Pandora's Genes (35 page)

The words stung Zach, and he couldn’t think of an answer, because there was none.

“What had you planned to do once you had taken Evvy to the Garden?”

“I didn’t know,” said Zach. “I hadn’t thought it out. I thought I might go west and find out what sort of people lived there.”

“Well, you did that after all,” said the Principal. “And Evvy made her way to the Garden and prospered there, and I—” he stopped and began to pace. “This is a fine mess we have,” he said. “I don’t know what to do. Deenas take it, I don’t know what to do.”

“I didn’t want to hurt you,” Zach said. “But I knew I must tell the truth. I knew this even as I was planning my escape and making my way back here. I knew I had to tell you everything I knew about the Traders, and I also knew returning would mean my death.”

“Your death? What are you talking about?”

“My betrayal was an act of treason,” he said. “Under your law as written. And the penalty for treason is death. I have been aware of that all along.”

Evvy gasped. “Is this true?”

“It’s true,” said the Principal wearily. “Although the question of treason is open to interpretation. But suppose Evvy had not reached the Garden. Suppose everything happened just as it did, except that when you came here you did not meet Evvy. What would you have done then?”

“I would have done the same. I would have told you the truth. I tried to do so yesterday.”

“There would have been no need for you to say anything. I would never have known the difference. Why couldn’t you let it be?”

Zach waited a moment, then answered. “I couldn’t put more dishonesty between us.”

“What’s between us now is far worse,” said the Principal. He sat again at his desk and shut his eyes as if by that act he could erase everything that had happened in the last hour. When he opened his eyes, Zach and Evvy were still sitting before him, quiet and unhappy.

“I can’t think,” he said. “I must be alone for a while. I don’t care where you go or what you do, but I insist on one thing. I don’t want the two of you to be together, alone or with other people. I will trust you to carry out my wishes. No one else must know anything about this until I have decided what to do.”

“I’ll remain in my room,” said Zach.

“Will,” said Evvy, standing. “May I say something?”

“No. There has been enough talking. Now go, both of you!”

Zach and Evvy left the office side by side without saying a word. When they reached the end of the short entrance hall, Zach turned right toward his room and Evvy continued straight ahead.

“T
HIS IS WHAT I HAVE
decided,” said the Principal. It was the next morning, and Zach knew that none of them had been able to sleep; that Evvy had been thinking of him, as he had been thinking of her, and that both of them had thought most about the Principal, who was again standing behind his desk, looking as if he had been in battle.

“What you did, Zach, was not treason,” he said. “It was not treason because I choose not to interpret it so. In any case, there is no question of my having you put to death.”

“Those close to the Principal must obey his laws more strictly than common citizens,” said Zach, quoting from one of the Principal’s pronouncements from his first days of attaining power.

“You sound as if you
want
to be put to death,” said the Principal. “But you must know I could never harm you, no matter what you have done.” He paused, then went on in the same detached tone. “Nevertheless, I can no longer trust you. And I can’t have you near me without trust. What I have decided is to send you into exile. You will be given clothing, and metal, and a good mount fast enough to take you across the border in a week. You will never return. Do you understand?”

“I understand,” said Zach, his throat aching.

The Principal turned to Evvy. “As for you, Evvy, I don’t know what to do about you. I can’t stop wanting you. I suppose I could force you to stay with me, but every time I look at you, I’ll know that you love Zach and not me. I offer you the chance to go into exile with him, if that is what you want.”

Evvy and Zach looked at one another, then back at the Principal.

“What about my work?” she said.

“You are not the only scientist at the Garden. But stay if you wish. If you do I will not see you again. It will be best that way for both of us.”

“Stay, Evvy,” said Zach. “And don’t let him keep you away forever. He is a good man and you will come to love him.”

“But I do love him!” she said.

Both men looked at her in astonishment.

