HUNTER OF WORLDS BY C. J. CHERRYH

Rakhi frowned, even he a little nettled to be thus interrupted by a m’metane. “It was not chanokhia for this amaut to have delivered Ashakh in a helpless condition aboard the base ship. This being could not appreciate vaikka in any reasonable sense, save to be disadvantaged in this way. Has Ashakh erred?”

“No,” said Aiela, “and Ashakh knows he has not.”

The ghost of a smile touched the nasith’s face, and Aiela frowned, suspecting he himself had just been the victim of a bit of iduve humor, straightfaced in delivery. Perhaps, he thought, the iduve had puzzled out the ways of m’metanei more than the iduve chose to admit. Yet not even this most gentle of iduve was to be provoked: one had to remember that they studied gratitude, could perhaps practice it for humor’s sake. Whether anything then stirred the cold of their dark hearts was worthy of debate.

Let be with him, Isande advised. Even Rakhi has his limits.

“M’metanei,” said Rakhi, “I should advise that you go soft of step and well-nigh invisible about the paredre for the next few days. Should Chimele summon you, as she will, be most agreeable.”

“Why, sir?” asked Isande, which was evidently the desired question.

“Because Chimele has determined a vaikka upon Tashavodh that the Orithanhe and its ban cannot deny her.” The iduve grinned despite himself. “Kharxanen’s m’melakhia for a bond with the dynasty of Ashanome is of long standing—indeed, the origin of all these matters. It will go frustrated. The Orithanhe itself has compelled Kharxanen and Tejef to deny they are sra to each other; so Kharxanen cannot claim any bond at all when Chimele chooses Tejef for the kataberihe of Ashanome. Purifications will begin. One child will there be; and then this nas Tejef will have a ship and as many of the okkitani-as and kamethi as Chimele chooses to send with him.”

“She is creating a vra-nasul?” asked Isande, amazed. “After all the grief he has caused?” Resentment flared in her, stifled by Daniel’s gladness; and Aiela fended one from the other.

“They are takkhe,” said Rakhi. “M’metane, I know your minds somewhat. You have long memories for anger. But we are not a spiteful folk; we fight no wars. Chimele has taken vaikka, for his sra as a vra-nasul serve Ashanome forever; but the sra she will take from him under her own name as her heir will forever be greater than the dynasty he will found. Vra-nasul in mating can put no bond on orith-nasul So Tejef will make submission and both will keep their honor. It is a reasonable solution—one of your own working, m’metanei. So I advise you keep secret that small vaikka of yours lest Chimele be compelled to notice it. She is amused by your chanokhia: she has struggled greatly to attain that attitude—for if you know us, you know that we are frequently at a loss to determine any rationality for your behavior. We make an effort. We have acquired the wisdom to observe and wait upon what we do not understand: it is an antidote for the discord of impulses which govern our various species. I recommend the practice to you too, kamethi.”

And with a nod of his head he went his way, mounted into the lift, and vanished from sight.

Aiela, came Isande’s thought, Chimele sent him.

We have been honored, he replied, and expected argument from Daniel.

But Daniel’s consciousness when it returned to them dismissed all thoughts but his own for the moment, for he had suddenly recognized across the concourse a human child and a red-haired woman.

He began, quickly, to thread his way through the traffic; his asuthi in this moment gave him his privacy.

Glossary of Foreign Terms

I

THE KALLIRAN LANGUAGE: like human speech in its division of noun and verb concepts. There is, however, a fossilized Ethical from the time of the Orithain Domination. Although the Ethical corresponds to the Verb of Orithain speech, it has been made an Adjective in the kalliran language.

arethme: (ah-RETH-may) city-deme of kalliran political structure: on the home world, equal to a city and all its land and trade rights; in the colonies, often equal to a hemisphere or an entire world, with its attendant rights.

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