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Liam woke alone in the nest. His headache had faded, and the massage had left his muscles loose. He felt good. However, he was not used to finding himself alone. Ondry’s absence made Liam uncomfortable in ways he didn’t want to face. As an adult, he shouldn’t need to have Ondry around all the time. Liam was trying to untangle his legs from the covering when Ondry appeared at the door.
“You woke quickly,” Ondry said with a touch of displeasure. He stepped down into the nest. Since they had moved to the quarters where the tuk-ranked individuals lived, the nest was much larger, so Ondry had to wade through the pillows before he settled on his knees at Liam’s side. “Does your head continue to hurt?”
“I feel good,” Liam said in an attempt to reassure Ondry. “Very healthy.”
“The Imshee are fortunate they did not do permanent damage.” Ondry had enough of a whistle in his voice to make the depth of his displeasure clear.
Liam suspected that if he had died or suffered real damage, Ondry would have avoided the rotilac so he would have as many years as possible to get his revenge. More than one storyscroll featured a Rownt seeking revenge after the death of a child, and they were no less obsessive about palteia. Liam stroked Ondry’s hip.
“You should not have to comfort me.” Ondry captured Liam’s hand in his own and traced lines on Liam’s palm.
“You suffer more right now.” Liam ran his free hand along Ondry’s strong thigh. If Ondry laid down, Liam would perform the world’s best ilsil, but the dim light bar in the corner suggested the day was well underway.
“I contributed to your injury and I did not recognize your distress quickly enough.”
Liam braced himself on Ondry’s knee, using it to climb to his feet. “You would feel guilty if I got an ingrown toenail.”
“No, I would simply burn whichever piece of furniture offended your body,” Ondry said. For a half second, Liam thought Ondry was serious, but then he spotted the tightness around Ondry’s eyes.
“You goof,” he said in English. Rownt had no such word.
Ondry’s face grew tighter. “Then I used exaggeration and surprise correctly.”
“If you intended humor, then yes, you did,” Liam said as he worked his way to the edge of the nest and climbed out. “What is the current status of our trade?”
“The Grandmother wishes to speak with you. The Imshee have communicated, and they wish to speak to you.”
“To only me or to me and Zach?” Liam asked.
“I assume they would speak with both of you since they injured both. I am unsure whether it is wise to speak with them after they have shown such carelessness.”
Liam went to the shelf and chose a new shirt. “I assume that means you are still angry enough that you are questioning whether we should trade with them.”
“I am angry enough to snap their legs, and that is not an attempt to use human humor to amuse you.”
Liam patted Ondry’s arm. “I know. I never underestimate your irrational protective streak.”
“It is not irrational.”
“Of course not.” Liam rolled his eyes.
“Are you undervaluing yourself?” Ondry asked. His voice had a slight edge of irritation.
“No.” Liam changed the subject. “When does the Grandmother wish to speak to us?”
“She asked you to come when you woke.”
Liam mentally translated that: she wanted to speak to Liam now, and Ondry had told her to go spit in the wind until Liam woke up on his own. “Do you know what else the Imshee communicated?”
Ondry followed Liam into the cleaning room. On human ships, humans went out of their way to avoid being in close quarters with the common waste rooms, but here there was no odor at all. Liam wondered how the recycling system worked. Overall, Rownt seemed to make far fewer sacrifices on their ships, but that probably had as much to do with the fact they lived on the ships as it did to their species. Ship Rownt lacked the outdoor space that individuals on Prarownt revered and they used water baths rather than their preferred dust baths, but the rest of life was unchanged.
Leaning against the wall, Ondry watched. He still didn’t have his full color back, and Liam had the feeling that he was on self-imposed sentry duty. Liam hoped Duke didn’t feel playful because Ondry would not appreciate a bouncy predator in his personal space. Not right now.
“If I want to go through with the genetic manipulation, are you going to break the legs of any Imshee that touch me?” Liam asked.
Ondry’s nostrils closed. Clearly he wanted to. “I am old enough to control my instincts.”
Liam smiled. “I know you are. You didn’t kill Diallo.”
“Her actions were intentional and malicious. I sometimes wonder if I should have killed her. Perhaps I was too worried about my ka status and a more secure Rownt would have snapped her neck.”
Liam had to admit that was possible, but he was glad Ondry had controlled himself. “She was a good ally.”
“She made profit for herself,” Ondry said, which was both a compliment and a denial of Liam’s suggestion that she was helping them.
Liam didn’t want to argue, so he passed Ondry and headed for the door. He was almost there when Ondry caught him by the waist and pulled him into a tight embrace. Ondry cradled the back of Liam’s head and snuffed loudly. Liam reached up to rest his hand against Ondry’s fora.
