Revulsion crawled across D’seun’s skin. “You do not know, Ambassador. They surround themselves with death. They bring nothing living with them. Their homes are dead, their shells are dead, even their tools are dead. They are ghouls, Ambassador, billions of ghouls who live in ignorance of even the basic ideas of spreading life. Can we permit ghouls to wander the winds of New Home with our children?”
Z’eth pulled her muzzle back in thoughtful silence. D’seun held himself still, trying to muster the patience to wait out her thoughts. He could not rush her. She had influence that went beyond wealth. If he could turn her from her patronage of T’sha, T’sha would be toppled. Everything depended on this.
“Ambassador, I seek a promise from you.”
“I assumed.” Her crest spread out even further, as if it reached toward every conversation and promise being exchanged in her dying city. “And what would you pay for this promise?”
“My children, when they are born, will belong to your city on New Home,” said D’seun. “They will serve your city until they are adults.”
It hurt to say it. It hurt to know that it had to be this way. He had been indentured in his tenth year of life, when K’taith succumbed to one of the first of the new rots. He had always sworn to the souls of his unborn children that they would grow to adulthood free.
But he had to break that oath. He had nothing left to promise but those children, whoever they were and whenever they would come to be. He could not permit the New People to spread their death further across New Home.
“A rich promise, and a risky one,” Z’eth mused. “You may not find a wife willing to go along with it.”
“I will find a wife who will,” said D’seun, firmly. He had to.
“You sound most determined.” Z’eth dipped her muzzle. “What promise do you want?”
“You will be elected to the Law Meet of New Home.” D’seun drifted as close to her as he could without touching her. “There is no question of this. I have heard the proposed rosters in the Meet. Your name is on every one. You will be the most senior of the ambassadors, the leader there as you are the leader here. I ask that you promise to follow my lead when we must determine the final disposition of the New People.”
Z’eth swelled, just a little. What are you thinking, Ambassador? What future do you taste?
Her gaze drifted from him and passed over the shifting crowds that filled this beautiful chamber in the center of her slowly dying city.
“Thank you for your promise, Ambassador,” she said. “It is rich and would bring my city benefit.”
Hope swelled D’seun’s skin; then he read the tilt of her head and the spread of her wings and knew what was coming next.
“But even if I accepted,” she pushed herself closer to him, “I could make no guarantees of your success. T’sha is not the only one in love with the New People. There are many in the High Law Meet who are enchanted by their words. My influence is great, but I am not certain it is that great.”
“But, Ambassador.” He thrust his muzzle forward, touching her skin, breathing out his urgency with his words. She must understand, she must. “We cannot predict them; we cannot understand or control them. There must be nothing on New Home that we cannot control; otherwise life will rebel against us and bring death and imbalance, as it has to Home.”
Z’eth backwinged sharply. “Ambassador, I think you have been too long away from the temples to speak so. We serve life, and in return life serves us. That is the way of it. Life does not attack us, nor do we attack it.”
Abandoning all caution, D’seun swelled to his fullest extent. “We serve the life we know. We do not know the New People, or their life.”
“You will calm yourself, Ambassador,” murmured Z’eth. D’seun shrank down instantly. Z’eth remained silent for a while, and D’seun had to concentrate on each small motion of his wings to keep himself in place.
“If I took your offer,” she said softly, her words brushing so lightly against his skin he had to strain every pore to feel them, “I could promise only that I will vote with you regarding the disposal of the New People on New Home. It could be no more than that.”
Cautious, controlled, very Z’eth. It would be an expensive promise. But Z’eth would not go into any such vote alone. Even if she exacted no promises from the other members of the New Home Law Meet, her vote would sway others yet un-promised.
And he might be able to swing a few votes himself, especially if he could find a way to silence T’sha.
Was it enough to break his vow to his unborn children?