Yang smiled. “They like the forest?” he asked.
“It’s like water on parched soil for them. They haven’t seen a proper rain forest in— ” She thought for a minute. “It’s been almost a year. They spent some time in our satellite’s Diversity Plot, but that was a temperate-zone forest, nothing like this.”
“It was my great-grandfather’s project. He wanted to create a rain forest like the ones in Brazil. It took ten years just to create the proper soil, then another twenty to establish a canopy so that the understory plaffits could go in. It’s still maturing after nearly fifty years, and we keep expanding it. Last year, we roofed another five-hectare section, and we’ve started processing the soil. Our ecologists are looking forward to showing you the forest.”
Ukatonen tore himself away from the window. “Ecologists?” he asked. “Are these the people whose atwa is this forest?”
“Yes,” Juna told him.
“Then I would be most interested in speaking with them,” the enkar said. “But first, Moki and I will need to inspect the forest.”
Juna turned toward the window to hide a smile. It was the closest to a direct request that Ukatonen’s dignity would allow.
“There will be plenty of time for you and Moki to explore. You’ll be here for eight days,” Yang assured them.
Glancing back, Juna could see Mold’s ears droop, and Ukatonen’s color fade slightly. For them, a month would be barely enough time to get to know the forest.
The forest opened up and they drove through a gate and into the compound. The car came to a stop in front of a long, low-slung wooden house with a gracious and welcoming front porch. Several young servants in livery stepped forward to open the doors of the ground car.
A fine-boned middle-aged Asian man stepped down from the porch to greet them. He said something in Vietnamese and Yang nodded. There was an air of command about the older man, as though he was used to having his orders followed.
“Dr. Saari, Ukatonen, Moki, I am honored to introduce you to my bio-father, Quang Nguyen Xaviera, current head of the Xaviera family.”
Juna’s eyes widened fractionally in surprise. They must really want the Tendu, if they were sending the son of the head of the family to court her.
“I am honored to meet you, Mr. Xaviera,” Juna said.
Mr. Xaviera bowed to her. “Thank you Dr. Saari, I am honored to meet you as well.”
Mr. Xaviera greeted the two Tendu as formally and as ceremoniously as he had greeted Juna. Ukatonen and Moki returned his bow and greeted him in equally formal Standard and Tendu skin speech. Then Quang Nguyen Xaviera escorted them into the house and introduced them to his wife, Abeo, a tall, commanding African woman who ran one of the largest shipping concerns in space. She was dressed magnificently in brightly printed African robes, and wore heavy gold jewelry.
“Welcome, Juna. Welcome, Ukatonen. Welcome, Moki,” she said. “Welcome to our house.” She clapped her hands and a dark-skinned girl came forward bearing a tray with a fragrant bowl of rose water and crisp linen hand towels.
“This is my daughter Oseye.” Oseye bowed her head, peering sideways at the Tendu.
“Please accept our humble hospitality,” she said, proffering the tray. They washed their hands and Oseye carried off the tray.
“Your journey must have been very long,” Mrs. Xaviera said. “My other daughter, Ngoc, will show you to your rooms. I am sorry that my other son, Raoul, is not here to meet you, but he is studying on Earth.”
Ngoc, a somewhat older version of Oseye, escorted the guests down a long hallway to an elegant suite, then bowed and left them.
“When can we go see the forest?” Moki asked.
“I don’t know, Moki,” Juna answered. “I’ll try to arrange something as soon as possible. Right now, let’s unpack and get settled.”
They showered and changed. Half an hour later, a young boy knocked on their door. He was bearing a tray with tea things artfully arranged on it. He introduced himself as Joao, a member of a collateral branch of the Xavieras, one of Yang’s cousins.
Moki watched Joao intently as he deftly poured the tea and served each of them.
“Our father, Quang Nguyen, respectfully invites you to visit him in the aviary when you have finished your tea. I will be honored to escort you there.”
The young man was well trained. He didn’t stare at the Tendu, though Juna noticed a few covert glances in their direction when he thought they weren’t looking. Once he had served them, he glided quietly to the door and stood beside it like a statue.
Mold’s ears lifted and he flushed purple with curiosity. “Isn’t he going to eat with us?” he said in skin speech.
Juna shook her head. “No, Moki, he’s supposed to be invisible, like a tinka, only he’s a person.”
“You treat people like tinka?” Ukatonen asked. His skin turned beige. He was clearly appalled at the thought of such rudeness.
Juna shrugged. “I don’t entirely understand this, Ukatonen, but even though he’s a member of the family, he is functioning in the role of servant. As a servant he’s supposed to be invisible. But he’s considered to be a person, and has the legal rights of a person, unlike a tinka. So he’s more like a bami. Perhaps later, when he is off duty, you can ask him about it. But,” she added, taking one of the exquisite tea biscuits from the silver tray, “it is not polite to discuss such things in front of Joao now, not when he is unable to participate in this discussion.”
They finished their tea, with Moki sneaking occasional wide-eyed glances at their young servitor. Joao watched him back. Ukatonen watched all the watching, slow blue and green ripples of amusement sliding across his body.
Joao escorted them through the compound and down a long breezeway that ran along a courtyard dominated by a large steel sculpture. Several children were sliding down it, and they left off what they were doing and followed the visitors, staring curiously af the Tendu and giggling. They were bright and happy children, brown and beautiful. It was easy for Juna to imagine her own daughter playing among them. This would be a wonderful place to bring up a child.
Then they rounded the corner of a large building, and found Quang Nguyen Xaviera standing inside a huge aviary, watching a cloud of hummingbirds zooming around a feeder. The tiny birds were almost too fast to see as they dove and hovered in front of the bright red feeder. Quang Nguyen looked up as they came in.
“Welcome,” he said. “I wanted to show you around our compound. I thought that the aviary would be an interesting place to start.”
“What is this?” Moki asked.
“It’s a place where we keep birds, Moki. Most of these are hummingbirds from Brazil, one of the places on Earth where my family comes from.”
“Why are you keeping hummingbirds?” Moki asked.
Mr. Xaviera smiled. “We keep them because they are beautiful, and rare. The rain forests where they once lived were destroyed. Until they can be replaced, we keep them safe here.”
Ukatonen’s hand darted out and he plucked one of the brilliant birds from the air and stuck his spur into it Mr. Xaviera’s eyes widened in surprise and alarm.
“Ukatonen!” Juna cried, terrified that the enkar had offended this rich and powerful man.
Ukatonen released the bird. It zipped off unharmed, to Quang Nguyen’s evident relief.
“Fascinating. They are much like the watani at home. They eat nectar?”
Mr. Xaviera nodded hesitantly. “Yes, yes they do. That feeder is full of it. The red attracts them.”
Ukatonen held up his arm, and let the skin around his spurs turn bright red. As they watched, one of the hummingbirds came up and sipped drops of nectar from his spurs.
“When I was a bami, I used to do this all the time,” Ukatonen said. “It was harder with the watani, but these birds are extremely tame. There was one who I trained to come to my hand. It used to follow me around, pestering me for nectar.”