I said goodbye to Ravenor and promised to wait for him at Jeganda. I kissed Crezia goodbye and went to the Hinterlight's hangar to cross back to the Essene. Nayl came to see me off.
I shook his hand. 'Keep an eye on Gideon/1 said.
He frowned. 'You don't trust him?' he asked.
With my life. But I don't trust his friends/
As the Essene pulled away from Promody, gathering speed as it headed for the immaterium translation point Maxilla's navigator had calculated, I went to find Aemos.
He was in his suite of rooms, puzzling his way through a deep stack of books he'd borrowed from Maxilla's library.
'Something else to divert you/ I said, handing him a pile of data-slates and record tiles. Before we had parted company, Ravenor had copied for me everything he had been permitted to copy, including a pict-file of the inscription as his force chair's sensors had recorded it.
'Gideon has marked some key passages in his notes to get you up to speed, but the inscription, which is a chart, is what really interests me. Gideon's… associate… told me what it means, or the part of it that applies to Ghiil, anyway. I'd like to know a little more, in literal terms/
'You want me to decipher an alien text that was long dead before man appeared?'
Put like that it was a tall order. 'There are some other samples of the same script that Ravenor obtained from other sites. I don't know. Do what you can with it. Anything you can turn up will be useful/
* * *
The voyage to Jeganda was not the longest I have ever undertaken, but it felt like it. I was fretful and ill at ease, impatient to arrive. My mind would not stop thinking about Glaw's head start, or how close the farseer's nothingness loomed.
To fill the time, I meditated and exercised, burrowed my way through Maxilla's library in search of anything pertaining to the eldar and their legends. Kara worked to get Medea up to fitness and, after two weeks, the three of us were running through demanding combat training each day. Sometimes Eleena joined us for the lighter sessions to keep in shape. I was glad I had an untouchable with me, given our destination and Glaw's abilities.
Except for Alizebeth, who didn't really count under the circumstances, Eleena was the last living member of the Distaff. I wondered if 1 would ever recruit and build it again.
I wondered if I would even get the chance.
During the third week, Aemos called me to his suite to discuss his findings so far. I wondered why he hadn't simply told me over dinner. We all met for a meal each evening anyway.