Farrier nodded. His eyes squeezed shut. “I know there are very good people in the Mbo. But ask yourself, please, what does the Mbo have to offer us? What medicines? What sciences? What is worthwhile about their society?”

Baru did not trust herself to speak. A tiny part of her whispered, At home, on Taranoke, what hope did you have to learn the world’s true ways? Isn’t he right?

“We can save the people,” Farrier said. “But their history, their traditions, their literature … it’s all tainted. Incrasticism must be introduced.”

“And that’s why you’re sending Baru?” Apparitor was curious now, in spite of his fury. “Because you’ve tested her immunity. You think she can’t be seduced.”

“I can’t be,” Baru said. “I know it.” And she squeezed a phantom fist shut around the imagined shape of Taranoke, its black beaches and obsidian promontories, the sharp coral of the thriving reefs. She squeezed until her fist bled. She could not be seduced.

Of course, she only knew the precise outline of the island from a Masquerade survey map.

Apparitor rose up in his chair in delight. “Have either of you told her about the Reckoning of Ways? Does she know?”

Farrier clucked and rolled his eyes. Hesychast’s big shoulders went hard.

“My good great cock! You haven’t told her!” Apparitor clapped. “Shall I do it?”

“Both of us—” Hesychast began, while Farrier spread his hands and said, “Our plans both require—” They looked at each other, each attempted to yield the floor, each claimed it again with a little inhalation, and then both turned to the wall clock. Perhaps Hesychast took the even minutes, and Farrier the odd.

It was an even minute. Hesychast went on.

“I want you to find the secret of immortal flesh,” Hesychast said. “Farrier wants to break the Oriati Mbo apart. We think both our goals may be attained on this expedition. When you return with what we need, then … we will be reckoned.”

“Come on, Cosgrad!” Apparitor barked. “Say it!”

“It’s like this,” Farrier said, smoothly. “Renascent will judge the two of us.”

Renascent. The faceless pawn in Apparitor’s shuddering hand.

“She will select the man with the best plan for the digestion of Oriati Mbo. To that man she will grant her file of secrets. All the blackmail and perversion she has gathered in her life. And the man who takes that file, Hesychast or I … he will possess the other utterly.”

“But what expedition?” Baru cried. “Where are we going? How do you expect us to find these—incredible things? A secret to turn them on each other? Immortality? What if nobody knows? What if the Mbo just lasted a thousand years by luck? Are there scholars in the Mbo who study these things? Records? Books?”

“Of course there are,” Hesychast said.

Farrier smiled his raccoon smile.

“You,” he said, “are going to find their versions of us.”

*   *   *