Thendara House

by Marion Zimmer Bradley

  “On most civilized planets,” Montray said glumly, “we’ve got control of the weather. That story sounds damn simplistic to me. Don’t you have crop freezes, and floods, and more blizzards than you really need, and wouldn’t it be a blessing if you could have the kind of weather you need for optimum crops and the benefit of your people?”

  Rohana shrugged. “It would be difficult to know who could be trusted to arbitrate the weather,” she said, “though I am sure you heard of the work done by people from one of the Towers during the forest fire last season, in bringing rain where it was needed. And that is one of the reasons I have come to you. I am sure you already know, for Peter has told you, that you have in your employ a young woman who is potentially material for a Tower. Jaelle—”

  She whirled around, feeling trapped and betrayed. She said, spitting her words out angrily, “Rohana, we had all this out before ever I came here. I have no laran—”

  Rohana said, very quietly, “Look in my eyes and say that, Jaelle.”

  That is what it is; all these last days, the laran I barricaded so well all these years, why is it suddenly coming on me now? “It is my life, and I have renounced that. How dare you come here, Rohana, among the Terrans, and throw this at me now?”

  “Because I have no choice, Jaelle. I told you why it is so necessary that you take your rightful place among the Comyn and among the Council—and I have come here because I do not want you to say that your husband and the Terrans who have, I believe, some kind of claim on your services, will not allow you to do your duty to your kinsfolk and to the Domains.”

  Jaelle? A seat in Council? and at once, she knew, Peter was thinking how he could use this to his advantage. And not even a secret now; my wife on Comyn Council and it will not demand secret Intelligence work, since Rohana has openly come here and spoken of it.

  She could no longer read Montray’s thoughts; perhaps, for her, it took a moment of close sympathy, which they had shared for a moment but not now. Montray said, “I don’t know a lot about the Council, Lady Rohana, but I know it’s been reasonably unsympathetic to our presence here in Thendara—”

  “Your presence here in Thendara, Mr. Montray, is a fact, and there is no use quarreling with facts; we must simply determine how to make these facts less traumatic for everyone. I freely admit that there are those on Council who would rather that Jaelle was neither a Free Amazon nor the consort of a Terran, but those too are facts, and must be accepted and taken into account. Perhaps I came here merely to assure myself that you are not preventing Jaelle from doing her duty in this matter—

  “We wouldn’t think of it,” Montray said quietly. “It’s none of my business, of course, what she does with her life, but I can assure you, if what she needs is time off to take her place on the Council—”

  “This is ridiculous!” Jaelle said angrily. “Why are you doing this, Rohana, and what can it possibly have to do with the Terrans?”

  “As I said; the Terrans are a fact; and if one of those who would normally sit on our Council has chosen to use her work for the Terrans as an excuse for not doing her duty—”

  “Once and for all I renounced—”

  Rohana cut her off with a gesture; but then she sighed, looking very tired. She said, “You and Magda have spoken with me about building a bridge between two worlds; doing this by helping to place Darkovan women, Renunciates, in the Terran HQ as Medical technicians and bringing the Terran medicine, which is excellent, into the life of our city. Would this not be even a better way to build a bridge between worlds, by taking a seat in the Council when you know the Terran ways well because you have married across the wall between our people? You are not, after all, the very first—” she smiled faintly, “but of course you are not supposed to know that.”

  “Wait a minute,” Montray said. “Another Terran—we have no record of a Terran marriage—”

  “Andrew Carr,” said Rohana, “your missing person. He married the Lady Callista Lanart, once Callista of Arilinn. I heard this from Damon Ridenow, Regent of Alton. It is not impossible that the Lady Callista might one day sit on the Council. And it is certain that some of this man Carr’s children and grandchildren will one day do so.”

