“That’s not what you told me!”
“No, but it’s what I thought of yesterday; today I told a fellow it came from the Hoary Head of the Hawk of Horus. I asked this Chenaya for something of value and she slapped down a dagger. Nice sticker, with a jewel or two. She wondered aloud what’s under my cap and I only stared, waiting. She kept hedging and meandering verbally. I made the signal for Wints to interrupt and tell me someone was waiting. ‘Get out of here, lackey!’ she snapped at him, and I quietly told her that I would give orders to my people, thanks, and never to hers. She glowered for a while, then looked away, mentioned needing privacy, and told me what she perceives as her problem.”
Strick paused to shake his head. ‘”I’d like to-to do better with people,’ she said. ‘No one-I mean, some people don’t uh er seem to uh like me.'”
Esaria made a nasty noise.
He went on: “At last she’d got it out, but she continued looking at the wall.
Embarrassed and defensive. Ready to challenge, snap back, fight, argue. What a rotten job her parents did with her; how defensive and unhappy she is! I told her that I could help her, but that she would not like the solution -and only her gods could know what the Price might be! She looked at me, then, and I thought how sad it is that she has such genuinely pretty eyes.”
He shook his head. ” ‘What would you do that would be so terrible?’ she wanted to know, and I told her: Lock your tongue. Render you unable to speak. That and some real counseling.”
Esaria giggled.