Losham had been waiting for this, and he had an answer prepared.
"What are you implying?" he asked.
"Something went conveniently wrong after less than a full day of transmission."
"The wire went against the regulations. He wasn't supposed to wear it. Someone might have noticed and taken it away."
Kolhood smiled wolfishly. "If that had happened, we would have heard it, but we didn't. The wire just stopped transmitting."
"It might have gotten damaged. The guy is a gardener, not a sound engineer. He might have dropped it in the dirt and stepped on it."
"Might have, could have. Those are not satisfying answers."
"If you have a different theory, Kolhood, I'm ready to hear it."
Kolhood's eyes had that flat, black look again. "My theory is that our father is gone."
Hazok, who had poured himself coffee during the verbal sparring between Losham and Kolhood, paused with his hand midway to his mouth, while Hocken had gone very still.
Losham assumed a mildly amused expression. "Where, in your theory, has Father gone? Was he abducted by aliens? Was he beamed up to their spaceship?"
"Stop playing stupid, Losham," Kolhood spat. "You know what I meant. Navuh is dead."
"I'm not playing stupid. I'm extrapolating. If our father is dead, how did he die? Was he murdered by his concubines? Did they ambush him with steak knives? Or maybe the harem staff rebelled and attacked him en masse? I want to explore the possibilities of the mechanics."
"You killed him."
There it was.
Losham let the words sit for a long moment while watching Kolhood's face.
He did not deny it, he did not bristle, and he did not laugh in outrage. He did not produce any of the responses that an innocent male would have produced, or what a guilty malewould have done to try to appear innocent. He just looked at his brother and let the silence do its work for a long moment.
Then he laughed. "Oh, Kolhood. If it were so easy to kill our father, one of us would have done it a long time ago."
Kolhood blinked.
Hazok looked at Kolhood, waiting for him to respond so he would know what to do, and Hocken frowned.
Losham had had several lines prepared, but this one fit the best, given the flavor of Kolhood's pushback. He had not denied or proclaimed his innocence. He had pointed out the flaw in the underlying premise. Navuh was too powerful to be taken out by one of them, or even all four of them working together. He could have stopped them with one verbal command, and with another, made them turn on each other.
"You may have gotten lucky," Kolhood said, after a moment.
"Lucky?"
"He could have been weak for some reason, distracted, and you snuck up on him."
Losham shook his head, the smile never leaving his face. "After two thousand years of looking for a chance, I finally got it. I must be a very slow learner or very unlucky."
"It is possible."
"Yes, it is possible. Many things are. Like he could have been struck by lightning. That happens sometimes. That probably wouldn't have killed him, but it would have weakened him enough for me to kill him. It's possible, but that doesn't make it so."
He was mocking Kolhood and goading him on purpose, so when the time came to push him to where Losham wanted him to go, he couldn't refuse without losing face.
"Our father is in the harem," Losham continued. "Alive and well, physically, but probably not emotionally. I guess he needs more time to conquer his demons."
"You sound very sure of yourself." Hazok finally spoke.
