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Grandfather's seat; Grandfather was sitting in a chair by the closed door to
the hall. Zhobelia was still in the schoolroom, talking to the children. The
meeting for the Full Moon Service was still in abeyance; Calli was reading
from the
Orthography while we had our conclave in the library, next door to the
schoolroom. I felt good here, surrounded by the books and their lingering
musty smell.
Allan dropped to his knees in front of our Grandfather and put his hands on
the arms of his chair, shaking it. 'Salvador! Founder!
Grandfather
!' he shouted. 'Don't let her do this! Can't you see what she's up to?'
Grandfather shook his head and looked away. He muttered something but I
didn't catch what it was.
Allan threw himself back up and came striding towards me, one fist clenched
and raised by his shoulder. Ricky, who had apparently accepted that Allan was
the bad 'un in all this, growled and stepped forward. Allan stopped a few
paces away. He was dressed in grey robes of a similar cut to Grandfather's.
I looked my brother in the eye, keeping my expression neutral and my voice
steady. 'I want you to admit you took the zhlonjiz and put it in my kit-bag,
Allan,' I continued. 'And you'll admit you've been using a portable phone here
in the heart of the Community to arrange all your lies and deceptions and
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all people like Morag and Uncle Mo.'
'Ha!' Allan said, laughing. 'I will, will I? And that's all, is it?'
'No,' I said. 'I also want you to confess you lied about my attempting to
seduce Grandfather and that you tried to influence him and the revisions of
the
Orthography for your own selfish, political purposes.'
'You're mad!' he exclaimed, his voice rising in pitch. He looked round all of
us, his eyes wide, his face shining with sweat, his chest heaving in and out.
He laughed again. 'She's mad!' he told Sophi, Morag and
Ricky. He turned back and looked at Salvador, who was gazing at his grandson
now. 'She's mad! She's fucking mad, I'm telling you! Do you hear what she's
saying? I mean, are you listening to all this?'
'Do you deny any of it?' Salvador asked coldly.
'All of it!' Allan yelled, spinning round to glare at me.
I looked slowly at Morag, who was standing at my side. She was frowning at
Allan, her arms folded. Allan looked from Morag's face to mine and then back.
He blinked rapidly.
'Perhaps, Grandfather,' I said, 'you'd like to ask my brother for the key to
his desk in the office. It was on the chain round his neck, last time I saw
it.'
'Well, Allan?' Grandfather said.
Allan turned round to face our Grandfather again. 'Look,' he said, and took a
deep breath. He gave a small, nervous laugh. 'Look, all right; I have got the
phone. Yes, I mean, big deal. Big fucking deal. I've used it for
everybody's good. Everybody's. Plus, it's there for emergencies& And yes,
all right, there might have been some crossed lines with the letters from
Morag, but Grandad-'
I found myself striding down the room to him.
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He must have heard me coming; he turned round and my forearms thudded into his
chest as I gathered two balls of material from his robes into my fists; my
momentum carried him two tottering steps backwards until his shoulders thumped
into the library door, just to the side of where Grandfather sat. I
glared up into Allan's face; his eyes were wide, his breath rushed out of his
open mouth and struck my face.
I pressed into him, my whole body quivering with rage.
'Listen, Brother
,' I hissed, grasping his robes tighter and shaking him. 'I don't think you've
really understood the situation. I know what you've been doing, I
know what your plans were and now so does
Grandfather. Everything I'm doing now and everything I'm saying now has
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all authority.
Everything
. Is that right, Grandfather?' I said, without looking at him.
I watched Allan's eyes tear their gaze away from mine to look imploringly down
and to the side.
Quietly, our Grandfather said, 'Yes, that's right, Isis.'
Allan's gaze swung back to me. I could see sweat on his top lip now. His
eyes looked very big. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]