THE SHERIFF OF HNUT / CH. 13: RESCUE

Extract from initial contact report

We have found out what caused such a stir from Maggie's speech. Apparently the version in most copies of scripture here says something like 'put any to death without cause'. Rina heard Maggie's thoughts and being ignorant of such things, didn't think to put it into such theologically polished terms, and wrote 'the innocent'. There's a difference, apparently. There are plenty of cases where the innocent are put to death, e.g. as family members are judged to bear a kind of collective responsibility. Maggie's version has just declared pretty much every judge and lawmaker as under God's curse. Anisilakiina's reaction to this was a little unexpected: 'thank you.'

'But we've just said they're all under God's curse.'

'Are they not? Do they not need to repent? Thank you for being brave, for telling those born-red lovers of bloodshed that God is not impressed by those who shed the blood of the innocent because of their stubborn pride.'

'You were not born red?'

'That is an old story you do not know. Nor do you know its significance, or the significance of my name.'

Saleth said 'Maggie says “I do, for this gift cuts across all languages, but I did not know it was truth. And Saleth does not know.” and she is right. I do not know these things.'

'Your birth colour marked you as trouble for reds. So does mine, particularly those who don't like parliament.'

'I'm confused, You thank me for insulting parliament, but you like parliament.'

'I respect the institution. I have less respect for a lot of the members as individuals, and desire them to repent.'

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IN THE DISUSED MINE, IN TUMPF

“How many are there?” Thuna asked, looking by the light of the tiny candle at Trum's wife cuddling a little yellow ball, her daughter, barely four, she guessed, stroking another.

“I heard this one, Jas heard the other, I could give them some milk before I ran out. There are others... I do not know if they still live or not. And there are older boxes. So many boxes. Do you... do you have a full stomach?”

“I've never married.” Thuna said, understanding the question: could she feed them?.

“Oh, the poor poor innocents.”

“But we're leaving soon.” Thuna said, “so it won't be long now.”

“But where will we go? I heard them say to the landlord, you'd arranged it with them that they'd pay the back-rent but you'd found us somewhere else to stay.”

“There's a lake, near where Reqiq was, a fishing village.” Trum said, “Lady here thought we might live there. But I'm leaving trading, going straight.”

“You've said you're going straight before.”

“They weren't sure about me, I guess. That's why they kidnapped you and Jas, Estha, I was supposed to bring up two more.”

“You went to the police instead?”

“Not willingly,” Trum admitted, “I know it was wrong, but I just couldn't think. I wanted to get you and Jas safe. I've been arrested, love. Probably means jail, I don't know. I wrote down everything, names, times, dates.”

“You thank God you didn't deliver any more to this hell, Trum, or I'd have clawed your eyes out.”

“I'd die to keep you and Jas safe, Estha.”

“But you wouldn't go straight.”

“I tried. I didn't go looking for Prag, he found me. I'm not good at refusing people, you know me. I can't be a trader and stay clean. That's why I think fishing or farming.”

“You, farm?”

“I know, I know. But I was stupid then, wasn't I? You can honestly live off farming. Farmers are like, you know, famous for it. You don't hear people saying 'stinking liar of a farmer' do you?”

“Hold these two, Jas, will you?” Estha said “I need to give your dad a hug for saying that.”

“I'm still probably going to jail, Estha.”

“But after that, I'm going to be married to an honest man.” Estha whispered, stroking his crest. Thuna turned away, and asked Jas “My name's Thuna. If I carry them, can you show me where the crates are?”

Jas nodded, but didn't let go of her charges. “I didn't see the rope.”

“What rope, Jas?”

“The rope you came down on. They made us climb down the ladder.”

“Oh. There wasn't a rope, Jas. I'm a wizardess, and I'm here to help.”

“Wizards don't help.”

“They do now, Jas, they do now. Don't look at my staff, it's going to light up.”

“Like a candle?” Jas asked, predictably looking at the staff.

“Brighter than a candle.”

“Brighter?”

“As long as you're not looking. You wouldn't look at the suns would you?”

“Things go spotty.”

“Exactly. Don't make things go spotty.”

“I like spotty, it's funny.”

“Spotty means your eyes have been hurt.”

