The Watched

VII

Parren and his wife stayed at the house for the rest of the day. Ordier was a passive listener to most of the conversation, feeling excluded from it. He wished he could involve himself in Jenessa’s work to the same degree that Luovi seemed to be involved with Parren, but whenever he ventured an opinion or an idea into the discussion of the Qataari, he was either ignored or tacitly dismissed. The result was that while Jacj Parren outlined his elaborate scheme—there was an aircraft to be hired, and a place found to erect the scintilla monitoring and decoding equipment—Ordier fell into an introspective mood, and grew increasingly preoccupied with his secret one-sided relationship with the Qataari girl. From the summit of the ridge it had been impossible to see whether there was a ritual taking place, and in any event the fact that he and Parren had been noticed would have put an immediate halt to it, but just the sight of the placid, colorful valley had been enough to remind him of the girl, and the ambiguity of the part she took in the ritual. And there was the uncertainty of what Jenessa and Luovi had seen or done while they were in the folly. Guilt and curiosity, the conflicting motives of the voyeur, were rising in Ordier again. Shortly before sunset, Parren suddenly announced that he and Luovi had another appointment in the evening, and Jenessa offered to drive them back to Tumo Town. Ordier, uttering the platitudes of host to departing guests, saw this as a brief chance to satisfy his curiosity. He walked down with the others to Jenessa’s car, and watched as they drove away. The sun was already behind the Tumoit Mountains, and the distant town was glittering with lights. When the car was out of sight, Ordier hurried back to the house, collected his binoculars, and set off for the folly. As Jenessa had said, the padlock on the gate was open; he must have forgotten to close it the last time he left the folly. As he went through he made sure of locking it, as usual, on the inside. Twilight on Tumo was short, a combination of the latitude and the western mountain heights, and as Ordier went up the slope towards the folly wall it was difficult to see his way. Once inside the hidden cell, Ordier wasted no time and put his eyes directly to the slit. Beyond, the valley was dark under the evening sky. He could see no one about; the alarm that their intrusion had caused seemed to have passed, for those Qataari in the valley during the day were nowhere about. The rose plantation was deserted, and the blooms moved to and fro in the breeze. Unaccountably relieved, Ordier returned to the house. He was washing up the plates and cups when Jenessa returned. She was looking excited and beautiful, and she kissed Ordier when she came in. “I’m going to work with Jacj!” she said. “He wants me to advise him. Isn’t that marvelous?” “Advise him? How?” “On the Qataari. He’ll pay me, and he says that when he returns to the north I can go with him.” Ordier nodded, and turned away. “Aren’t you pleased for me?” “How much is he going to pay you?” Jenessa had followed him as he walked out onto the patio, and from the doorway she turned on the colored lights concealed amongst the grapevines hanging from the overhead trellis. “Does it matter how much it is, Yvann?” Looking back at her he saw the multicolored light on the olive skin of her face, like the reflection from sun on flower petals. “It’s not the amount that matters,” he said. “It’s what you would have to do to earn it.” “Nothing more than I’m doing now. It will double my income, Yvann. You should be pleased! Now I can buy a house for myself.” “And what’s this about going north with him? You know you can’t leave the Archipelago.” “Jacj has a way.” “He has a way with everything, hasn’t he? I suppose his university can interpret the Covenant to suit itself.” “Something like that. He hasn’t told me.” Ordier turned away irritably, staring out at the still blue water of the pool. Jenessa went across to him. “There isn’t anything going on between us,” she said. “What do you mean?” “You know, Yvann. It’s not sex, or anything.” He laughed, suddenly and shortly. “Why on earth do you bring that into it?” “You’re behaving as if I’m having an affair with him. It’s just a job, just the work I’ve always done.” “I never said it wasn’t.” “I know I’ve spent a lot of time with him and Luovi,” Jenessa said. “I can’t help it. It’s, well…” “The bloody Qataari. That’s it, isn’t it?” “You know it is.” She took his arm then, and for several minutes they said nothing. Ordier was angry, and it always took some time for his moods to subside. It was irrational, of course, these things always were. Parren and his wife, since their arrival, had seemed set on changing the placid way of life he enjoyed, guilty conscience and all. The thought of Jenessa going over to them, collaborating with them, was just one more intrusion, and Ordier was incapable of dealing with it any other way than emotionally. Later, when they had made some supper and were drinking wine together on the patio, enjoying the warm night, Jenessa said: “Jacj wants you to join his work too.” “Me?” Ordier had mellowed as the evening progressed, and his laugh this time was not sardonic. “There’s not much I can do for him.” “He says there’s a lot you can do. He wants to rent your folly.”

“Whatever for?” Ordier said, taken by surprise. “It overlooks the Qataari valley. Jacj wants to build an observation cell in the wall.” “Tell him it’s not available,” Ordier said abruptly. “It’s structurally unsound.” Jenessa was regarding him with a thoughtful expression. “It seemed safe enough to me,” she said. “We climbed right up to the battlements today.” “I thought I told you—” “What?” “It doesn’t matter,” Ordier said, sensing another row. He raised the wine bottle to see how much was left. “Would you like another glass?” Jenessa yawned, but she did it in an affected, exaggerated way, as if she too had seen the way the conversation was going, and welcomed the chance to let the subject die. “I’m tired,” she said. “Let’s finish the bottle, and go to bed.” “You’ll stay the night then?” “If I’m invited.” “You’re invited,” Ordier said.