“Second, as I said it would be.”
“So. And it has cost you.” There was something wrong with Gehl’s left eye. Alanna had not noticed it at first. Over the eye’s natural deep green, there was a white film.
“It was worth the price,” said Gehl.
“Can you see out of that eye?”
“No. It doesn’t matter.” It mattered, and Gehl knew it. Her blind eye coupled with her high position would increase the number of her challengers dramatically. And every challenger would strike at her one good eye. Sooner or later, someone would hit it. But that was Gehl’s problem.
Alanna shrugged. “Are you with Natahk now?”
“We are together.” She switched to Tehkohn abruptly. “Though I have been less fortunate than you.”
Alanna lifted her head slightly and answered in Tehkohn. “You’ve already spoken to Natahk then.”
“So.”
“And after hearing what he had to say, you still think me fortunate?”
Gehl looked away. “No. I would not have wished you… that pain. Not even now when we must cause each other pain.”
“Must we? We were friends once.”
“Fighters of different tribes ask for pain when they form friendships.”
The two stared at each other for a moment. Then Gehl turned and walked out of the house.
“What was all that?” asked Neila.
Alanna rubbed a hand over her face. “That was the end of a friendship.”
“Because you were captured by the Tehkohn?”
“Yes. And because I survived.”
“She would rather you had died?”
“I don’t think so. She just can’t trust me any more.”
“You have an accent,” said Neila softly.
Alanna turned to look at her. “Accent?”
“You speak English with an odd accent. Tehkohn, I suppose. That may be what bothered Gehl.”
“I’ll get rid of it as quickly as I can. It might bother people more important than Gehl.” Alanna paused, looked at her foster mother with concern. “Does it bother you?”
Neila hugged her again. “Of course not. I’m so glad to have you home, nothing could bother me. Come over here. Look.” She led Alanna to Alanna’s old bedroom, small, clean, the bed made as though it was still in regular use. “People said, ‘Why don’t you turn it into a storage room now?’” Neila smiled. “And I said, ‘Because I don’t believe Alanna is dead. I’ll believe it when our men have gone to the Tehkohn dwelling and found out for themselves.’ It was the Garkohn who convinced everyone that you and the others were dead.” She frowned. “Alanna… what about the others?”
“They really are dead.”
“Oh.” Neila turned away, her head bowed. Alanna went into the tiny bedroom that had been hers, saw the large wooden chest that held her clothing and possessions. It paralleled the bed on the opposite side of the room, leaving not much more than a T-shaped passageway to move in. There were curtains at the one small window and a cloth of the same pattern covering the chest. The bed was covered with a heavy quilt that had once belonged to one of Jules and Neila’s three children. The bedroom was as simple as the main room was cluttered. It was as simple as the rooms Alanna had shared with her husband.
She went back to Neila, started to lift her hand in a Tehkohn gesture of affection that had become second nature to her. But she caught herself and let her hand fall to her side before it touched Neila. She spoke quietly.
“I’m going to rest a little before I do anything else. I’m so tired…”
“How did you survive, Alanna?”
“I’ll tell you about it—you and Jules—as soon as he comes in. I just want to rest a little first.”
Neila said nothing, but as Alanna retreated to her room, she could feel her foster mother’s gaze following her with curiosity. Innocent dangerous curiosity.
CHAPTER THREE
Diut
We captured Alanna along with eight others of her kind and twelve Garkohn. The Garkohn, we knew, would die during their period of cleansing. They had been dependent on the meklah for too many generations ever to be cleansed. But as far as we knew, their strange new allies, who called themselves Missionaries, had only just come to the poison. We thought some of them might survive.
I realized later that if I had separated the Missionaries from the Garkohn—shut them in different rooms for cleansing—more Missionaries might have lived. As it was, they were unnerved by the fatalism of the Garkohn. Alanna said later that several of them gave up their lives almost without a struggle when they saw how completely the Garkohn had given up.
As it was though, I knew almost nothing of the Missionaries. They had joined themselves with the Garkohn and I had decided to treat them as Garkohn until they proved otherwise. Only Alanna gave me the proof I sought. Only
