“They’d do that regardless.”
“No. Not if we let the Tehkohn think we’re on their side. They can help us stay out of it—or out of most of it. After all, it will be better for them if we stay out.”
“From what you’ve said so far, I don’t see how we can make the Tehkohn think anything at all.”
“We can change their thinking toward us. Because we can do the one thing Natahk can’t do. We can make peace with them. Even now, we can make peace.”
“With people who won’t believe a word we say. With people we certainly don’t have any reason to trust. With kidnapers and murderers…”
“But…”
“No, let me finish. What do you think would happen if we did make overtures to the Tehkohn, successful or not, and the Garkohn found out. They would, you know, the way they spy on us. And what do you think they would do then? Surely slavery would be too gentle.”
“Will you hear me, Jules?”
“I’d rather listen to you in the morning when you’ve… when we’ve both had food and sleep and time to think.”
“No, now, please. Because now you have a prisoner you can work through—one of the ones Natahk left. He’s a leader of the Tehkohn and I think he’d listen to you if you approached him. He’s freer to decide who to trust than the others are, and if he gives you his promise, you can trust him.”
“An honorable butcher.”
“A fighter, yes. All the ones with authority are fighters. But he could help you against Natahk.”
“I don’t want his…”
“And he’s not going to be here long.”
“What?”
“He’s the blue one, Jules, the big one. And what he would face at the Garkohn dwelling is a lot worse than just meklah addiction. I don’t think he’ll wait for it. He’ll either escape soon or get killed trying.” She took a deep breath. This talk was forcing her to put into words things she had not even wanted to think about. But she went on. “If you talk to him and he’s killed, you lose nothing. But if he escapes, he can go back to his people as your emissary. He can not only stop their vengeance, but make them our allies. If you’ll just talk to him.”
“Alanna, do you know how many of our people have been kidnapped by the Tehkohn since you were taken? Kidnapped and apparently murdered.”
Alanna opened her mouth to answer, then realized fully what he had said. “Since I was taken?”
“In the two years since you were…”
“Wait a moment.” She frowned. “There haven’t been any Tehkohn raids on the Mission colony since I was taken.”
Jules stared at her. “Listen, girl, the Tehkohn may have kept what they were doing from you, but…”
“They couldn’t keep it from me! Jules, I wasn’t locked up somewhere for two years. I was working out among the people. I spoke their language, and I couldn’t help knowing what was going on. There were two raids on the Garkohn. I saw the raiders leave, and I saw them come back with Garkohn prisoners—only Garkohn. No Missionaries.”
“I saw them take three people,” said Neila. “They almost took me too.”
“Not the Tehkohn.”
“Lanna, you’re wrong! I saw…”
“You saw natives abducting people. Who told you they were Tehkohn?”
Neila stared at her, speechless.
“I don’t know what’s happened here,” Alanna continued. “But whatever it was, the Tehkohn weren’t part of it. What they did do to us was bad enough, but if we don’t put that behind us, and join with them, we’re finished. Only they can help us to stop our more treacherous enemies—our Clayark friends.”
Jules looked at her silently for a long time—too long. He looked at her until she knew he was wondering about her own loyalty. She met his gaze and hid her sudden fear.
“You saved me once,” she said softly. “You didn’t have to. People said, ‘She’s an animal. She’d be better dead.’ But you saved me. Let me save you.”
“I don’t believe what you’re saying, Lanna—that our people are being abducted by the Garkohn.”
“You will.”
“But why would they bother? They already have us trapped here in a meklah cage.”
“Maybe to make more trouble between you and the Tehkohn. Maybe to make the stolen people work as slaves—I don’t know.” And then she did know. The idea came to her so suddenly that she almost spoke it aloud. But she caught herselE in time. This was not a thing for her to say to her foster father. He had already looked at her with suspicion. Let her husband tell him—if she could ever bring the two together, if the Garkohn had not destroyed all hope of an alliance.
They were not taking slaves, the Garkohn, although Jules would see it that way. He had said himself what they were doing, although he did not know it. He had complained that Natahk treated the Missionaries as though they were just another branch of the Garkohn. Well, by now, according to Kohn custom, the Missionaries were exactly that. The abducted Missionaries were in the southern part of the valley at the Garkohn farming town. And like Alanna, they had found out for themselves how human the Kohn people were. She spoke to Jules.
