“This would be logical if we had a ship for such a voyage. It may be that one will come. Until then, we must be prepared to act swiftly and with cunning.” He tilted an ear at Cynara. “Yes, even with human deception.”
Cynara smiled. “It’s comforting to know that we humans can teach shaauri something useful.”
“I have taken my old dwelling on the east border of Ain’Kalevi-ja,” Sihvaaro said to Ronan. “Lenko and his allies have not troubled me there. Others watch, however.”
“The Kinsmen will want to silence Ronan,” Cynara said, “and that’s assuming this Lenko doesn’t get him first. I admit my ignorance of shaauri politics… but will any Kalevi listen to Ronan if Lenko is against him?”
“Even a First is not all-powerful,” Ronan said. “The Second and Third also have great influence, and any of them are subject to challenge. Others will listen. But even if they believe, Kalevi is not enough.”
“What exactly do you plan to tell the ones who will listen?”
“First I will approach Lenko and determine his knowledge and intentions. He will not simply kill me without warning. I will tell him that you are my hostage and under my protection.”
“And if they try to take me, like the Aarys youngster did?”
He answered with his eyes, suddenly cold and utterly determined.
“Sihvaa—” She looked for the big shaauri and discovered him vanished, as silent as a mouse in the tall grass of the clearing. Not even a ripple marked his passage. “He’s gone!”
“To watch for those who come. He will warn us.” Ronan brushed the tips of his fingers along the back of her hand. “You are not afraid.”
It was a statement, not a question. Cynara was warmed by his confidence, and unaccountably aroused by his caress. “I should be, if I had a gram of sense—enough for both of us. Sihvaaro seems a good man. He obviously cares for you.”
“He likes you, Cynara. Shaauri do not express such things as humans do, at least not in words.”
“Sihvaaro seems to have many talents.”
“He is unlike any shaauri I have known.”
“But he isn’t Kalevi?”
“He is of all Lines, and none. In his House of origin, he was selected ve’laik’in, of Blood. But he learned a different way and won rare exemption to follow a second path—that of riama, Spirit. Sihvaaro believes that Selection is not a biological necessity, and can be set aside. That is why he is called Sihvaaro kio’laii—of all Paths.”
“All Paths. Surely that’s a challenge to shaauri social order.”
“He belonged to a group of—you would call them ‘warrior-monks’—who were honored a hundred years ago on many shaauri worlds. They traveled from House to House and world to world, teaching their ancient fighting techniques and the philosophy of the Eightfold Way. Nearly all of them have vanished. Sihvaaro found a place on Aitu because he won the respect of Kalevi and the other Lines here, surpassing their skills in tracking, hunting, and combat. Still he is considered strange, almost ne’lin, and can never rest easy.”
“He recognized someone like him when he began to teach you.”
“I do not know why he chose me. Someday I will explain—” He broke off as a harsh, rising whistle sounded from a stand of conifers a hundred meters distant. “They come.” He cocked his head. “Darja.”
He gave the word an explosive sound. “Enemy?” Cynara asked.
He opened his mind. In the fraction of an instant she saw through a child’s eyes and recognized shaauri who, like Lenko, had beaten Ronan whenever he wandered away from the Kalevi compound.
“How many enemies do you have on this planet?”
“Do not worry,” he said, pushing her behind him. “I am not so easily defeated as I was in childhood.”
“If you think I’m going to let you fight alone—”
He faced her and grasped her shoulders. “You are brave, Cynara, and skilled in defense. But you must leave this to me.”
“Not if you’re going down.”
“I will not.”
Shaauri loped out from the cover of the woods, five individuals who looked very much like Sihvaaro and the Aarysi. Each of them bore at least one visible firearm. As they drew closer, Cynara saw that all of them bore the stripe pattern of ve’laik’i warriors. Bullies.