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

           Miranda
nodded, and after a moment Cendri realized that she was being humored; that
Miranda was being diplomatic and polite. "Of course they have taught you
to think so, Scholar Dame, and you have never had, I am sure, a chance to do
research without cultural bias."
                 Since
this was exactly what Cendri would have liked to say to Miranda, she wanted to
laugh. "Let us hope for a day, then, Lady, when your scholars from Isis can see for themselves."
                 Miranda
returned the smile, with spontaneous friendliness. "I wish we might! It has
been spoken of, you know, in the councils of the High Matriarch—that we should
send scholars to University, have more trade into the Unity, share problems
with other worlds; we need to know more about water-table technology, and the
mathematics of reserve technology and arid-land cultivation; and more about
pelagic ecology. The High Matriarch believed, too, that we have a
responsibility to the women of the Unity, to show them the example of a sane
society in function, and that until they are shown our example, they could
never follow it. But so many of the women here are paranoid on the subject!
They still believe—or, in the case of some politicians, pretend to believe—that
the worlds of the Unity are just lying in wait to seize us again, and put us
under male domination, as they did with our first colony on Labrys..." she
paused, looked at Cendri and asked "You know the story—?"
                 "I
only know that the colony on Labrys was destroyed," she said. "The
official story is that an overanxious administration miscalculated the speed
with which their Sun was to go Nova, and resettled them on a world with an
unstable orbit. There are not many records; most of those which remain call it
a colossal bureaucratic blunder, for which the Unity paid a heavy indemnity.
But indemnities, of course, cannot wipe out the loss of life, and it would not
be at all surprising if some people called it a plot against the
Matriarchate."
                 "It
is so called," said Miranda, soberly, "and there are those who think
me a traitor because I have said that I, myself, would like to go and study on
University—"
                 "I
hope someday you may," said Cendri, and Miranda smiled gaily and said,
"I would like to see other worlds. I am not afraid of male-dominated
worlds! I—" she laughed again, a merry, defiant sound, "I defy any
male to dominate me!"
                 She
sounded completely confident, and Cendri thought how incongruous it was that
this young woman, delicate, pretty, pregnant, should express such defiance. She
would have said, if she had been on her own home world, There are a great many men who would really enjoy trying it, my dear, and
you might enjoy it, too, if you would give it a fair chance! In
some things, dominance is not so bad! Miranda was pregnant, surely she must have found that out! But of course she could not say
this; so she only rejoiced that the Lady Miranda was in a feminine gossiping
mood—she supposed this was a typical mode for a world of women—and encouraged
it.
                 "You
yourself would like to study on University? Are there many women interested in
that, do you think?"
                 "I
am sure there are," said Miranda. "There are many women from the College of Ariadne who have volunteered to assist the Scholar
Dame from Unity in her researches, if she will have them. But there are also
those who fear that this is sacrilege, that your work there will deprive us of
the love and concern of the Builders—"
                 "The—"
Cendri swallowed hard, "the—the love and concern of the—the
Builders?" For a moment she felt certain that she must have misunderstood
Miranda's speech. Miranda's eyes were glowing.
                 "Oh,
yes! You will feel it, too, you are a woman—"