Bradley, Marion Zimmer - Novel 19 by The Ruins of Isis (v2.1) Read Free Book Online

superstition and nonsense. She has not examined the evidence,
you understand. She is, I believe, a very stupid woman."
                 It
took Cendri a moment to digest this unbelievable statement. Communication? With the Builders? She blinked at Miranda's
matter-of-fact tone, forcibly reminding herself that the Builders—if they had
ever existed at all, which most reputable scientists doubted—were supposed to
have left their ruins no less than two million years ago! Surely, surely, the
Lady Miranda's statement must have some symbolic, or religious, interpretation!
And she could not even inquire about it until she knew precisely what weight
was given to religious matters in this society!
                 She
felt intensely frustrated, but she made her voice noncommittal again. "It
will indeed come most conveniently to our work, to be located so near to the
ruins. That was most thoughtful of the High Matriarch."
                 "It
was a decision demanding courage," Miranda said, "and now it is
likely to go for nothing—depending, of course, on who is appointed High
Matriarch in her place. Her death at this time may undo all the work she has
done—she has believed for many years that we on Isis should have more contact
with the Unity, but it has taken this long for the time to be ripe for this
opening gesture; inviting the Scholar Dame di Velo here to explore the ruins.
There are still those who fear any kind of contact with the worlds dominated by
men; they feel they can only bring contamination to our society—" she
broke off and said anxiously, her fingers nervously twisting her long braid.
"Please—my mother said I must be certain not to offend you, since you are
from a world dominated by males—and there are those here who feel you will have
nothing to offer us but temptation—I'm not saying this at all well," she
said, with her diffident smile.
                 Cendri
said neutrally—the one thing she must not do was to question, publicly, the
prime postulate of their society—"The worlds of the Unity are not, of
course, dominated by males, Lady Miranda. Oh, perhaps a few hundred years ago,
on such worlds as Pioneer and Apollo, there were certain—certain inequities.
But on my own home world they were never very great, and on University, men and
women are quite equal."
                 Miranda
raised her feathery eyebrows in obvious skepticism. She said, "I am not,
of course, well enough informed for intelligent comment on this, Scholar Dame.
But it does conflict with everything I have ever heard."
                 Cendri
smiled. "And of course I could never convince you, Lady Miranda. The
simplest thing would be for your world to send some—" she hesitated,
phrasing it carefully, "Some of your finest students there, so that each
woman might see for herself that she is welcomed as the equal of any man, and
accepted only on the basis of her individual talent and aptitude for
scholarship."
                 The
Lady Miranda laughed. She said, "The very fact that men are accepted as scholars points to prejudice and inequity," she said.
"It is a biological fact, long proven by any impartial scientist, that the
average man's brain is smaller than the brain of a woman, that female children
are taller and heavier at puberty, and of course after puberty, males
are so much at the mercy of their compulsive sex drives that it is impossible
to educate them. Male children, of course, can be educated, if it is skillfully
done. But only in a society where males make the rules could anyone accept the
idea of a true scholarship for adult functioning males."
                 Firmly
Cendri reminded herself that she was not there to debate, or to defend the
Unity, or the world of University. She said diplomatically, "I am sure in
your experience you have found it so, Lady, but I do assure you that on
University we have many great male scholars."