“Oh!” Jas said. And turned away with her eyes firmly shut.

Thuna triggered the light on her staff and gasped; she was looking down a passage in the mine where there were at least a hundred crates. No, more, she realised. They were stacked four high, two deep, and she couldn't see the end of the rows. And there were more side corridors.

“Evil people.” Jas said.

“Yes. Very evil or very stupid people did this.” Thuna said, then added “And some very scared people “.

“Like daddy?”

“Yes, your daddy was so scared he didn't know what to do. But God did, so your daddy got stopped. Go back to your mummy and daddy, Jas. I'm going to look in these boxes.”

“Mummy said..” Jas swallowed, “Mummy said these boxes are too old.”

“The new boxes are further?”

“Yes.”

“OK. I'm going to look, and see if any of them might still be alive.”

“Thank you,” Jas said, and went back towards her parents.

Thuna wrapped her scarf around her nose and started the grim job of inspecting some of the crates: one skeleton; two skeletons; one; three; two; two, one. She stopped looking and walked to the end of the corridor. Assuming there were all two deep... she reached the end, it was a corner, into a huge cavern. Full with the remains of crumbled, broken crates, with broken balls of skeletons. Tears filled her eyes. The mine, the male who claimed to be the owner had said, had been very active during the time of the princes, but as the top seam of ore had run out, another, deeper level had been found, and then another. The upper level had been abandoned, he said. Abandoned, except for these little crates. Deliberately left, where noone would go, where noone would see, where noone would hear the faint mews and respond with compassion. It had been the law, even, and there had, after all, been a prince here in Qnut. A prince with a harem, and with Zerker guards. According to a history Thuna had read, a female in the harem who displeased the prince was given to his guards. Thuna walked with eyes blurred from tears, back along the corridor, to the next. It was the same, but perhaps the crates were not as old, and there were three adult skeletons there too. She continued to the next corridor. This one was only partly used, and she walked to the end. There was no cavern at the end of this one, for which she offered tearful thanks to God. “But oh heavenly father, how has this gone on so long? Hundreds of years, Lord? Longer? Such evil!” As her voice echoed down the corridor, she heard a tiny plaintiff noise. She ran to the crates, and ripped one open. A decomposing body; another, another, but she was sure she'd heard a sound of life, so she kept going. Finally, as she reached what she'd thought were the oldest crates, she found two yellow fluffballs, and then another. Then there were opened crates, where Estha must have found the others. These fluffballs were smaller; they'd been starving down here for longer. Ever so gently, she stroked the one closest to the opened crate, and then the smallest two. The last two she saw, lost some of their fluff as as she touched them. They had almost certainly died. But she didn't want to guess on her own. She touched some buttons on her staff.

“Athrel.”

“Thuna? Is that you? Your signal's really bad.”

“I'm in a mine, so I'm pretty surprised it's working at all. You're into medical history; has anyone ever written anything about starvation in fluffballs?”

“They go into coma.”

“And then?”

“They breathe less and less, and then they die.”

“How do I tell?”

“Oh Thuna! There are more?”

“I don't think it's ever been disused. There are thousands of tiny skeletons, Athrel, thousands. Two very much alive, rescued earlier, by the wife, who could give them some milk, praise God. But there are three more. Two are starting to lose their fluff, the other one isn't.”

“They need the fluff for oxygen, Thuna. I guess those two are dead.”

“And the other one? I'm no expert, but it barely looks twice the size of an egg, the others are a bit smaller, even.”

“That's about one, one and a half seasons. If it was born late winter... put in during the middle of summer?”

“They can stay alive so long?”

“There are records, where there was a famine and food ran out even before winter, up in the mountains, and most of the fluffballs survived, even though lots of parents didn't. They think the fluffballs starved for forty nine days.”

“I've decided. Probably dead isn't certain enough. I'd rather disturb the dead than abandon the living.”

“The Lord bless your decision, Thuna. For what it's worth, I agree.”

“Quite how to feed one in such a deep coma though...”

“Keldi would love to have something to do, I expect.”

“I'd like to set Keldi another challenge. I'm just not sure I'm allowed to.”

“Changing the law?”

“Yes, but we don't do that, do we? Let's ask her to inform — because we do that — parliament that this hool looks like it's been in regular use for hundreds of years. Oh! The crates are numbered, I've just realised; old-style. It looks consecutive.”

