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memories of Irquit and the ease with which she'd mastered the hydrofoil's
security system. But there was no deception in this philosopher-teacher.
Etienne felt guilty at his instinctive suspicion.
"Be happy to, Tyl. You're entitled to learn about what you've just rescued.
I'll try and explain the principles to you and you must tell me more about
what we're likely to en-counter Upriver, especially this Topapasirut that has
you so concerned."
"I will gladly do so, Etienne. But as for the Topapasirut there is little to
say. It must be seen to be understood."
"Still certain we can't surmount it?"
"I still think so, yes, but after seeing what you have achieved tonight I am
less certain than I was before."
That is faintly encouraging, Etienne mused. Further dis-cussion would have to
wait until morning. He longed desperately for the softness of his
air-conditioned bunk. Lyra could drive for another half hour. Then they'd be
far enough Upriver from any lingering pursuit to put the boat on autopilot.
At last they were on their way again, though he felt no pride in the
thoroughly unprofessional but necessary diver-sion for which the inhabitants
of Hochac were responsible. With any luck that would be the first and last
interruption of its kind.
As for allowing the Tsla into the cabin, that was a ne-cessity. They would be
much more comfortable inside, where the temperature approximated that of their
home. There was no fear in him. For one thing he was too tired. For another,
he'd slept peacefully among the Tsla for weeks. They'd earned his trust.
Besides, he and Lyra could always lock themselves in their cabin, and no
curious
Tsla could disengage a locked autopilot.
The morning dawned bright, hot, and stinking humid but Etienne sat comfortably
alongside Lyra in the little dining nook. Tyl squatted on the floor nearby.
The porters ate farther astern, in the storage area that had been turned into
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their living quarters. They could have joined the humans but chose not to.
Etienne asked why, confident it would have some bearing on his question.
"They're ashamed," Tyl explained.
"Ah." Lyra looked satisfied. Apparently she'd been think-ing along similar
lines. "Because they had to fight?"
"Oh no." Tyl nibbled at his bowl, his stubby six-fingered hands probing for
solid morsels. The Redowls had already overcome their distaste at seeing a
Tsla rummage for food with its long snout. "They are ashamed because they were
not permitted to fulfill their intentions."
"But they did," Etienne argued. "We're safe and we re-covered our boat."
"Yes, but no thanks to us."
"You dispatched that patrol at the harbor."
"It was our intention to assist thee during the entire pro-cess, Etienne. Yet
we could only stand helplessly by and watch while this wondrous craft," and he
tapped the metal floor, "did more to save itself than did we."
"But you couldn't have done more than you did," Lyra told him. "We barely had
enough time to activate the voice pickup."
"That is not the point. We know we could not have carried this boat to the
river on our shoulders, but we did not have the chance to try. Therefore merit
was lost because we did not have the opportunity to vanquish our enemy."
Lyra looked uncomfortable. "It's my understanding that your society is a
pacifistic one."
"Of course, that is true."
"Then how can you talk of gaining merit by fighting?"
"Like a storm or rockfall, a declared enemy is an agent of nature. As an enemy
it removes itself from the considerations of civilization."
Etienne was enjoying his wife's discomfiture enormously. "But your enemy is
only acting in what he considers a civilized manner."
"He must be judged by civilized standards."
"You mean, by Tsla standards."
"Naturally. You do not think that we would adopt the standards of the Mai?" He
sounded politely outraged. "A truly civilized people instinctively know what
constitutes civilized behavior."
"Sounds like expediency to me."
"Not at all. Our moral standards are not nearly so flexi-ble."
"Then you feel remorse when you kill an enemy?"
"Naturally. An enemy is one who has freely abjured his soul. How else could we
feel but sorry for him?"
"That wouldn't, however, have prevented you from kill-ing every Mai in Hochac
who opposed you?"
"No, it would not. By opposing us in the recovery of your property they would
have demonstrated disregard for civilized behavior, thus removing themselves
from considera-tion by those who adhere to such behavior. I see no
contradiction in this."
"No contradiction at all." He glanced at his wife. Lyra's note-taker was
running and she didn't look up at Tyl. "Just wanted the point clarified."
"I thought," Lyra said quietly, "that the Tsla considered it sinful to kill."
"To kill any civilized person, yes, a terrible sin. But there is no moral
restraint against defending oneself from the hostility of an uncivilized
person any more than it is sinful to raise a roof to keep out the rain."
"All perfectly clear," Etienne agreed. He was content. It was clear that his
initial worries about the safety of the Tsla were unfounded. For all their
vaunted pacifism they were quite capable of taking care of themselves should
the need arise. Killing a civilized person is a sin. Anyone who assaults me is
uncivilized. Very neat.
Neat enough to quash Lyra's romanticized notions of Tsla society. Her beloved
mystics were no more or less blood-thirsty than any other primitive folk.
Well, that wasn't quite fair. But it was evident they could slaughter with a
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clear conscience so long as their victims fell below civilized stan-dards.
When you set those standards yourself it gave you considerable flexibility in
establishing a defense.
Lyra continued to press Tyl for information, hoping to bolster her fading
thesis of Tsla nobility. Etienne left to check the autopilot and then to see
what the other Tsla and Homat were up to. He also wanted to tell the porters
that, in his eyes at least, they'd acquired a great deal of merit for what
they'd done in
Hochac.
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