"Got contacts. Know you got that stsho business clear. So you come here soon."
"Gods rot your hide, mahe. That's a lie."
Dark eyes glittered, shifted. "Say then I follow you from Urtur."
"With him? Out of mahen space? No way, egg-sucker. How'd you arrange it?"
The hand dropped from her shoulder. "You sharp dealer, hani."
"What say instead the stsho kept Mahijiru off Meetpoint docking lists. Say you were here all along, blocked off the lists. Waiting for me."
"You got lot suspicion."
"I got gods-rotted plenty suspicion, you earless foundling bastard. Give me the truth."
"Might say."
"Might say. Might say — The stsho know he's here?"
"Know."
"Then who are you hiding from?" And on a second thought: "O gods!"
"Got kif trouble."
"Gods rot you, then you take him! You take this whole business and-"
"Good, brave friend. Kif spies already here. Han spies too. Got han deputy ship in port.
Know we meet. After this they got plenty curiosity. So you got risk already, hani. Don't want profit too?
Besides, you hurt his feeling. Hurt mine."
She stood still, a long, long time. Her claws flexed out. She drew them in, with a long slow breath. "Gods rot your-"
"Give you fair deal, Pyanfar. Number one fine deal. Know you got troubles. You got han trouble. You promise human trade, you don't got. Lose face. You got mate troubles-"
"Shut up."
"I keep promise, Pyanfar. You want share profit, you got share risk."
"Share suicide. What you think I am?"
"You get human trade, your enemies can't touch you, a, hani captain? The han — don't like you lose face. You get rich, keep your brother life, keep your mate. Keep The Pride."
A narrow darkness closed in on her sight, hunter-vision set on Goldtooth. It was difficult to hear, so tight her ears were folded. She deliberately raised them, looked about her, at Tully's distressed face.
"I take him," she said to Goldtooth, a small, strangled breath. "If-"
"If?"
"— if we get letter of credit at mahe facilities. Good anywhere. Unlimited."
"God! You think I Personage?"
"I think you next best thing, you rag-eared conniving bastard! I think you got that power, I think you got any gods-rotted credit you want, like what you pulled on me at Kirdu, like-"
"You dream." Goldtooth laid a blunt-clawed hand on his breast. "I captain. Got no credit like that."
"Good-bye." She faced about, bared teeth at the crowd blocking her retreat. "You going to move this lot? Or do I move them for you?"
"I write," he said.
She faced him with ears flat. Held out her hand.
He held out his to one of the mahe at his side. "Tablet," he said, and that one vanished hurriedly into the inner corridor with a spatter of bare mahen feet and non-retracting claws.
"Better," said Pyanfar.
Goldtooth scowled, took the tablet the breathless mahe brought back to him, removed its stylus and wrote. He withdrew a Signature from the belt that crossed his chest and inserted it; the tablet spat out its seal-stamped document. He held it.
"I'll translate that," Pyanfar said, "first thing."
"You one bastard, Pyanfar." Goldtooth's grin looked astonishingly hani in his dark mahen face.
"One sure bastard. No-" He drew it back as she held out her hand; he turned and handed it instead to Tully, who looked at them both confusedly. "Let him hold. He bring. With other documents."
"If that paper doesn't say what it had better say-"
"You do what? Toss good friend Tully out airlock? You no do."
"Oh, no. No such thing. I pay debts where they're due, old friend."
Goldtooth's grin spread. He thrust the tablet into a crewman's hands and clapped her on the arm. "You thank me someday."
"You can bet I will. Everything I owe. I find a way. How you going to get him to The Pride?
Tell me that! You walk him up to my lock, I fix your ears."
"Got special canister." Goldtooth held out his hand. "Customs papers," he said, and a crewman held out another tablet and stylus. "You take cargo, a? Shishu fruit. Dried fish. Got four cans.
One all rigged, number one good lifesupport. Pass him that way."
She shook her head to clear it, stared at him afresh. "I'm going mad. That trick's got white hairs. Why don't you just roll him up in a carpet, for the gods' sake, and dump him on my deck? Deliver him in a basket, why don't you? Good gods, what am I doing here?"
"Still good trick. You want this honest citizen, you pay duty, ha?"
She drew her ears down tight, snatched the tablet and furiously appended her own signature, handwritten. She shoved it back at the mahe crewman who dared no expression at her at all.
"Fish," she said in disgust.
"Cheapest duty. What you want, pay more? I tell you, got thing fixed."
"I'll bet you do."
"Customs ask no question. Number one fixed."
"I've got questions. I've got plenty of questions. You set me up, you egg-sucking bastard. So I take this deal. But by-the-gods you tell me everything you know. What kif trouble? Where are they working? Are they on your tail right now?"
"Always got kif at Meetpoint."
"Then why come here, for the gods' sakes? What are you doing here? The kif know what you've got?"
Goldtooth shrugged. "Maybe."
"From how long? How long you been at this?"
A second shrug. "Packet. In packet got paper tell you. Tully bring in canister. You take, you read all. You run fast. Go Maing Tol, go Personage. Get plenty help from there."
"They on your tail?"
A third shrug.
"Goldtooth, you bastard, how tight?"
"Got trouble," Goldtooth said.
She weighed that. Mahijiru in trouble. A mahen hunter-ship with more kif troubles than it could handle. "So you got. Where you go now?"
"Best thing you don't ask."
"Human space?"
"Maybe deep in stsho territory. Read packet. Read packet. Friend."
"Rot you."
"Rot you too," Goldtooth said soberly. His ears stayed up. There were fine wrinkles round his dark eyes. "God save us. Need you, Pyanfar. Need bad."
"Huh." She flicked her ears up with a light chiming of their rings. "I'm not a gods-blessed warship, mahe."
"Know that."
"Sure. Sure." She walked off a pace to get clear breath, looked at Tully, who understood — perhaps a little. Always more than he spoke.
Tully would not lie to her. That much she believed. His silence, his level, unflinching stare now, that vouched for his own honesty in this. "When bring to you?" Goldtooth asked. She turned back to him.
"Got an appointment in station office. Got to make that. Got to advise my crew. Got to tell them — You give me lot of problems, hear? And you be careful." She extruded a claw and poked Goldtooth hard in the chest, so she saw him wince. "You be careful this package. You be gods-rotted careful, hear?" She meant two things.
"Hear," Goldtooth said, full soberly. He heard both things. She knew.
"Got three days this port," she said. "Got stall three days with gods-rotted kif sniffing round. I pull The Pride out sooner, big trouble. Lot of attention. When you go?"
"Deliver package, wait awhile, then go. Got no cargo but fake cans I give to you."
"So." She turned away, met Tully's eyes, patted him very gently on his arm, recalling his fragile skin. "Safe, understand. You do what they say. No fear. These mahendo'sat bring you to me.
"Understand?"
"Yes," Tully said, and looked at her in that way he had, his pale stare desperately intense.