“And?”

“This year's boxes are numbers one thousand eight hundred and four to one thousand eight hundred and seven. The earliest had two in it. I looked in some they had three skeletons. And of course Trum was going to bring another two. Would you like me to set Keldi her task?”

“You're going to tell her to say that the law has been mocked?”

“I'm going to ask her to tell the politicians that it appeared that laws based on the now-banned principle of total blood-feud appear to have deterred sorrowing parents and relatives and neighbours from ever raising a complaint.”

“Yes. It's not just parents and aunts and uncles, is it? The law would punish all.”

“It'd be unthinkable to bring that much devastation, even if family pressure kept the parents from showing off their offspring.”

“I'll tell Keldi, and go and bother the medics myself.”

“Thank you, Athrel.”

Thuna gently scooped up the larger fluffball, and put him or her in the same box as the two who were gravely ill or dead, and carried the three back towards the others.

“I think I heard one of these mew,” Thuna said to them. “I'd rather disturb the

dead than fail to save the living.”

“My stomach is full enough,” Trum said. “I was going to try to feed these two, but...”

“They're so far gone,” Estha said.

“They don't respond to touch,” Thuna said, I think we need a doctor for them. We'll take them back to Hnut.”

“Now?” Estha asked.

“You like it here?”

“But... I heard fighting.”

“So they're fighting. I'm not surprised. We'll fly above or past or through if we really have to, but that wouldn't be nice to anyone's ears. Hold onto my staff.”

“What do you mean, not nice to their ears?” Trum asked.

“Too complicated to explain. But I'm going to get these little ones to a doctor quite quickly, so everyone hang on.”

She set up the forcefields around them, and flew them out of the mine. Although they'd only seen Wam and the mayor, now there were a dozen people tied up. some of them were obviously had broken legs. “Dirak,” Thuna said, “There are thousands of crates, and they're numbered, I expect that means records. We've got five, two are alive, one probably is, and two are probably dead, but we don't know for sure. Next stop, the doctor in Hnut.”

“Thanks, Thuna,” Dirak said, and watched her go. “Well, you don't see that every day.”

“What, wizardesses flying that quickly?”

“No, her going that slowly. If she didn't have passengers she'd be out of sight by now. Right, Mr soon-to-be ex-mayor. Where are the records?”

“What are you going to do? Burn me with a hotter fire?”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“No.” Dirak said, “I'm going to pull apart every piece of property you own, every brick, every tile, every family grave, until I find what I'm looking for, if you don't tell me everything I want to know. You will leave no heritage, your name will be erased from history, except as a curse, the palace of your forebears, the theatre, everything you've ever considered precious will be no more than mine tailings. And burning is not the punishment that awaits you. You should know that, Polithanapoli decreed it.”

“So you expect me to be condemned to my own mine? Oh I'm so scared.”

“Oh, I'm sure you've prepared for that eventuality, so I expect the wizards will be asked to dig you a new one, with mirror-finish walls and just enough of an air-hole that you don't suffocate before you starve.”

“But I do get to see my wife burned,” the mayor said, “and her stinking in-laws, that'll be pleasant.”

“We'll have to see about that, Gnor tells me you're not exactly on speaking terms. Three of you guys throw these pieces of refuse on the cart, can you, if they won't climb up on their own. The rest of you come with me and Gnor. Gnor and I need to see this hool for ourselves, and we need to smash up some furniture to see if there's any paperwork inside it.” Dirak said, picking up an axe that one of the criminals had used.

“That furniture is over three hundred years old, you vandal!”

“Oh good. Should be fairly wormy, then,”

“There's a hidden compartment in the wardrobe in my office. All the records are there.”

“Really? I think we'd better have a look there then, and then look to see what else we can find in the splinters.”

“That furniture is from the first royal palace! You can't!”

“Interesting, isn't it, Gnor? He wants to see his wife die, doesn't care about the buildings he's been trying to restore, but he wants to save his desk.”

“They're priceless you fool, priceless,” the mayor screamed. But he couldn't move, he'd been tied up too well.

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MINE OFFICES, TUMPF

“Lovely bits of furniture, these.” Gnor said.