“That is what I wanted to say to you yesterday, Will,” she went on. “Before you made this horrifying decision. That I have come to love you and realized it only at the moment I saw Zach. You are so alike, the two of you, and yet so different. You are like two sides of the same metal coin, and I love the whole metal, not just one part of it.” She took a deep breath and continued before either man could speak. “Now you’re asking me to choose between you and I can’t do it.”

“You must stay with Will,” Zach repeated, his voice sounding strange in his ears. “I cannot take a wife, Evvy. Years ago—”

“Yes, yes, I heard all about your vow from your mother,” she said. “Well, what if you are a carrier of the woman sickness? So, probably, is Will. But it doesn’t matter, I’m not susceptible, so you can’t hurt me. Doesn’t either of you see the answer? It’s so simple. We will all be married. Marriages between two brothers and one woman are the most common type.”

“But I betrayed—” said Zach.

“I can no longer trust—” said the Principal.

Both had started speaking at once, and when they stopped, Evvy went on, giving them no chance to continue.

“Don’t you see what you’re doing? Yes, Zach, you betrayed him, a very long time ago. But you wouldn’t do it again. You wouldn’t do anything to harm the Principal, ever. Would you?”

Zach shook his head, afraid to speak.

“Yet now you’re preparing to commit an even greater betrayal. You’re turning your back forever on everything you’ve worked for and everyone who loves you.” She turned to the Principal. “And you, Will. You’ve talked to me so many times about your dreams for the District, about your intention to solve the woman sickness, to extend civilization for the benefit of the whole human race. Don’t you care about these things any longer?”

“Of course I care about them!”

“Then why are you sending away the scientist who is the closest to achieving your goals? Why are you sending away the man who is your best hope for overcoming the Traders? Why are you sending away the two people who most love you and whom you most love? Will . . . Zach . . . is your pride really more important to you than everything else?”

She stopped and looked from one man to the other. Zach felt as if there were a bubble in his chest, expanding to the point of bursting. He wanted nothing more than to put out his arms and embrace Evvy and Will together, but he knew, even before Will spoke, that it was too late.

“No, Evvy,” said Will. His voice was quiet and heavy with sadness. “It’s not that easy. Too much has happened. You draw a lovely dream, but even a dream must be based on truth and on trust. No,” he said again. He turned his back to them and walked to the window. “My decision is final.”

F
OR A LONG TIME AFTER
Zach and Evvy left the office, the Principal remained standing by the window, looking out at the wet weather. He told himself that it was over, that a chapter in the book of his life had been finished. Now he must turn his mind to other things.

As yesterday, when he had first learned the news of Zach’s betrayal, he was unable to think. He felt the need for physical action, for movement and purpose, to uncloud his mind. He thought at first to go hunting, but it was raining intermittently, and besides, he wanted, above all, to be alone. The thought of explaining Zach’s absence to anyone was more than he could bear at the moment.

He became aware of a low muttering sound, then felt a tug at his trouser leg. He looked down to see Napoleon, his little fox-cat, growling softly, its tail twitching in invitation to play. The dark stripes of its fur reminded him of the color of Evvy’s hair, and for a moment he wanted to throw the animal out, never to have to be reminded of her again.

The baby fox-cat rolled over on its back and looked up at him with its clear green eyes. “
Mowr
!” it said, sounding exasperated. He smiled in spite of himself and knelt, then stroked the small creature on its stomach. It promptly stopped growling and licked his fingers, then began to buzz in contentment.

With a sigh, he picked up his pet and called for Robin.

“I’m going walking in the northern park,” he told him. The northern park was one of several sections of the District that technically belonged to the Principal and that he often used for hunting and exercise. It was patrolled by his men and was off-limits to poachers and squatters. He could walk there, safe and alone, without fear of being disturbed by anyone.

Robin had clearly divined that something was very wrong, but he did not ask questions. “Yes, sir,” he said, his eyes narrowed in a worried frown.

The Principal accepted an escort to the park; but once arrived, he left the men with his mount and set the fox-cat on the ground. It followed while he wandered, looking at the late-summer foliage, stepping close to a tree for shelter when the rain became heavy.

