Free Embassytown by China Miéville Page B

but not by very much.
    “How did all this happen?” I said. “You and Ez? It takes years . . . How long have you been training?”
    “Avice, really,” Wyatt said from behind Ra. “You’ll hear all about that—” He raised his eyebrows in a rebuke, but I raised mine back. There was a moment between him and Ra, before Ra spoke.
    “We’d been friends a long time,” he said. “We got tested years ago. Kilohours, I mean. It was a random thing, part of an exhibition about the Stadt method.” He stopped as the noise in the room grew louder. Mag or Da said something, laughing, moved between me and Ra demanding the attention he politely turned on them.
    “He’s tense,” I said to Wyatt quietly.
    “I don’t think this is his favourite thing,” he said. “But then, would it be yours? Poor man’s in a zoo.”
    “ ‘Poor man,’ ” I said. “Very, very strange to hear you speak of him like that.”
    “Strange times.” We laughed over a swell of music. There was a strong smell of perfume and wine. We watched EzRa, who were not EzRa, not really, who were Ez and Ra, separated by metres. Ez was bantering with facility and pleasure. He caught my eye, excused himself to his interlocutors and approached.
    “Hi,” he said. “I see you met my colleague.” He held out his hand.
    “Your colleague ? Yes, I met him.” I shook my head. JoaQuin were at Ez’s elbows, one on each side like elderly parents, and I nodded at them. “Your colleague. You really are just determined to scandalise us, Ez,” I said.
    “Oh, please. No . Not at all, not at all.” He grinned an apology at the doppels escorting him. “It’s . . . well, I suppose it’s just a slightly different way of doing things.”
    “And it’ll be invaluable,” said Joa, or Quin, heartily. The two spoke in turn. “You’re always telling us we’re too . . .” “. . . stuck in our ways, Avice. This will be . . .” “. . . good for us, and good for Embassytown.” One of them slapped Ez on the back. “Ambassador EzRa’s an outstanding linguist and bureaucrat.”
    “You’re going to say they’re a ‘new broom,’ aren’t you, Ambassador?” I said.
    JoaQuin laughed. “Why not?” “Why not indeed?” “That’s exactly what they are.”
    W E WERE RUDE , Ehrsul and I. We’d stick together, whispering and showing off, at all these sorts of events. So when she waved a trid hand to attract my attention I joined her expecting to play. But when I reached her she said to me urgently, “Scile’s here.”
    I didn’t look round. “Are you sure?”
    “I never thought he’d come,” she said.
    I said, “I don’t know what . . .” It was some time since I’d seen my husband. I didn’t want a scene. I bit a knuckle for a moment, stood up straighter. “He’s with CalVin, isn’t he?”
    “Am I going to have to separate you two girls?” It was Ez again. He made me start. He’d extricated himself from JoaQuin’s anxious stewarding. He offered me a drink. He flexed something inside himself, and his augmens glimmered, changing the colour of his vague halo. I realised that with the help of his innard tech he might have been listening to us. I focused on him and tried not to look for Scile. Ez was shorter than me, and muscular. His hair was cut close.
    “Ez, this is Ehrsul,” I said. To my astonishment he looked at her, said nothing and looked back at me. The rudeness made me gasp.
    “Having a good time?” he said to me. I watched tiny lights move across his corneas. Ehrsul was moving away. I was going to go with her and blank him haughtily, but behind his back she flashed a quick display: Stay , learn .
    “You’re going to have to do a lot better than that,” I said to him quietly.
    “What?” He was startled. “What? Your—”
    “She’s not mine,” I said. He stared at me.
    “The autom? I apologise. I’m sorry.”
    “It isn’t me you owe that to.” He inclined his head.
    “What are you monitoring?” I said to him after a