Guilt gnawed at Liam, and he wrapped his left hand around Ondry’s waist. A Rownt palteia would cause him fewer worries. Liam would never give up Ondry, and he knew Ondry felt the same, but their cultural differences would never vanish. “I’ve caused you distress.”
“You bring me joy,” Ondry said. That was not an actual denial of Liam’s statement. Ondry held him for another moment before he let go. “The Grandmother waits.” With that, Ondry strode out of their quarters.
Liam followed. He knew that the defining characteristic of the tuk-ranks was a willingness to challenge the Grandmothers, but sometimes he wondered if Ondry was going to push that too far.
Then again, these Grandmothers did seem to make more mistakes than the ones in Janatjanay. Or Liam saw more mistakes. In Janatjanay, Liam didn’t have access to the Grandmothers, so he didn’t know how often they made mistakes or misread situations.
The moment they reached the temple space, Liam searched for Zach. He spotted him sitting on the floor, leaning against his Grandmother’s leg as she sat on a bench. Duke’s head was in his lap. Despite the lack of Rownt in the temple, shifting began as soon as Ondry and Liam arrived. Within sixty seconds, the few remaining Grandmothers and tuk-ranked individuals began wandering toward the exits.
When Zach spotted them, he sat up. “Hey, how are you feeling?”
“A lot better,” Liam said. “How about you?”
Zach nodded. “Better. Now I’m stressed over this stuff with the Imshee.” He tilted his head back and looked at the Grandmother.
She was silent while the last of the younger Grandmothers climbed the stairs to the living areas above, leaving the four of them alone—five with Duke. Only once they were alone did the Grandmother say, “The Imshee wish to speak with you and express some emotion over the error that led to your incapacitation.”
Liam sat on a bench near the Grandmother, and Ondry sat next to him. “What emotion?” Liam asked.
The Grandmother’s expression tightened. “We are unsure. Were a Rownt to make such a serious mistake and were palteia injured as a result, I would expect guilt, shame and fear over a loss of status and perhaps a belief that such a loss would be best.”
Zach pushed Duke to one side and climbed to his feet. “But Imshee are not Rownt,” he said. He came over to sit near Liam, and the Grandmother’s gaze followed. Stress was written in every line on her face and in every tense muscle.
“They are not,” she said, “and their desire to speak to both of you concerns us.” Liam wasn’t sure if concern best translated as scared the shit out of them or put potential profits at risk. With Rownt, that particular form of the word could mean either.
“What might they say to us?” Zach asked.
Twin pale spots appeared on either side of the Grandmother’s mouth. “We do not know. It is not in the nature of Imshee to apologize.”
“Ever?” Liam asked.
“That’s unusual,” Zach said. As usual when he got into serious conversations, he defaulted back to English. “Cultures can have a wide range of attitudes toward apologies ranging from the post-dictatorial regimes of the Soviet Union where apologies were largely taboo unless one had made a tremendous error, to thirteenth and fourteenth century Japan where apologies were widespread and could even lead to ritual setsu puku. And every alien species has terms that translate into an expression of regret. If the Imshee have no form of apology at all...” He looked at the Grandmother.
“None that are known by the Calti,” she said.
“Do other Rownt ships share information on the Imshee?” Zach asked. “Could other Rownt know situations under which the Imshee might feel guilt?”
“Information is an expensive trade item,” Liam said. It was an unemotional factual statement. No judgment. However, given that the Grandmother was unlikely to point out that Zach was making an unreasonable suggestion, he felt he needed to. The Calti couldn’t trade for information because Zach was curious. Ondry rested his hand against the small of Liam’s back, a silent moment of support even if calling out a Grandmother’s palteia was technically rude.
The Grandmother made an odd half-trill sound. “Normally, information is among the most expensive of trade goods, but those of us who trade with the Imshee in their space share information without tracking profits.”
“Really?” Liam blurted. When the Grandmother turned toward him, Liam ducked his head. “I apologize. That was an expression of surprise, not disrespect or disbelief.”
“Most Rownt are equally distressed at the loss of profit,” the Grandmother said. Her voice carried some amused tones, which surprised Liam. She had no target for her humor, and Rownt never made fun of themselves. But then her nostrils tightened and she gave a mighty twitch of her tail. “However, you must know that Imshee are difficult trading partners. They are the reason that any species that comes to Prarownt must agree to trade, speak and behave as Rownt. We learned that we cannot fully understand or predict the logic or legal obligations of others, so we can only ask them to adapt to us.”
“And the Imshee agreed to that?” Zach asked.
