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blood to enrich our lore and our stock of green-friends? What do we dowse for
when we raid for breeders and for daughters, if not for wild blood to bless
the Purpose? If we seek it for our green and for our own, how can we not
rejoice that the Lady and chance have brought us such a blessing? I say to
you, Zel, give me three bred zel like that who stands so calm and watching and
ready, look at it, all of you, look at it! Give me three zel like that and the
Purpose will be gained within my lifetime. The cursed losigai would be wiped
from Centilla s face, the world would be purified, the greatness of the Zel
spirit would be loosed across the face of the great Mother. I say breed it. Do
what you must to make it safe but get daughters on its body. If you, Zel, give
the word, I would claim my one from it, one to replace my love, my ranjih
Treainah, so lately slain. Give me my one. Make it ours this way for the
Purpose. For the seeing of the Purpose made true in the lifetime of us all,
not in some distant future when we are all and finally one with the Green. Let
the Purpose be fulfilled. Ah Hai!
The Purpose, Ah Hai, the zel repeated dutifully. Their eyes kept darting
toward Aleytys; in their response she thought she heard more doubt and more
enthusiasm than before.
Aleytys pressed her lips together, little enchanted by either fate proposed
for her. She tilted her head, examined the basket weaving above her. There
were several layers of the woven vines forming a tight resilient ceiling.
Close to the trunk of her prison tree, though, she saw a section of rot,
withered vines and jagged holes. A bit of good fortune to lighten the bleak
outlook perhaps less good fortune than the effect of the fire that produced
the smoke used to stupefy her and the smoke itself. The heat and smoke that
escaped the fans had eaten away at the vines and killed enough of them to give
her access to the tree top if she decided to go that way. They must keep the
breeding males in that tree and drug them too, too much damage for just one
day. You see that? she murmured, winced as the young Juli pinched her and
hissed a warning in her ear.
Yes. Harskari answered, golden eyes narrowed with thought. The only way if
things get tight.
I m going to get ready to stun the vine. Cover me?
If I can. That child is astonishingly perceptive. I ve never before met a
sensitive who could detect my presence. Harskari was silent a moment,
brooding. Take her out first and fast.
Will.
Aleytys lowered her chin and frowned at the Center, the jidar Zhutra, the
Mediator. She had been summarizing the arguments on both sides. What Aleytys
heard as she fitted herself onto the beat of the chant was the end of a clear
and concise statement of the alternatives. Ready to burst her mind bonds the
moment it seemed necessary, Aleytys twisted her left hand round to touch the
bindervine.
I can see no middle ground, the Jidar said. Kill or breed, that is the
choice.
They could just let me go, Aleytys muttered. I m no danger to them no
matter now powerful I am.
They don t see it that way, Harskari murmured dryly.
This is not a thing to be decided at a single sitting, the jidar said. The
Lady rides full soon, there are things we shall have to do before then
whatever you choose to do, Zel. Sisters and Daughters, circle and speak and by
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morning light, choose. Kill or breed. Each line will speak its choice. If the
balance remains, my word will decide. Look at it. She waved the drum at
Aleytys. Remember the words of the Miuvit the tranjit, the veril, the mielil,
the ranjit. Weigh and decide, Zel of the Centai. The Purpose. Ah Hai!
The Purpose. Ah Hai! The voices came back in a subdued roar.
As the crowd beneath the ceiling began to break noisily apart, the tranjit
guards took Aleytys s arms and led her back through the doorway. As soon as
she was seated again, the older woman stripped the vine from her arm and
wrapped it around Aleytys s ankles.
The doormats slapped aside and two new tranjiti came through into the prison
tree. They held palm against palm with Milice and Mi, touched foreheads for a
long moment until the newcomers had taken up the chant without break or
roughness. Juli followed her companion out but couldn t resist a last glare at
Aleytys.
As the mats slapped shut after her, the new pair of spirit moulders separated
and began strewing round blobs of fungus about the perimeter of what Aleytys
thought of as her jail cell. The fungus gave off a cold white light that
didn t carry far but was quite bright close to its source. The tranjiti
settled themselves one on the right side of the door, the other on the left.
They looked like twins, identical in voice and gesture, identical in the
careful neutrality of their gazes.
The night passed slowly. At first the tranjiti were as silent as Aleytys but
as the dark thickened outside and in (despite the glowing of the fungus), they
began to talk. Aleytys dozed and listened now and then.
The tranjit at the left of the door: Like fire that hair.
The tranjit at the right of the door: Fire. Fire-demon.
Left: Maybe. Fassa said it s heavy as a yearling inuk.
Right: Doesn t look it.
Left: No. Skinny I d say. (She smoothed the coarse white cloth over plump full
breasts with a complacent smile.)
Right: Skinny.
Left got to her feet and crossed to Aleytys, squatted beside her, took hold of
the vine about Aleytys s ankles and with a grunt of effort heaved at it,
lifting feet and legs half a meter from the floor, dropped them, prodded at
Aleytys s thighs and calves with an exploratory forefinger, then went back to
sit beside the door all without losing a beat of the chant.
Left: Tight and heavy.
Right: Different flesh. Sterile most like with a Centelli breeder.
Left: Looks like us, except that hair. It s young enough.
Right: Hot to handle, though.
Left: Quiet enough now.
Right: Biding.
Left. Think so?
Right: Look at it. Listening. Waiting.
Left: Come the sun, no more waiting.
Right: Think so? Don t know. Got a point, the ranjit. Zel off that one and we
could go against the Shippua-shen and their Zumar, get our own back for the
zel they killed just now.
They continued to debate the question of kill or breed. In the beginning they
were on opposite sides, mildly so, but as the hours passed they slowly reached
agreement Aleytys was too different, too dangerous. Nodding gravely in
tranquil accord they began talking about something they called ild-libran
which Aleytys translated as fire-fete. At first she paid little attention,
drifting in and out of a light doze, then she began to understand what they
were saying and no longer felt any desire to sleep. On special occasions, when
they collected a special breeder or an unusually effective and vigorous enemy,
they absorbed its vigor and power by roasting the individual whole and passing
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