“Huh. Me either, now I think on it.”
A waft of something reached them down the dock. Blood. Even through the ammonia. Pyanfar hissed and cleared her throat. “Good gods,” Haral swore in disgust. “That’s enough to kill your appetite.”
“We’re nearly-“-there, Pyanfar started to say and suddenly lost the thread of her thought as she caught sight of the kifish numerals for 28: Harukk’s berth. Kif traffic was thick hereabouts and the blood-smell grew stronger.
It worsened rapidly, the closer they walked. The steel rampway rail had a series of metal poles chained to its stanchions, and a dark object sat atop each.
“Gods and thunders,” Pyanfar muttered, “Haral, don’t flinch.”
The heads were kif. Kif came and went on that number 28 ramp, past the awful watchers; she and Haral headed that way among the rest, waiting for challenge from some guard or other.
None came. They passed the first stanchion up and Pyanfar gave the gory object atop it a cold and curious glance.
“So much for the opposition,” Haral said.
“Sure ought to keep the new converts in line,” Pyanfar muttered. Every kif that came into Harukk had to see it, victory for some, grim warning for the others.
At least, she thought in profoundest relief, none of the heads was hani.
Kif turned and stared at them as they passed, upward-bound like all the rest who had business aboard Harukk. A knot of kif who stood at the accessway clicked and hissed as they passed but made no offer to delay them.
There were, finally, guards inside the large airlock.
“Hakktan,” one said in kifish. Captain?
“Ukt,” Haral answered with a nod at Pyanfar. Yes. Pyanfar stood by with her arms folded, arrogant to the slant of her ears, and let Haral do the talking. Two of the three kif kept their hands tucked within their sleeves , doubtless concealing weapons besides the guns they wore openly. They stood blocking other traffic into the lock from either direction, while the third reported their presence to the monitor above.
The answer came, orders for their admittance. The guard at the inner hatch stepped aside; and the third guard bowed with that hands-empty gesture: “Inside,” that one said.
“Huh,” said Pyanfar; bowed and slanted her ears back when she did it. Haral stayed close as they passed the hatch to Harukk’s ammonia-smelling interior.
More kif waited in the inside corridor-one who turned out to be merely delayed traffic, who stalked on; and four tall kif rattling with weapons.
“Follow,” one said, and stalked off in the lead without looking back. Three walked behind, while two stayed. And not a word of objection about the array of weapons their visitors brought aboard. Not a word of any kind. They passed kif in these dim corridors that stank of ammonia and machinery and blood and other, unidentifiable things, and no one gave them a second glance.
Kifish manners, Pyanfar thought. Don’t notice the hakkikt’s odd guests, don’t stare, don’t give offense. The aura of fear and fierceness throughout the place was infectious. It bristled the back, set the pulse beating faster, sent fight-flight impulses coursing the nerves.
Hilfy knows this place, Pyanfar thought at sight after sight, with an involuntary tightening of her gut. Hilfy was in this awful place.
Hilfy had stood silent by Khym’s side when she had broken the news to them where she and Haral proposed to go. Khym had had his opinion of it all. Like Geran. But Hilfy’s ears just went flat and her nostrils drew taut; and: “Huh,” Hilfy had said. “Why?” With a darkness of memory in her eyes; and an estimation, and nothing else readable. ‘You know it’s a trap.”
“I know,” Pyanfar had said. “At this point there isn’t a better choice.”
Hilfy knew the ways of kif better than any. And gave her no argument. No offer to come either. The situation wanted cold steadiness and as little as possible chance of provoking the kif. And that put the job, by seniority and by disposition, on Haral Araun.
Haral walked along beside her now as warily easy as on a trek down one of the Compact’s rougher docksides-kept her ears up and her face serene during the ride pent in a lift with the pair of kifish guards.