Dua was filled with anger; so filled she could scarcely sense the Hard Ones. She seemed stifled under the components of the anger, each one filling her to the brim, separately. There was a sense of wrongness that Odeen should try to lie to her. A sense of wrongness that a whole world of people should die. A sense of wrongness that it was so easy for her to learn and that she had never been allowed to.
Since that first time in the rock, she had gone twice more to the Hard-caverns. Twice more, unnoticed, she had buried herself in rock, and each time she sensed and knew, and each time when Odeen would explain matters to her, she knew in advance what it was he would explain.
Why couldn’t they teach her, then, as they had taught Odeen? Why only the Rationals? Did she possess the capacity to learn only because she was a Left-Em, a perverted mid-ling? Then let them teach her, perversion and all. It was wrong to leave her ignorant.
Finally, the words of the Hard One were breaking through to her. Losten was there, but it was not he speaking. It was a strange Hard One, in front, who spoke. She did not know him, but she knew few of them.
The Hard One said, “Which of you have been in the lower caverns recently: the Hard-caverns?”
Dua was defiant. They found out about her rock-rubbing and she didn’t care. Let them tell everybody. She would do so herself. She said, “I have. Many times.”
“Alone?” said the Hard One calmly.
“Alone. Many times,” snapped Dua. It was only three times, but she didn’t care.
Odeen muttered, “I have, of course, been to the lower caverns on occasion.”
The Hard One seemed to ignore that. He turned to Tritt instead and said sharply. “And you, right?”
Tritt quavered, “Yes, Hard-sir.”
“Alone?”
“Yes, Hard-sir.”
“How often?”
“Once.”
Dua was annoyed. Poor Tritt was in such a panic over nothing. It was she herself who had done it and she was ready for a confrontation. “Leave him alone,” she said. “I’m the one you want.”
The Hard One turned slowly toward her. “For what?” he said.
“For—whatever it is.” And faced with it directly, she couldn’t bring herself to describe what she had done after all. Not in front of Odeen.
“Well, we’ll get to you. First, the right.… Your name is Tritt, isn’t it? Why did you go to the lower caverns alone?”
“To speak to Hard-One-Estwald, Hard-sir.”
At which again Dua interrupted, eagerly, “Are you Estwald?”
The Hard One said briefly, “No.”
Odeen looked annoyed, as though it embarrassed him that Dua didn’t recognize the Hard One. Dua didn’t care.
The Hard One said to Tritt, “What did you take from the lower caverns?”
Tritt was silent.
The Hard One said, without emotion, “We know you took something. We want to know if you know what it was. It could be very dangerous.”
Tritt was still silent, and Losten interposed, saying more kindly, “Please tell us, Tritt. We know now it was you and we don’t want to have to be harsh.”
Tritt mumbled. “I took a food-ball.”
“Ah.” It was the first Hard One speaking. “What did you do with it?”
And Tritt burst out. “It was for Dua. She wouldn’t eat. It was for Dua.”
Dua jumped and coalesced in astonishment.
The Hard One turned on her at once. “You did not know about it?”
“No!”
“Nor you?”—to Odeen.
Odeen, so motionless as to seem frozen, said, “No, Hard-sir.”
For a moment the air was full of unpleasant vibration as the Hard Ones spoke to each other, ignoring the triad.
Whether her sessions at rock-rubbing had made her more sensitive, or whether it was her recent storm of emotions, Dua couldn’t tell, and wouldn’t have dreamed of trying to analyze; she simply knew she was catching whiffs—not of words—but of understanding—
They had detected the loss some time ago. They had been searching quietly. They had turned to the Soft Ones as possible culprits with reluctance. They had investigated and then turned to Odeen’s triad with even greater reluctance. (Why? Dua missed that.) They did not see how Odeen could have had the foolishness to take it, or Dua the inclination. They did not think of Tritt at all.
Then the Hard One who had so far not said a word to the Soft Ones recalled seeing Tritt in the Hard-caverns. (Of course, thought Dua. It was the day she had first entered the rock. She had sensed him then. She had forgotten.)
It had seemed unlikely in the extreme, but finally, with all else