  “Wait a minute,” Peter said. “Granted, I don’t know a great deal about the Council. But one of the things I thought I knew was that women didn’t very often sit on it—”

  “They don’t, except in the Aillard clan, where the line of descent is female; a man who marries into the Aillard clan knows that his daughters, not his sons, will succeed him, and that they will do so by their mother’s name, not his own. But there are times when a woman sits on the Council. Several Keepers have done so; The Lady of Arilinn has a Council seat as of right, although Leonie of Arilinn does not always appear. I myself, as Regent for Gabriel, have taken the Council seat, until my son Kyril was declared of age. There was once a period of ten years when the Lady Bruna Leynier sat in Council for the Altons while the Heir to Alton grew to maturity; his father died a few months before he was born, and she, his father’s sister, was considered a more suitable Regent than the boy’s mother, who was young, and preferred to stay with her child.” She shrugged. “I assure you; it is not only that we wish to make a Council seat available to Jaelle, but that we need her. It will not, when they come to consider it clearly, be a bad thing that a Renunciate should sit in Council for a time, a voice for the women of Darkover. Some of the old graywigs will be shocked, but it is not a bad thing for them to be shocked out of their complacency. Change is often desirable, frequently necessary, and always inevitable, so we can only consider which changes are best for our world, and at what rate they should come. And about that, there will always be many different opinions.”

  Montray had opened his mouth several times while she was talking, and closed it again, not wishing to interrupt her. Jaelle thought, without noticing particularly, that it was almost the first time she had seen Montray choose not to be rude.

  He only said, “You knew all along about this man Carr? And I tried to speak with him at Midsummer, and still was prevented—”

  “I did not prevent you.”

  “No,” said Montray, with a blazing angry stare at Peter, “it was my own people who did that. Excuse me, ladies.” He leaned across and pushed a stud on his desk.

  “Beth. Find out for me if Monty’s left yet. And tell him to get his—to get himself up here now—immediately, do you hear?”

  “I think he’s gone,” Bethany said over the intercom, “but I’ll find out, sir.”

  “And if he’s gone, get His Excellency Li to my office, by the most diplomatic route possible, hear me?”

  “Right away, sir.”

  After a moment, Beth’s voice came over the intercom.

  “Mr. Wade Montray has already left the city; Spaceforce passed him out more than two hours ago.” Jaelle thought, right after I finished with him.

  Peter said, “It was not the wisest thing, letting him out in this weather, but he’s got good people with him and plenty of tents, food, and all that stuff. Weather watch were sleeping on the job, but he’ll come to no harm. It’s not as if he had gone alone, and with luck he’ll be over the pass before it hits full strength. But the folks who were here for Festival from the Kilghard Hills— people from Alton and Syrtis—they are probably going to run into some trouble!”

  “Most of them will have stayed for Council,” said Rohana, and after a moment the intercom beeped again.

  “We haven’t been able to locate Ambassador Li, sir. He left a message that he was going to attempt to communicate with Cholayna Ares in her private quarters on a matter of extreme urgency, since she was not in her office today.”

  Jaelle said uneasily, “I should have been there. You made him my personal responsibility, sir—” and Montray looked at her with unusual kindness.

  “He’s a grown man, Jaelle. You’re only responsible for him if he’s off the HQ area, out in the native—the off-base part of Darkover. Don’t wo
rry about it. I heard that congratulations are in order, by the way. Check with Medic; you’re entitled to all kinds of maternity leave and benefits, you know.”

  So he knew, too, and it was part of their damned Records. Was nothing personal any more, here? She felt trapped, betrayed, outraged, and behind this all was a creeping sense of guilt. She had accepted personal responsibility for Li, and somehow she had betrayed that, too.

  Rohana has done this, in the hopes that when I am on the Council I shall be willing to turn over my child to them for suitable fostering, to bring up my child to Comyn. …so there is no freedom any more, not for me, not even for my daughter…

  I thought, when I went among the Renunciates, I could never be trapped into the life which killed my mother or left her to die. But now it has reached out to seek me even among the Terrans. Trapped, betrayed, she turned angrily on Peter.

