It leaked slowly from his nostrils. “I not like whole ship company go out from The Pride-but they go quick get off dock. This number one good idea. I don’t trust Ehrran. I run like hell, try catch these hani. No good. We get pin down. We got no hakkikt permission be on dock, a? Every damn fool out there want shoot us. Hani go through. We stuck. So got one job then-hold way open for hani, back to ship. We do. We hope Ana take care Ehrran. I think he do. He follow her. I still got hope he got good idea. Maybe help. He not like tell what he do. This maybe make friend lot nervous. Make me damn nervous now, a? I be like you, hakkikt. I always like know what my friend do.”
“Your friend has left you in a precarious position. Or you’ve elected to stay and lie to me.”
“A. No lie. Got know truth to make lie. I not know. He not talk to me.”
“Meaning nothing can extract this truth from you.”
“Not got. What want? I say give you Kefk. I give.”
“Kefk is in ruins, Keia. It seems a dubious gift.”
“You got lot sfik. You step on Kefk, go ‘way, take lot more prize, a? Akkhtimakt no got. You be rich, you fix, easy.”
“Ah. But you still suppose Ismehanan-min is going to support us at Meetpoint.”
“He no like Akkhtimakt.”
“I take that for granted. You yourself serve your Personage and not me. As he does. Doesn’t this mean some agreement of action?”
Jik drew another large breath of smoke and sought a place for the ash afterward. There was none. He tapped it and let it fall to the floor. “I serve Personage. I tell you plain I got reason want see you be hakkikt. I think this be good for all. So I serve Personage. Serve you. Balance, hakkikt. You be Personage we recognize. You got lot sfik with mahendo’sat. These be crazy times. Better kif got good smart Personage, a?”
“Flattery, base flattery, Keia. Diversion again. I tell you I am not persuaded it was kif who began that fight on the docks. And this-”
-in a blink Sikkukkut’s arm shot out, and guards pounced on Skkukuk, hauling him upright.
“Kkkt!” Skkukuk’s protest was throat-deep and anguished.
“He’s mine,” Pyanfar said tautly. Never back up, never back down, never let a kif get away with any property. “A present from you, hakkikt.”
Dangerous. O gods, dangerous. So was flinching when that long-jawed face turned her way.
“It remains yours,” Sikkukkut said.
“It gained a little sfik,” said Pyanfar. “In our service out there. I’d like to keep it.”
“Kothogot ktktak tkto fik nak fakakkt?”
The question went to Skkukuk; and Skkukuk drew his head back as if he wanted to be far from Sikkukkut’s sight.
“Nak gothtak hani, hakkikta.”
“Nakt soghot puk mahendo’satkun?”
“Hukkta. Hukktaki soghotk. Hani gothok nak uman Taharkta makkt oktktaikki, hakkikta.”
-No. Desperately. I saw no collusion. The hani argued over possession of the human and Tahar and left, hakkikt.
A wave of Sikkukkut’s hand. The guards let Skkukuk go and he collapsed back into a head-down chittering heap beside the table.
“So he attests your behavior,” Sikkukkut said. “Your sfik still powerfully attracts his service. I wonder is it hope of you or dread of me so impels him.”
“He’s useful.”
“And as we speak, Vigilance and Ismehanan-min hasten, to betray us at Meetpoint. What attraction can they find there, I wonder, that impels Ismehanan-min to abandon Keia here to my pleasure-Do I not correctly recall a mahen proverb, Keia my friend, that green leaves fall in storms and the strongest friendships in politics?”
“Long time friend, Ana Ismehanan-min.”
“But he would let you die.”
“Like you say, politic. Also-” Jik pinched out the smoke and dropped the butt into his pouch. “Also Ana lot mad with me.” Jik’s eyes came up, liquid and vulnerable and without the least doubt. “He know I work with tc’a. Fool, he say; Jik, you be damn fool involve methane-folk. Ana, I say, I not much worry, I long time talk tc’a. Got lot tc’a know me, long time. I want tc’a come here to Kefk-fine. Dangerous, maybe. I think now maybe knnn got interest. Maybe good, maybe bad-“