Ingray blinked, astonished. “Really?” Lak wasn’t given to drama or overstatement. E was unfailingly calm and, when e needed to be, brutally straightforward.
“I know, it’s kind of ridiculous in light of the last few days, isn’t it.” E sighed again. “I’m glad at least to see you and your brother working together.”
“I don’t … we aren’t really …” Ingray was at a loss. But it was true—Danach had understood what she’d meant when she’d asked for his jacket, and helped her when he didn’t have to.
“When the family is threatened, or the stakes high enough, he’ll do the right thing. If your mother would have … but no, that’s a conversation for another time.” E shook eir head. “So I’m guessing you aren’t here to ask for advice, or, ascended saints help me, instruction.”
“No, Nuncle, I do need advice!” Ingray protested. “I promised Pahlad I’d be there when the prolocutor talked to em, and I know that maybe wasn’t a good idea, but it was my own choice, and I can handle whatever happens after that.” Maybe. She wasn’t actually sure she could. “But the Geck ambassador is a whole other thing.”
“So you haven’t completely taken leave of your senses,” observed Lak. “That’s something, anyway.” E closed eir eyes, then opened them again, gazing unfocused somewhere in front of em. Probably reading or listening to something. At length, e said, “The Geck demanded to see Captain Tic Uisine as soon as they came into the system, but the captain had left dock by then and had filed a route that would take him to one of the non-Hwaean outstations. He’ll have left Hwae-controlled space by now.”
He probably hadn’t, not legally speaking. The non-Hwaean outstations were most of them quite distant. But no doubt it was convenient to be able to tell the Geck that Captain Uisine was out of reach. “It shouldn’t matter,” Ingray said. “He’s a citizen of Tyr, and the chief executive of Tyr Siilas herself refused to hand him over to the Geck. We wouldn’t want to make trouble with Tyr Siilas. And besides, he’s human and the Geck have no authority over him.”
“Which makes me wonder why the Geck want him so badly,” said Lak. “But you’re right, we can’t hand him over. If nothing else it would set a bad precedent for our dealings with the Geck. Which, to be entirely honest, really shouldn’t exist to be an issue at all. We’ve never had to talk to the Geck about anything before. The damned Radchaai ambassador to the Geck ought to be handling this, but I’m told just now that the ambassador, who is in fact aboard the Geck ship, claims she can’t do anything about it. What good is she then?”
“I don’t know, Nuncle.”
“Captain Uisine has probably done us at least a small favor by fleeing. It’s odd, though, that he got advance word of the Geck arriving, when only a few people knew at that point.” E waited a moment, as if expecting Ingray to say something. When she didn’t, e asked, “Is the ship stolen?”
Wary of lying directly to Lak, Ingray replied, “He had all the documents, like I said. Clear back to the shipyard.”
“That wasn’t what I asked. Which I suppose answers my question. So why did you go to Tyr Siilas to begin with? And what did you buy there? You’ve come back with no money at all.”
She needed a moment to find a plausible answer to that question, so she picked up the cup of serbat.
“Ingray,” said Lak as she took a sip, as though e had been struck by a terrible thought, “you didn’t go to a broker and ask them to bring Pahlad Budrakim out of Compassionate Removal, did you? Please tell me you didn’t.”
Ingray’s mouth was full of serbat, and she couldn’t find a way to swallow it, or spit it back into the cup. Then she managed to move again, managed to make her throat work, to set the cup down instead of dropping it. To say, maybe even calmly, “That would be ridiculous.” But she knew she had taken too long to answer.
Lak sighed. “I told Netano it wasn’t right to make you children compete. I told her from the start. And I warned her to be careful about rewarding her children for taking big risks. But she was going to do things her way, no matter what I said. I think she realized her mistake when Vaor left. I know you and Danach both think e was sent away, but e wasn’t. E left to get away from Netano—to get away from the whole household, but it’s Netano who made that household. And I know you probably don’t believe this, but it upset Netano very much. Our own mother was … well. There’s a reason my sister didn’t have children until after our mother died, and a reason none of those children are biological ones. Netano very much did not want to be the same kind of parent as ours had been. So Vaor leaving, that was …” Nuncle Lak shook eir head. “I think Netano has tried to change how she deals with you two, but my sister is who she is. And besides, the damage is done. Although, even so, I always thought it would be Danach who would do the outrageously ambitious and destructive thing.”
Ingray found she had nothing to say, not even a protest.
“Who did you go to—Gold Orchid, I assume? And they took your payment, then, and brought you Pahlad?”
It hadn’t been anywhere near that straightforward, but … “Yes,” Ingray acknowledged.
“I have some thinking to do about this,” said Lak, into her silence. “There are some complicating factors you aren’t aware of, and that at the moment I can’t tell you about. And no matter what, if this business about Pahlad comes out there will probably be nothing either your mother or I can do to protect you. It probably won’t come out—I suspect there isn’t a representative in the Assembly who hasn’t done one or more deals with a Tyr broker that would get them in serious trouble. Them or a family member. And I can think of several reasons the government would prefer word of such a thing never got out. But I can’t make you any promises.”
“Of course not,” she agreed. Not even sure anything around her was real except the overwhelming sense of shame and doom. Why had she done it?
“Well, it is what it is. Take the groundcar to Planetary Safety. If the ambassador follows you there, tell her very politely—and in front of witnesses—that you really can’t talk to her and that her being onworld without authorization is likely a breach of the treaty.”
“I did that, at home.”
“Good. Tell her again. And then don’t say anything else to her. I’ll have your mother send a message to the Radchaai ambassador to the Geck, complaining of harassment.”
“Thank you.”