Pyanfar sucked air. Spat in the access way. “You want something.”
“You got time?” Judiciously and from safe distance.
A third spit. “I got time.” The peripheries of her vision began to clear. She jerked a hand back toward the lock, led the way, and as they rounded the turn, she saw Tirun standing there with ears flat and a pistol in her fist.
“Haral said there was trouble,” Tirun said.
“Over now. Get. Haral needs help up there. We got mahen guards outside.”
“Aye.” Tirun went at a run.
“Come on.” Pyanfar brought Jik on through the airlock into the inner corridor, and punched the com panel. “Haral. It’s all clear. Seal both hatches.”
“Aye-“-from the bridge, without comment.
SSSShhhh-t. The door went. Sealed with an electric thunk.
She looked at Jik. Her lip still twitched. She flicked her ears with a jingling of rings. “I tell you, Jik, the han’s changed. It’s changed. Hani used to go where they liked, do what they liked without some gods-rotted government note-taker stalking and lurking-”
“You think you make mistake, a?”
“I think I just made a gods-rotted big one. Mistake! When’d it get to be a mistake to throw two lousy insolent spies off my deck? When’d it happen, Jik?”
“Maybe-” Jik cleared his throat. “Maybe you make, Pyanfar. You bring lot strangers to Anuurn. Anuurn hani- they not got used to outside. They scare. Lot scare, Pyanfar. They got hani renegade Tahar go work for kif. You know what think? I think this Ehrran got lot suspicion Chanur got too much power-”
“Too much? We got debts, friend-we got debts up to our noses, my brother’s not getting any younger-he’ll go down one day, and gods even know if it’ll be a Chanur that takes him. My nephews are all fools.” It was too much to say. Far too much already. She shrugged and looked elsewhere down the corridor.
“Chanur got space,” Jik said. “Maybe Chanur bring back thing these world-hani not want, a?”
She slanted an ear back and looked at him then, this hunter-captain who was way, way up in mahen councils. Mahendo’sat had brought hani into space. Given them ships. Created, if hani ever admitted it, the very concept of the han. And Jik understood that. He understood it very well indeed. “You longtime got your hands in every nest in the Compact, mahe-” She slipped deep into the pidgin, facing wrinkle-ringed brown eyes, a sober, too-wise stare. “You know this Rhif Ehrran?”
She expected a shrug from Jik, denial, some glib answer. Instead: “Maybe Chanur enemy get organize, a? Maybe you watch you back, friend. I make big mistake at Kshshti, bring Ehrran in this thing. Big mistake.”
“I believe you,” she said. “Now I believe you.-What you want here, huh?”
“Want say same thing. Want make sure you not come ‘cross bow with Vigilance at Kefk. I like you one piece, hani.”
“Come here.”
“A?”
She grabbed him by the arm. and brought him down the corridor, around the corner and down again, where the lowerdecks washroom was. She pushed the button and the door shot back.
The kif sat on a folded stack of blankets on the tiles against the far wall. Its robes were tucked close about it. It had dropped its hood. Now its head came up and it rose in one muscular glide and bowed, showing empty hands, before it looked up again.
Courtesy of a killer-kind.
“Is it ker Pyanfar?”
“It’s me. This is the captain of Aja Jin.”
“Sssstk.” A deep nod of the head. “I am impressed. Nomesteturjai.”
“Kif,” Jik said,
“His name is Skkukuk. He says he’s mine. A gift, from Sikkukkut.”
“A.-A noikkhe?”
“Skku nik kktitik kuikkht kehtk tok nif fik pukkukk.”
-Why? Pyanfar followed threads of it.
-Subordinate, weapon, for pride, revenge- ” Nfkokkth shokku hakhoth nkki to skohut.”
“A,” Jik said.
“Well?” said Pyanfar. “You got kif,” Jik said, and shrugged.
“I am starving,” it said.
She shut the door, laid her ears back and looked at Jik. “What do I do with it, huh? Put it out the hatch?”
“They kill him sure.”
“Well, gods rot it, do I run a charity for kif?”