  “You babbler, can’t you keep anything to yourself? Must you tell all my secrets like a braggart in the marketplace, so that all men can pat you on the back for your virility, as if any tomcat could not do the same little trick? You think that between you and Rohana, I will do everything I am told, like a good little Terran—or Darkovan—wife? It won’t work, damn it! I am leaving Peter; put that into your damned record. And you, Rohana—” she swung angrily on her kinswoman, “I will see my daughter dead before I see her on your Council.”

  Rohana turned white. She said, “Jaelle, don’t say that! Oh, don’t—” and Peter said, “Jaelle, love, listen to me—Lady Rohana, she’s been feeling sick, she’s upset—” clearly she heard, and she knew Rohana heard. She’s sick and irrational, she’s pregnant and women get a little crazy when they’re pregnant, but I can talk her out of it, just let me handle her!

  Jaelle swung around, with a stableboy’s muttered oath which made Rohana blanch, and stormed out of the office.

  She had promised Peter the chance to talk to her about the divorce in private. But he had violated that first; he had brought out their personal business before Montray, even though he had nothing but contempt for the older man; Montray, of all people! She might have been able to forgive him, if he had told some close friend here on the base about their child—men did brag of incipient fatherhood, she knew that—but to tell Montray, to put it formally into Personnel Records? Damned big-mouthed—she was too angry even to complete the thought. She went into their shared quarters and began slinging clothes into her old saddlebags.

  A few things she must settle before she left. She would speak with Cholayna: well, she could do that in the Guild House. She should formally give over her pledged responsibility for Aleki— Ambassador Li had accepted her word and that was a matter of honor. Then she would go home.

  She went to the Intercom. She had resented it; now it seemed a wonderful convenience and she wondered suddenly how she would manage without it.

  “Communications, please. Bethany, has anyone managed to locate Ambassador Li?”

  “He left a message for you, Jaelle You should come and pick it up, if you can.”

  She looked at the nearly packed saddlebags. She was tempted to ignore it. They had, she considered, violated the terms of her employment so often, now violating even her privacy by making her pregnancy part of official record, that she felt that she should ignore it in turn.

  But she would not stoop to their level. She had accepted personal responsibility for the well-being of this particular dignitary and she could not abandon him now.

  She said, “I’ll be right over,” and left the bulging saddlebags in the middle of her bed. If he saw them when he came in, Peter would get the message loud and clear. His cozening had not worked; whatever he might now say or do, her decision was irrevocable.

  Bethany, in Communications, gave her a troubled smile.

  “Oh, Jaelle! Is that your Amazon—excuse me, Renunciate outfit? Are you going out in the field? Oh. yes, of course, you’re going after with Alessandro Li, aren’t you?”

  “What do you mean, Beth?”

  “I’ve been trying to find you all day, but you haven’t been in any of the places I expected you. Li left a message here for you early this morning—”

  This morning. But she had been with Monty, readying him to leave the city, and then involved in that long and stupid argument with Peter—

  “You knew I was up in the Coordinators office,” she remonstrated, and Bethany shook her head.

  “Li said particularly that this message wasn’t to be given where Montray would hear about it until at least a full 28 hours after he had gone. You know what he thinks of Montray.”

  “This message—”

  “I don’t understand all of it,” Beth said, “but he gave it to me; he said he didn’t want it in the computer. That’s against regulations, of course, but you know what it’s like, the boss is right even when he’s wrong. He said he had received some information about this man—” she checked a scribbled note on her desk. “Andrew Carr, does that mean anything to you? He was starting out into the Kilghard Hills and would be heading toward Armida, and that you should catch him up on the way. Jaelle, what’s the matter? You look sort of funny—”

  Into the Kilghard Hills. Into an unseasonable freak storm, into some of the worst and most confusing terrain on Darkover. And alone? She asked, already knowing the answer and hoping that she was simply imagining things, “Who went with him, Bethany? He took some local guides and so forth, didn’t he?” No; that had been what she had planned for Monty, that his well-equipped expedition should have the well-trained mountaineering skills of Rafaella and her party. But she could have planned something like that for Li if Peter had not detained her. Li knew that she had those skills and was planning to take her with him as guide and bodyguard; out of Thendara—she need not even return to the Guild House and admit her failure! But all day she had been delayed, first with Monty, then by the idiotic argument with Peter. What did she owe him? Duty came first, the clear and simple fact that she had sworn to be personally responsible for Li and his safety. And he had gone off alone, on strange roads with a dreadful storm brewing—at least she would have persuaded him to wait until the storm had passed.