“The Imshee believe we Rownt are young and they are willing to indulge us. They see us as slow and largely harmless. We have chosen to encourage such views because the Imshee are exceptionally dangerous—more so than the Anla who are disorganized thieves of technology.”
“Anla are highly organized. They work together in hive structures,” Zach said, without even taking time to consider the words of a Grandmother who had lived for a millennium.
The Grandmother answered quickly enough to communicate a certain disrespect for Zach’s opinion. “The workers are organized around their leader. However, their leaders are impossible to predict due to their illogic. They believe they have the advantage when they do not and they demand to be heard when they have nothing of any import to say. Their lack of logic makes them impossible to trust as trading partners.”
Liam threw himself into the gap, since Zach seemed intent on challenging the Grandmother. She might have patience for a palteia, but Liam was finding it increasingly uncomfortable. “I have long understood that Rownt felt that way,” he said.
The Grandmother gave him an amused look. “You have not long been alive, Tuk-Palteia Liam. That is why you lack information about trading with the Imshee. They are competitive—dangerously so. If they believe a trader has inappropriately taken their goods without offering fair compensation or has harmed them, they react with violence.”
With the Grandmother in a mood to answer questions, Liam took advantage of his palteia status and youth to ask as many as he could. “What sort of violence?”
The Grandmother paled and rested her hand on Zach’s leg. Liam had seen Ondry use that same gesture when he feared for Liam’s safety. That was more concerning that anything the Grandmother might have said. After a long silence, she spoke. “They destroyed a trading ship. The Prakevent had eight Grandmothers, twenty-six tuk-ranked Rownt, a hundred and sixty-six ka-ranked, fifty-seven ye-ranked, fourteen unranked adults, and thirty-six children. Fifteen of the individuals were respected nutu traders, and two were palteia. The eldest Grandmother was a thousand, two hundred and sixteen years old. Those of us who trade with the Imshee learn the names of every Rownt who died on the Prakevent.”
Ondry lost every bit of color from his face and his tail vibrated as if he was trying and failing to keep it still. Duke lifted his head and looked around, but he settled when Zach leaned down to pet him. Either he was keeping his head about him, or he had failed to correctly translate numbers and didn’t understand the horror of what the Grandmother had said.
“Oh God,” Liam said softly.
Ondry curled his tail around Liam’s leg, where it vibrated.
“They are difficult to trade with,” the Grandmother agreed in a brilliant example of understatement. “So any new behavior is unsettling.”
“Can the Calti defend itself?” Zach asked.
Liam stopped breathing because he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer.
“Not against the Imshee,” the Grandmother said. “We currently rely on the fact that the Imshee caused the damage, not us.”
Considering that people often lashed out when they were wrong, Liam didn’t want to trust his life to that assumption. “Can we flee to a place of safety?” Liam asked.
The Grandmother studied him for some time before answering. While Liam knew that she was showing respect by giving his words careful consideration, he still wanted to jump off the seat and shake an answer out of her. He might have done it, except Ondry had his arm wrapped around Liam’s waist.
“The Calti is not fast enough to evade the Imshee; however, the Imshee engines show no sign of powering up. Either they do not plan to chase if we leave or they do not expect us to leave. Since Imshee are logical and tend to ascribe logic to Rownt behavior, if they were likely to commit violence, then they would likely assume we understood their ire. We have kept our own engines and weaponry offline so they do not feel threatened. However, we wish to avoid waiting too long before opening dialogue.”
“You failed to explain this,” Ondry said, his lips pressed together so tightly that Liam expected him to start trilling at the Grandmother.
She nodded. “We are equally concerned that opening dialogue too quickly would indicate that we have an excess of emotion. Given that the Imshee know we cherish palteia, we wish to avoid presenting ourselves as angry.”
Liam put his head in his hands.
Ondry spoke. “How do we best proceed?” He stroked Liam’s back.
“I have asked Zach to speak with the Imshee. He has agreed. Since both palteia were injured and both of us showed great aggravation, I suggest you join us.”
“On the Imshee ship?” Ondry asked. His tail tightened around Liam’s leg so hard that Liam flinched.
“They have agreed to meet in the airlock between ships,” the Grandmother said. “If you and Tuk-Palteia Liam are ready, I would suggest we go now.”
Ondry didn’t answer quickly. Instead he traced circles on Liam’s back. “Liam has been asleep until recently. I will only go when he is ready.”
Liam lifted his head. “He is ready now. If the Imshee are over there worrying about our reaction, sooner sounds like a better idea than later.”
“I agree,” the Grandmother said. In a very Rownt fashion, she stood and headed for the exit, leaving the rest of them to follow.