“Death to our enemies,” Vikktakkht said courteously, and as the car arrived: “We will share. “
Faktkht,Share-prey, it meant: but Vikktakkht put sotk with it, meaning territory. Unprecedented idea in kifish, so far as she knew.
Andit solved the question of precedences, with a kif who outranked a mere captain. Polite.
“You first,” Hilfy said. Which required trust, of a species that didn’t like to be followed.
“Kkkkt,” the guards said, uneasy. So they sorted it out, with a kifish thumb on the hold button: Vikktakkht, then her, then his guard, then hers.
They stood on opposite sides of the car. There were probably weapons under the kifish robes. There were, inside their own dress-uniform belts. The car rose.
“Profitable,” Vikktakkht said, “this peace, this sharing. We will eat the hearts of those that oppose it. Ana-kehnandian will not go to his Personage with this failure. He must find a new service. I am considering taking him up myself.”
“He made mistakes,” Hilly said. Kif hardly tolerated such. She was amazed that Vikktakkht was secure enough to propose such a thing. Most would not. Most would not dare.
“He was badly instructed,” Vikktakkht said. “And he knows Paehisna-ma-to and her agents. Not a bad acquisition. Perhaps he will take instruction. Perhaps not. If not, his loss. I will have the information, honor to the mekt-hakkikt. He has not many ports of refuge. I will make him an offer.”
“Generous of you.”
“Extremely. And he will know it. Our guards return to duty here—our agreements are bettered. Paehisna-ma-to is now an uncertain influence at best. The Momentum is reversed. He would have no future in her service.”
The car stopped, and opened its doors onto the white, nacre curtained formal hall of the governor’s offices. And kifish guards were in evidence, bowing and showing all respect—to the hakkikt, if not to a hani captain.
Vikktakkht brushed them aside with a sweep of his sleeve. “Our escort will stay here,” he said in the Trade. “The guards will stay here.”
Abow from the guards, profound and quick. So much for the stsho’s hired security. “Wait here,” Hilfy said, wondering what the kif was up to, and somewhat glad of the pistol in her belt—wondering if there might be some kifish purpose against the governor, and if they might not, after all, have a piece of treachery on their hands.
But she played the game. She walked beside him, innocent as a stroll in the country, past the arches, the freeform white statues, the blowing drapery.
“We know each other,” Vikktakkht remarked as they walked side by side; and, before she could leap to the unpleasant and hostile conclusion, of her own captivity, and her kifish guards: “We were crew on the same ship.”
My gods, Hilfy thought. The kifish slave. Skkukuk. From aboard The Pride.
But this wasn’t at all the place to recall that name.
“Why didn’t you simply say—“ She started to ask. “No. Of course not. Stupid question.”
“Indeed,” Vikktakkht said. “It would have given Paehisna-ma-to her best opening. Had I claimed that, you would have doubted me instantly. You would have rushed to ally with Ana-kehnandian.” A member of The Pride’s crew. Amazing.
“Not rushed,” she said, and still wondered if this kif was loyal to Pyanfar. He seemed to have acted in Pyanfar’s interest. “But I would have doubted your intentions.”
“Kkkkt. As you do now?”
Never mince words with a hakkikt. “I respect your evident power.”
“Admirable discretion. But if I aspired to be mekt-hakkikt the peace would end. And I find it, as I say, profitable. I am hakkikt hakkiktun. In the name of the mekt-hakkikt I stand first among kif.
There is nothing more a kif can gain.”
“Indeed,” she said conservatively. “As in Chanur. I prefer where I am.”
They strolled through the last arch, into the presence of bowing stsho.
“Kkkt. Profitable. Profitable to both, Chanur.”