While Hilfy thought: "Understand" doesn't mean "forgive." Boy, give it up. Stop there.
"If you're Pyanfar Chanur's friend, they need— they…"
Gods, boy, don't assign him a job in front of his followers… "Hakkikt," she said, but Vikktakkht made a preemptive move of his hand.
"Meras?"
A silence. Then: "They think you can find the stsho," Hallan said.
"Is that your request?"
Yes! Hilfy thought. Gods, bail out, boy!
"Yes, sir."
"Isn't that two requests?"
"Then the second, sir. But I just wanted to clear that first up, in case that wasn't in your record."
"Kkkt." A motion of the hand. A servant hastened to put a cup in it. Vikktakkht didn't drink. Instead, a motion of the cup ending in their direction. "What motives, this hunger for responsibility? Is this a challenge? Is that the word?"
"No, sir. It is the word, but Fm not challenging you. At all, sir. It's my obligation to Chanur, to make clear-"
"He's saying—" Hilfy began desperately, and the preemptive hand moved sharply, then made a second gesture.
"Translate, Chanur. I recall you have some fluency."
"Nakkot ahigekk. Sh'sstikakkt Chanur.”
"Now he follows Chanur, you mean."
"Yes."
"And what does Chanur want?"
"Nakkot shatik nik'ka Atli-lyen-tlas. "
"Ah. And what opposes you? What do you suppose opposes you?"
"Paehisna-ma-to."
The long jaw lifted. The hakkikt stared at her down a long, dangerous nose.
"Kkkt. But the mahendo'sat support the mekt-hakkikt. ''
She couldn't be wrong. She could not be wrong, and have followed the wrong ship. "Do they?"
"What does Hilfy Chanur think?"
"I didn't come here because I believed Ana-kehnandian."
"Kkkt. You came here because we have Atli-lyen-tlas."
"Do you?"
"Kkkt. Kkkt. The flat-toothed stsho face every breeze. They attempt to please Chanur. They launch an initiative in this direction, in that direction. Gak-kak."
"Herd creatures."
"Herd tactics, Exactly. They launch an initiative at Chanur's presence. They launch initiatives to mahendo'sat of rank. But the mahendo'sat are not gakkak. They go all directions. If you chase one, others. escape, and another may join you. Thus, Paehisna-ma-to."
"Not a friend of Chanur."
"Not well-disposed to kif. Some say Hilfy Chanur is not well-disposed to kif. Some say — Hilfy Chanur would be the logical ally of Paehisna-ma-to. The logical successor to Pyanfar Chanur."
She drew in a slow, ammonia-tainted breath. "Where is the mekt-hakkikt?"
A vague move of the hand. "Where the mekt-hakkikt chooses. Recently at Meetpoint. As you know."
Assassins, after aunt Py? Mahen assassins?
"Who blew up Kshshti docks? Who fired shots at us?"
"What do you think?"
"There aren't any kifish dockworkers at Kshshti."
"As happens there are not."
"Difficult for you to get into a warehouse and steal a can."
"Not impossible."
"But why would you need to stop me? I'd agreed to go to Kefk."
"Hani have not always done as promised."
"The bomb would have heavily damaged us, without destroying the ship. And the sniper wasn't of your quality. While Kshshti wouldn't let a mahen hunter ship undock. Those ships have priority in any situation. Wouldn't you think they'd let them leave, if they let us leave?"
"But we are historic enemies."
"Kshshti put bureaucratic delays in a hunter ship's path. It more than suspected Ana-kehnandian. I haven't heard of this Paehisna-ma-to. So she's new. A rising power. Urtur — was cautious with Ana-kehnandian. Kshshti was bravely cautious… nakkti skskiti."
"Kkkt." This time it was laughter, laughter that shook Vikktakkht's stillness, and rippled around the room. "Nakkti skskiti. That is Kshshti. A banner for all winds."
"I'm not. And I'm not such a fool I think kif think like hani. Or that a hakkikt of your stature, who wished to contact us, would make two attempts designed to scare us without killing us."
"Kkkt." A motion of Vikktakkht's hand. "You think we have no subtlety?"
"Blowing out a docking port on Kshshti?"
More laughter, that clicked and hissed all around the room.
"Salutation," Vikktakkht said, "from the mekt-hakkikt. Who assured me you would not be diverted by her rival."
By Paehisna-ma-to, he meant; and meant that Pyanfar leaned to the kif, to kifish support, which would always be loyal, while they feared the subordinates that feared her…
She felt queasy at the stomach, having reasoned her way to that truth, having looked at it from all sides, and having decided that this was a place Pyanfar expected her mail delivered — however dark the paths Pyanfar traveled these days.
Maybe Paehisna-ma-to had reason, the thought came fluttering to the surface.
And drowned. Whoever had shot Chihin was not her friend. Whoever had killed innocent stsho and mahen security personnel was not her friend.
"And No'shto-shti-stlen?" she asked.
"An ally with enemies in Llyene. Hence gtst moved to form an alliance with the ambassador to Urtur, of a nature which you doubtless know and Ana-kehnandian does not."
"I don't know."
"You've not seen the object."
Caution held her tongue. Even with this so-named ally of Pyanfar's. "What would that tell me if I could?"
"The nature of the alliance. No'shto-shti-stlen's position within it, which of three."
"You mean sex?"
"An emblem of proposed gender."
She hoped she kept her mouth closed. Kif, fortunately, had no embarrassment in such matters.
"You have come here to present this to Atli-lyen-tlas. Is this not so?"
"Yes, hakkikt,"
"We have provided the ambassador such comforts as we found possible. But I think the ambassador would be far more comfortable on your ship."
"Possibly so, hakkikt."
''Sagikkt aku gtst!''
Bring the stsho! the hakkikt said, and with no delay whatsoever a door opened, admitting the blinding spectrum of a paler sun. There was a moderate commotion in that quarter. Hilfy turned her head cautiously and saw, past Hallan's shoulder, kif moving within that light. A waft of perfume came out, and kif made soft sounds of disgust.
Then came the spindly outline of a stsho body, gtst gossamer robes backlit against the glare in her watering eyes. She was blind, as the stsho seemed to be, hesitatingly as gtst moved; so likewise the kif.
Perhaps, she thought, it was eloquent of the condition within the Compact itself.
But the creature did not seem to get gtst equilibrium in the dark, and had to be guided by gtst kifish attendants. Something's wrong, Hilfy thought, rising from her chair. Something's vastly wrong with this stsho.
"Perhaps," Vikktakkht said, "your care will restore gtst. The practice of medicine is not a priority among our species. One argues for it. But medicine is still a secretive matter, practiced upon oneself. There is not, on this entire station, a medical facility, only a few supplies."
"I would first suggest," she said, she thought politely, "that gtst not be required to walk."
Not in time. Gtst collapsed. Fala made an instinctive move to assist and safeties went off guns all around the room. Fala froze. Hallan lurched for his feet.