Bradley, Marion Zimmer - Novel 19 (15 page)

 
          
Vaniya
could use the duties connected with this new quake to delay even further. But
what could she do? It was unreasonable to ask the Pro-Matriarch to neglect a
city where there had been an earthquake and fires.

 
          
Not
that Cendri cared; this was the opportunity of a lifetime to study the
Matriarchate. But it was hard on Dal___
She
looked at
her husband, who was listening, with a strained patience, to Rhu. Naturally,
Rhu assumed that Dal was his own kind; a Companion, a man whose main function
was the amusement and company of a woman of high prestige. I should find out
about
that.
Are only women of high social position
allowed to keep a
Companion?
And
what do the
rest
of the
women do?

 
          
Dal
had enough good sense not to rebuff Rhu—after all, any
 
insult to the Pro-Matriarch's Companion
might very possibly be an
 
insult to the Pro-Matriarch as well. But
he tended to avoid him when
 
he could do so without being obvious____

 
          
Miranda
came back to Cendri. She said, "I think it is all over; that last
aftershock was so mild it would hardly have knocked over a screen. But you must
be careful on the stairs, the balustrades have fallen. I think we can send
everyone back to bed." She stood looking at the seismograph printout which
Cendri still held, absently, in her hand, after Maret let it fall, saying,
"This was a land-based quake; we can chart them, and even to some extent
predict them. And many of them are far away inland, where no women live. We
must take some care to warn the males before they go inland hunting, but
otherwise there is little danger." Yet she looked troubled. "It is
the great volcanic quakes, deep in the sea-bed, which really cause trouble. We
have no way to predict them, and no warning for the great tidal waves which
devastate our coastland. And sometimes small quakes like this herald the great
quakes and waves—"

 
          
Cendri
said, "In the Unity now, Miranda, there are sophisticated computers which
can chart and predict the drift of all the tectonic continental plates, even of
undersea seismic activity, and compute the strength of the resulting
tsunamis—tidal waves—as well as precisely where they will strike and with what
strength."

 
          
Miranda
nodded. "I had guessed there must be," she said, "even in the
days when my mother came to
Isis
from
Persephone, there were some such machines. But they are available only to the
richest worlds, and after the Labrys disaster, we had no resources to buy such
equipment. All our resources could not make them available for at least another
hundred years." She looked, dejectedly, at the seismograph printout in her
hand. "Land-based quakes do little trouble, because of the way our houses
are designed, and our furniture, and we have very rigid fire-laws. But every year
there are tidal waves which sweep away villages, destroy boats,
destroy
the pearl-harvests___ I do not know if
Isis
can endure another hundred

 
          
years
, until we can somehow acquire such equipment!"
She sighed, adding, "And if we cannot hold out here, I do not know what we
will do-"

 
          
Suddenly,
recalling herself, she turned her attention to her guest. "Cendri, it will
be quite safe now for you and your Companion to return to your rooms. Sleep
again, if you can; we will send breakfast to your room at whatever hour you
desire, and later in the afternoon I will send workwomen to repair or take away
any broken screens, or replace anything which is damaged."

 
          
Cendri
said, "I suppose the Pro-Matriarch will be absent most of the day? Is
there any possibility that we might be able to begin our work in the ruins
soon?"

 
          
"Not
today, I fear," Miranda said, "Even if the damage in the city is
minimal, she must make a visit to a village down the coast which was nearly
destroyed by a quake some time before you landed here. We have had word that
their boats and nets have been repaired, and they are ready to begin their
yearly pearl-harvest. Since the High Matriarch still lies sick, unable to speak
or perform her duties, my mother must go there and give her blessing to the
boats and the pearl-divers. Have you seen our pearl-divers?"

 
          
Cendri
shook her head. "I have heard of the pearls of
Isis
, of course; they are said to be the finest
in the Galaxy."

 
          
"They
are our major item of trade," Miranda confirmed, "There are some who
say that the export of pearls should be stopped—that the pearls are the tears
of the Goddess, and that it is not right for them to be sent offworld where She
is not held in the highest reverence."

 
          
"The
whole Galaxy would be the poorer, if the pearls of
Isis
could not be sent anywhere else,"
Cendri said.

 
          
"
Isis
would be the poorer, too," said
Miranda frankly. "Our world needs many things which we cannot make for
ourselves. Our pearls are our greatest asset—indeed, almost our only hope of
someday having the equipment I spoke of, which may some day allow us to predict
and control the tsunamis which wipe out our coastal villages and kill so many
of our sea-farmers. I fear I have not as much faith as those who feel we should
trust entirely to the mercy of the Goddess, or even the love and concern of the
Builders. But enough of that," she added quickly, "Go and rest, my
friend." She put her arm briefly around Cendri's shoulders and hugged her.
"If you are not too weary, later in the day, would you like to go with me,
and see the blessing of the pearl-divers?"

 
          
"I
would indeed," Cendri said, "I have not yet visited your
seashore."

 
          
Miranda
blinked, a little, with an uneasy laugh,
then
recalled
herself. She said, "Well, a visit to a pearl-diver's village is perhaps
nearly as welcome an expedition. We will leave just after mid-day, unless
another quake should happen, which is not at all likely." She turned to
look toward Dal and Rhu, saying, "Call your Companion, he may not know it
is safe to go back in the house."

