The same lack of evidence made the idea of a planetside conspiracy even more unlikely. And, making all these possibilities still less possible was the sheer simultaneity of it. As near as Qing-jao could determine, every single ship had broken off ansible communications at almost exactly the same time. There might have been a time lag of seconds, perhaps even minutes—but never as long as five minutes, never a gap long enough for someone on one ship to remark about the disappearance of another.

  The summary was elegant in its simplicity. There was nothing left. The evidence made every conceivable explanation inconceivable.

  That was the problem Qing-jao had been given. Or rather, that was the problem that Starways Congress had given to Han Fei-tzu, which he had assigned to Qing-jao as her coming-of-age task.

  Why would Father do this to me? she wondered, not for the first time.

  Immediately—as usual—she felt unclean even for asking such a question, for doubting her father’s perfect correctness in all his decisions. She needed to wash, just a little, to take away the impurity of her doubt.

  But she didn’t wash. Instead she let the voice of the gods swell inside her, let their command grow more urgent. This time she wasn’t resisting a righteous desire to grow more disciplined. This time she was deliberately trying to attract as much attention as possible from the gods. Only when she was panting with the need to cleanse herself, only when she shuddered at the most casual touch of her own flesh—a hand brushing a knee—only then did she voice her question.

  “You did it, didn’t you?” she said to the gods. “What no human being could have done, you must have done. You reached out and cut off the Lusitania Fleet.”

  The answer came, not in words, but in the ever-increasing need for purification.

  “But Congress and the Admiralty are not of the Way. They can’t imagine the golden door into the city of the jade mountain in the west. If Father says to them, ‘The gods stole your fleet to punish you for wickedness,’ they’ll only despise him. If they despise him, our greatest living statesman, they’ll despise us as well. And if Path is shamed because of Father, it will destroy him. Is that why you did this thing?”

  She began to weep. “I won’t let you destroy my father. I’ll find another way. I’ll find an answer that will satisfy them. I defy you!”

  No sooner had she said the words than the gods sent her the most overpowering sense of her own abominable filthiness she had ever felt. It was so strong it took her breath away, and she fell forward, clutching at her terminal. She tried to speak, to plead for forgiveness, but she gagged instead, swallowed hard to keep from retching. She felt as though her hands were spreading slime on everything she touched; as she struggled to her feet, her gown clung across her flesh as if it were covered with thick black grease.

  But she did not wash. Nor did she fall to the ground and trace lines in the wood. Instead she staggered to the door, meaning to go downstairs to her father’s room.

  The doorway caught her, though. Not physically—the door swung open easily as ever—but still she could not pass. She had heard of such things, how the gods captured their disobedient servants in doorways, but it had never happened to her before. She couldn’t understand how she was being held. Her body was free to move. There was no barrier. But somehow she knew that she couldn’t walk through, that the gods required some sort of penance, some sort of purification or they’d never let her leave the room.

  She would not do it. She would not wash or trace lines for them. Not if they were trying to destroy her father, she wouldn’t do it. Let the gods account her an enemy! Let them—oh, yes, let them despise her and cast her off and never speak to her again. She would rather be a servant in someone else’s house, like poor Wang-mu, than be a servant to these hateful gods another hour.

  As if in answer to her rebellious wish, it suddenly came to her how she might pass through the door. All she needed to do was fix her gaze on a point in the air just outside the upper-right comer of the door, and while never letting her gaze move from that spot, step backward through the door with her right foot, place her left hand through, then pivot leftward, bringing her left leg backward through the doorway, then her right arm forward. It was complicated and difficult, like a dance, but by moving very slowly and carefully, she did it.

  The door released her. And though she still felt the pressure of her own filthiness, some of the intensity had faded. It was bearable. She could breathe without gasping, speak without gagging.

  She went downstairs and rang the little bell outside her father’s door.

  “Is it my daughter, my Gloriously Bright?” asked Father.

  “Yes, noble one,” said Qing-jao.

  “I’m ready to receive you.”

  She opened Father’s door and stepped through—no ritual was needed this time. She strode at once to where he sat on a pillow before his terminal and knelt before him on the floor.

  “I have examined your Si Wang-mu,” said Father, “and I believe your first hiring has been a worthy one.”

  It took a moment for Father’s words to make sense. Si Wang-mu? Why did Father speak to her of an ancient god? She looked up in surprise, then looked where Father was looking—at a serving girl in a clean grey gown, kneeling demurely on a cushion, looking at the floor. It took a moment to remember the girl from the rice paddy, to remember that she was to be Qing-jao’s secret maid. How could she have forgotten? It was only a few hours ago that Qing-jao left her. Yet in that time Qing-jao had battled with the gods, and if she hadn’t won, at least she had not yet lost. What was the hiring of a servant compared to a struggle with the gods?

  “Wang-mu is impertinent and ambitious,” said Father, “but she is also honest and far more intelligent than I would have expected. I assume from her bright mind and sharp ambition that you both intend for her to be your student as well as your secret maid.”

