Nadhari smiled. Her smile reminded him of RK-he just hadn't realized that was what a cat smile looked like. "What's that?" she asked as the cat rubbed against her cheek. "Oh, yes. He wants to stay with you tonight, too."
"Divided loyalties?" Becker asked.
Nadhari swung her sturdy but very shapely legs down from the divan with a sinuous slither and stood looking down at him. "Hardly. RK is a sacred temple cat. His wish is my command. If he wishes to be with me, and with you ..." her hand reached down to cup Becker's chin and with slight pressure on it, raised him to his feet. "I am not the one to gainsay him. Are you?"
"Disappoint my old buddy?" Becker asked, slipping her hand through his crooked elbow. "Perish the thought. Mind telling me where he wants to spend this time with us tonight?"
"Aboard your vessel," she replied, and he was surprised to see that she actually had to look up at him. How did she do that? He could have sworn she was taller. "In the hold -where you questioned the first Khieevi."
"Really?"
"Yes. The sacred cat thinks I would find that environment rather - stimulating."
"Kitty knows best," Becker said.
fourteen.
Hafiz -would not hear of the Linyaari remaining aboard the Condor. Acorna was glad, particularly -when she saw Becker, RK, and Nadhari strolling arm in arm in the direction of the ship.
A self-contained trio of pavilions triangulated around a garden/grazing area. Kaarlye and Miiri were billeted in one, and although Maati could have stayed with her parents, she asked if she might share a pavilion with Khornya instead. This left Aari and Thariinye to share the third.
Acorna spent most of the rest of the evening with her adoptive fathers/uncles, describing what had befallen her since they had last seen each other.
"This Aari guy," Gill said. "You and he . . . ?"
"We're friends," Acorna said, off-handedly.
"Evidently, if he's willing to wrestle bug-eyed monsters on your behalf," Calum said.
"We -were all in danger," Acorna said, reasonably enough. "And Aari was trying to save us all."
"He didn't know that stuff smeared on his shirt would kill the thing though?" Gill asked. "He just dove right in and tackled it?"
"Well-yes."
"Sounds kinda suicidal to me," Calum said.
"I don't really think he is-at least, not now," Acorna said.
"But he was before?" Gill asked.
Acorna suddenly felt more uncomfortable than she had ever before felt in the company of these beloved men. "Why are you questioning me this way?" she asked.
"Why do you think?" Calum asked, exasperated. "Because we care about you, of course, and we've talked it over and it looks to us like you care about him."
"But we wish to make sure," Rank said, "That-well, you're not just feeling sony for someone who cannot be a good mate for you, to put it bluntly."
"You must admit, pet, that we know a few more things about men than you do," Gill said, smiling.
"Human men, yes, but Aari is Linyaari," she said. "And we are friends. Nothing more."
"Not-yet?" Gill asked.
"No, nor will we be until he's-"
"Until he'^f ready, darlin'?" Gill pressed. "What about you? Are you going to crew on a salvage ship until the guy makes up his mind whether or not he could stand being mates with a beautiful, intelligent, funny, talented, warm, and loving girl? You must excuse us, but it's a no-brainer. Which makes us wonder about how intelligent or warm he is."
"Frankly, we thought you'd get snatched up by some young stud the minute you landed on your home-world," Calum said. "We're a bit surprised at this turn of events."
Acorna dimpled at them suddenly. "Is this one of those situations where you are going to ask me when I'm going to settle down and give you grandchildren?"
"Yes," Rafik said, "Usually mothers do it, well, used to, but you have no mother and we weren't sure your aunt would think of it, besides which she's not around, is she? So we thought- that is, Calum and Gill thought-maybe between us, we should discuss this."
"Haz started it, really," Calum said. "Hey, we did pretty well, I think. Gill "was all for calling the guy outside and asking him what his intentions were when we saw how he-how you- how things were. But then we figured a guy -who tackled a Khieevi bare-handed might be the sensitive type, so we decided asking you-"
"Was safer," Rafik finished with an impish grin.
Acorna laughed. "You've asked. We've discussed it," she said, giving them each a hug. "And I have nothing more to say-honestly, there if nothing more to say right now. Meanwhile, when am I going to get to give my fathers away in marriage is what I'd like to know? Judit and Mercy will not wait forever while you busy yourselves speculating about my love life."
"Actually," Calum said. "We um, have an announcement to make. But I will wait until she can-"
The other two started thumping him on the back. Talk turned to how the nuptials were to be handled and then all of them began to feel the need to talk to their mates and Acorna slipped away, back to her assigned pavilion.
