The shuttle’s engines roared to life and the vessel quivered with power. Aille noticed that Tamt seemed more than a bit uneasy, giving him frequent glances. And, once he studied her more carefully, saw that she bore the subtle signs of having been involved recently in a fracas of some sort.
He twitched his whiskers, inviting an explanation.
“Someone who said she was Banle krinnu nao Narvo appeared at the medicians’ compound. She said the Stockwell human was attached to the Governor’s household. She tried to take her away.”
Perception-of-difficulty swept over Aille and he shifted in his seat to accommodate its shape. His ears flattened. “Indeed? How did you prevail?”
Tamt was very nervous, now, her seated form shifting awkwardly from one half-assumed posture to another. “I—ah. Ah. It proved necessary to subdue her physically. Which I did.”
Kralik grinned fiercely as he buckled Caitlin’s slender form into the safety harness, then settled in the row facing them and reached for his own harness. The sound of the engines deepened as the shuttle lifted from the ground.
Looking still more uneasy, Tamt now glanced at Yaut. The fraghta’s expression was ferocious. “Did I do the right thing?”
“Most certainly!” exploded Yaut. “How could you do otherwise? Does Narvo’s arrogance have no limits?”
Seeing the sudden relief flooding Tamt’s posture, Yaut controlled his anger. He had just realized, Aille thought, what a great risk Tamt had taken—or thought she had, at least. For one of her lowly status to physically attack a Narvo, even one of nao status, had taken courage and devotion.
“You did well, Tamt,” the fraghta said gruffly. “Very well indeed! You are credit to yourself and to Pluthrak. Ha! Would that I had been there to see it!”
Had Yaut been there, of course, the fracas would never have occurred. Leaving aside his status, no Jao not crazed with reckless fury would be so brash as to seek physical confrontation with such as Yaut. The fraghta of the great kochan were not chosen for their sagacity alone.
Aille decided to elaborate, for the sake of quieting Tamt’s nerves. Poorly trained as she had been before Yaut took her into service, the female obviously did not understand all that was at stake. That was not surprising. Low-status minor kochan such as the one that had produced her participated diffidently, if at all, in the rivalries among the great root clans. She would not understand the subtleties and permutations.
“The fact that Caitlin Stockwell had once been attached to the Narvo’s household was irrelevant,” he said, “a flow that was completed. His assault upon her indicated dissatisfaction with her performance. To administer physical punishment upon a member of one’s household in public is an extreme measure, and is equivalent to formal dismissal. It has always been thus, among the great kochan. Therefore she was free of obligation and I added her to my service. In doing so, I was quite within custom. She was thus a member of my personal service and under Pluthrak’s aegis when the Banle creature made that most improper demand on behalf of Narvo. Your actions against her were quite correct, Tamt—dishonorable to do otherwise—and Pluthrak will see that no harm comes to you because of it.”
The taut lines of Tamt’s body eased and she sat back in her seat, finally relaxed.
Aille now studied Kralik, since the human was preoccupied with gazing intently at Stockwell. The human was doing his best to conceal it, but not even the alienness of his posture could disguise the truth. The jinau officer was very tense. Anger, most of it—clearly Aille was correct in gauging that the general had formed a personal attachment to the Stockwell female. But there was more than simple anger. There was also . . . something very close to exhilaration.
That was inevitable, Aille thought grimly. Dangerous also, but the danger was another product of Narvo’s misconduct. Firmness with subject species was a necessity, true enough. All Jao knew that, certainly the scions of great kochan. But Oppuk’s rule on Terra had gone far beyond anything that could be called “firmness.” Aille could only imagine how much hatred and resentment the Narvo had stirred up in twenty solar cycles—even among such as these, the scion of a prestigious human clan and one of its top jinau officers.