“And Excellency Hevom?” asked Ingray.
“I doubt we’re the only people to think this is meant to be a pretext for Omkem aggression. It’s possible the committee will release Hevom to the Chancery, on the condition that Hevom boards the first ship leaving for the Federacy and never enters Hwae space again. Or it’s possible the committee will be angered by the rather insulting and arrogant demeanor of the Omkem ambassador and insist Hevom face the magistracy here. Either way, we’re likely to have some sort of decision in the morning. Or, I should say, in just a few hours.”
“Infernal powers!” swore Danach. “I didn’t think any committee could come to a decision in less than a few weeks.”
Nuncle Lak ignored him. “This is why I gave what I did to the District Voice tonight. We’ll stay with the story that Ingray found Pahlad on Tyr Siilas and didn’t know who e was. She felt sorry for em and brought em home. It’s the sort of thing she’d do, we all know that, and moreover it’s the sort of generosity to fellow Hwaeans that her mother has instilled in her. Everything else has been a complete surprise.” E looked at Ingray. “So you know how to play this, in the morning. Because you’re going to be there when Pahlad leaves Planetary Safety. It will draw attention away from this house, and Hevom’s own departure—either for the Omkem Chancery on the station, or a cell in Planetary Safety. And besides, the Geck ambassador has repeatedly insisted on it.”
In a whole night of bizarre events, this was, for Ingray, the most puzzlingly unreal. “Repeatedly?”
“The ambassador,” said Nuncle Lak, very calmly and straightforwardly, as though what e was saying made any sense, “somehow got past the guards and into Pahlad’s cell. She refuses to leave em. She’s been there all night.”
“All night?” asked Ingray, surprised that she was actually able to speak aloud, with such a steady voice. “How strange.” Danach, beside her, said nothing. And really, what was there for him to say? That’s impossible, the ambassador just tried to strangle me outside Eswae Parkland a few hours ago to stop me from murdering Ingray?
Tic had been with Pahlad all night.
It really had been the ambassador who had assaulted Danach. And who had doubtless followed them back home, and doubtless realized that Tic was here, or his mech was, and what he was up to. What would happen in the morning when the ambassador appeared at Planetary Safety and revealed their fraud?
“The whole thing is strange,” Nuncle Lak was saying. “And you can see why this is not the time for petty squabbles between the two of you.”
“Yes, Nuncle,” said Danach. To all appearances submissive, his voice obedient, but Ingray knew that no matter how repentant he seemed right now, he’d be searching for some way to turn what he’d just learned to his advantage. He didn’t know about Tic’s spider mechs, but he had heard Ingray call out Tic? when the mech had first spoken. It wouldn’t take him long to put the two things together. Maybe he already had.
And Ingray had no choice but to say, herself, “Yes, Nuncle.”
At Planetary Safety, Deputy Chief Veret offered Ingray serbat and a seat in eir office—very much like Taucris’s, only larger, with more, and more comfortable, chairs for visitors. “When Taucris gets here,” the deputy chief said, handing Ingray her cup of serbat, and then sitting emself, “I’ll have her bring in some breakfast for you.” For some reason, e said it just a bit stiffly, as though e was trying to conceal anger or discomfort.
“Have you been here all night?” Ingray asked. She herself had at least been able to doze in the groundcar to and from Eswae.
“Yes,” said the deputy chief. E did not pour any serbat for emself. “But I wouldn’t have gotten much sleep last night anyway.”
For a moment Ingray was puzzled. But of course, judging by eir accent Deputy Chief Veret was from Lim. And now she noticed, on the deputy chief’s desk, the small square plain black lacquer tray that held, in a tumbled pile, a string of dark blue, gold-veined beads. Everyone knew the Hatli had some odd religious practices, and regular days throughout the year when they were obliged to fast, or sit up all night praying, or some other odd thing. And there were perfectly good foods the Hatli wouldn’t eat.
She’d known the deputy chief was from Lim, and known that had probably meant e was Hatli, even before Danach had said it the morning before. But she hadn’t thought that someone well-educated enough to take a job like this, let alone to speak Yiir as well as e had the other day, would still believe eir ancestors required such observances.
“Don’t get the wrong idea about last night,” said Deputy Chief Veret into her exhausted silence. “I have never been a supporter of your mother’s. Not that it does me any good to say so in this district. Anyone else who could realistically challenge Netano Aughskold would almost certainly hold positions just as repugnant to me, and anyway I am so much among the minority here I might as well not vote, for all the good it does.”
Ingray didn’t know what to say to that, so she said nothing.
“I’m used to it by now,” e continued. “Mostly. Every now and then something comes up that I can’t ignore. Every now and then someone says it out loud—You speak so well, Deputy Chief! But surely you’re too educated to be like all those other Hatli, Deputy Chief!—instead of just thinking it. Yes, I know you thought it just now.”