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Now that Human was clearly not injured, the other piggies crowded close around the Speaker. They did not jostle, but they wanted to be near.
"Rooter says the hive queen knows how to build starships," said Arrow.
"Rooter says the hive queen will teach us everything," said Cups. "Metal, fire made from rocks, houses made from black water, everything."
Speaker raised his hands, fended off their babbling. "If you were all very thirsty, and saw that I had water, you'd all ask me for a drink. But what if I knew that the water I had was poisoned?"
"There is no poison in the ships that fly to the stars," said Human.
"There are many paths to starflight," said the Speaker. "Some are better than others. I'll give you everything I can that won't destroy you."
"The hive queen promises!" said Human.
"And so do I."
Human lunged forward, grabbed the Speaker by the hair and ears, and pulled him face to face. Miro had never seen such an act of violence; it was what he had dreaded, the decision to murder--
"If we are ramen," shouted Human into the Speaker's face, "then it is ours to decide, not yours! And if we are varelse, then you might as well kill us all right now, the way you killed all the hive queen's sisters!"
Miro was stunned. It was one thing for the piggies to decide this was the Speaker who wrote the book. But how could they reach the unbelievable conclusion that he was somehow guilty of the Xenocide? Who did they think he was, the monster Ender?
And yet there sat the Speaker for the Dead, tears running down his cheeks, his eyes closed, as if Human's accusation had the force of truth.
Human turned his head to speak to Miro. "What is this water?" he whispered. Then he touched the Speaker's tears.
"It's how we show pain or grief or suffering," Miro answered.
Mandachuva suddenly cried out, a hideous cry that Miro had never heard before, like an animal dying.
"That is how we show pain," whispered Human.
"Ah! Ah!" cried Mandachuva. "I have seen that water before! In the eyes of Libo and Pipo I saw that water!"
One by one, and then all at once, all the other piggies took up the same cry. Miro was terrified, awed, excited all at once. He had no idea what it meant, but the piggies were showing emotions that they had concealed from the xenologers for forty-seven years.
"Are they gr
ieving for Papa?" whispered Ouanda. Her eyes, too, glistened with excitement, and her hair was matted with the sweat of fear.
Miro said it the moment it occurred to him: "They didn't know until this moment that Pipo and Libo were crying when they died."
Miro had no idea what thoughts then went through Ouanda's head; he only knew that she turned away, stumbled a few steps, fell to her hands and knees, and wept bitterly.
All in all, the coming of the Speaker had certainly stirred things up.
Miro knelt beside the Speaker, whose head was now bowed, his chin pressed against his chest. "Speaker," Miro said. "Como pode ser? How can it be, that you are the first Speaker, and yet you are also Ender? Nao pode ser."
"She told them more than I ever thought she would," he whispered.
"But the Speaker for the Dead, the one who wrote this book, he's the wisest man who lived in the age of flight among the stars. While Ender was a murderer, he killed a whole people, a beautiful race of ramen that could have taught us everything--"
"Both human, though," whispered the Speaker.
Human was near them now, and he spoke a couplet from the Hegemon: "Sickness and healing are in every heart. Death and deliverance are in every hand."
"Human," said the Speaker, "tell your people not to grieve for what they did in ignorance."
"It was a terrible thing," said Human. "It was our greatest gift."
