Fledgling_ a novel Part 30

"It's not a game, Shori. The Council will know why Katharine must go. But it will be best for you if you do this according to custom." He frowned, looked at me, then looked away. "You, more than anyone, must show that you can follow our ways. You must not give the people who have decided to be your enemies any advantage. You must seem more Ina that they."

"I don't know how to do that."

"You know enough. When you don't know, ask."

"Who shall I ask? Who will be my advocate now?"

He thought for a moment. "Joan Braithwaite?"

I had to think about that, too. "If Margaret were the Council member, I'd say yes, but Joan ... Just how friendly is she with the Silks?"

"Because of the way she spoke to you last night?"

"That and ... when she finished with me, she went over to talk with the Silks."

"You should have listened to what she said to them, to Milo in particular."

I waited.

"She told him to give his place to one of his sons or she would, before the Council, question his mental stability."

"As he questioned mine."

"Yes. Stupid of him. But as I've told you, you were not what the Silks expected you to be. You should have been, by all reckoning, only a husk of a person, mad with grief and rage or simply mad." He paused. "I wonder if that's part of why your memory is gone, not just because you suffered blows to the head, but because of the emotional blow of the death of all your symbionts, your sisters, and your mothers-everyone. You must have seen it happen. Maybe that's what destroyed the person you were."

I thought about that. I tried to let his words touch off some feeling, some grief or pain, some memory. But those people were strangers. Right now, there was only Theodora and the pain of just thinking her name. "I don't know," I said. "Maybe I'll never know."

"Go talk to Joan, Shori. See her before tonight's session begins."

I looked into his kindly face, and it scared me how much I liked him and depended on him, even though I didn't really know him very well. But then, I didn't know anyone very well. "What would Joan have done differently if she had been my advocate from the beginning?" I asked.

He gave me a faint, unhappy smile. "From what I know of her, I think she would have spoken to you just as harshly as she did speak, perhaps even more so. But she wouldn't have spoken to the Silks at all, and perhaps Milo would have gone on representing his family and eventually offending almost everyone. Go talk to her, Shori. Do it now."

I went, stopping at the guest house to check on Wright, Joel, Brook, and Celia. I needed to see them to be certain they were all right, I needed to touch each of them. They were sharing a meal of roast beef, a mixture of brown-and-wild rice, gravy, and green beans with the six Rappaport symbionts.

"I need all of you to come to the Council tonight," I said. I didn't think I could stand it if they stayed away, if I couldn't see them and know that they were all right for so many hours.

"We figured," Celia said.

"Don't worry," Wright said. "We were going to go to the Council hall as soon as we finished dinner." The storage building had become "the Council hall" overnight.

"Stay together," I said. "Take care of one another."

They nodded, and I left them. I went to the offices that the Braithwaites were using as living s.p.a.ce. I would have given a lot just to sit with my symbionts, watch them eat, hear their voices, walk them over to the Council hall where I would make sure they got seats in the front so that I could always see them. Instead, I went to find Joan Braithwaite.

I tripped and almost fell on the steps that lead up into the offices. I hurt my foot enough to stand still for a moment and wait for it to stop throbbing. It occurred to me as I stood there that I could not recall stumbling like that since the day I left the cave and had healed enough to hunt. This was what Preston had meant. Theodora had been murdered so that I would begin to stumble in all sorts of ways.

I stood still for a minute more, breathing, regaining my balance as best I could. Then I went in and found Joan.

She was in the office that was her bedroom, sitting at the desk, writing in a wire-bound notebook. She closed the notebook as I came in. The folding bed that had been moved in for her was heaped with blankets that she had thrown aside. Her clothing, books, and other things were scattered around the room. She kept a messy room the way Theodora had. Somehow, that made me like her a little.

"I suppose you've come to ask me to be your advocate," she said in her quick, no-nonsense way.

"I have," I said, relieved that she already knew. Zane Carter, who had told me about seeing Jack Roan drive away, had probably told both Joan and Margaret everything.

