It made sense. It made an uncomfortable lot of sense.
“So why did you come in?”
The ears flicked. Dark mahen eyes half-lidded. “Maybe I got no more choice. Maybe Jik got whole thing.”
A fist closed about her heart. “You’re lying to me, Goldtooth. I’ve had enough of it.”
Long silence. “Maybe good thing one smart mahe come stand real close this kif, huh?”
“You’re planning to kill him?”
“A. You maybe got idea, hani.”
“You think other kif haven’t tried?”
“Kif no do. Kif no try. They kif, they want live, Pyanfar. We mahendo’sat, we little crazy, a? I tell you truth, Pyanfar. You talk that kif I die real slow. You know same, a?”
“Gods, I don’t want to hear this! Don’t make me your coconspirator!”
“Old friend.”
“Friend!” She strode over to her dressing table, unlatched the drawer and searched inside it for a small presentation box. Goldtooth had sat up straight; she tossed it and he caught it.
“What this?”
“Expensive present. From Stle sties stlen, your precious friend at Meetpoint. The stsho you told me to trust. A note. Go on. Read it. It’s short.”
He opened the lid, unfolded the paper and his ears tightened against his skull. “Bastard!”
“Gtst nearly Phased on me. Maybe he had a bad attack of treachery. Don’t trust Goldtooth. That piece of advice cost your government plenty. And that stsho bastard’s been dealing with Rhif Ehrran and the kif and the tc’a, I don’t doubt. And you. And me. And every landless daughter in the Compact’s been sniffing round for advantage. That son was real help, oh, yes! So was your stationmaster at Kshshti. Same gods-rotted kind of help as Stle stles stlen. Gods fry you, you sent me across the Compact like a gods-be lightning rod for every piece of doubledealing for forty lightyears round!”
Goldtooth got to his feet. Tossed the case back. Pyanfar caught it, threw it in the drawer, slammed and latched it.
“You got lot reason be upset, Pyanfar. But you got lot smart. You never ‘preciate same. You best damn captain Anuurn got. I got lot confidence you. You almost same good like me. Maybe better pilot, a?”
“Oh, no. No you don’t. No more favors. Gods rot it, I got no more crew, I got a gods-be zoo! I got a human scan tech, a kif who neglected to present his papers, and they want to feed him little live vermin-”
“You want mahe? Lend you number one fine fellow. Two, three guard.”
On my ship? Fine fellow to report every move I make? “No thanks. I got enough on file with Vigilance. Taking on mahen crew would about do it, friend.”
“You take. You got need. They take you order. Swear. I give you five.”
“No. No way! I can handle it.”
“We got lot trouble come. Akkhtimakt-he go Meetpoint.”
“Oh, good gods-” It was credible. It was all too credible. The matter spread itself out like a piece of whole cloth. “He’s going to sell himself to Stle stles stlen.”
“You right.”
“Hani are allied with the other side!”
” ‘Cept you; ‘cept maybe Tahar. Friend.”
Oaths failed her. She stood there staring up at Goldtooth; breath hung in her throat and the dark was all about them both. She coughed her throat clear and a shiver gathered in her gut and ran outward. “You,” she said finally, “you-”
“You no fool, Pyanfar. You got brain. You, me, Jik-not matter look right; matter what we do. Akkhtimakt got hani, got stsho ally, he make them fool. Where hani guns, a? Two, three ship. Stsho got none. Got proverb, hani-you go bed with some people half hour you got hundred year kid, and he got kids and they got in-laws. Same make deal with kif when you got no gun.
She stood there silent, staring up at this mahe, this somber self Goldtooth never showed on docksides. I kill this kif, he had said. Deal and double-deal. He could do it. Strike at Sikkukkut after the whole fragile structure was built and it would all tumble into chaos again.
More lives and ships. More years of hazard. And knnn with their black legs into it, weaving gods-knew-what about the fringes of the Compact, with humans trying to come and go.