Beg to the end with me, we wanted to think of it as a baby. We all knew
it wasn't. We all understand perfectly well that it was some part of
Vanjit's mind made flesh, but ..."
She raised her hands, palms out. Not a formal pose, but the gesture was
eloquent enough.
"So what does it want?" Danat said. "If it truly wants Vanjit killed,
why didn't it help you? That would have done all it wanted to do."
"It may want more than freedom," Idaan said, speaking over her shoulder
as she pressed a warm bowl into Maati's hand. "There's precedent.
Seedless wanted his freedom, but he also wanted his poet to suffer.
Clarity-of-Sight may want something for Vanjit besides death."
"Such as?" Large Kae asked.
"Punishment," Eiah suggested. "Or isolation. Or. .."
"Or a sense of family," Ashti Beg said, her voice oddly contemplative.
"If we think of the babe as having more than one agenda, this could be
its way of making a world that was only mother and child. Alienating all
the rest of us."
"But it also wants its freedom," Maati said. Small Kae shifted on her
bench at the sound of his voice, making room for him. He moved forward
and sat. "Whatever else it wants, it must want that."
A puff of smoke escaped from the fire grate. Maati sipped the drink
Idaan had given him-rum with honey and apple. It warmed his throat and
made his chest glow.
"Is this really what we should care about?" the Galtic girl-Anaasked. "I
don't mean that as an attack, but it seems that we've estab lished that
the girl's less than sane. Is there something we gain by trying to guess
at the shape of her madness?"
"We might have a better idea of where she's gone," Small Kae offered.
"What she might do next?"
"Ana's right," Danat said. "We could roll dice about it, but there are
some things we know for certain. She set out half a day's boat ride
north of here a night ago. If she goes upriver, she'll need to hire a
boat. If she goes down, she could hire one or build a raft and rely on
the current. Or she can go east over land. What about the low towns?
Could she have found shelter in a low town?"
The group was silent, then Danat said, "I'll get the keeper. She may
know something of the local geography."
It was, Maati thought, a strangely familiar feeling. A handful of people
sitting together, thinking aloud about an insoluble problem. The weeks
at the school, sitting in the classrooms with chalk marks on the walls.
All of them offering suggestion, interpretation, questions opened for
anyone to answer if they could. He took an unexpected comfort from it.
The only one who didn't speak was Otah.
The conversation went on long into the night. The longer they took to
find Vanjit, the greater her chance of escape. The greater her chance of
dying alone in the wild. The Galtic girl and Small Kae had a long
discussion of whether they were going to rescue Vanjit or if the aim was
to kill her; Small Kae advocated a fast death, Ana wanted the chance to
ask Vanjit to undo the damage to Galt. Danat counted the days to Utani,