“Not while you are with Diut. He has warned her. He cares deeply for her but if she tries that again, he will surely kill her.”
She had tried it before then. “What about when I… when our liaison has ended—and when she has had her child?”
“When you leave Diut, that should end her reason for resenting you.”
“Should.”
“She is a fool about this one thing. Who can say what she will do. Don’t worry about her though, Alanna. I don’t think Diut will let her interfere with you.”
But I did worry. When I left Tahneh, it was to look for Diut and find out what I could do to speed my training. I had a new reason now for wanting to become the best fighter that I could as soon as I could.
Natahk stood before the Missionaries gathered on the common and commanded them exactly as he would have commanded Garkohn.
“You will return to your homes and gather as many of your possessions as you can carry,” he said. “At least one of my hunters will watch in each house with you. When you have finished, you will return here and wait until the rest of your people are ready. Then, together, you will be moved south where you will make a new settlement, away from raiding Tehkohn.”
The people stared at him in shock, then looked at each other. Now that they had been disarmed, they were being abducted. What could they do? They called out to Natahk, to Jules, to each other. They argued and shouted and drowned each other out. Jules came out of the crowd to stand beside Natahk.
“Do as the First Hunter says,” he ordered quickly. “Obey him! We can replace buildings and fields if we must. We can’t replace lives.”
There was silence for a moment as the people digested this. Then someone called out: “But our homes…! Our crops…!”
“We’ve built new homes before,” said Jules. “And we have enough seed and enough time to plant new crops. We can start again. Whatever happens, we must start again.”
“Go to your homes,” commanded Natahk. “Do as I have told you.”
“What about all the work we’ve done here?” Alanna could see that the speaker was John Williamson, a square burly man who served as the settlement blacksmith. “Just how much can we walk away from and still survive as civilized people.”
“Obey!” roared Natahk. “Or you will not survive at all!”
No one dared speak in the face of the naked threat. There were already five bodies strewn around within the circle of Garkohn. Resistance would clearly not be tolerated. Slowly, hesitantly, the crowd began to fragment into smaller groups. The ring of Garkohn fragmented also, at least one going with each family group. Alanna noticed that the heavily muscled Williamson and his grown son drew three Garkohn. The natives were taking no chances.
Alanna came up to Jules and Natahk just in time to hear Jules speak in a low strained voice.
“Why couldn’t you have warned me that you planned to do this? Are you just trying to drive them to violence so that you’ll have reason to kill them?”
Natahk looked at him coldly. “I already have twelve reasons to kill them, Verrick. The twelve fighters that I lost last night. Be grateful that I do not use those reasons.”
He started to walk away. Jules and Alanna followed when they realized that he was going toward the Verrick house. Neila was already there with Gehl. No doubt it was because of Gehl that Neila was gathering food, clothing, and tools to load onto Jules’s handcart. Like everyone else, she appeared confused, angry, and frightened.
Natahk spoke to Gehl. “Keep watch outside. Bring me word when they have all gathered. If there is trouble, kill.”
Gehl flashed white, glanced briefly at Alanna, and went out.
Natahk sat down, looked at Jules. “Sit, Verrick, and we will talk.”
Jules obeyed. Alanna, wanting as little to do with Natahk as possible, moved away to help Neila pack.
“Alanna!” said Natahk sharply.
She stopped as she was about to enter her bedroom where Neila had gone. She turned to face Natahk. He said nothing more, but after a moment she returned tight-lipped to sit in Neila’s chair.
He watched her with something between amusement and contempt. “Did you think that I would tell you any part of my plans and then leave you to warn the Tehkohn?”
She did not answer.
Natahk looked at Jules. “She has led you foolishly, and you have followed. Were you completely unable to see that you were endangering your own people?”
“Was I?” said Jules. “By keeping them out of a battle that would have killed many of them?”
“What do you think the Tehkohn will do to you now that they no longer need fear for the safety of the prisoners?”
Jules opened his mouth to answer, then closed it. He could not tell the truth, and apparently, he had not yet thought of a lie that would fit.
“YQU have made some arrangement with the Tehkohn,” Natahk accused. “That is what I thought. They made you a few lying promises to save their people. And now that they have their people, how much do you think their promises are worth?”
Jules leaned back, watching Natahk. “I don’t think I could do any worse trusting the Tehkohn than I did trusting you.”
