Xenocide (Ender Wiggins Saga)

don't you just get up and trace a line every morning and have done with it? Why don't you just have the floor covered in carpet? It was so hard to explain that the gods can't be fooled by silly stratagems like that.
    What if there were no wood at all in the whole world? Would the gods burn you up like paper? Would a dragon come and carry you off?
    Qing-jao couldn't answer Wang-mu's questions except to say that this is what the gods required of her. If there were no woodgrain, the gods wouldn't require her to trace it. To which Wang-mu replied that they should make a law against wooden floors, then, so that Qing-jao could be shut of the whole business.
    Those who hadn't heard the voice of the gods simply couldn't understand.
    Today, though, Wang-mu's question had nothing to do with the gods-- or, at least, had nothing to do with them at first .
    "What is it that finally stopped the Lusitania Fleet?" asked Wang-mu.
    Almost, Qing-jao simply took the question in stride; almost she answered with a laugh: If I knew that, I could rest! But then she realized that Wang-mu probably shouldn't even know that the Lusitania Fleet had disappeared.
    "How would you know anything about the Lusitania Fleet?"
    "I can read , can't I?" said Wang-mu, perhaps a little too proudly.
    But why shouldn't she be proud? Qing-jao had told her, truthfully, that Wang-mu learned very quickly indeed, and figured out many things for herself. She was very intelligent, and Qing-jao knew she shouldn't be surprised if Wang-mu understood more than was told to her directly.
    "I can see what you have on your terminal," said Wang-mu, "and it always has to do with the Lusitania Fleet. Also you discussed it with your father the first day I was here. I didn't understand most of what you said, but I knew it had to do with the Lusitania Fleet." Wang-mu's voice was suddenly filled with loathing. "May the gods piss in the face of the man who launched that fleet."
    Her vehemence was shocking enough; the fact that Wang-mu was speaking against Starways Congress was unbelievable.
    "Do you know who it was that launched the fleet?" asked Qing-jao.
    "Of course. It was the selfish politicians in Starways Congress, trying to destroy any hope that a colony world could win its independence."
    So Wang-mu knew she was speaking treasonously. Qing-jao remembered her own similar words, long ago, with loathing; to have them said again in her presence-- and by her own secret maid-- was outrageous. "What do you know of these things? These are matters for Congress, and here you are speaking of independence and colonies and--"
    Wang-mu was on her knees, head bowed to the floor. Qing-jao was at once ashamed for speaking so harshly.
    "Oh, get up, Wang-mu."
    "You're angry with me."
    "I'm shocked to hear you talk like that, that's all. Where did you hear such nonsense?"
    "Everybody says it," said Wang-mu.
    "Not everybody," said Qing-jao. "Father never says it. On the other hand, Demosthenes says that sort of thing all the time." Qing-jao remembered how she had felt when she first read the words of Demosthenes-- how logical and right and fair he had sounded. Only later, after Father had explained to her that Demosthenes was the enemy of the rulers and therefore the enemy of the gods, only then did she realize how oily and deceptive the traitor's words had been, which had almost seduced her into believing that the Lusitania Fleet was evil. If Demosthenes had been able to come so close to fooling an educated godspoken girl like Qing-jao, no wonder that she was hearing his words repeated like truth in the mouth of a common girl.
    "Who is Demosthenes?" asked Wang-mu.
    "A traitor who is apparently succeeding better than anyone thought." Did Starways Congress realize that Demosthenes' ideas were being repeated by people who had never heard of him? Did anyone understand what this meant? Demosthenes' ideas were now the common wisdom of the common people. Things had reached a more dangerous turn than Qing-jao had imagined. Father was wiser; he must know already. "Never mind," said Qingjao. "Tell me about the Lusitania Fleet."
    "How can I, when it will make you angry?"
    Qing-jao waited patiently.
    "All right then," said Wang-mu, but she still looked wary. "Father says-- and so does Pan Ku-wei, his very wise friend who once took the examination for the civil service and came very very close to passing--"
    "What do they say?"
    "That it's a very bad thing for Congress to send a huge fleet-- and so huge--