As he walked, he thought, though not in a logical, linear fashion. He had hoped to be able to make his mind blank, allowing his subconscious to help him sort out his difficulties and decide what he must do next; the work of the District must, after all, go on. But however hard he tried, he could not clear his head of random thoughts; even counting his breaths failed to prevent vivid scenes from coming into his memory. He remembered the day that Zach had joined his band of fighters outside the Capital in the days before they had taken control of the District; how he and five of his men, including Daniel, then a boy, had saved Zach from as many of the President’s men, who had taken Zach for a spy and came close to beating the life out of him. He remembered how, gradually, he and Zach had regained the mutual trust they had always had as boys, and how more and more he had grown to depend on Zach and his counsel; how they had finally toppled the President in one bloody battle lasting two days; and the heady weeks that followed, freeing the people that the President had imprisoned, lifting the burden of confiscatory taxes, beginning to build the foundations of a true government.

He remembered, as if it had just happened, his sense of loss when he had heard that Zach was missing, and the anguish when he had thought him at last buried. And remembered again the betrayal. As he walked, the fox-cat scampered alongside him, occasionally pouncing into the brush after some scuffling noise, then always returning, with its concerned “
Mowr
?” There was a break in the clouds, and the sun shone on the vapor, creating a rainbow. The Principal sat on a fallen tree and watched it, his hand absently stroking his pet, which had jumped up beside him.

“It’s you and me now, eh, Napoleon?” he said. In answer, the fox-cat pressed its wet nose into his palm and began buzzing.

For five years now he had thought Zach dead. He had accepted the loss as final; and he could accept it again. It had been five years since he had turned to Zach for counsel; five years since he had relaxed late in the evenings, listening to the soothing sounds of the feathered lyre. Nothing had really changed; he had only to accept the thought once again that Zach was dead to him.

The changing quality of the light told the Principal that it was getting late. The walk had restored him, and he felt almost himself again. He turned back to the area where he had left his mount with the guards.

Suddenly the baby fox-cat began to emit a strange, high-pitched howl he had not heard before. Its little tail began to quiver and he saw, startled, that its fur was standing out all over its body, making it appear far larger than it was.

“What is it, little one?” he asked, and then he stopped. Just ahead of him on the path stood a wiry disheveled man with a filthy twisted beard. In his hands was a thick staff. The man appeared at once menacing and uncertain.

The Principal started, involuntarily stepping back, then he moved forward again and held his ground. “Who are you?” he asked, more annoyed than angry. “What are you doing here?”

“We be doing no harm,” said the man.

“Stand aside,” said the Principal. “No one is allowed in this preserve. Where are the others?”

The man moved tentatively, raising his staff as if to strike the Principal, but Will’s sword was in his hand. I said stand aside.”

The man lowered his staff and moved quickly. “It’s soldiers!” he called, and the Principal heard murmuring and the sounds of people moving. He followed the stranger and saw a party of five: a woman, with two young boy-children; and two other men, one old and apparently blind, the other little more than a boy.

“Who are you?” he repeated. “What are you doing here?”

The man holding the staff turned and again brandished it menacingly, then the woman shrieked, “Great deena – ’tis a fox-cat! The devil himself is among us!” With one hand she gathered the two small boys to herself, with the other she began rapidly to make the sign of the double spiral, over and over.

With dismay rather than anger, the Principal realized that this must be a band of Traders. Their poverty and ignorance made him feel ill. “You’ve no right to be on this land,” he said. “How did you come here?”

“All land is God’s land,” said the youth, his face white with fear and defiance.

“We was sent here,” said the blind man in a feeble voice. “The time of judgment is come on the Capital and all its people.”

“Trader beliefs are against the law,” the Principal said. He thought of calling for his men, but they would probably not hear him at this distance. Clearly, he had nothing to fear from such a frightened, ill-organized band of refugees, “Get off this land now. I won’t arrest you if you go peaceably.”