“I did not speak of that,” Ydwyr said, cold again. “I did, and do, want
both these beings in my custody.”
“But–”
“Do you fear they may escape?”
“No. Certainly not. But the datholch must know … the value of this
prisoner as a subject for interrogation–”
“The methods your folk would use would leave him of no value for
anything else,” Ydwyr rapped. “And he can’t have information we don’t
already possess; I assume the Intelligence Corps is not interested in
his private life. He is here only through a coincidence.”
“Can the datholch accept that strong a coincidence? Flandry met the met
by chance, yes. But that he, of every possible pilot, went off to the
lost planet as a happenstance: to that I must say no.”
“I say yes. He is precisely the type to whom such things occur. If one
exposes oneself to life, qanryf, life will come to one. I have my own
uses for him and will not see him ruined. I also want to learn more
about this female. They go into my keeping.”
Morioch flushed and well-nigh roared: “The datholch forgets that Flandry
worked tail-entwined with Abrams to thwart the Protector!”
Ydwyr lifted a hand, palm down, and chopped it across his breast.
Flandry sucked in a breath. That gesture was seldom used, and never by
those who did not have the hereditary right. Morioch swallowed, bent
head above folded hands, and muttered, “I beg the datholch’s
forgiveness.” Merseians didn’t often beg, either.
“Granted,” Ydwyr said. “Dismissed.”
“Kh-h … the datholch understands I must report this to headquarters
with what recommendations my duty demands I make?”
“Certainly. I shall be sending messages of my own. No censure will be in
them.” Ydwyr’s hauteur vanished. Though his smile was not a man’s, but
only pulled the upper lip back off the teeth, Flandry recognized
friendliness. “Hunt well, Morioch Sun-in-eye.”
“I thank … and wish a good hunt … to you.” Morioch rose, saluted,
and left.
Outside, the sky had gone altogether black. Lightning flamed, thunder
bawled, wind yammered behind galloping sheets of rain, whose drops
smoked back off the ground. Djana fell into Flandry’s arms; they upheld
each other.
Releasing her, he turned to Ydwyr and made the best Merseian salute of
honor which a human could. “The datholch is thanked with my whole
spirit,” he said in Eriau.
Ydwyr smiled anew. The overhead fluoropanel, automatically brightening
as the storm deepened, made the room into a warm little cave. (Or a cool
one; that rain was not far below its boiling point.) The folds in his
robe showed him relaxing. “Be seated if you desire,” he invited.
The humans were quick to accept, lowering themselves to the rubbery
floor and leaning back against a cabinet. Their knees were grateful. To
be sure, there was a psychological drawback; now Ydwyr loomed over them
like a heathen god.
But I’m not going to be drugged, brainscrubbed, or shot. Not today.
Maybe … maybe, eventually, an exchange deal …
Ydwyr had returned to dignified impassivity. I mustn’t keep him waiting.
Strength seeped back into Flandry’s cells. He said, “May I ask the
datholch to tell me his standing, in order that I can try to show him
his due honor?’
“We set most ritual aside–of necessity–in my group here,” the Merseian
answered. “But I am surprised that one who speaks Eriau fluently and has
been on our home planet has not encountered the term before.”
“The uh, the datholch–may I inform the datholch, his language was
crammed into me in tearing haste; my stay on his delightful world was
brief; and what I was taught at the Academy dealt mainly with–uh–”
“I told you the simple forms of respect will do on most occasions.”
Ydwyr’s smile turned downward this time, betokening a degree of
grimness. “And I know how you decided not to end your sentence. Your
education dealt with us primarily as military opponents.” He sighed.
“Khraich, I don’t fear the tactless truth. We Merseians have plenty of
equivalents of you, the God knows. It’s regrettable but inevitable, till
your government changes its policies. I bear no personal animosity,
Lieutenant Dominic Flandry. I far prefer friendship, and hope a measure