  Wang-mu gasped, and when Qing-jao glanced over at her, she saw how horrified the girl looked. Oh, yes—she must think that I think that she told Father of our secret plan. “Don’t worry, Wang-mu,” said Qing-jao. “Father almost always guesses secrets. I know you didn’t tell.”

  “I wish I could guess a few secrets harder than this one,” said Father. “My daughter, I commend you for your worthy generosity. The gods will honor you for it, as I do also.”

  The words of praise came like unguent to a stinging wound. Perhaps this was why her rebelliousness had not destroyed her, why some god had taken mercy on her and shown her how to get through the door of her room just now. Because she had judged Wang-mu with mercy and wisdom, forgiving the girl’s impertinence, Qing-jao herself was being forgiven, at least a little, for her own outrageous daring.

  Wang-mu does not repent of her ambition, thought Qing-jao. Neither will I repent of my decision. I will not let the gods destroy Father because I can’t find—or invent—a non-divine explanation for the disappearance of the Lusitania Fleet. And yet I can’t withhold from Father the true solution: that the gods have hidden or destroyed the fleet. The works of the gods must be recognized by their obedient servants, even if they must remain hidden from unbelievers on other worlds.

  “Father,” said Qing-jao, “I must speak to you about my task.”

  Father misunderstood her hesitation. “We can speak in front of Wang-mu. She’s been hired now as your secret maid. The hiring bonus has been sent to her father, the first barriers of secrecy have been suggested to her mind. We can trust her to hear us and never tell.”

  “Yes, Father,” said Qing-jao. In truth she had again forgotten that Wang-mu was even there. “Father, I know who has hidden the Lusitania Fleet. But you must promise me that you will never tell it to Starways Congress.”

  Father, who was usually placid, looked mildly distressed. “I can’t promise such a thing,” he said. “It would be unworthy of me to be such a disloyal servant.”

  What could she do, then? How could she speak?—and yet how could she keep from speaking? “Who is your master?” she cried. “Congress or the gods?”

  “First the gods,” said Father. “They are always first.”

  “Then I must tell you that I have discovered that the gods are the ones who have hidden the fleet from us, Father. But if you tell this to the Congress, they’ll mock you and you’ll be ruined.” Then another thought occurred to her. “If it was the gods who stopped the fleet, Father, then the fleet must have been against the will of the gods after all. And if Starways Congress sent the fleet against the will of—”

  Father held up his hand for her to be silent. She immediately stopped speaking and bowed her head. She waited.

  “Of course it’s the gods,” said Father.

  His words came as both a relief and a humiliation. Of course he had said. Did he know this all along?

  “The gods do all things that are done in the universe. But do not assume that you know why. You say they must have stopped the fleet because they oppose its mission. But I say that Congress couldn’t have sent the fleet in the first place if the gods had not willed it. So why couldn’t it be that the gods stopped the fleet because its mission was so great and noble that humanity was not worthy of it? Or what if they stopped the fleet because it would provide a difficult test for you? One thing is certain: The gods have permitted Starways Congress to hold sway over most of humanity. As long as they have the mandate of heaven, we of Path will follow their edicts without opposition.”

  “I did not mean to oppose . . .” She could not finish such an obvious falsehood.

  Father understood perfectly, of course. “I hear how your voice fades and your words trail off into nothing. This is because you know your words are not true. You meant to oppose Starways Congress, in spite of all I have taught you.” Then his voice grew gentler. “For my sake you meant to do it.”

  “You are my ancestor. I owe you a higher duty than I owe them.”

  “I’m your father. I won’t become your ancestor until I’m dead.”

  He was joking, she knew. She had been taught from childhood that one must treat one’s parents and grandparents like the greatest of ancestors, because they are the only ancestors one ever knows face to face—even though, being alive, they are not half so powerful as the dead.

  “I tell you now, my Gloriously Bright daughter, that opposing Congress will never be for my good. Or yours either. But I forgive you for loving me to excess. It is the gentlest and kindest of vices.”

  He smiled. It did much to calm her agitation. Qing-jao was able to think again, to return to the puzzle. “You knew that the gods did this, and yet you made me search for the answer.”

  “But were you asking the right question?” said Father. “The question we need answered is: How did the gods do it?”

  “How can I know?” answered Qing-jao. “They might have destroyed the fleet or hidden it, or carried it away to some secret place in the West—”

  “Qing-jao! Look at me. Hear me well.”

  She looked. His stem command helped calm her, give her focus.

  “This is something I have tried to teach you all your life, but now you must learn it, Qing-jao. The gods are the cause of everything that happens, but they never act except in disguise. Do you hear me?”

  She nodded. She’d heard those words a hundred times.

  “You hear and yet you don’t understand me, even now,” said Father. “The gods have chosen the people of Path, Qing-jao. Only we are privileged to hear their voice. Only we are allowed to see that they are the cause of all that is and was and will be. To all other people their works remain hidden, a mystery. Your task is not to discover the true cause of the disappearance of the Lusitania Fleet—all of Path would know at once that the true cause is that the gods wished it to happen. Your task is to discover the disguise that the gods have created for this event.”

  Qing-jao felt light-headed, dizzy. She had been so certain that she had the answer, that she had fulfilled her task. Now it was slipping away. The answer was still true, but her task was different now.