“I know. Let's hope he was right about all the records being in the cupboard. Check what's in the desk, can you Gnor? There's probably secret compartments there, too. Oh, and don't use your fingers, there might easily be poison-needles and things like that, you know.”

“What, you think I'm an expert at that sort of stuff?” Gnor protested.

“OK, then tell you what, you and the lads check to see there's no one hiding anywhere, and see if you find anything that's made of wood and not this precious, see if you can bring it down. I think smashing some wood in the mayor's hearing might get us some more information, don't you?”

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HNUT

“Doctor,” Thuna said, knocking on her door, “I need expert help.”

“So you pick on me?” the doctor asked.

“I'm sorry. If you know someone who might know... We've found more. Two are very much alive, one is probably alive, two... I don't know. The longer strands of their fluff are coming off.”

“Have you tried feeding them?”

“No, we didn't know how they could, they don't react to touch.”

“Good.”

“Good?” Thuna asked, surprised.

“If you try to wake them to get them to suck, they'll almost certainly die. That's why the tickle-fluff goes. It won't help. And I can't help, lady wizardess. I read an old text, when I was in training, on what to do, but I don't have the equipment. I don't know if anyone has the equipment, it's such a rare problem these days, with better roads and things.”

“What's needed?”

“They need a thin pipe, they used to use the sterilised gut of a fish, there was some special process to make it just hard enough to keep its shape, but soft enough that it wouldn't harm. The poor mite can't swallow, so you need to put the tube into their stomach, and then give them... I can't remember, and it's important how much. just enough at each feeding time.”

“I think we can help with the tube. We use fish-gut sometimes. Do you remember what the book was called?”

“It was old, 'on the care of the young', or something like that.”

“I'll ask Dirak if he has it.”

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MINE OFFICE, TUMPF

“This one looks like building expenses,” Lenepoli said, looking at ledger number six.

“Meticulous folk, weren't they?”

“Meticulous and scatter-brained. Every different category in a different book, and no summary? And where are the records for the hool?”

“Your wish might be granted.” Dirak said from in the cupboard, “This one looks like the annual summaries, but it's a bit cryptic, and there might be another hidden compartment.”

“Cryptic accounting?”

“Have a look, it's done by year and book number, but what's the rest of the code?”

“Oh, I'm stupid!”

“No you're not,” Dirak said.

“I thought the book had a lot of spare pages. He's got different sections in each one.”

Dirak's staff buzzed. “Hello?”

“Dirak,” Thuna's voice echoed in the room, “Does your library have a copy of 'on the care of the young'? or something similar, which might happen to include resuscitation instructions for starving fluffballs.”

“No, sorry.”

“Mine does.” Lenepoli said “It was part of my basic medicine course. It's why I had the yellow pompoms, We had to practice giving drips of milk to them, without getting any on their fluff.”

“The doctor doesn't have a copy. You have the fish-gut to go with it?”

“Yes. The doctor doesn't?”

“No, didn't think anyone studied that any more.”

“Maybe not doctors. This teacher did though.”

“What are you doing there?”

“Trying to decipher old records.”

“Dirak, I'm coming to steal your girlfriend,” Thuna declared, “there's three little fluffballs needing her care.”

“Good idea.” Dirak said, moving aside the panel with a probe. Can you take the records too? I've just found another three boxes, no make that four. But wear gloves, they might be poisoned.”

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THE THRONE-ROOM, PARLIAMENT, SKYDAY MORNING, 4TH OF WINTER

“Honourable parliamentarians, thank you for coming,” Keldi said, as she entered. She sat down on the dais, beside the throne, not on it; that would have been going too far.

“Your summons was most urgent,” someone said.

“Not to mention unheard of in living memory,” another voice said.

“Not quite. My mother summoned parliament, when I was young, over the matter of titles. Please, be seated.”

“Yes. Your mother suggested that titles be no more. So how do your loyal parliamentarians address you, Keldithanapoli daughter of Janithanapoli?”

“You may use my name, of course. I prefer Keldi. Any disloyal parliamentarians can use that too, by the way.”

“Keldi, may we know the reason for the summons?”

