“If he ever does …” Geri’s voice trailed off.
“Don’t worry,” Hector said, holding her close to him. “I won’t let him hurt you … or anybody else.”
Her smile was overpowering. “Hector, dearest Hector. If Odal should ever return here, would you loll him for me?”
Without a microsecond’s thought, he replied, “I’d challenge him as soon as I saw him.”
Her face grew serious again. “No. I don’t mean in the dueling machine. I mean really. Kill him.”
“I don’t understand the Prime Minister’s attitude,” Leoh said to Spencer and Lal Ponte.
“He has great pride,” Ponte answered, “the pride of a military man. And we have great pride in him. He is the man who can lead Acquatainia back to glory. Dulaq and Massan … they were good men, but civilians, too weak to deal with Kanus of Kerak.”
“They were political leaders,” Spencer rumbled. “They ealized that war is an admission of failure. War is the last resort, when all else fails.”
“We are not afraid of war!” Ponte snapped.
“You should be,” Leoh said.
“Why? Do you doubt that we could defeat Kerak?”
“Why run the risk when you could avoid the war altogether?”
The little politician waved his arms agitatedly, a maneuver that caused him to bob up and down weightlessly. “We are not afraid of the Kerak Worlds! You assume that we are cowards who must run under the skirts of your Terran Commonwealth at the first sign of danger!”
“Lack of judgment is worse than cowardice,” said Leoh. “Why do you insist? , . .”
“You accuse the Acquatainian government of stupidity?”
“No, I….”