

"I don't know," said Chebeya. "Or I mean-I do know-as much as he is capable of love, he has loved you, from time to time."

"Not now."

"Not lately."

Tears rolled out of Edhadeya's eyes. "This is so stupid," said Edhadeya. "I'm not even pining for him, I go whole days without thinking of him-but it's just this gift of his, isn't it?"

Chebeya shook her head. "When he ravels people up, it only lasts for a little while. A day or two. Unless he stays with you, it fades. You haven't seen him in a week."

"I see him every day," said Edhadeya.

"You haven't been close to him, though," said Luet helpfully.

"He has to be talking to you, looking at you, interacting with you," said Chebeya. "You can trust your feelings with him. They're real enough."

"More's the pity," murmured Edhadeya.

"Mother," said Luet, "I think something very dangerous is happening. I think Akma and the sons of Motiak are plotting something."

"As I said, I'll look and see if it seems that way."

"And if it does?"

"I'll talk to your father about it," said Chebeya. "And perhaps then we'll talk to the king. And he may want to talk to you."

"And when everyone has talked to everybody," said Edhadeya, "there still won't be a thing we can do."

Chebeya smiled. "Ever hopeful, aren't you? Dedaya, have some trust. Your father and my husband and I may be old, but we still have some power within our reach. We can change things."

"I notice you didn't include my stepmother in that group," said Edhadeya nastily.

Chebeya smiled with benign innocence. "Poor Dudagu. She's too frail to be mentioned in the same breath with power."

Edhadeya laughed.

"Come home with me now, Luet. There's work to do."

Edhadeya hugged them both and watched them leave the courtyard. Then she lay back on the bench and looked up at the sky. She thought, when the angle of the sun was right, that she could see the star Basilica even in bright sunlight. Today, though, the clouds were blocking everything. It was going to rain.

"One-Who-Was-Never-Buried," murmured Edhadeya. "Are you going to do anything about this?"

Shedemei loaded her supplies into the ship's launch as the Oversoul murmured one more time inside her mind:

"Do you think you can't protect me?" asked Shedemei.

"That's all I ask."

"I want to know these people, that's all," said Shedemei. "I want to know them for myself."

"Do I have to say it? Can't you look inside my mind and see the truth?"

"I can. I'm going down there because I'm lonely. There, is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Well, now you've heard it. I want to hear another organic voice. No insult to you, but I actually would like to feel like some other people know me."

"I know," said Shedemei. "And I don't claim to have any great and noble purpose. I'm just ready to come out of this metal shell and bump up against some people again." Then she thought of something. "How old am I? People will ask."

"Are you suggesting that I should have another child?"

Shedemei curled her lip in disgust. "This is a society with a strong tabu against sex outside of marriage. I'm not going down there to ruin some poor lonely man's life."