“Certainly. In some ways I am here with two roles. I called you together by my name, because that name has an effect in this building, I called you here today, knowing it would probably ruin some plans, and I'm sorry for that, but also being relatively sure that you would not have long-planned business meetings. But as you can probably guess by this staff, I'm also a wizardess. Apolitical twice, you might say. I was asked, yesterday, by the chair of the high council of wizardry to inform you of something. I thought that I'd also inform you of a couple of other things too, while you're here. I'll start with the two minor things. Firstly, the high council of wizardry has been asked to form a second school of wizardry, in the village of Hnut, and we plan to do just that. Our hope is that this will go a long way towards gaining more wizards from villages, and as we expect that a lot of those who take the first year will only take the first year, we hope that this second school will also spread the knowledge of science and scientific knowledge far better than we've been able to so far.

"We will not be surprised if there are other villages that suddenly come down with a case of envy, and get the idea of asking for a school of wizardry too. I expect we'll ask if we can wait and see how this one works for a few years, but we don't want to get involved in the politics of having to choose between multiple places. The sheriff of Hnut suggested that the right place to have it was a district-village, where there was already teaching to ISC level, and that it would be appropriate for such schools to be a significant distance from the city, to the South, East or West.”

“That's a minor issue?”

“It is. So is the issue that the high council of wizardry has re-examined the policy of non-intervention and realised it has become a policy of non-involvement. We will no longer make it a policy that a wizard should walk past a crime in progress. We will not take prisoners or injure using our technology, but we will encourage our fellow wizards to protect the innocent if they are able.This decision was reached just over a week ago.

"Yesterday, that new resolve was put to the test, and so I am here to inform you that officer Dirak, sheriff of Hnut, arrested a trader yesterday morning on a charge of unwilling involvement in a plot to commit infanticide. The trader had two winter-born yellows in a crate on his wagon. His wife and child had been kidnapped and were held hostage in what was found to be a hool that's been in continuous operation since the time of the princes.” She paused a while for the shocked murmurs to die down. “Is the terminology understood? A dark place where a fluffball will be left to die out of sight. In that hool they found similar crates to the one that had been found on the cart, numbered sequentially.

The sequence went above one thousand eight hundred. Every crate that was checked had been left there with one, two or three fluff-balls inside. A few yellow fluffballs were recovered and are now receiving treatment for starvation. Records were found, as I say, linking crate number to a date, and who ordered it, and when it was returned. There was one workshop where they made crates, always the same size. Another one where they made sculptures and so on to be delivered in the crates. Most of them were not numbered, and sometimes crates came back. If unnumbered ones came, they came back laden with spirits or other contraband which the proprietor would sell to the mining community, but the numbered ones would return light, and with a so-called 're-stocking' fee that was more than the sculpture had been.

"All of the workers knew there was something suspect going on, most assumed it was some kind of illegal scam. A few knew more details. Three knew everything, one pleaded that the ring-leader, the mayor of Qnut, pressured him into being involved. But of course there are the families who sent them there, who ought to be living in terror that their crime might be found out. But probably don't know, because you don't talk about crimes that would send your entire family to the burn-pit, do you?”

“One thousand eight hundred?”

“One thousand eight hundred and seven names where parents had their offspring snatched away, in obedience to a law that was rescinded by Polithanapoli's mother, and obedience to it made a crime by Polithanapoli, even though a marriage that would produce a winterborn remained illegal. In a few cases, it was only attempted infanticide, not actual infanticide.

"But as the law at least impacts the families of both bereft parents, then crudely that'd be three thousand six hundred families who according to the law, should expect total devastation.

"The wizards and wizardesses who helped in uncovering this plot, who rescued the hostages and the winterborns, made it their reasonable request that only the actually guilty should be punished. This restriction on the court was witnessed and acknowledged by the county judge in Uttown, and I seriously doubt he knows how many lives he saved with that one act yesterday morning. Speaking for myself, I say I rejoice for his wisdom, because I have seen the name of my husband's grandmother's brother on that list. His daughter married a Zerker, I know. Speaking once more as a wizard, I say that because the law as it stands now knows no limitation of time, no mercy for crimes done in the distant past, then that number is enormous; two hundred and fifty years is about ten generations. If there has been no in-breeding then the two families represented by each name in those records have by now become two thousand families. If the law were followed rigorously, we expect no reds oranges or blues would remain alive.