"You haven't hurt anyone?" Joan demanded.

I shook my head. "I promised Martin Harrison that I wouldn't. I said I'd wait until I talked with Preston or Hayden. When I talked with Preston, he sent me to you."

She turned her chair so that she faced me, hands resting on the arms of the chair. "So you're pretty much in control of yourself, then? You're over the shock?"

I just stared at her.

After a while, she nodded. "When your rage is choking you, it is best to say nothing. How are your remaining symbionts?"

"Fine." Yes. Fine. Putting up with me and my need to hover over them.

"There are people on the Council who are going to ask you much more painful questions than I have so far, Shori. Someone will surely ask you whether you killed your Theodora yourself."

My mouth fell open. "What? I ... what?"

"And someone will want to know whether she had accepted you fully, whether she was bound to you."

I couldn't say anything for several seconds. On some level, I understood what Joan was doing. I didn't love her for it, but I understood. Still, it took me a while to be able to respond coherently.

"She had accepted me," I said at last. I cleared my throat. "Theodora loved me. I bound her to me here at Punta Nublada. She was mine when she died. Before she arrived several days ago, we hadn't been together often enough to be fully bound, but she wanted to be. She wanted to be with me, and I wanted her. I loved her."

"Do you understand why I ask that?"

"I don't."

She looked downward, licked her lips. "Symbionts-fully bound symbionts-give up a great deal of freedom to be with us. Sometimes, after a while, they resent us even though they don't truly want to leave, even though they love us. As a result, they behave badly. I don't blame them, but-"

"She didn't resent me. She didn't really know what she was giving up yet. And ... she trusted me."

"Let me finish. Our senses are so much more acute than theirs, we're so much faster and stronger than they are that it's a good thing they have some protection against us. In fact, it's extremely difficult for us kill or injure our bound symbionts. It's hard, very hard, even to want to do such a thing.

"Even Milo hasn't been able to do it. He resents his need of them, sees it as a weakness, and yet he loves them. He would stand between his symbionts and any danger. He might shout at them, but even then, he would be careful. He would not order them to harm themselves or one another. And he would never harm one of them. I think it's an instinct for self-preservation on our part. We need our symbionts more than most of them know. We need not only their blood, but physical contact with them and emotional rea.s.surance from them. Companions.h.i.+p. I've never known even one of us to survive without symbionts. We should be able to do it-survive through casual hunting. But the truth is that that only works for short periods. Then we sicken. We either weave ourselves a family of symbionts, or we die. Our bodies need theirs. But human beings who are not bound to us, who are bound to other Ina, or not bound at all ... they have no protection against us except whatever decency, whatever morality we choose to live up to. You see?"

I did. And she had just told me more about the basics of being Ina than anyone else ever had. I wondered what other necessary things I didn't know. I took a deep breath. "I see," I said. "Theodora was bound to me. And I never hurt her. I never would have hurt her."

She watched me as I spoke, no doubt judging me, deciding whether I was telling the truth, whether I was worth her time. "All right," she said. "All right, I'll be your advocate when the time comes." She glanced at her watch. "Let's go to the hall."

Twenty-six.

When Katharine Dahlman heard what I had to say, she denied everything. Neither she nor her symbiont Jack Roan had anything at all to do with the death of "the person Shori Matthews is attempting to claim as her symbiont."

"They had chosen one another," Vladimir Leontyev said. "We all saw that they had."

"Where is Jack Roan?" Joan Braithwaite asked.

"I don't know," Katharine said. "My other symbionts have told me he had to go-some family emergency. He has family in Los Angeles, in Phoenix, Arizona, and in Austin, Texas." She said all this with an odd, sly, smiling expression that I had not seen before. And, of course, she was lying. Everything she'd said was a lie. I got the impression she didn't care that we knew.

Vladimir looked disgusted. "You're telling us Roan is yours, but you have no idea which of those three large cities in three different states he's gone to visit?"

