Visitors (Pathfinder 3)

“Why not keep him here?”

Loaf shook his head. “You know we tried it. But caring for the son of the . . . whatever I am . . . Sergeant-at-Arms, maybe . . . it was becoming bad for the women, bad for their husbands, and bad for the boy. Spoiled. I meant to leave him with the Larfolders for only a day or two, but I’m so busy here . . .”

“Auntie Wind isn’t angry,” said Umbo, “and the only person she’s critical of is Leaky, for reasons you can understand even though you don’t agree.”

“I do agree,” said Loaf. “By Silbom’s left elbow, you’d think Leaky would take the boy in for my sake, if not for his own.”

“But she won’t, and you don’t want to fight that war.”

“So I have no choice but to take him back here,” said Loaf, “even if it complicates camp life and keeps Leaky in a perpetual sulk.”

Umbo had suspected that all the other reasons for exiling Square had been a mask for this one—that as long as Square was in camp, Leaky was surly and that made Loaf nervous and edgy, which damaged his ability to work well with the men. It was as if Square were Loaf’s bastard child by another woman. Which he almost was, in a way, but definitely was not, in another.

“I think I should take as much responsibility for the boy as you,” said Umbo. “I’m the one who brought him home to you. I didn’t have to. I could have taken him to any number of childless couples.”

“You had to bring him to us because he was ours, he is ours, even if Leaky is too insane to understand that,” said Loaf. “Of course if you ever quote me as having said that, I’ll kill you. You can’t time-shift fast enough to get away from me.”

“Yes I can,” said Umbo, “but I would never tell her because Leaky would kill you, and then who would train these miserable revolutionary troops?”

“They’re more like refugees than an army, though a few of them are really trying to become more soldierlike. Fortunately, since all our attacks come as a complete surprise, coming previous to all the other attacks, we always win with very little fighting, just by showing our numbers and having men who look as if they know how to use their weapons, even if they don’t. If we actually had to fight, I fear any halfway competent regiment could slaughter these poor geese.”

“But then, Haddamander has a way of removing halfway competent officers because they might pose a threat to him.”

“I wish we could rely on him to remove all his good officers. But he still has many, and most are at least adequate, and that’s likely to be enough to stop these clowns. But that’s how it looks this week, with this group. Who knows what they’ll be two years from now?”

“Sick of you, I bet,” said Umbo.

“Oh, they’re already there, I promise you.”

“They’re annoyed with you, a bit resentful, but they’re also proud of the skills they’re a

cquiring. That makes them grateful, too. They won’t really hate you until it dawns on them that no matter how hard they work and how much they learn, you’ll never be pleased.”

“I’ll be pleased when I believe that some of them will stand up against a trained army.”

“As I said.”

“What do I do about Square?” said Loaf. “What with all the talk of the Rebel King and the revolution in Ramfold, I think any orphan child would be viewed with suspicion. Whose orphan, they’ll ask. What trouble will it bring down on our house, to take him in? I’d ask those questions, and I wouldn’t want to give him to anyone so stupid they didn’t think of that.” Loaf pursed his lips and sat in silence a moment. “I don’t want to give him to anyone, anyway. Not Larfolders, not Ramfolders, not the mice, not this rebel army. I want him to grow up in the same family with his little brother.”

“His older brother,” corrected Umbo.

“In a timestream that doesn’t exist,” said Loaf. “In this reality, Square is obviously older, bigger . . . that might be what Leaky’s afraid of. That by being older, Square will supplant Round, take away his rights as her firstborn child.”

“What I’m thinking,” said Umbo, “if you want to hear it . . .”

“From your tone of voice, I assume I’m going to hate to hear it.”

“The Larfolders’ mantles don’t take over their babies. They join with them, nurture them, protect them, and surrender to their control as they mature.”

“You’re not arguing for giving him a mantle,” said Loaf.

“I’m arguing for giving him a facemask,” said Umbo.

“If Leaky couldn’t even bear a facemask—”

“Leaky is a woman who is already barely capable of controlling her physical impulses,” said Umbo. “How can we be surprised that the facemask took away such control as she has? But Vadesh learned some things from the Larfold mantles, as he designed this batch of facemasks. And maybe the facemasks act differently when they symbionize with a child.”

“And maybe they don’t,” said Loaf. “I’m not going to let my baby be destroyed in some insane experiment.”