Why she had left them remained a mystery, one with, he was sure, the Ila at the heart of it, and Memnanan’s ignoring him as the wrapping on the affair.

“The Ila asked you no questions?” he asked Hati.

“Not a one. I only talked to Aigyan.”

“Don’t look back,” he said in a low voice. “The au’it’s back there. Did you see the au’it immediately when you got back?”

“No.” Hati sounded startled. “I don’t think she went with us. Or did we lose her?”

“One is with us now,” he said. “Something’s happened. I don’t know what, I don’t know why, but something’s happened.”

“About the Ila, you mean?”

“She didn’t want to know about Pori. She only took the easy chance to call the au’it back, maybe to read the book. We have an au’it back there now. I don’t know that it’s the same one. Memnanan’s not talking to us. I can see him. He’s not even looking our way. He’s under orders.”

“We can’t completely trust him, then.”

“We never could completely trust him,” Marak said. He tried to think what reason the Ila might have for not needing to know about Pori, and all he could think of was that the Ila had foreknown there was no use in their mission there. Failing that—her need to have the au’it’s report on them had become more important than her need to know what they did out there at Pori.

Perhaps it was a consultation before their descent of the plateau, her wish to know everything they had said in secret before she went into Luz’s territory. Perhaps the Ila herself perceived the approach of the hammer and pondered leaving his venture south, and going east, instead. She was well watered. There were makers in her blood. She might be, herself, mad.

But if the Ila had found out something of Luz’s intentions, it was not the au’it who told her, because they had no idea and could not have informed her.

The Ila had ceased her daily baths. The Ila’s servants no longer cooked for the camp or made tea for the Ila. Presumably the last few days the Ila ate the same dry ration as they ate.

Perhaps the Ila held some intention of dealing with Luz and everyone that served her.

“Do you think she means us harm?” Hati asked him.

“I don’t know what she thinks. I wonder if she’s begun to hear the voices herself.”

“Luz’s voice?” Hati asked.

“The makers could do that. Her makers haven’t cured us of Luz. Our makers keep us what we are. Maybe they’ve gotten into her, now.” He paused on a thought. “Maybe she fears they’re going to get into her—maybe she didn’t want to drink water that didn’t come from the Ila’s Mercy.”

“All our water did,” Hati said. Her dark eyes went wide and troubled. “And our food came from Oburan. Everything. Pori’s wouldn’t. Pori belonged to Luz. Didn’t it?”