Embassytown - China Mieville [41]
EzRa were frowning. They whispered to each other, and spoke again.
Are the bodies and/or brains of our Hosts troubled by invading biological entities or an allergic reaction to an environmental factor? they said, I later learned. That is they said, Has something happened to make you suboptimal? They said, Are you alright?
Their words sounded as if Ez said some stuttering poem while Ra mimicked birds. As they spoke the Ariekei jerked again, again in that ugly simultaneity, the linked zelles snapping back with them. They were lost back to their glaze. This time one made a noise, a moan from its Cut mouth.
JoaQuin and MayBel conferred in agitation. MayBel approached the Ariekei. The Hosts came gradually again, very gradually, out of what had taken them. CalVin saw me. We stared at each other, across the room, for the first time in some time. I saw in their eyes nothing but fear.
Staff rallied, Ambassadors stepped in, bustled and led the Hosts away. As the Ariekei woke from whatever trance this was, they started loudly declaiming, talking across each other, loud and chaotically. They were asking for the new Ambassador. Where is ? they kept saying. Where is ? I understood enough Language to know that.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, please,” one of JoaQuin said. Someone from Staff must have spoken to the musicians on duty, because their playing started again. I’d not even realised they had stopped. Waiters recirculated. I saw security officers going somewhere, Simmon among them, controlled but in obvious urgency.
“Excuse us, ladies and gentlemen,” JoaQuin said. “Our guests, the Hosts, have been …” JoaQuin paused and conferred. “There’s been a small misunderstanding …” “… absolutely nothing to be concerned about …” I saw LoGan, CharLott, LuCy, AnDrew crowding the Hosts away. “Nothing at all important and entirely our own fault …” The two of them laughed. “We’re rectifying things now.” “There’s absolutely no reason to concern yourselves!” “The party continues. Please join us in raising your glasses.”
Many locals were eager to be reassured. Newcomers and temporary guests didn’t know how concerned they should be. We raised our glasses.
“To the captain and crew of the immership Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Response.…” said JoaQuin, “… to our most welcome immigrants, new citizens …” “… and above all, to Ambassador EzRa. May they have a long and happy career here in Embassytown.” “To EzRa!”
We all said it. The recipients of our toast raised their own drinks in reciprocation. They looked at the door through which the Hosts had been taken. It was to the credit of Staff that the party didn’t die. Within ten minutes most people were behaving more or less as they had been before.
“What the fuck was that?” I said quietly to Gharda.
“No bloody idea,” she said.
I couldn’t see Scile. There were several Ambassadors still in the room, along with Staff. I approached EdGar, but to my shock they turned away from me. I said their name in such a way that they couldn’t pretend not to have heard, and they glanced and said, “Not now, Avice.”
“You don’t even know what I want,” I said.
“Really, Avice.” “Not now.” They interspersed their words with smiles of greeting to those who passed them.
The crowd parted a moment and as if by plan revealed Cal or Vin. He still stared right at me. I was so startled I stopped moving. I couldn’t see my watcher’s doppel. The party concealed him again.
Gharda reappeared, with the pilot on her arm. She saw me and hesitated, looked a query at me. I waved, by all means. It mattered not at all how much more travelled I was than my city’s rulers, how airily I’d given them knowledge, how eagerly they’d received it. As EdGar walked away, I was nothing. It was they and the other Ambassadors who would, in closed session, decide what had happened, and what would happen now. They made law.
Formerly, 3
A long time ago I performed a strange unpleasant ritual in the shell of a restaurant. For that I was, Ambassadors and Staff had occasionally told me, feted by the Ariekei in my absence. That had