Maati was not there. Acorna thought perhaps the girl was spending more time with her parents. That was fine. It would be nice to be alone for a while. As light as she had made of her dear friends' questions, they echoed questions in her own mind, and she didn't want a youngling new to thought-speech to read her, even accidentally.
Du) she care for Aari simply because she had pitied him, or was there more to it than that? How would she know? She had never chosen a mate before. She knew her uncles had only her best interests at heart and it was quite true that she hadn't noticed all that much difference between human and Linyaari males. And she felt, being raised by men, that she understood them as well as a female could. At this point in her life anyway. But she couldn't say she understood Aari at all. She could read his mind when he let her and she knew he cared for her. She could empathize with his pain. But she hadn't a clue why he behaved as he did. She wished Grandam Naadiina or Aunt Neeva "were here to consult with. She would have asked Gill, Calum, or Rafik about the matter but they seemed to be predisposed against Aari.
With a sigh, she settled down to an uneasy and dream-filled sleep in which she -was being courted by a Khieevi.
Aari, on the other hand, was getting no sleep, nor was he able to progress very far in the book he had chosen from the Condor's ancient hardcopy library, a collection of ancient European literature by various authors. Aari was currently reading an excerpt from a play called Romeo am) Juliet by William Shakespeare. The language was not easy but Aari had read another book that referred to Shakespeare as inventing the language of love, so he thought it might be interesting to see what the Bard of Avon had to say. Although he could not imagine why a cosmetics firm from the twentieth century (the ship's library also contained a number of small brightly colored pamphlets from this company) would choose to sponsor an ancient poet unless it -was because he "was also an actor and they, as Aari was learning, also used makeup.
But *while he was struggling with the language, Thariinye was chattily giving him the benefit of Thariinye's spectacularly successful career (according to the young male) as a wooer of females. Aari had not had the heart to ask him to be quiet, as he knew that the loss of the tip of Thariinye's horn had made him feel disfigured and the younger fellow was relating his past exploits simply to bolster his own confidence.
But in that estimation, Aari was using the projection of his own feelings about the loss of his horn and empathy for Tharii nye's distress, not thought-reading, which he found impossible to do -while he was trying to unravel Shakespeare's thees and thous. So he was taken aback when Thariinye suddenly rolled over on his own pallet and poked Aari playfully in the ribs.
"That Khornya is quite a reed, isn't she?" Thariinye said with a wink.
"A--reed?" Aari asked, looking up from his book at the mention of Khornya's name.
"A-slender and succulent desirable mate, to old-timers like you," Thariinye translated with a tolerant wave of his hand.
"I-yes. Maati mentioned that you had considered yourself pledged to her. Is that-still true?" His voice was steady and controlled.
"Me? No! No, no, no. By the ancestors, no! Oh, I was smitten, of course. She is beautiful-quite a reed, as I said. But, well, it really was just that I was the first Linyaari male she met and she -was so dewy eyed and innocent I felt protective, so I -wanted to warn off other males lest they not . . . appreciate her finer qualities . . . properly. No, now that I know her better, she is not for me."
"No? And -why not?" Aari asked, suddenly feeling protective himself, and rather angry at Thariinye dismissing Khornya. Who wouldn't want Khornya?
"Frankly?" Thariinye said. "She's too smart for me. And well, a bit too idealistic. And a little too strange, being raised by humans and all. She has peculiar ideas about things so I can't begin to guess what she's going to do next. That makes me nervous around her."
"I admit I am nervous around her, too," Aari said thoughtfully.
"I noticed. But you're crazy about her, aren't you?" Thariinye's voice was insinuating and his eyes sly. "You want her, don't you?"
"I ... have no right," Aari said. "She deserves a mate who is whole in mind and body. And horn," he said, a bit cruelly, since Thariinye was being cruel and discourteously invasive, to his way of thinking.
"Ouch," Thariinye said. "I guess I deserved that. But I'm told mine will grow back, in time."
Aari was quiet. Thariinye had responded to cruelty with cruelty of his own. That was one reason why the Linyaari usually eschewed cruelty. It was not only unkind, it was unwise to start the spiraling descent that would lead with all parties having fallen to a lower level.
"Sony," Thariinye said again. "I'm trying to tell you something here and I keep on upsetting you. You're pretty touchy, you know that, don't you?"
