Val fell silent.
Miro watched the route ahead of him. The Hive Queen's cave was nearing on the left, in an embankment by a stream. He had gone down there once before, in his old body. He knew the way. Of course, Ender had been with him then, and that was why he could communicate with the Hive Queen -- she could talk to Ender, and because those who loved and followed him were philotically twined with him, they overheard the echoes of her speech. But wasn't Val a part of Ender? And wasn't he now more tightly twined to her than he had ever been with Ender? He needed Val with him to speak to the Hive Queen; he needed to speak to the Hive Queen in order to keep Val from being obliterated like his own old damaged body.
They got out, and sure enough, the Hive Queen was expecting them; a single worker waited for them at the cavern's mouth. It took Val by the hand and led them wordlessly down into darkness, Miro clinging to Val, Val holding to the strange creature. It frightened Miro just as it had the first time, but Val seemed utterly unafraid.
Or was it that she was unconcerned? Her deepest self was Ender, and Ender did not really care what happened to her. This made her fearless. It made her unconcerned with survival. All she was concerned with was keeping her connection to Ender -- the one thing that was bound to kill her if she kept it up. To her it seemed as though Miro was trying to extinguish her; but Miro knew that his plan was the only way to save any part of her. Her body. Her memories. Her habits, her mannerisms, every aspect of her that he actually knew, those would be preserved. Every part of her that she herself was aware of or remembered, those would all be there. As far as Miro was concerned, that would mean her life was saved, if those endured. And once the change had been made, if it could be made at all, Val would thank him for it.
And so would Jane.
And so would everyone.
"That's a lie," said Miro to the Hive Queen. "He killed Human, didn't he? It was Human that he put on the line."
Human was now one of the fathertrees that grew by the gate of the village of Milagre. Ender had killed him slowly, so that he could take root in the soil and go through the passage into the third life with all his memories intact.
"I suppose Human didn't actually die," said Miro. "But Planter did, and Ender let him do that, too. And how many hive queens died in the final battle between your people and Ender? Don't brag to me about how Ender pays his own prices. He just sees to it that the price is paid, by whoever has the means to pay it."
The Hive Queen's answer was immediate.
"You don't want Jane to die either," said Miro.
"I don't like her voice inside me," said Val softly.
"Keep walking. Keep following."
"I can't," said Val. "The worker -- she let go of my hand."
"You mean we're stranded here?" asked Miro.
Val's answer was silence. They held hands tightly in the dark, not daring to step in any direction.
"When I was here before," said Miro, "you told us how all the hive queens made a web to trap Ender, only they couldn't, so they made a bridge, they drew an aiúa from Outside and made a bridge out of it and used it to speak to Ender through his mind, through the fantasy game that he played on the computers in the Battle School. You did that once -- you called an aiúa from Outside. Why can't you find that same aiúa and put it somewhere else? Link it to something else?"
"All you're saying is that it's something new. Something you don't know how to do. Not that it can't be done."
"So you can stop me," Miro murmured to Val.
"She's not talking about me," Val answered.
"It's Ender's. He has two others. This is a spare. He doesn't even want it himself."
"We can't go away in the dark," said Miro.
Miro felt Val pull her hand away from him.
"No!" he cried. "Don't let go!"
Miro knew the question was not directed toward him.
Miro heard Val's voice -- from surprisingly far away. She must be moving rapidly in the darkness. "If you and Jane are so concerned about saving my life," she said, "then give me and Miro a guide. Otherwise, who cares if I drop down some shaft and break my neck? Not Ender. Not me. Certainly not Miro."
"Stop moving!" cried Miro. "Just hold still, Val!"
"You hold still," Val called back to him. "You're the one with a life worth saving!"
Suddenly Miro felt a hand groping for his. No, a claw. He gripped the foreclaw of a worker and she led him forward through the darkness. Not very far. Then they turned a corner and it was lighter, turned another and they could see. Another, another, and there they were in a chamber illuminated by light through a shaft that led to the surface. Val was already there, seated on the ground before the Hive Queen.
When Miro saw her before, she had been in the midst of laying eggs -- eggs that would grow into new hive queens, a brutal process, cruel and sensuous. Now, though, she simply lay in the damp earth of the tunnel, eating what a steady stream of workers brought to her. Clay dishes filled with a mash of amaranth and water. Now and then, gathered fruit. Now and then, meat. No interruption, worker after worker. Miro had never seen, had never imagined anyone eating so much.
"We'll never stop the fleet without starflight," said Miro. "They're about to kill Jane, any day now. Shut down the ansible network, and she'll die. What then? What are your ships for then? The Lusitania Fleet will come and destroy this world."
"I worry about everything," said Miro. "It's all my concern. Besides, my job is done. Finished. There are already enough worlds. More worlds than we can settle. What we need is more starships and more time, not more destinations."
"Really? When did this change of assignment come about?"
"Then why have Val and I been killing ourselves all these weeks? And that's literal, for Val -- the work is so boring that it doesn't interest Ender and so she's fading."
I die? My daughters have all my memories.>
"You see, Val?" said Miro. "The Hive Queen knows -- your memories are your self. If your memories live, then you're alive."
"In a pig's eye," said Val softly. "What's the worse danger she's talking about?"
"There is no worse danger," said Miro. "She just wants me to go away, but I won't go away. Your life is worth saving, Val. So is Jane's. And the Hive Queen can find a way to do it, if it can be done. If Jane could be the bridge between Ender and the hive queens, then why can't Ender be the bridge between Jane and you?"