Reamer Joined the table at Baird and Gill’s invitation. Khetala was there, too. He smiled at her as he sat down, but Kheti never seemed to smile. He thought that what had happened to her in the slave labor camps-and after-when she had been taken by the Didis must have been pretty horrible for her to be so grim.
The other kids from her camp had told him how she had protected them and taken heatings herself to save the younger, weaker ones. And then when she grew too big to work the mines, she’d been sold to the Didis. After Acorna freed her, she had gone right back to the house where she had been brutalized and raped, to help the other girls there learn skills that would let them earn their livings without having to sell their bodies.
Reamer felt ashamed that he had never actually considered that the girls he had occasionally enjoyed in the past might not be enjoying themselves at all, or what might have been done to them to make them flexible and willing parties to any whim he happened to have. His face flushed to match his hair every time he saw Kheti now, or found her looking at him.
Turi and Deeter were at another table that had been joined by some of the younger Starfarers. His kids were listening wide-eyed to the adventures the travelers were telling about their most recent journeys. Poor kids. He had never had the wherewithal to take them off Kezdet. He had been so terrified, after Almah’s death, of ending up unable to support them and having them taken from him and sent to the camps.
“Rocky, would you tell ‘Ziana and Pal what you told us about the horn?” Judit Kendoro asked. The horn Reamer had brought with him was making the rounds of the table.
He repeated his story. The frowns of the Starfarer captain, her advisors, and the council members deepened as they listened.
“You say your uncle has gone to find Acorna alone?” ‘Ziana asked Rafik. She was a bright young lady and not hard to look at. Reamer thought. He could see Pal Kendoro shared his opinion.
Rafik nodded. “It’s a big ship but he took no extra weaponry with him, for fear of alienating the Linyaari. Of course, his people are all well trained at hand-to-hand combat, and the ship is equipped with certain long range weapons that would be almost impossible to disable. Still, for threats like the one posed by Yasmin or her employers, he doesn’t have much protection. I could see that it worried him, but he told me he would deal with it.” Rafik shrugged. “If anyone can take care of himself in a wade variety of circumstances, it’s Hafiz.”
“Still,” ‘Ziana said, “they should have some backup. Not to invade narhiiVhiliinyar, of course, but just to make sure they don’t come under attack.”
“I wish Mr. Li’s forces were still available to us,” Pal said. “House of Harakamian has that kind of resource,” Rafik said. “But I don’t think Uncle would appreciate it if I undermined his decision by sending an armed escort after the ShahrazaS.”
“No,” Mercy said. “It would be hard for Acorna’s people to understand that an unarmed Harakamian arriving on their world followed by an armed House of Harakamian escort is not the same thing as an armed Harakamian. Besides which, the course mapped out by Calum and Acorna to narhiiVhiliinyar is not common knowledge. It shouldn’t be.”
“We could go,” ‘Ziana said. “We’re known to Acorna and the people who were with her. Even though we’re armed, we’ve a shipload of children. We won’t be suspected of trying to incite a war or coerce anyone, but we could still guard Rafik’s uncle.”
“We owe Acorna and all of you big time,” Markel said. “Not only for helping us free ourselves from our parents’ murderers, but for healing our wounded and helping us restore the good name of the Starfarers by taking Dr. Hoa to repair the damage his weather-control device had done while we were controlled by Nueva Fallona and her Palomellese gang.”
Pal interjected, “That’s true enough, Markel, but even though the current crew of the Haven has won a couple of battles and has some weapons, you’re not an army or a police force. And as you yourself said, you are, when all is said and done, a ship whose crew is mostly comprised of children.”