"Perhaps it is because for so long, when anyone touched me, it was to cause pain," Aari said through gritted and bared teeth. Then he relaxed, "I am sony too. I have begun to think of you as a friend. Grandam says friends come together to teach each other. I sense you are trying to teach me something. Proceed."
"What I'm saying," Thariinye said, "Is no matter what YOU think she deserves, the females I know seem to feel that what they deserve is whatever their little female hearts decide they *want. I think it's pretty clear she wants you."
"No," he said. "She is a kind and loving person. She feels sympathy for my injury, for what happened with the Khieevi. When she is sure I am as healed as possible, for she is a healer above all, she will return to her human people for good as our ambassador-stopping by narhii-Vhiliinyar to communicate with the government perhaps. By then Joh and I will be far away so I -" <)o I will not have to watch her leave again, he thought to himself.
"You're just making that assumption!" Thariinye said "Why don't you ask her? Talk to her? Take her some of these beautiful, delicious flowers! Recite Linyaari love poetry to her!
She's never heard it, you know. I was going to try it out on her but I could tell she wouldn't believe me."
"What would it tell her that I bring her flowers from a garden that is also hers to graze?" Aari asked, shaking his mane.
"That you brought her breakfast in bed?" Thariinye suggested. "No, no, go back to your book. Forget I said anything."
But the next morning, Thariinye slept in while Aari went to see if he could assist his parents in the laboratory where they were analyzing the sap that had killed the Khieevi. Upon awakening, Thariinye saw the book Aari had left behind. His journey with Neeva, Khaari, and Melireenya to collect Khornya from her human foster parents had given him a superior knowledge of Standard, he felt. With the help of the LAANYE he had carried -with him from the Niikaavri, he was able to translate one of the stories, although the words fell in odd places. This particular tale, by a human named Rostand, told of a fellow with a disfiguringly long nose-which sounded perfectly attractive to Thariinye, since long noses were considered elegant by Linyaari tastes. The long-nosed chap was in love with a female also desired by a more attractive male, a friend of the longnosed chap. Finally, because he -was a kind person and wished to see both his friend and the female he loved happy, and also because it allowed him to speak his own -words of love to the female, the long-nosed male hid and spoke his love words while the handsomer male pretended to speak them to the female.
Thariinye knew that it obviously would never work out. There were a few similarities in the personalities involved of course, but considerable mutation would have to occur before such a solution would in any way serve the present situation.
Maati was a youngling, but in her capacity as a messenger, she had been receiving a great deal of vicarious experience since she was very small. The only other females available to discuss this with, unfortunately, were Khornya and Aari's mother, who was quite busy and besides, Thariinye didn't know her. Maati would have to do.
Maati was thrilled to find herself among human younglings approximately her age. They had been alive much longer, as Linyaari children developed very rapidly and, once adult, maintained a healthy maturity of great longevity. The youngest of these children had been alive at least eight years, which was much longer than Maati's single ghaanyi. A ghaanyi was about one and a half years, by Standard time, which was how these humans measured their days.
But the younglings were barely sentient for a very long period in their early lives, so their experience, while different, was not much greater than Maati's own. Certainly none of them had been messengers for their governments, although Laxme, one of the boys, had developed unusual skill with the com units. Nor had they been shot down by a Khieevi ship, fought a Khieevi hand-to-hand, and lived. But the Maganos Moonbase children, she was sorry to hear, had all endured horrible lives as child slaves. The Starfarer children of the Haven had watched their parents die at the hands of hijackers, had defeated and dealt decisively "with the same hijackers, and now were in command of their home ship, with only a little help from a few adults. The thing all of the children had most in common was that they loved and admired Khornya, though the human children called her "Acorna," "Lady Epona," or "The Lady of the Light" and regarded her with *worshipful adoration Maati found strange.
"She's just a really nice girl, like us, only a little older," Maati told them.
"Like you, you mean," Jana corrected her. Jana was really nice and had been asking Maati lots of questions about healing. At first Maati had been unwilling to answer. Linyaari did not usually let outsiders know they healed directly through their horns. Doing so could lead to incidents like the one where bad humans took many Linyaari ambassadors prisoner and tried to force them to heal and cleanse water and air under horrible circumstances. Linyaari raised on the homeworld knew this, but Khornya had not.
"Don't be so cagey," Jana had said when Maati tried to play innocent. "We know all about how you can heal people. Acorna healed all of us when we were in the mines and other bad places. If it hadn't been for her, most of us would be crippled. I don't know why you wouldn't want people to know what you can do. It's wonderful! I wish I could do that. I -want to be a doctor."
