Did Narvo understand what discord he apparently sowed here this evening by agreeing to this hunt? Watching the Governor, whose shoulders and spine were set in an indifferently executed amused-observance, he thought most likely he did.
And perhaps Narvo was right. His logic was easy to understand, after all. The Terrans were a conquered race. With their brash psychological makeup, they needed to be reminded of their place from time to time. Or, remembering they far outnumbered the Jao on the planet, they might be tempted to rise in revolt despite the technological disparity between their weapons. If they did so in unison, the revolt would be difficult to suppress. Allowing the rivalries between conquered moieties to wear out their energies was a time-honored way of avoiding that possibility.
Still, Aille was not satisfied. “Be not too clever,” his kochan-parents had often instructed him, “lest you outwit yourself.” Yes, the tactic was time-honored, but it was always necessary to be careful with it. Push the thing too far, and you could drive a conquered moiety into rebellion by adding native humiliation to alien conquest. What was the use of that?
At any rate, Tully was behaving himself rather well. And Aille was now almost certain that the human, despite what appeared to be a lack of education, was far more intelligent than he tried to portray himself as being. Aille studied Tully, the lines of his arms, the cant of his head, the set of those restless little eyes, the furtive glances his way. The creature had learned something here, which Aille should also know. He could tell that much, just not what exactly.
Tully’s gaze, he noticed, returned quite often to Caitlin Stockwell, who was conversing quietly by a tumble of rocks where the water bubbled up and then raced down into the main pool. The dark gold of her hair caught the late sun streaming down through the skylights so that she seemed an anchor of light and the rest of the room merely dancing about her.
Aille was uncertain, but he thought the female would be considered extremely attractive in human terms. Since humans, unlike Jao, were subject to sexual arousal at all times, perhaps that explained Tully’s interest. Yet he did not think that explained all of it, or perhaps even any of it.
He decided to probe further. He motioned to Yaut with one ear and then allowed the fraghta to precede him across the room. An instant later, Tully picked up on the cue and moved off, only a step behind Yaut. Aille noted a glimmer of approval in the fraghta’s demeanor. Really, Tully was becoming almost well trained.
The same Jao female still loomed over Stockwell’s shoulder, her body stiff with unmitigated disapproval. Her vai camiti was reminiscent of Oppuk himself. Was she perhaps of Narvo, too? And, if so, why had one with that birthright been assigned to such dull duty as trailing around after a native?
Water splashed behind him. Spray soaked his back and he turned to see a group of Jao plunging, clothed this time, into the alluring pool. They were forgetting themselves before this mixed company, obviously letting the water go to their heads. Amidst all this, though, Oppuk watched—not them, but Aille, his gaze pointedly fixed.
Aille relaxed his body into unconcerned-interest and settled on a bench beside the human female. He gestured at the wild swimmers. “Your species does not enjoy the water?”
Her eyes were blue-gray within their nests of white, the color of the Terran sky just before early-dark, he thought.
“We swim,” she said, “after a fashion, but nothing to compare with Jao.”
Aille watched the bodies knifing through the green water, the gleaming wet heads, the excitement each and every swimmer exhibited. “Perhaps you could learn.”
“Some things cannot be learned,” she said, staring past him. “They can only be lived by those who possess the inherent capacity. I fear this is one of them.”
Aille glanced at the looming female Jao. “Is she in your service?”
Savage-hatred erupted in the female’s body and for an instant, Aille thought she would strike—at the human female, not him. “I am in Oppuk krinnu ava Narvo’s service, no one else’s!”