For a moment, Honor was certain she must have misread those flowing fingers. Protect her? Protect her, when humans had destroyed Sorrow Singer’s entire clan?
“Nimitz has already protected me many times,” she said. “And I’ve done my best to protect him. That’s what you do when you love someone.”
<I know that,> Sorrow Singer replied, and her tail flirted as if in a sad laugh. <I could not have tasted the Bright Water memory songs without tasting your love for Laughs Brightly and his love for you, Dances on Clouds. But that was not what I meant.>
“Then, forgive me, but what do you mean?”
<The evildoers who destroyed my clan, who have destroyed so much of Death Fang’s Bane’s Clan, who have brought such sorrow to the People and to our two-legs, cannot be allowed to do still more evil.> Now Sorrow Singer’s fingers moved with a flat, somehow terrible emphasis. <We know—I know, from your mind-glow — that you will die to prevent that. That your friends among the two-legs, even those we have never met or tasted, will do the same. That you will stop their evil, whatever the cost, however long it may take. And we know from the stories we have heard over the “HD”>—she signed the obviously unfamiliar term carefully—<that the evildoers who slew my clan have tried to slay you, as well. That they forced one you loved to attack you against his will. I have tasted that, too, in Bright Water’s memory songs. And it seems likely that if they have tried once, they will try again. And again. Not to slay only you, but also Soul of Steel or others of your great elders.>
She paused again, and Honor nodded.
“I’m afraid you’re right,” she said soberly. “And we don’t know how they’re doing it. How to stop them.”
<Nor do the People,> Sorrow Singer said. <But unlike two-legs—other two-legs, at least — the People can taste mind-glows. We do not know how the evildoers make others do their bidding, but we can recognize the moment when it happens. From Laughs Brightly’s memories, we know now what to look for. I believe we could taste it even sooner with that knowledge…and give other two-legs at least some warning.>
Honor inhaled sharply. She looked at Sorrow Singer for several seconds, then spoke very carefully.
“We’ve thought—I’ve thought — about that possibility,” she admitted. “As you say, Nimitz recognized the same fear, the same desperation, I saw in Tim that day. And from the security footage of the attempt to assassinate Berry Zilwicki, Judson Van Hale and Genghis recognized those same things in the killer they sent after her. So, yes, I’ve thought about it. But Genghis was bonded to Van Hale just like Nimitz is bonded to me. They tried to protect each other because they loved each other, just like Nimitz and I love each other. And Genghis died, Sorrow Singer, just like Nimitz could have died trying to stop Timothy.” She shook her head. “Like I said, you protect the ones you love.”
<And you would not have the People risk themselves for those they do not love,> Sorrow Singer signed, and gave a slow, human-style nod. <That is what I would have expected from you, Dances on Clouds. But this choice is for the People, and we have made it. Speaks from Silence>—she nodded again, this time in Arif’s direction—<has labored long to help us find ways we may become true partners with our two-leg neighbors, as Golden Voice urged. Now we have found one, and one which will allow us in at least some small way to strike back against the slayers of my clan.>
The small, dappled creature gazed into Honor’s eyes once more.
<The People know how to deal with those who would slay us,> her implacable fingers said with iron determination. <We know how to deal with those who would slay those we love. Do not forget how Death Fang’s Bane and Climbs Quickly first met. They fought, and they bled, and each almost died for the other. Now it is our turn, and we wish you to go to Soul of Steel and Truth Seeker. Tell them the People—all the People of this entire world — know who would protect them and who would slay them. We know how you and your clan have always loved and protected and shielded us from harm, Dances on Clouds. But the time has come for that to change, and we do not choose to be kittens forever. If you would guard us, then we will guard you, and if we die as Far Climber did, as Climbs Quickly almost did, as Laughs Brightly has almost died for you and you for him, then we will die. But we will not hide. We will not be children. If you will fight for all this world, for all of us, then we will fight for you.>
Chapter Fourteen
Innokentiy Kolokoltsov considered the message on his display.
Well, it’s hardly a surprise, he thought. And I thought I was ready for it. But I don’t suppose anyone could really be ready for something like this. And the Manties are capitalizing on it, damn them.
He didn’t know how the newsies had first gotten wind of “Operation Raging Justice,” but any secret had a limited shelf life. Sooner or later, somebody always “outed” it, either for some advantage they might gain or simply for the ego stroking newsies gave those “unnamed sources.” And it didn’t matter what the secret was. It could be that some political or bureaucratic rival was maintaining a clandestine love nest on the taxpayer’s credit, or it could be a literally life or death operation like Raging Justice. It was all grist for the mill, as far as the leakers were concerned.
So however much he’d hated the thought of telling the Manties what was coming, it had scarcely been a surprise. And neither had their response.
By this time, he had a sizable file of messages from Sir Lyman Carmichael, Manticore’s ambassador to the Solarian League. The first dozen or so had maintained the diplomatic fiction that the League and the Star Empire weren’t yet actually at war and simply requested “clarification” of “unconfirmed news reports” of SLN fleet movements. Over the next week or so, though, as Kolokoltsov systematically ignored them, they’d segued from “requests” into forthright demands.
By now, Carmichael wasn’t even pretending Manticore didn’t know what was headed its way, and his communications had become increasingly blunt. Like the present one.
Kolokoltsov pressed the button, starting Carmichael in mid-sentence.
“—done our best to convince you and your colleagues to see reason, Mr. Permanent Senior Undersecretary,” the Manticoran said flatly, pointedly jettisoning the fiction that he was actually addressing Foreign Minister Roelas y Valiente. “You, however, have steadfastly ignored our warnings, rejected any attempt to reach a diplomatic resolution of the crisis provoked entirely by your military’s actions, and continued to prepare additional military operations against the Star Empire. We’ve endeavored through nonmilitary responses to indicate at least some of the potential costs of your actions. Obviously, the interruptions and damage your interstellar commerce is already suffering as a consequence of your intransigence have failed to get through to you. Now, with all the hyena-like ‘courage’ we’ve come to associate with Admiral Rajampet and his navy of gallant murderers, you’re clearly preparing to take advantage of the catastrophic damage inflicted upon the Old Star Kingdom in February.
“I’ve warned you repeatedly, on behalf of my Empress and my Government, of the extraordinary risks you run in pursuing such a policy. I warn you again, now, formally, that your obvious belief that our defenses have been crippled by what’s become known as the Yawata Strike is in error. If Fleet Admiral Filareta attacks the Manticore Binary System, he won’t simply be defeated as Admiral Crandall was in her attack on Spindle. He will be destroyed, and if the reported number of superdreadnoughts assigned to him is accurate, the loss of life among Solarian naval personnel will be unconscionable. We have no desire to kill hundreds of thousands of men and women whose only ‘crime’ will be obedience to the lawful orders of superiors too arrogant to recognize reality when they see it. It would appear, however, that you and your colleagues intend to leave us no choice.