Katharine gave a small shrug. "It was an emergency," she said. "He couldn't wait until I awoke. I trust my people."

"You should," I said. "Your people are clearly very competent, especially when it comes to murdering an unsuspecting symbiont who's never done them any harm." I looked along the arc at the other Council members. "I request that she be removed from this Council."

"You request!" Katharine seemed to choke on the words. "I request that you be removed from this room! You're a child, clearly too young to know how to behave. And I challenge your right to represent the interests of families who are unfortunately dead. You are their descendent, but because of their error, because of their great error, you are not Ina! No one can be certain of the truth of anything you say because you are neither Ina nor human. Your scent, your reactions, your facial expressions, your body language-none of it is right. You say your symbiont has just died. If that were so, you would be prostrate. You would not be able to sit here telling lies and arguing. True Ina know the pain of losing a symbiont. We are Ina. You are nothing!"

There was a swell of voices from the audience-much denial, but some agreement. All the visiting and local Ina were present in the audience or on the Council. The rest of the seats were filled by symbionts who also had opinions about me. Not surprisingly, the symbionts who spoke were on my side. It was the Ina who were divided.

Preston stood up. "Listen to me!" he roared in a voice Milo Silk would have been proud of, and the room went utterly silent. After a few seconds, he repeated more quietly, "Listen to me. Shori Matthews is as Ina as the rest of us. In addition, she carries the potentially life-saving human DNA that has darkened her skin and given her something we've sought for generations: the ability to walk in sunlight, to stay awake and alert during the day." He paused, then raised his voice again. "Her mothers, her sisters, her father, and her brothers were Ina, and they have been murdered along with all but two of their symbionts. All of Shori's own first symbionts have been murdered. This Council has met to determine who's responsible for those murders, and now it must also consider the murder of Theodora Harden, one of Shori's new symbionts. We are here to discover the guilt or innocence of those accused of these murders and, if they are found guilty, to decide what is to be done with the murderers. Based on what we've heard so far, I don't believe Katharine Dahlman should be a member of this Council."

Katharine Dahlman sat very straight and stared angrily at Preston. "You want your sons to mate with this person. You want them to get black, human children from her. Here in the United States, even most humans will look down on them. When I came to this country, such people were kept as property, as slaves. You are biased in Shori's favor and not a voting member of this Council. I won't give up my place because you say so."

Preston stared at her, expressionless, still. "Council members, count yourselves for or against Katharine remaining one of you." He paused until all of them had turned to look at him. "Zoe Fotopoulos?" he said, turning to look at Zoe. She sat farthest from me, next to Russell Silk's table.

Zoe looked from Katharine to Preston, then shook her head. "Katharine should go," she said. "And we need to consider what to do about her directing her symbiont to kill Shori's symbiont. Like the Silks, she must be judged."

"She must be judged," Preston echoed. "Joan Braithwaite?"

"Katharine should go," Joan said stiffly. "Her fears have made her stupid. We cannot afford to have stupid Council members. The decisions we make here are important. They should be made with a clear head." She did not look at Katharine as she spoke, but Katharine stared at her with obvious hatred.

"Alexander Svoboda?" Preston continued.

"Katharine should go," he said, "but we'd better decide now who will go with her to keep our numbers right."

"Peter Marcu?"

"She should go," he said. "But she's the Silk advocate. Maybe Vlad should be the other member to go."

"Vladimir Leontyev?"

My elderfather looked angrier than the rest of them. It had taken me a moment and a look from him to realize that he was angry on my behalf. Something more had been done to me, and he was furious about it. "Katharine must go!" he said. "If that means I go, too, then so be it. How could she have imagined that this would be overlooked? Our symbionts are not tools to be used to kill other people's symbionts. Those days are long past and nothing should be permitted to revive them."

"Ana Morariu?"