  “Right now, because we can’t find a natural explanation, the gods stand exposed for all of humanity to see, the unbelievers as well as the believers. The gods are naked, and we must clothe them. We must find out the series of events the gods have created to explain the disappearance of the fleet, to make it appear natural to the unbelievers. I thought you understood this. We serve Starways Congress, but only because by serving Congress we also serve the gods. The gods wish us to deceive Congress, and Congress wishes to be deceived.”

  Qing-jao nodded, numb with disappointment that her task was still not finished.

  “Does this sound heartless of me?” asked Father. “Am I dishonest? Am I cruel to the unbeliever?”

  “Does a daughter judge her father?” whispered Qing-jao.

  “Of course she does,” said Father. “Every day all people judge all other people. The question is whether we judge wisely.”

  “Then I judge that it’s no sin to speak to the unbelievers in the language of their unbelief,” said Qing-jao.

  Was that a smile now at the corners of his mouth? “You do understand,” said Father. “If every Congress comes to us, humbly seeking to know the truth, then we will teach them the Way and they’ll become part of Path. Until then, we serve the gods by helping the unbelievers deceive themselves into thinking that all things happen because of natural explanations.”

  Qing-jao bowed until her head nearly touched the floor. “You have tried to teach me this many times, but until now I never had a task that this principle applied to. Forgive the foolishness of your unworthy daughter.”

  “I have no unworthy daughter,” said Father. “I have only my daughter who is Gloriously Bright. The principle you’ve learned today is one that few on Path will ever really understand. That’s why only a few of us are able to deal directly with people from other worlds without baffling or confusing them. You have surprised me today, Daughter, not because you hadn’t yet understood it, but because you have come to understand it so young. I was nearly ten years older than you before I discovered it.”

  “How can I learn something before you did, Father?” The idea of surpassing one of his achievements was almost unthinkable.

  “Because you had me to teach you,” said Father, “while I had to discover it for myself. But I see that it frightened you to think that perhaps you learned something younger than I did. Do you think it would dishonor me if my daughter surpassed me? On the contrary—there can be no greater honor to a parent than to have a child who is greater.”

  “I can never be greater than you, Father.”

  “In a sense that’s true, Qing-jao. Because you are my child, all your works are included within mine, as a subset of mine, just as all of us are a subset of our ancestors. But you have so much potential for greatness inside you that I believe there’ll come a time when I will be counted greater because of your works than because of my own. If ever the people of Path judge me worthy of some singular honor, it will be at least as much because of your achievements as my own.”

  With that Father bowed to her, not a courteous bow of dismissal, but a deep bow of respect, his head almost touching the floor. Not quite, for that would be outrageous, almost a mockery, if he actually touched his head to the floor in honor to his own daughter. But he came as close as dignity allowed.

  It confused her for a moment, frightened her, then she understood. When he implied that his chance of being chosen god of Path depended on her greatness, he wasn’t speaking of some vague future event. He was speaking of the here and now. He was speaking of her task. If she could find the gods’ disguise, the natural explanation for the disappearance of the Lusitania Fleet, then his selection as god of Path would be assured. That was how much he trusted her. That was how important this task was. What was her coming of age, compared to her father’s godhood? She must work harder, think better, and succeed where all the resources of the military and the Congress had failed. Not for herself, but for the gods and for her father’s chance to become one of them.

  Qing-jao withdrew from Father’s room. She paused in the doorway and glanced at Wang-mu. One glance from the godspoken was enough to tell the girl to follow.

  By the time Qing-jao got to her room she was shaking with the pent-up need for purification. All that she had done wrong today—her rebelliousness toward the gods, her refusal to accept purification earlier, her stupidity at not understanding her true task—it came together now. Not that she felt dirty; it wasn’t washing she wanted, or self-loathing that she felt. After all, her unworthiness had been tempered by her father’s praise, by the god who showed her how to pass through the door. And Wang-mu’s having proven to be a good choice—that was a test that Qing-jao had passed, and boldly, too. So it wasn’t vileness that made her tremble. She was hungry for purification. She longed for the gods to be with her as she served them. Yet no penance that she knew of would be enough to quell her hunger.

  Then she knew; she must trace a line on every board in the room.

  At once she chose her starting point, the southeast comer, she would begin each tracing at the eastern wall, so that her rituals would all move westward. toward the gods. Last of all would be the shortest board in the room, less than a meter long, in the northwest comer. It would be her reward, that her last tracing would be so brief and easy.

  She could hear Wang-mu enter the room softly behind her, but Qing-jao had no time now for mortals. The gods were waiting. She knelt in the comer, scanned the grains to find the one the gods wanted her to follow. Usually she had to choose for herself, and then she always chose the most difficult one, so the gods wouldn’t despise her. But tonight she was filled with instant certainty that the gods were choosing for her. The first line was a thick one, wavy but easy to see. Already they were being merciful! Tonight’s ritual would be almost a conversation between her and the gods. She had broken through an invisible barrier today; she had come closer to her father’s clear understanding. Perhaps someday the gods would speak to her with the sort of clarity that the common people believed all the godspoken heard.