 
          
Cendri
hesitated—she hated to summon Dal peremptorily, as Vaniya did with Rhu, but it
was true he should be told. She beckoned to Dal, and relayed the news.

 
          
"We
can go inside? Good; this is an unholy hour to get up," Dal said, and put
his arm around her waist as they began to climb the stairs; under Miranda's
startled look Cendri quickly slipped away from his touch, trying not to feel
guilty at Dai's irritable look.

 
         
She
looked back, briefly, as they went through the warped hinges of the door. No
one remained on the lawn now but Miranda and Rhu; Miranda's face, lighted by
the sunrise, seemed transformed, quite without her usual aloof shyness; she
was talking to Rhu, absorbedly. After a moment Rhu put his hand under her arm
and began to assist Miranda toward the steps. Suddenly aware that she was
staring, Cendri started and hurried inside.

           
She told herself not to imagine things.
Rhu was Vaniya's Companion; Miranda was the Pro-Matriarch's most cherished
daughter and pregnant with her heir. Rhu was deeply devoted to Vaniya, it was
no wonder he should exercise the most careful devotion and protectiveness
toward Miranda. And yet—something Cendri called instinct made her lift her
eyebrows, ask herself:
Rhu and Miranda?

 
          
Nonsense,
she told herself. She didn't know enough about the relationship to jump to
conclusions like that! She followed Dal up the steps.

 
          
In
their room, Dal looked with dismay at the books and recordings showered all
over the floor. "I should have taken those holders on the shelves more
seriously! It never occurred to me there would be another quake so soon!"
Disgustedly, he bent to assess the disorder. "I don't suppose that while
you were talking to Vaniya, or that precious daughter of hers, you thought to
ask if we could get started in the ruins any time in the foreseeable
future?
"

 
          
"As
a matter of fact, Dal, I did," she protested, "but Miranda said that
this afternoon she was supposed to go and visit a pearl-diver's village, to
bless their boats or something—"

 
          
"All
right, all right," Dal said in disgust. "I get the
picture,
you let her put us off again!"

 
          
"I
let her?" That left Cendri speechless. "What was I supposed to do,
kick and scream and put up a fight about it? Vaniya has duties of her own—I
can't insist she neglect them, Dal. Anyway, it will be interesting to see the
pearl-divers' villages—"

 
          
"For
you, maybe," Dal said, tight-lipped. "I'm not interested in quaint
native customs." He turned away, lifting one of the fallen screens.

 
          
"Leave
it, Dal, Miranda said she would send workwomen to repair the screens and the
other damage—"

 
          
"I
have to have something to do, don't I?" he asked savagely.
"You
have
enough to keep you busy—and do you really think I'd trust those damned women
with our reference books and tapes?" He turned his back on Cendri and
began gathering up the scattered materials. Cendri sighed, and said nothing. It
occurred to her that she was getting a lot of practice in holding her tongue
lately. She went and lay down, with no expectation of getting back to sleep;
but after a time she fell into an uneasy doze.

 
          
She
was wakened by a soft, furtive rapping; she looked around, but Dal had vanished
into the other room of the suite. She got up and went slowly toward the door,
but before she reached it, it was thrust violently open, and a man sidled
quickly through the door, shoved it shut behind him.

           
A man; the first she had seen, other
than Rhu, inside the Pro-
 
Matriarch's residence. He was small and
bent and hunched, his hair
 
grey, his eyes wide with fear, looking
all around himself with quick,
 
furtive, darting glances. His lips were
a thin, terrified line; he had
 
been branded, and the brand was like a
flaming scar across the
 
wrinkled forehead. Cendri had grown so
used, in these days, to
 
seeing only women, that she was
frightened. His eyes looked so
 
wild! Maybe here the men really
were
dangerous
animals, cultural
 
traits were more important than inborn
ones_____

 
          
"What
do you want here?" she said sharply, and at the way he twitched at her
voice, she realized he was more afraid of her than she could possibly be of
him! His voice was only a shaking whisper.

 
          
"I
must see the—the Scholar from the Outside Worlds—from the maleworlds—"

 
          
"I
am the Scholar," Cendri said, baffled, "What do you want with
me?"

 
          
"Repect,
Scholar," he whispered, in his frightened voice, his eyes darting here and
there in terror, alert for any movement, with little scared movements of his
head. "We had heard—it was rumored—there is a male here from the—the
outside worlds—if it is not forbidden—"

 
          
"I
think he wants to talk to me, Cendri," Dal said in his deep voice, coming
up behind her. He shoved her aside—Cendri registered the man's shock at
that—and faced the man. "What is your name?"

 
          
"Bak,
respected Him," the stranger said, in a somewhat stronger whisper.
"Truly, you dare speak so, you are here from—"

 
          
"There
is no time for that," Dal said quickly, and from where she stood,
watching, Cendri contrasted Dai's quiet poise with the terrified Bak. "I
am the Master Scholar Dallard Malocq. Have you a sign for me?"

 
          
Recalling
himself
, the man made the curious sign Cendri had seen
at the space-shuttle port; bunching the fingers together, touching the thumb,
slowly drawing them apart. He said, in his shrill whisper, "We were not
born in chains—"