“I need both arms for this,” she said, cradling her elbow with her good hand.
“I’m going with you,” Kralik said.
“She must enter the circle alone,” Yaut said, “if she is to speak.”
Caitlin stepped forward, then stopped and pulled off the heeled shoes and dropped them. Behind her, she heard Ed’s low chuckle, full of humor despite the strain of the moment.
She forced a smile from her own face, since the Jao new to Terra would misunderstand the expression. It wasn’t easy. Like Ed, for reasons impossible to explain, pitching those shoes seemed like a transition; the end of one order, the beginning of something else entirely new.
* * *
The wind sang through Aille’s whiskers as he waited. The air was rich with brine and spray, and hai tau, life-in-motion. Avians wheeled overhead, soaring low enough for him to pick out the elongated shape of their heads and the whiteness of their body coverings. This world was fascinating. He wanted to go back to the sea and follow another whale, perhaps even swim with it this time.
But duty lay elsewhere. Flow, which had been almost stagnant a moment before, suddenly surged. As he had gauged himself—obviously, Wrot had reached the same conclusion—Caitlin’s appearance would prove decisive.
Caitlin strode past him into the center of the black stones. Her body expressed request-for-attention, the form so well executed, no well brought up Jao could have done any better. Even her broken arm was held properly, though, at that angle, she must be feeling considerable discomfort.
The Bond Preceptor shifted his notice so subtly that even Aille could not have said when Caitlin became his focus, instead of him. “You wish to speak?”
She was still concentrating on her next posture, no doubt. Aille felt himself straining to perceive it, his own ears at intrigued-inquiry. What did she mean to do here?
“Vaish,” she said, using the greeting’s proper form, signifying ‘I see you,’ rather than vaist, ‘You see me,’ a subtle distinction most humans did not grasp. “I am told my testimony might be of use here.”
“Your designation?” the Harrier asked, seeking her function, rather than her name.
“I am a member of the Subcommandant’s personal service,” she said, correctly divining his intent.
A ripple ran through the onlookers. Testimony had already been presented as to how he had taken natives into his service. But Aille knew that most of them were astonished at the ease and grace of her postures.
“What would you say?”
“What I wish, if that is permitted.”
The Preceptor’s response came instantly, easily. “That is a given, when one steps into the Naukra circle. How could it be otherwise?”
She nodded; then, as if realizing the momentary error, shifted into accepted-understanding. The flow of the movement was so smooth, so sure, that the two gestures—one human, one Jao—seemed to form a new whole. Aille was certain that he was not the only Jao present who suddenly glimpsed a new language emerging.
“Humans, of course, cannot perceive all the considerations, but it seems appropriate that we be allowed to present our viewpoint. The conflict developed on our world, and it is our world which will bear the consequences, should an ineffective solution be adopted.”
Aille watched her move, the slow sweep of her arms toward earnest-conviction, the tilt of her head adding desire-to-be-of-service. A tripartite stance? His whiskers stiffened. Would one so young and inexperienced really be so ambitious?
The Preceptor stared too, along with the rest of the crowd, some of whom forgot themselves so far as to climb up on the rocks and watch. Her forehead furrowed as she concentrated, wisely going slowly, edging toward completion. To compensate for the extra finger, she held two-as-one on each hand, as Aille had once suggested back in the Governor’s palace during that fateful reception. Her immobile ears contributed nothing to the stance, of course, and her lack of whiskers was jarring, but the rest of her—
Aille sucked in his breath in admiration. She was magnificent. He had been right to employ her in his service—and Oppuk’s bigotry was now obvious to all.
“There are two solutions contemplated here,” she said, trembling with the effort of holding the unusually complicated posture. “Though they are not equal to the Jao, neither will much vary the Terran condition.”