and hani guards had apparently not satisfied them, although Hilfy herself had
not heard about it; and the fact that the hair rose on a hani captain's nape
and that her vision hazed about the edges at the mere sight of these tall,
black-robed figures, the fact that a hani of otherwise peaceful intent
instantly entertained violent thoughts at meeting these creatures, did not
matter to the stsho. It was so polite. So civilized. The kif bowed; she bowed;
they said follow, and she followed these thin, long-snouted shadows, these
creatures that always, no matter what the circumstances, reeked of ammonia, if
only in her memory.
"Chanur captain," they called her, with their peculiar clicking accent, the
sound of double, deadly jaws, making consonants that no hani could exactly
duplicate. They spoke to her respectfully, for her aunt's sake, for their
employers' sake: they showed every sign of fearing her displeasure -- as kif
might, who had reason to think she had power and influence with their
employers. So these were no danger. They were not high in kifish rank or they
would not be working here, in alien employ. Kick them and they would estimate
you the higher for it.
But she was profoundly relieved to meet a stsho at the end of the corridor,
beyond the blowing gossamer curtains, and to leave the guards behind. The
spindly, fragile stsho, who was the personal aide, gtst told her, to gtst
excellency the governor No'shto-shti-stlen, drifted in draperies of almost
pink and almost gold, fluttered agitatedly along a corridor of blowing drapes
of almost-white -- wherein a gold-coated, red-maned hani, unsubtle intrusion
in a realm of faintest distinctions, refused to be rushed. The aide had not
deigned to come in person. She was in no imminent need of the governor's
approval. So in the game of diplomatic tit for tat, Hilfy Chanur walked at her
own pace into the governor's vast gossamer-curtained audience hall, where
multiple bowl-chairs, pastel cushioned depressions in the floor, defined the
stsho's sense of elegance, decorum, and, thereby, social status.
In one of these bowl-chairs governor No'shto-shti-stlen waited, plucking pale
green leaves from some sort of fruit and eating them one by one.
But the governor set down gtst lunch as they approached. Manners improved. The
aide, bowing, declared the presence of 'the great hani captain, the birth-
bond-relative of the estimable mekt-hakkikt' and so on and so on, worthy of
gtst attention, and so on.
"Sit," the entity lisped in the Trade, with a wave of white, long fingers.
Gtst excellency seemed half-transparent, hardly a touch of color in the body-
paint, to hani eyes, white on white. Gtst -- not precisely he or she, since
stsho had three genders, and two indeterminate states if frightened -- called
for something in gtst rippling planetary language. The attendant scurried to
comply, while stsho music played softly in the background, the occasional
chime of a single, same note.
Hilfy folded down into the bowl opposite gtst excellency No'shto-shti-stlen,
knowing better than to rush matters with the governor, as she had refused to
be hurried. But very quickly a servant showed up with a tray of crystal bowls
and a colorless, exquisitely flavored liquid in a crystal pitcher.
Thereafter, five tiny bowls, savored in silence. She knew the protocols -- and
knew the giddiness that could set in for a hani partaking of too much stsho
hospitality. She kept her ears up and her mouth pursed in hani pleasantness,
evidencing the right amount of cultured pleasure in each serving, all the
while she watched the minute flutter of feathery lashes and feathery brows,
the minute shifts in expression as No'shto-shti-stlen made slow estimation of