"I'm going to create holograms, just like Mr. Harakamian," Annella, a redheaded girl from the Haven, said. "He's shown me a lot of what goes into it. It's not as hard as you'd think but then, he says I have a natural talent for it." Then she realized they weren't talking about careers, they were talking about Acorna's ability to heal and she added, "But it must be wonderful to be able to heal the way your people can."
Maati made a wry face. "It comes in pretty handy, like when the Khieevi attacked us. Thariinye got hurt real bad trying to save me and Khornya. He probably would have died if he wasn't Linyaari and we hadn't been there. Or at least lost a hand."
"That was really brave," Jana said. "Kheti is brave like that. And Acorna is, too."
"My brother was the bravest though."
"Which one is your brother? Thariinye?" Annella asked.
"Oh no-Thariinye is a friend, sort of, when he isn't being a hdnye."
"I don't know what that means," Jana said, "But I bet it's not good."
"No, it's not, but he's not that way as much anymore. My brother is the one -who doesn't have a horn. The Khieevi, um," Maati found she had trouble saying it, even now, "When they captured him they tortured him and, you know-"
"We get the picture," Jana assured her hastily, hearing the choke in the voice of the Linyaari girl. "Your brother must be very brave. We heard he tackled that monster bare-handed."
"He did. But the monster was about to get Khornya. That was a fatal mistake," Maati said with satisfaction unbecoming a member of a nonviolent race.
"I've seen how Lady Epona looks at him," Jana said with a sigh.
"Everybody sees but him!" Maati said. "He is so smart and so brave but he just thinks because he doesn't have a horn, Khornya would be getting a bad deal-that she might not accept him, even though everybody can see she really likes him."
"Why doesn't she tell him?" Annella asked.
"Cause she's afraid that even though he likes her, he would still maybe reject her and I think, well, actually, I sort of peeked. She is afraid that rejecting her would cause him more pain and she doesn't want to do that. Grownups are sooooo complicated."
"You'd think they'd realize that life is pretty short to be so backward about good stuff," Jana said wistfully. "Everybody is being so careful of everybody else's feelings they're never gonna get together."
"That's what Thariinye said," Maati agreed, heaving a deep and dramatic sigh. "He was talking about 'some male with a large nose who did the talking for some other male to a female they both cared for. Do males with long noses play the role of go-betweens in your society? Are there any of them here we could get to talk to Khornya for Aari-or the other way around?"
"Nooo," said Jana. The other kids shook their heads too.
Their educations on Maganos Moonbase had tended to the practical and technical and neglected the arts. Their former masters hadn't exactly provided them with cultural opportunities either.
However, Annella's mother, before she had been spaced by the invaders, had been very fond of theater. "He's talking about a character named Cyrano, Maati. It's from an old earth tale."
"I see," Maati said wisely. But she didn't.
"I think he's hit on something," Annella said. "Maybe they need a go-between."
"A matchmaker," put in Markel, another of the kids from the Haven who had been listening carefully to what -went on. He considered himself a very special friend of Acorna's, since it was with his help she was able to save herself, Calum Baird, and Dr. Hoa and help the youngsters of the Haven overthrow the hijackers. "Only, it sounds like a lot of people have tried to be one from what you say, Maati."
"Yes," Maati said. "Khornya's foster fathers talked to her about it and she didn't want to talk, Karina Harakamian can't read her mind, Thariinye said he knows she -won't talk to him, and she thinks I'm just a kid and can't understand. But I 9o. I understand they are both being dumb not to talk to each other. They don't really need to talk to some third person because neither of them will believe anybody else. They need to talk to each other. Aari needs to talk to Khornya and Khornya needs to talk to Aari or they won't believe it." She shrugged. "Not even a long-nosed male could help."
"Maybe there's a way for that to happen, kind of," Annella said slowly.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Markel asked.
"I think so. Do you think we could pull it off?"
"Maybe. It can't hurt to try anyway. Hafiz isn't going to care. He probably 'will even find a use for them later." "What?" Maati asked. The other kids looked at the two Starfarers as well.
"Come with us to the holo lab. We'll try to show you. It'll take a while, though."
In the days that followed, Becker staggered around the ship humming marching songs. While Nadhari was on duty, RK stayed on the ship. She was on duty a lot, but still found time almost every day for a little visit. Becker was chronically surprised that she really seemed to like him, and the Corufor.