Ana hesitated and stared down at the table. "Katharine should stay," she said. "Let's take care of one question at a time. After all, Katharine may be telling the truth about her symbiont. We shouldn't judge her so quickly." Several people frowned at her or looked away. Others nodded. Vladimir was right. Katharine had made little effort to make her lies believable-as though she expected at least some of the people present to go along with her because using her symbiont to murder the symbiont of someone as insignificant as I was such a small thing. It was a little sin that could be overlooked among friends. Friends like Ana Morariu.

"Alice Rappaport?"

"She should go." Alice looked at Katharine, then looked away and shook her head. "Over the centuries, I've seen too much racial prejudice among humans. It isn't a weed we need growing among us."

"Harold Westfall?"

"She should go. I, too, have seen more than enough racism."

"Kira Nicolau?"

"Katharine should go. She may be right in what she says about Shori, but she did send her symbiont to kill a human whom Shori called her symbiont. No member of a Council of Judgment should have done such a thing, and no Council of Judgment should tolerate such a thing."

"Ion Andrei?"

"I believe Katharine should stay. If she's made a mistake-if she's made a mistake-well, we can look into it another time." she's made a mistake-well, we can look into it another time."

"Walter Nagy?"

"She should go. None of us want to go back to the days of feuds carried on by murdering one another's symbionts."

"Elizabeth Akhmatova?"

"She should go. How can she murder another Ina's symbiont and not think anything of it? What sort of person could do such a thing?"

That was a very good question.

Katharine seemed surprised that the vote went against her. She had truly expected to benefit from what she had done. She had gotten her symbiont out of my reach so that I couldn't track him and kill him before she awoke. In fact, I wouldn't have killed him. His life did not interest me. Hers did. But she didn't know me, and she wasn't willing to take chances with Jack Roan's precious skin. She had imagined that her fellow Council members-all Ina, all around her age-would accept what she had done, even if they didn't like it. She believed I would either lose control and disgrace myself before the Council-possibly by attacking her-or if I didn't, she could use my apparent lack of feeling to point out how un-Ina I was. She won either way. What did the life of my Theodora matter?

Katharine left the table, glaring at me as though I had somehow done her an injury. I hadn't. But I would. I surely would.

After a little more discussion, Vladimir left, too. I was sorry to see him go. Wright called him my granddad. Ina, for some reason, didn't use the words humans used to described kins.h.i.+p-"grandfather," "aunt," "cousin"-but I liked the idea of Vladimir and Konstantin as my elder-fathers. It comforted me that I still had elderfathers, that I was a younger-daughter to someone.

Both Vladimir and Katharine went to sit in the audience. Wayne and Philip Gordon brought them chairs. Once that was done, the Council could return to the question of whether the Silks had killed my families.

The Silks first questioned several of the Gordons, including Preston, who stood up like the others at the free-standing microphone and quietly answered the same offensive questions. He answered them without protest.

No, he was not concerned about allowing his sons to mate with someone who was, among other things, a genetic experiment.

"I've had a chance to get to know her," he said. "She's an intelligent, healthy, likable young female. When she's older, she'll bear strong children, and some of them will walk in sunlight."

Then Russell called Hayden and asked the same question of him.

"I am concerned because she is alone," Hayden said. "I hope that she will adopt a sister before she mates with my youngersons. My brother is right about Shori. She is bright, healthy, and likable. When her sisters were alive, I saw a mating between them and my youngersons as a perfect match-or as near perfect as any joining can be."

I felt better about Hayden after that. He seemed to be telling the truth. I hoped he was. He was old enough to slip a lie past me and perhaps past everyone else in the room. But why should he?

The Silks had brought along a doctor who was one of their symbionts, poor man. Russell asked the Council to allow the doctor to question me about my injuries. It was intended to be offensive, another effort, like Milo's, to treat me as human rather than Ina and, of course, to humiliate me.

"He may be able to give us some insight into Shori's amnesia," Russell said innocently. "Humans are more familiar with memory problems."

Ion Andrei, Russell's new advocate said, "Russell has the right to stand aside and let someone with specialized knowledge speak for him."