3
I INTENDED to go back to the living room but Thayu had followed me. I closed her in my arms. She nuzzled my cheek and stroked hair out of my face.
“What a damn thing to have happen on this day,” I said in the hollow of her neck.
“Don’t worry. It’s out of your influence.”
“No, it’s every bit in my influence. Ezhya has just asked me to go and talk to the zeyshi.”
She frowned deeply. “But they’re on Asto.”
“Yes. He wants me to come. He says it should be possible. I think it’s been possible for a while, but he’s just kept quiet about it. I don’t know what to think, Thayu. On the one hand, he says zeyshi are nothing, on the other hand, he wants me to risk my life talking to them.”
“Because he can’t do it.”
True. With his position, the difference in status was too big. “He told me he’d
