“And the captain’s father is its ruler,” Janek said behind her.
Cynara smiled and stifled a yawn. “Thanks for the reminder, Ser Janek.”
Ronan cast Janek a narrow-eyed glance. “Your immediate male progenitor is the First of your Line, Aho’Va?”
She was glad of his formality. “You might say that, though most humans reckon political and family relationships differently than shaauri do.”
“The captain is too modest,” Janek said, gazing at the screen in apparent fascination. “Magnus D’Accorso rules the equivalent of many of your Lines.”
“Dharma has long been an aristocracy,” Cynara said. “Our society is still very rigid in many respects.”
“Rather like the shaauri,” Janek remarked, “who remain much as they have always been since their days of savagery. Isn’t that so, Ronan?”
“Humans may change Paths and act independently of House or Line, in disregard of the confusion that may follow,” Ronan said, showing the edges of his teeth. “Is this not a flaw in your species’ evolution?”
“My species?”
Cynara moved between them. “Change is never easy.”
“It strikes me as very strange, Captain D’Accorso, that Ser VelKalevi still defends the shaauri when he claims to hate them.”
“You’ll have your say before the Council,” Cynara said sharply. “Until then, stow it.”
Janek’s jaw clenched, but he had the sense to bite his tongue. Ronan’s gaze never left him until he fled the observation area.
“I am unselected,” Ronan said quietly, “and thus unworthy to defend your honor, Aho’Va. But if you permit me, I will fight that one by the laws of your world.”
Cynara imagined Ronan with a ceremonial sword in hand, facing Janek in a duelist’s square. That was certainly a savage custom.
“My honor is in no danger,” she said. “Whatever Janek does to provoke you, I ask that you do your best to ignore him.”
“He is not First, Second, or even Third of this ship, yet he offers challenge in his speech and manner. Will you accept?”
“I’m very tempted, my friend, but with humans it seldom comes to outright violence. Trust me to handle Janek.”
Ronan could express the most eloquent doubt with a fractional twitch of his mouth. He looked at the screen. The Thalassa hovered above the port’s landing field, and Cynara felt vibrations under her feet as landing gear was deployed.
“Secure for landing,” Lizbet’s voice said over the intercom. Cynara took one of the passenger seats and Ronan the one beside her. An almost imperceptible jolt, and the shuttle touched down on Dharman soil.
* * *
PART II
Alliance
* * *
Chapter 10
« ^ »
Home. Cynara could gladly have gone a lifetime without seeing it again.
A messenger from the city was waiting for her on the field, carrying a note sent from Uncle Jesper in response to her urgent request.
Captain,
In receipt of your message. Have managed to delay Council action for a day, but require further discussion. Bring your guest to the usual place. I’ll know when you’ve arrived.
Cynara tipped the messenger and smiled to herself. Jesper had followed through exactly as she’d hoped, and she was sure he knew to the minute when the Thalassa had landed at the spaceport.
She tucked the note in her pocket and went to consult briefly with Basterra. The cargomaster’s men were already offloading cargo with the help of the spaceport dockhands. As soon as they had finished, they were at liberty to spend the day visiting family and friends before reporting back to the Pegasus.
Kord’s habit was to follow the Dharman crew, covertly observing the places they went and the people they spoke to. He was always predicting rebellion against a female captain, but Cynara had long since given up trying to convince him that Basterra and the others would obey because they were under the Council’s orders to do so. The average Dharman didn’t make a very good mutineer.
Lizbet was also free to visit her few relations in Low Town, but she seldom did. She stuck very close to Cynara whenever they stayed on Dharma, and Uncle Jesper always kept spare rooms for former proteges and students.
Cynara hoped he’d have one available for an unexpected guest. She disembarked with Ronan in tow and waited for Lizbet to catch up.