The Way Back (Champions of the Crystal Book 4)

Chapter 19.3

"Sabrina, this is nonsense. What can there possibly be in your head after all these years that could threaten Praxatillus? Or that wasn't in Scotty's head, for that matter?" Ford demanded.

"I thought that at first too. But Khediva says there are so many holes in Scotty's memories, and they make so little sense to the Wayfarers in both a biochemical and contextual frame of reference, that there was no real threat from that. And as for me, well, I gather the Council of Trême suddenly remembered that I know most of the secret ways into Giandrah, as well as some...other things I can't tell you about."

"Because they're secret."

"Yes."

"So you're asking me to translate this hideously long and doubtless dull document, and you're not even going to tell me why we're being forced to go through this?"

"Pretty much. Yes."

"You won't even promise to tell me someday?" he wheedled.

"Ford..." she sighed. "Look, this isn't up to me. I'd tell you if it were. But when I was Regent, Imari refused me this information, even though the peace with Homeworld depended on it. I had to send a secret courier to—well, never mind where—and beg a favor from a wise old woman to get it. It's that secret."

"Something that big, and they seriously think Homeworld's intelligence hasn't picked it up by now?" Ford asked, folding his arms.

"Oh, Homeworld knows," Sabrina said. "But they don't know how much I know, or how much Praxatillus' government knows."

Ford groaned and rolled his eyes. "Never mind. Just never mind. I don't want to know. Come here and sit down, and I'll try to explain this document to you. But it'll be uphill work. I don't know that the person who wrote it could even explain it!"

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It only took them half an hour to abandon their task as hopeless. "Look," Sabrina said finally, "you understand what's in this, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Then that's good enough for me. You can understand it for me. I'll sign it. Let's just get it over with!"

"Sabrina, I understand what's in this document, but I don't like it, and I don't want you signing it on my say-so. I don't want anything to do with that! Listen, this form doesn't make much sense for your situation. It was originally developed, somewhere in the misty dawn of Miahn bureaucracy, for enemy aliens who married into Miahn society and then, for whatever reason, felt they had to return home. It's like a release from your oaths, but not quite, because it's only temporary. If there is something in your memory that Homeworld later uses to harm Praxatillus, after this grace period is over, then you will be guilty of treason and subject to banishment and possibly death."

"Does it matter that I haven't sworn any oaths since I was released from my last ones?" Sabrina sighed.

"No, since you know you're going to swear them in the near future. I guess you could avoid doing so, but you could hardly live at court and expect the privileges you're due as part of the family if you did that."

"Why does it have to be so complicated?" she complained, resting her chin in her hands. "What do you have to sign to be allowed to join up with the Wayfarers, Ford?"

"I don't know yet. Probably something along these lines, or maybe they'll decide to treat me as some kind of operative, who knows. I don't care as long as I can make it work."

"That's how I feel about this. It's a risk I need to take." She looked at him, then firmly pressed her hand against the screen and activated the retinal scan, which served as confirmation of her handprint signature.