Shocked hoot.
“Oh, yes—it’s quite true. I was appalled, of course—especially when it was discovered they couldn’t all fit inside Goloku and she insisted that I accept half of them.”
Shocked hoot.
“Oh, yes—it’s quite true. Then, no sooner . . .”
The voices became indistinct. Indira was left alone with Joseph. Joseph was watching her, with the look he usually held in her presence. Reserve—no, deep anger, held in check.
Suddenly, as she had not done in a long time, Indira smiled at Joseph. Slowly, a hesitant smile came in return.
Maybe, thought Indira. Maybe.
It was still a faint hope, murky and uncertain. But for a woman who had felt no hope in years, it was as if a ray of sunshine had broken through the everlasting clouds of Ishtar.
Chapter 20
Nukurren regained consciousness the next day, and never lapsed back thereafter. Under the ministrations of the healer demon Mariyaduloshruyush and her assistants, the wounds began to heal quickly. Most of the assistants were demons, but two were gukuy Pilgrims from Anshac. One of them, a former helot named Ertatu, told Nukurren than she was healing much more quickly than the demon herself had expected.
“Mariya says you are the toughest gukuy she’s ever seen,” commented Ertatu, as she changed Nukurren’s poultices.
“You can say that again.”
Nukurren swiveled her good eye and saw the figure of Dzhenushkunutushen standing in the entrance to the hospital. The white demon advanced to Nukurren’s side.
“How are you feeling?” he asked her. To Nukurren’s surprise, he spoke in Anshaku. Very good Anshaku. During the long trek up the Chiton, Dzhenushkunutushen and the female demon Ludumila had spoken only Kiktu, and seemed not to comprehend Nukurren and Dhowifa when they spoke to each other in Anshaku.
Shrewd. The demons are cunning as well as ferocious.
Nukurren made the gesture of acceptance.
“I am alive and it seems I will remain so. That is unexpected.”
“I am sorry about your eye,” said the demon.
“It does not matter. It is a just punishment for my sins. It is only right that I should lose an eye, in payment for the Old Ones I helped enslave.”
The demon opened his—mouth, Nukurren had learned, was the name for demon beaks (except the demons claimed their real name was ummun)—and began to speak; then fell silent.
After a pause, he said: “I would like to talk to you, but I cannot. I must return to the training field.”
“You are a trainer of warriors?”
“I am the—” Nukurren made him repeat the term until she could pronounce it. Sharredzhenutumadzhoru.
She understood the meaning of the title at once. So I suspected. He is a centurion of the human legion. As was I, before I was sent to the Motherguard.
(The actual term which Nukurren used, of course, was not “centurion.” It was gurren otoshoc, which translates roughly as “chief troop leader.” But the essence was the same as the ancient Roman term, which, over the centuries, was duplicated in different words in different human languages. Whatever the word, it referred to the sinew of all great armies—top sergeant.)
“You are preparing for war?” asked Nukurren. Interpreting the strange movement of the demon’s face as hesitation, suspicion, she made the gesture of indifference. Then repeated it in words, realizing that the demon might not understand the curl of her arms.
“It does not matter to me, Dzhenushkunutushen. I am no longer a warrior, nor do I care what happens to any realm on the Meat of the Clam. It is true that you are demons, but—” The gesture of resignation. “You can be no crueler than any gukuy.”
Dzhenushkunutushen stood. “There is no reason not to tell you. We will be fighting the Utuku soon. Very soon, I think, and we are not well prepared.”
“The Kiktu have been defeated, then?”
“Destroyed completely, by all accounts.”
Nukurren made the gesture of regret.
“I am grieved to hear it. Of all the peoples I encountered, the Kiktu were the best. Barbarous and crude, but rarely evil.”
“So it is said. But they are gone now. Slain in battle, or food for the Utuku.”
“Go then, Sharredzhenutumadzhoru.” The gesture of amusement. “I would not wish to see you in the bellies of the Utuku.”
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