Books In English "City Of Illusions" Ursula K. Le Guin | Page 89

the voice though very soft was deep. "We are being filmed, you know,
Strella."
"I know," said the little man in Estrel's voice. Neither of them so much
as glanced at Falk; they behaved as if they were alone. "Go on with what
you were about to say, Kradgy."
"I was about to ask you why it took you so long."
"So long? You are unjust, my Lord. How could I track him in the
Forest east of Shorg?—it is utter wilderness. The stupid animals were no
help; all they do these days is babble the Law. When you finally dropped
me the man-finder I was two hundred miles north of him. When I finally
caught up he was heading straight into Basnasska territory. You know the
Council has them furnished with bombirds and such so that they can thin
out the Wanderers and the Solia-pachim. So I had to join the filthy tribe.
Have you not heard my reports? I sent them in all along, till I lost my
sender crossing a river south of Kansas Enclave. And my mother in Besdio
gave me another. Surely they kept my reports on tape?"
"I never listen to reports. In any case, it was all time and risk wasted,
since you did not in all these weeks succeed in teaching him not to fear
us."
"Estrel," Falk said. "Estrel!"
Grotesque and frail in her transvestite clothes, Estrel did not turn, did
not hear. She went on speaking to the robed man. Choked with shame and
anger Falk shouted her name, then strode forward and seized her
shoulder—and there was nothing there, a blur of lights in the air, a flicker
of color, fading.
The door-slit in the wall still stood open, and through it Falk could see
into the next room. There stood the robed man and Estrel, their backs to
him. He said her name in a whisper, and she turned and looked at him. She
looked into his eyes without triumph and without shame, calmly,
passively, detached and uncaring, as she had looked at him all along.
"Why—why did you He to me?" he said. "Why did you bring me
here?" He knew why; he knew what he was and always had been in
Estrel's eyes. It was not his intelligence that spoke, but his self-respect and
his loyalty, which could not endure or admit the truth in this first moment.
~ 87 ~