"The greens who love peace but are so often despised, so rarely considered good marriage partners, probably survive. Especially since by my studies, when such marriages do occur they rarely produce many children. So we expect the greens would survive such a bloodletting. But they'd be traumatised by it, I'm sure.

"This is what the chair of the high council of wizardry has asked me to inform the legislature of this planet; these truths and speculations. May God who hates the punishment of the innocent have more mercy on us than the people who wrote this law would have on those alive today. Speaking as myself once more, I expect it is the horror this law would unleash that has kept this secret so long, that kept mother and father from speaking out. I expect you have your own opinions.”

“I propose a vote of thanks for all that the heir to the empty throne has communicated to us today, I rejoice it was her and no other, and so we have no need to publish this horrendous communication.” There was a murmur of agreement to that. “I further propose we purge our law-books of these godless laws that would punish the innocent along with the guilty, and so let the guilty go unpunished.”

“Do we not care that these laws have convinced many a criminal to speak all he or she knows?”

“And do the police not need to confirm it, because they speak more than they know?”

“Parliamentarians, I leave you to your debate. But I wish to point out to you that what I communicated to you as wizard must not be granted crown privilege. It was entrusted to me as wizardess, and it will be published openly, and indeed it bears upon court cases that must not be stopped, lest the guilty will go unpunished.

She paused a little, and then continued, “To the honourable gentleman who feels that the law must continue to terrify and who clearly does not welcome the condition of my fellow wizards and wishes to be excused it, then let me reassure him. My own rage against those who kill innocent hatchlings is as firm as his, and I find myself most willing to give into the innate bellicosity that a thousand years of breeding as the most noble of all nobles has given me.

"So, should some great-great-aunt on his mother's side turn out to be listed in the records of this evil, then, once he's finished dealing lawful death to his aunts, uncles, nieces, cousins, children and grandchildren, if he finds himself suddenly too weary to raise the club to his own head, then

let me reassure him I'll happily finish the job he can't, and purge the world of the evil blood that he accidentally finds to run in his veins. May God have mercy on my soul, I'd even enjoy doing it, and I could even make it all legal by sitting on that chair, couldn't I? Then we continue this debate in the traditional manner, could we not? Claw versus claw, sword against club? I'm sure that the peaceloving greens would find it much easier to rule sensibly once we bellicose reds have shredded one another to pieces. Now stop sharpening your claws and grow up! I'm leaving before I'm tempted further.”

An elderly female green stood and said, “Thank you, Keldi, for reminding us so clearly why you're apolitical, and for your wisdom in declining once more the temptation of power. But as you are here in person, I beg your indulgence. You wrote recently of Sithinilakiina, may I ask more about her?”

“How can I answer that? Well I'll try in a way she'd prefer. Sithini started off in the school as a twelve year old green, lost her family in the Reqiq landslide, made some very firm friends who learned that if you're her friend, you expect practical jokes. She has convinced us all that she's a genius.

Recently she turned red and is now twenty, and has been making new friends among the apprentices, and so far this term her practical jokes have failed to break any windows. She becomes physically unwell in reaction to violence, her thinking is very quick, and very linear, she hates jumping around in stories. “She flatly refused to help track down the parents of the first two fluffballs found until it was agreed that no innocent would be harmed directly from her helping, or indirectly except as a direct consequence of the punishment of the guilty. She decided that reuniting the fluff-balls with their parents was similar to leading home a straying thlunk, and so yesterday she designed and built a device that examines samples of DNA and determines how close the link is. I think it can get some samples from dust in the air, or something like that.

Today she's testing it, and last I heard was rather annoyed with sheriff Dirak that the list he's found will, to quote her, 'take a lot of the fun out of the challenge.'”

Keldi turned to leave, just as there were some shouts outside the throne-room, followed by a knocking on the door. To Keldi's ears the knocking was high,Nalmost at the top of the door. Keldi adjusted her grip on her staff; she might be puzzled, but no thanapoli ever let mere puzzlement stop her in her steps as if she was scared. There were more shouts outside, more in a tone of frustration than anger, she realised. It was a sound she was quite used to from the college, when someone's experiment was going wrong.

