to his father and clung to his leg, shouting out the door, his face making it plain that he was echoing his father's cruel words to Miro. Marc o pried the child from his leg and walked with determined purpose into the back room.
"There's no sound," said Olhado. "But you can hear it, can't you?"
Ender felt Grego's body trembling on his lap.
"There it is, a blow, a crash - she's falling to the floor, can you feel it in your flesh, the way her body hits the concrete?"
"Shut up, Olhado," said Miro.
The computer-generated scene ended. "I can't believe you saved that," said Ela.
Quim was weeping, making no effort to hide it. "I killed him," he said. "I killed him I killed him I killed him."
"What are you talking about?" said Miro in exasperation. "He had a rotten disease, it was congenital!"
"I prayed for him to die!" screamed Quim. His face was mottled with passion, tears and mucus and spittle mingling around his lips. "I prayed to the Virgin, I prayed to Jesus, I prayed to Grandpa and Grandma, I said I'd go to hell for it if only he'd die, and they did it, and now I'll go to hell and I'm not sorry for it! God forgive me but I'm glad!" Sobbing, he stumbled back out of the room. A door slammed in the distance.
"Well, another certified miracle to the credit of Os Venerados," said Miro. "Sainthood is assured."
"Shut up," said Olhado.
"And he's the one who kept telling us that Christ wanted us to forgive the old fart," said Miro.
On Ender's lap, Grego now trembled so violently that Ender grew concerned. He realized that Grego was whispering a word. Ela, too, saw Grego's distress and knelt in front of the boy.
"He's crying, I've never seen him cry like this - "
"Papa, papa, papa," whispered Grego. His trembling had given way to great shudders, almost convulsive in their violence.
"Is he afraid of Father?" asked Olhado. His face showed deep concern for Grego. To Ender's relief, all their faces were full of worry. There was love in this family, and not just the solidarity of living under the rule of the same tyrant for all these years.
"Papa's gone now," said Miro comfortingly. "You don't have to worry now."
Ender shook his head. "Miro," he said, "didn't you watch Olhado's memory? Little boys don't judge their fathers, they love them. Grego was trying as hard as he could to be just like Marcos Ribeira. The rest of you might have been glad to see him gone, but for Grego it was the end of the world."
It had not occurred to any of them. Even now it was a sickening idea; Ender could see them recoil from it. And yet they knew it was true. Now that Ender had pointed it out, it was obvious.
"Deus nos perdoa," murmured Ela. God forgive us.
"The things we've said," whispered Miro.
Ela reached out for Grego. He refused to go to her. Instead he did exactly what Ender expected, what he had prepared for. Grego turned in Ender's relaxed grip, flung his arms around the neck of the Speaker for the Dead, and wept bitterly, hysterically.
Ender spoke gently to the others, who watched helplessly. "How could he show his grief to you, when he thought you hated him?"
"We never hated Grego," said Olhado.
"I should have known," said Miro. "I knew he was suffering the worst pain of any of us, but it never occurred to me..."
"Don't blame yourself," said Ender. "It's the kind of thing that only a stranger can see."
He heard Jane whispering in his ear. "You never cease to amaze me, Andrew, the way you turn people into plasma."
Ender couldn't answer her, and she wouldn't believe him anyway. He hadn't planned this, he had played it by ear. How could he have guessed that Olhado would have a recording of Marc o's viciousness to his family? His only real insight was with Grego, and even that was instinctive, a sense that Grego was desperately hungry for someone to have authority over him, for someone to act like a father to him. Since his own father had been cruel, Grego would believe only cruelty as a proof of love and strength. Now his tears washed Ender's neck as hotly as, a moment before, his urine had soaked Ender's thighs.
He had guessed what Grego would do, but Quara managed to take him by surprise. As the others watched Grego's weeping in silence, she got off the bed and