becoming male.
He went to see Margit, who was brown now and mated and pregnant and content.
He asked his parents to find a female mate for Dehkiaht.
Then he left for Phoenix. He especially wanted to see Tate again while he still looked Human. He wanted to tell her he had kept his promise.
2
Phoenix was still more a town than a village, but it was a shabbier town. Akin could not help comparing Phoenix as he remembered it to Phoenix now.
There was trash in the street. Dead weeds, food waste, scrap wood, cloth, and paper. Some of the houses were obviously vacant. A couple of them had been partially torn down. Others seemed ready to fall down.
Akin walked into town openly as he had always walked into resister settlements. He had been shot doing this only once. That once had been nothing more than a painful nuisance. A Human would have died. Akin had simply run away and healed himself. Lilith had warned him that he must not let resisters see how his body healed?that the sight of wounds healing before their eyes could frighten them. And Humans were most dangerous, most unpredictable when they were afraid.
There were rifles pointed at him as he walked down the street of Phoenix. So Phoenix was armed now. He could see guns and people through the windows, although it seemed the people were trying not to be seen. A few people working or loitering in the street stared at him. At least two were too drunk to notice him.
Hidden guns and open drunkenness.
Phoenix was dying. One of the drunken men was Macy Wilton, who had acted as father to Amma and Shkaht. The other was Stancio Roybal, husband of Neci, the woman who had wanted to amputate Amma?s and Shkaht?s sensory tentacles. And where were Kolina Wilton and Neci? How could they let their mates?their husbands?lie in the mud half-conscious or unconscious?
And where was Gabe?
He reached the house that he had shared with Tate and Gabe, and for a moment he was afraid to climb the stairs to the porch and rap his knuckles against the door Human-fashion. The house was shut and looked well-kept, but
who might live there now?
A man with a gun came out onto the porch and looked down. Gabe.
?You speak English?? he demanded, pointing his rifle at Akin.
?I always have, Gabe.? He paused, giving the man time to look at him. ?I?m Akin.?
The man stood staring at him, peering first from one angle, then moving slightly to peer from another. Akin had changed after all, had grown up. Gabe looked the same.
?I worried that you would be in the hills or out at another village,? Akin said. ?I never thought to worry that you might not recognize me. I?ve come back to keep a promise I made to Tate.?
Gabe said nothing.
Akin sighed and settled to wait. It was not likely that anyone would shoot him as long as he stood still, hands in sight, unthreatening.
Men gathered around Akin, waiting for some sign from Gabe.
?Check him,? Gabe said to one of them.
The man rubbed rough hands over Akin?s body. He was Gilbert Senn. He and his wife Anne had once stood with Neci, feeling that sensory tentacles should be removed. Akin did not speak to him. Instead, he waited, eyes on Gabe. Humans needed the steady, visible gaze of eyes. Males respected it. Females found it sexually interesting.
?He says he?s that kid we bought almost twenty years ago,? Gabe said to the men. ?He says he?s Akin.?
The men stared at Akin with hostility and suspicion. Akin gave no indication that he saw this.
?No worms,? one man said. ?Shouldn?t he have them by now??
No one answered. Akin did not answer because he did not want to be told to be quiet. He wore only a pair of short pants as he had when these people knew him. Insects no longer bit him. He had learned to make his body unpalatable to them. He was a dark, even brown, small, but clearly not weak. And clearly not afraid.
?Are you an adult?? Gabe asked him.
?No,? he said softly.
?Why not??
?I?m not old enough.?
?Why did you come here??
?To see you and Tate. You were my parents for a while.?
The rifle wavered slightly. ?Come closer.?
Akin obeyed.
?Show me your tongue.?
Akin smiled, then showed his tongue. It did not look any more Human now than it had when Gabe had first seen it.
