am hurting him," said Ender. He had found that the best way to earn trust was to tell the truth. "Every time he struggles to get free, it causes him quite a bit of discomfort. And he hasn't stopped struggling yet."
Ender met Miro's gaze steadily, and Miro understood his unspoken request. He did not insist on Grego's release. "I can't get you out of this one, Greguinho."
"You're going to let him do this?" asked Estevao.
Miro gestured toward Estevao and spoke apologetically to Ender. "Everyone calls him Quim." The nickname was pronounced like the word king in Stark. "It began because his middle name is Rei. But now it's because he thinks he rules by divine right."
"Bastard," said Quim. He stalked out of the room.
At the same time, the others settled in for conversation. Miro had decided to accept the stranger, at least temporarily; therefore they could let down their guard a little. Olhado sat down on the floor; Quara returned to her previous perch on the bed. Ela leaned back against the wall. Miro pulled up another chair and sat facing Ender.
"Why did you come to this house?" asked Miro. Ender saw from the way he asked that he, like Ela, had not told anyone that he had summoned a Speaker. So neither of them knew that the other expected him. And, in fact, they almost undoubtedly had not expected him to come so soon.
"To see your mother," Ender said.
Miro's relief was almost palpable, though he made no obvious gesture. "She's at work," he said. "She works late. She's trying to develop a strain of potato that can compete with the grass here."
"Like the amaranth?"
He grinned. "You already heard about that? No, we don't want it to be as good a competitor as that. But the diet here is limited, and potatoes would be a nice addition. Besides, amaranth doesn't ferment into a very good beverage. The miners and farmers have already created a mythology of vodka that makes it the queen of distilled intoxicants."
Miro's smile came to this house like sunlight through a crevice in a cave. Ender could feel the loosening of tensions. Quara wiggled her leg back and forth like an ordinary little girl. Olhado had a stupidly happy expression on his face, his eyes half-closed so that the metallic sheen was not so monstrously obvious. Ela's smile was broader than Miro's good humor should have earned. Even Grego had relaxed, had stopped straining against Ender's grip.
Then a sudden warmth on Ender's lap told him that Grego, at least, was far from surrender. Ender had trained himself not to respond reflexively to an enemy's actions until he had corisciously decided to let his reflexes rule. So Grego's flood of urine did not cause him to so much as flinch. He knew what Grego had been expecting - a shout of anger, and Ender flinging him away, casting him from his lap in disgust. Then Grego would be free - it would be a triumph. Ender yielded him no victory.
Ela, however, apparently knew the expressions of Grego's face. Her eyes went wide, and then she took an angry step toward the boy. "Grego, you impossible little - "
But Ender winked at her and smiled, freezing her in place. "Grego has given me a little gift. It's the only thing he has to give me, and he made it himself, so it means all the more. I like him so much that I think I'll never let him go."
Grego snarled and struggled again, madly, to break free.
"Why are you doing this!" said Ela.
"He's expecting Grego to act like a human being," said Miro. "It needs doing, and nobody else has bothered to try."
"I've tried," said Ela.
Olhado spoke up from his place on the floor. "Ela's the only one here who keeps us civilized."
Quim shouted from the other room. "Don't you tell that bastard anything about our family!"
Ender nodded gravely, as if Quim had offered a brilliant intellectual proposition. Miro chuckled and Ela rolled her eyes and sat down on the bed beside Quara.
"We're not a very happy home," said Miro.
"I understand," said Ender. "With your father so recently dead."
Miro smiled sardonically. Olhado spoke up, again. "With Father so recently alive, you mean."
Ela and Miro were in obvious agreement with this sentiment. But Quim shouted again. "Don't tell him anything!"
"Did he hurt you?" Ender asked quietly. He did not move, even though Grego's urine was getting cold and rank.
Ela answered. "He didn't hit us, if that's what you