“Stand back, good parliamentarians, I think I recognise that voice.”

With a finger on the forcefield button just in case, Keldi opened the door. Something the size of a small fluffy zipped in, above head-height, making happy chirping noises. It was followed by a shout of dismay. “No! Who opened that door? Oh, hello Keldi! My little search-bot has got a bit confused. I think it's decided to follow you.”

“Why?”

“Not sure. But you did hand me the pheromone detector this morning.”

“Pheromone detector?”

“Yes, little known fact, everyone has a pheromone signature that is almost exactly like their father's, with a tiny tweak from their mother. The wind was coming from this direction and when I turned on the detector it leapt into the air and shot straight out of the window. It shouldn't have moved. I must left the flight function still on.”

“You should have put it on a lead.”

“The glue hadn't set; it came off.”

“Hmm. Ladies and gentlemen of parliament, allow me to introduce the recently mentioned Sithinilakiina.”

“Urm, Hi!” Sithini said, realising for the first time that Keldi wasn't alonenin the room. “This is the throne room?”

“Yes,” Keldi said.

“Oops.”

“I was just leaving,” Keldi said, “You may too.”

“I'm just glad I hadn't added the moss dispenser.” Sithini said.

“Moss?” Keldi asked.

“Dirak's suggestion. Just in case.”

“Just in case what?”

“It found its target in a crowded place.”

“Like here.”

“Urm yes, do you think he might have been winding me up?”

“Sithini, if it was following me, and it had dropped moss on me, I'd probably still be jumping up and down on its pieces. But why is your little machine bouncing up and

down above the honourable member for Wendig?”

“Wendig?” Sithini asked, surprised.

“It seems to like me,” the elderly female who'd been talking earlier said.

“My father was from Wendig,” Sithini said, approaching her.

“I do have a cousin whose son lived in Reqiq, but I'm sure I never heard that he got married, so I don't see how you can be a relative of mine.”

“My grandparents didn't think a decent peace-loving green lad ought to go marrying a 'red plumed warmonger'. That hurt mummy a lot, and they never wanted us to visit.”

“So it should have hurt Ranthilakiina,” Keldi said, “Given her attitude to conflict, Now one of you ought to name some names, and we'll see if Sithini's creation works properly.”

“Of course it does, Keldi.” the elderly lady replied, “My nose may not be as sharp as her flying box, but she smells like family to me. You father was called Qwan, wasn't he?”

“Yes,”

“My cousin was never a student of history, but it would be my pleasure to educate him. Would you be willing to meet your grandparents, peace-loving heiress to the southern throne?”

“Warn them I'll cry.” Sithini said, tears of joy filling her eyes.

----------------------------------------

HNUT, EARTHDAY, 5TH OF WINTER

“You were winding me up about the moss, weren't you, Dirak?” Sithini accused.

“You didn't really put some in, did you?” Dirak asked.

“No, but it sort of works.”

“What sort of works?” Lenepoli asked.

“It disappeared out of the window and invaded the throne room where Keldi had just told them about Restday and then it found my grandfather's cousin.”

“Wow!”

“Yes. It's quite a dangerous thing, really.” Sithini said. “I mean, I wanted it to find fathers or grandfathers, not distant cousins on the male side.”

“Oh, yes, I see your point.”

“But anyway, how are the little ones?”

“Doctor says it's too early to tell, but apart from being entirely ravenous and sleeping lots, they don't seem that badly affected. Yalinth is being very protective of them; she says she wants to meet the parents, when we find them.”

“The records don't name the parents, do they?” Sithini said.

“No, not at all. A name, and a village. Most are from near the city. You've heard of the new law?”

“No.” Sithini replied.

“Passed late last night. 'Repeal of the royal talon law. General modification of all laws prescribing a punishment akin to blood-feud. The honour of the law is not served by punishing the innocent for the crimes of relatives, but by the punishment fitting the crime and falling on the guilty.”

“Praise God!”

“And Keldi. She's pretty good at being an apolitical decision influencer. Speaking of which, when do we go and reunite parents and offspring? I thought it was going to happen today.”

“So did we. But... well, maybe this evening?”

“OK. I'll stop bothering you, then. There are some others I need to bother, I think.”