  I’ve got to follow him; I’ve got to get away fast, she thought, thanking Bethany for the message in routine words that would not betray her agitation. He was on Carr’s trail, and Carr had left the Festival Ball shortly before midnight. He might have checked the weather with his starstone and realized that he must get well away to be safe at Armida—or perhaps some intermediate house of safety, Syrtis or Edelweiss—before the storms broke. Li had delayed till dawn—had he somehow heard Lady Rohana’s admission that Carr was married to the Lady Callista? She wondered who the Lady Callista was and why in the world she would have married a Terran. I can tell you, Lady, you’ll be sorry. I tried it and I thought it would work, too. It won’t.

  So off he had gone, to try to trace down this missing man, find out more about the Comyn, learn what had happened… but he should have waited for her, consulted her. And I failed him too! Failed in my duty as I have failed at my marriage!

  There was no sense in her first impulse, to rush madly down to the gates after him, try to stop him. He was probably well outside the City. She needed boots and clothing that would protect her in bad weather. Her horse was at the Guild House, and she could get food there too, and her saddlebags were almost packed.

  On a sudden impulse, she squeezed Bethany’s hand. She said, “You have been a good friend to me, Bethany. I promise you I will not forget it. I must go, now,” and hurried away, not listening to Bethany’s shocked question about what she meant.

  Cholayna had been her friend too. All Terrans were not like Peter or Montray, wholly self-absorbed and involved only with their ambition—

  The little apartment in Married Persons Quarters was still empty; good, she could get away without any further confrontation with Peter. She put a final few things into the top of the saddlebags, extra warm socks for riding, one or two small packages of the Terr
an synthetics which could be eaten quickly and would give fast energy and protein. She looked with a stab of regret at the bed they had shared. She had been so happy, and now—but she was wasting time. She pulled the straps of the saddlebags tight, and saw Peter standing in the doorway, watching her.

  “Jaelle! Sweetheart, where are you going? I thought you said we had to talk—”

  “It was you who said that,” she replied precisely. “And I found out in Montray’s office that you had already done too much talking, without even the courtesy to speak first to me of it. There is really nothing left to say, Peter. I am sorry; I will readily admit that it is my fault that our marriage failed. But now I must go at once. Don’t worry, I am not abandoning my duty, but fulfilling it.” She started to pick up the saddlebags, but he stepped forward and prevented her, grabbing her arms.

  “You must be out of your mind! If you think I’m going to let you go, with a storm coming up, alone, pregnant—no, Jaelle. You’re my wife and it’s my duty to look after you, and damn it, that doesn’t include letting you ride out into the Kilghard Hills. Li can afford to hire all the native guides he could possibly want, but my wife isn’t going to be one of them, and that’s that.”

  “I have pointed out to you already,” she said, feeling her lips thinning in what she knew might look like a smile but was a grimace of anger, “that our marriage is at an end. I am not your wife—I never was your wife in that particular tone of voice, as if I were a toy you owned and could do with what you liked. I do not admit your right to prevent me from doing my duty—or anything else I choose to do. Peter, this is foolishness; I am leaving you now, whatever you do, and please do not make a fool of yourself by giving me orders which you know perfectly well I will not obey.”

  He reached out and tried to wrench the saddlebags away from her. “Will you put that thing down? You shouldn’t even be lifting anything that heavy, in your condition. You’re not going anywhere, Jaelle. There’s no sun, but it must be near sunset, and rain, or even snow will be starting soon.”