Chapter 20

"I'm sorry, Kalogakhing, I don't understand," Meiersdottir said at last.

"When we choose word for us, we choose from you and not from words of this world," the mother said. "We name ourselves in your speech because we know it is you who have strength, in weapons and in mind and in all else. And we know from long that we will need you to help us in this fight. We are Strong, but Ghotagatogulagunga are many, many, and alone we cannot win."

"But you never ... we never... ," stammered Meiersdottir in a flustered voice.

"You are not here when first we think, and so we wait. Then in talk they say you come. But when you come you go only to Ghotagatogulagunga, not to us, and this is also not right, it is we who are Strong, it is we who risk lives to come to where we are, we who have done that which should make you come to us."

"I'm very sorry, Kalogakhing, we knew very little about you, we just went to where we'd been before—"

"You do not need be sorry, we understand why you do this," the mother cut her short. "But we know also that Ghotagatogulagunga will not tell you of us, unless we make it that they do so. So when they say that you are there, and Igwanda, and others, in last time we speak with them we say we will send fighters to them. We know they will tell you, and that you will come here where we can speak with you and make it that you help us."

Machiavelli could have taken lessons from them, thought Igwanda with a private chuckle he carefully masked. But they have badly misestimated us.

"Kalogakhing, we've come to talk with you, and only that," Meiersdottir told her careful­ly. "To talk, and to try to make peace between you. Not to fight."

"Tell you before, talk is done," said the alien. She turned directly to Igwanda. "You are leader of human guards, and guards must help us now."

"I am no longer a leader," he said in a flat tone. "And even if I were, we would not fight. We would not fight for you or against you. What you are doing, what both of you are doing, is not right; there is a better way, a way that does not involve fighting."

"So," the mother said pensively, ignoring all but the first part of his remarks. "You are not leader now?"

"No."

"Are there guards with you? Do you have weapons?"

"There are only a very few guards," Meiersdottir told her, "and they have another lead­er."

"Igwanda, you know this new leader?" she asked abruptly.

"We all know each other on our ship," he responded with purposeful ambiguity. They were here to gather information, not disseminate it.

"That is good," said the mother. "Igwanda, you will tell new leader he must help us, fight for us."

"I will not do that, Kalogakhing. I have told you—"

"Yes, you will do this, Igwanda," she contradicted. "You will do this to make safe Aman­da and her child."

Suddenly Igwanda was on full alert. Two of the alien males were moving rapidly toward the stacked spears he'd observed; even more quickly he took three quick steps to block their access. But the other pair immediately took up positions flanking Meiersdottir and the baby she still held.

Briefly the tableau remained stationary. One of the Edenite males confronting Igwanda began reaching into his clothing. "If this one reaches further he will die," said Igwanda harshly. "I do not need weapons to kill."

The alien's movement ceased, but all of them remained poised. The mother held up her hands.

"We know this," she said. "All here will die if this must be so. I will die, these"—she gestured at the males—"will die. But Amanda and child will also die. And when it is done, you too will die, Igwanda, either here or when you seek to leave. You must choose does this happen."

There wasn't much question that she was right, Igwanda knew, cursing himself mentally for allowing himself and his family to be put in such a position. He briefly considered an immediate attack, but rejected the idea almost as soon as it came to him. He was confident he could take out the two males before him, but his wife was handicapped by the child she held and one or the other of the males beside her would almost surely inflict severe injury before he could reach her, and the mothers might also be armed, and there was Meier to consider...

Meiersdottir was looking around her with an appalled expression. "Kalogakhing, what is this?" she said, her tone matching her visage. "Do you invite us to your nest only to murder us?"

"No, Amanda. No-one need die here, it is not our wish that any will die."

"Before you were Kalogakhing you were Akeelakhing, and it is to Akeelakhing, the mother who was my friend and who gave me so much help when I gave birth to my baby, the baby you see here, it's to her that I now speak," said Meiersdottir, her voice calming. Igwanda knew just how much effort was going into that seeming calm. "I came to my friend to talk. How can it be that my friend now makes threats to me, to my child, to my husband? This is wrong."