Eti glanced sullenly out the window, trying to ignore the sound of Rathsi's singing. It was a sweet, lighthearted song, and Eti hated it. The Queen Mother, however, seemed to be enjoying the song, so they were all obliged to pretend to like it.
The melody droned on, but suddenly something occurred to put it out of Eti's mind: down below, in the little courtyard near the new hangar, Lord Atner and his lady-in-waiting were just reentering the palace. Intent in their conversation, they never glanced up to see that they were watched, and Eti frowned with disgust to see that Lenka had nearly as much to say in this dialogue as had Thayer: had the girl no sense of propriety, to speak so freely with the Dictator?
They disappeared into the Palace. Eti excused herself quickly to Llessur, ducked into her own bedroom adjoining the Queen Mother's suite, and hurried to her window. There, she set about raising and lowering the blind several times in the predetermined signal. This done, she slipped out into the hallway and made her way across the Palace to seek out her prey.
"Lenka," Thayer said, "have you met Egro Firyni?"
"No, Sire," said Lenka, then added to Fir himself, "though I have heard of you, sir."
"Good or bad?" Fir asked with a smile and a wink.
"Oh, very good, sir. I've an older brother who remembers seeing you at the Olympics. And your part in the downfall of Lord Eugor is well known. Indeed, I am honored to meet you."
"All good and no bad?" Fir frowned playfully. "Perhaps I'm not trying hard enough."
Thayer chuckled. "You've kept company with Mike too long, my friend."
Eti caught up with them at last, just as they were leaving the Dictator's office again. There was a third person with them now, a tall, olive-skinned man, whom she did not recognize. And trundling along behind them was a curious creature--one of those squat little droids of Terra Group's, painted all in red and black.
Then they paused as Thayer spoke to Lenka. Eti could not make out the words from her hiding place, but the effect of them was most promising: Lenka nodded and slipped back into the office, while Thayer and his friend went on their way again, the droid still following behind.
It was just the opportunity Eti had been waiting for, to catch Thayer alone without his ever-present lady-in-waiting to witness. There was still the tall man to deal with, but nevertheless, it was promising. They were heading in the direction of the gardens now. Eti followed silently.
"What is it that you wish to ask of me, Fir?"
Fir paused before he answered, glancing around at the trees lining the garden path. "Unfortunate news has reached me, Lord Thayer. One of my mother's brothers was injured yesterday in a bombing on Jaffa Street, and today he died."
"Your uncle?" Thayer looked up in surprise. "Fir, I'm sorry to hear that. You have my condolences."
"Thank you, sir. I'd actually only met the man once, though. My mother was somewhat estranged from her family when she left to marry my father. Not until her death would any of my uncles even speak to me."
"Such things oughtn't to be," Thayer sighed, stopping and sitting down on a bench at one side of the path. Fir seated himself on the bench opposite it, and they faced each other over Kitten's dome for a moment in silence.
"No, sir," said Fir at last. "But as it is, I'm afraid that what happens in Jerusalem never touches me quite so deeply as what happens here on this island. Yet, all the same, I'm sorry I did not know my uncle better. And now the opportunity is lost."
"All because of a bombing on Jaffa Street," Thayer nodded.
"And apparently it was a Palestinian woman who set off the bomb," said Fir grimly. "My uncle died at the hands of one of his own--such are the ironies of life."
"Such as certainly oughtn't to be," Thayer repeated. "It’s a very cruel irony, if you ask me. Why should it have been your uncle on Jaffa Street when that bomb went off?"
"Fate," Fir shrugged, "or the workings of evil men; or the hand of God. What difference does it make? It happened and it cannot be changed."
"Why any of those on Jaffa Street?" Thayer continued, frowning down at Kitten as if to read the answers to life's mysteries in the droid's red trim, while Kitten chirped anxiously and shifted from side to side under the scrutiny. "I never considered that what's happening in the Middle East would touch us here in Mendellia so closely--but it only took one more bombing, and now you've lost an uncle."
"Everything in the world," Fir said quietly, "affects us here sooner or later. Of that you may be sure. It is only a matter of time."
"Perhaps you're right," Thayer allowed. "But, in any case--to matters of the present time--you wish to attend the funeral?"
"Yes, sir. If nothing else, perhaps my other uncles will be reconciled to me at such a time."
"I hope so. You have leave to go, of course." Thayer paused a moment, then looked up, his face creased in thought. "How did your mother come to marry a Mendellian man, anyway, Fir?"
"They met in Jerusalem. He carried her away to what she hoped would be a better life than that which her brothers expected of her. She never looked back."
"Was it what she hoped?"
"She was happy here," Fir said. "But being cut off from her family was difficult, I know. There were dark moments when she remembered them, when she received her letters back again unopened, when they refused to acknowledge her--or me. I don't think she ever regretted her choice, but it was very hard some days."
"And the hostility of your uncles was hard for you, no doubt."
"Yes, sometimes. Though, since I never knew them, I cared little what they thought of me or my parents."
Thayer nodded. "And still, such things oughtn't to be. If there had been any way in the world that your mother could have married according to her will yet kept the love of her brothers as well--was there never any hope of such a thing, or did she just narrowly miss the very path that would have allowed it?"
Fir glanced curiously at the Dictator. "How can one know such a thing?"
"It's strange," Thayer continued, "how often men of Mendellia marry women of other countries. It happens all the time in the history books, have you noticed? Our first Queen came from the tribes on the continent. Quite a few other Queens have been foreigners, and ladies of the nobility, too. Kirret's mother was Irish. Reth's lives in California. Your mother came from Palestine."
"And my wife was from Guiana," Fir smiled.
"Yes, right, I'd nearly forgotten that. Your wife too. And my father met my mother in France. Good grace, Fir--one might conclude that wives are one of the major imports of Mendellia. Yet I can't think of a Mendellian woman who's married a foreigner. Is it that there's a shortage of females in Mendellia? Does no one ever marry his compatriot here?"
Fir chuckled at Thayer's odd observations. "I hadn't noticed such a trend, sir. But I'd guess it's not trends and history you're thinking of--it's your own Queen, isn't it, Thayer?"
Thayer's intense frown was answer enough. "Reth's parents divorced years ago. Kirret hated her mother--their relationship made Eugor and I look like an exceptionally loving family. Your mother lost her brothers in exchange for her husband. Fir--what are the chances?"
"Thayer," said Fir quietly, "you've no need for such doubts. You're forgetting--was there ever so happy a couple as your own parents? And Reenaccub and the first Queen, that certainly worked out well. And--if I may say--my own Isabelle. . . ."
"I remember her vaguely," Thayer said, smiling slightly now. "I was rather young still when she died. But I remember how much you loved her. . . ."
"She was the best of women," Fir grinned. "None other could ever compare."
"Which is why you've never remarried, I suppose."
"After Isabelle, I could only be disappointed."
"No improving on perfection," Thayer smiled. "Well, take what time you need for the funeral, and convey Mendellia's condolences to your family. And Fir--you'd best not go alone, the way things are there now. Take one of the others, Fenya perhaps."
"Yes, Sire." Then Fir left, and Thayer remained for a while staring down at Kitten. The little droid occupied the time by periodically spinning his flattened dome around in some sort of pattern. After a while, a fit of electronic chirping drew Thayer out of his thoughts.
"What is it?" he asked. Kitten chirped again and then rolled a bit farther down the path. Thayer stood and followed cautiously.