belongings. Jules came in at Neila’s call. Diut came in with him—came rather carelessly, Alanna thought. She saw him at once, and deliberately turned away. Let him announce himself when he was ready.
He seemed to materialize out of the wall near the door. In shock, Neila dropped a bowl of peas and just managed to stifle a scream. Jules turned, gasped, then let his breath out slowly.
“Welcome, Tehkohn Hao,” he said. And a moment later, “Will you eat with us?” He had remembered himself enough to speak Garkohn. Alanna smiled to herself and went to help Neila clean up the mess.
“I will eat,” said Diut. “If there is time.”
Jules frowned. “Time?”
“I let myself be seen as I crossed the wall. I think the Garkohn will be here soon.”
Neila looked up. “You want them here?”
“Some of them.” He sat down at the table, looked directly at Neila, who looked away. He yellowed briefly. “I want Natahk here. He will come. I showed myself where he would see me.”
Alanna understood suddenly and stood up smiling. “And what will be happening outside that Natahk is not to see?”
He whitened. “Much. It has already begun to happen. By tomorrow, we will be victorious. Or dead.”
Jules shuddered. “I had hoped that the fighting would take place far away from…” He stopped short, reddened. “Is there anything we can do to help?”
Diut sat and looked at him in silence.
Neila began almost casually to do what she never normally did—serving each of them herself. She worked quickly, seemed to be glad to have something to do with her hands, which had been trembling. They were steady now. Much of the food contained no meklah. Alanna, for her own safety, knew exactly what did. She paid close attention to what her mother served Diut. And, apparently, so did Neila herself. She served Alanna and Diut exactly the same things. Alanna relaxed, feeling relieved. Jules and Neila probably did not realize it, but Diut, by accepting food from them was accepting them I fully as allies, as family.
Alanna glanced at him, saw that instead of eating, he was watching her. She began to eat. She did not realize until he picked up his fork I” that he was watching her for more reason than to see whether or not I, the food was safe. He had never eaten with anything other than his fingers. But he was quick and unselfconscious. After a moment or two of awkwardness, he held the fork with familiar ease. He even seemed to enjoy the food. Then he returned to business. “There is nothing for you to do, Verrick. Just keep your people out of our way.”
The straight thin line of Jules’s mouth showed his resentment. But I perhaps he felt he had earned the comment. He spoke quietly. “My people will not come out into fighting unless I call them.”
“So? It is well that you have already told them. Natahk might not allow you time to do it now.”
“Are you… are you going to just wait for him here?” asked Neila.
Diut looked at her, and she managed to meet his gaze, look back for a moment. “For me,” he said, “it would be better not to wait. I could keep ahead of him outside, kill many of his people before I was caught. But… there are things he could do to make me come out. Some of my judges have spied on the Garkohn. They say Natahk believes that I plan to seize your people away from him—that I have found some value in them for the Tehkohn. What better way to make me reveal myself then, than to destroy, bit by bit, that which he thinks I value?”
“But he really does value us,” said Jules. “He would be destroying people he wants for himself.”
“He wants some of you, certainly. Those with special skills, perhaps. But doubtless, many of you are expendable.”
Jules sighed. “Yes, doubtless. But if you wait here, Natahk will kill you.”
“He might try, but I think not. I have shamed him, and he will want revenge—but not my life. I am Hao, and valuable myself.” He lowered his voice slightly. “Valuable and vulnerable. Alanna.”
She looked at him.
“Go outside to where wood is stacked against the house. Feel on the ground between the house and the wood.”
Without questioning, Alanna went. She moved casually but quickly, folding her arms against the night’s chill, and watching with concealed alertness for any Garkohn who might already have entered. She saw none.
There was a small space at the bottom of the woodpile between the woodpile and the cabin. She was barely able to get her hand into it, but once she had, she felt a soft skin wrapping and the smoothly polished wood it covered. Her bow!
It was her most powerful Tehkohn-made bow. With it, she had made several large kills—mostly the shaggy ugly quadrupeds called leaf eaters. She fished out the quiver hastily, and carried it, the bow, and a few concealing sticks of wood back into the house. There, she was just in time to hear Jules ask Diut for the return of the Missionaries’ guns.
“Consider them part of the price of your freedom,” said Diut. “I will not give them back.”
The flat refusal seemed to take Jules by surprise. “But… why?”
“Because your people and mine might meet again someday—without a common enemy to unite us.”
“And you think our weapons will give you an advantage over us?” demanded Jules. “We’ll make new weapons!”
“We already have an advantage over you.”
Jules frowned at him. “Then why…?”
“Because I expect you to catch up, compensate for the shortcomings of your bodies. If you live, you will learn. We too must learn. By the time your new land allows you the leisure you need to make weapons such as those you have lost, we too will know how to make such weapons.” He looked over at Alanna just as she braced her bow
