“What great adventure is that?”
Yaargraukh looked at Caine for a long time. “Conquest.”
“Conquest? Of us?”
“I cannot say. I do not think First Voice or his counselors have made any choices, but they believe they have exhausted all options for exploration.”
“Is our space near yours?”
“Somewhat, but it is not easily reached. We are closest to the Arat Kur-but I cannot say more than that.”
Closest to the Arat Kur? But then why aren’t the Arat Kur objecting to the Hkh’Rkh candidacy instead of humanity’s? What the hell is-?
“Advocate Yaargraukh: there you are.” They turned. Elena was holding a plate of various meats in one hand, a glass of foaming stout in the other. “I thought you might enjoy these foods-the ones in which you expressed the greatest interest.”
Yaargraukh hesitated, then looked her in the eye. “I thank you, female.”
Caine smiled, hoped his correction would not insult the Hkh’Rkh: “In my culture, Advocate, when one addresses women, it is proper to-”
But Elena was moving. Stepping between Caine and Yaargraukh, she snatched up a length of carpaccio on a fork and proffered it handle first-eyes downcast-to Yaargraukh. “We shall make our guests welcome by observing their ways.”
Yaargraukh was utterly still. Then he raised a hand and delicately, carefully, removed the fork from Elena’s fingers. “I am shown much honor. In truth, it is frustrating that your ideas of honor and ours are not more similar: it is this which most keeps us from understanding humans.”
“In truth, there are those among us here tonight who possess great honor.” Her semantic emphasis matched Yaargraukh’s; Christ, she’s a quick study.
“I presume you refer to your brother? He is indeed-”
“No, esteemed Advocate: I refer to your present companion, Spokesperson Caine of the Family Riordan.”
Yaargraukh and Caine both looked at her as though a second head had suddenly sprouted from her shoulders.
“Indeed?” said Yaargraukh.
“What?” said Caine.
“I speak truth, Advocate. Since he does not have the label of warrior among our people, you might presume that Spokesperson Caine of the Family Riordan has not challenged or met challenge. But this would be incorrect. I list his deeds for you to judge: on Delta Pavonis Three, he defeated a great consortium of criminals with his cunning, and killed a Pavonosaur-a swift predator with ten times your mass. Shortly thereafter, he defeated two different groups of assassins. In the past three months alone, he has learned a special warrior art called karate, which teaches him how to defeat armed opponents with his bare hands, and equipped only with that knowledge, a knife, and his wits, he killed another elite assassin who sought to ambush him in his own home.” Elena turned and answered Caine’s speechless stare with a dazzling smile.
Yaargraukh’s held breath now came out as a long, almost inaudible hoot. “So you are a warrior. I apologize for not having asked-or intuited-this, Caine.”
Elena’s eyes opened wide when Yaargraukh called Caine by his first name, but she said nothing.
Caine waved a dismissive hand. “I have had to fight, but I am not a soldier.”
“This is a terminological distinction that we find difficult to understand. How is a fighter not a warrior, and a warrior not a soldier?”
Elena leaned in. “On Earth, a soldier is summoned to fight, but does not live for the challenge. He serves his nation’s honor, not his own.”
“Must he not be honorable in the fighting of the war? Is not his honor one and the same with the nation’s?”
“In principle, it might be: in practice, it is not strictly enforced. The war’s challenge is not his-nor is the honor that is won or lost. His personal honor lies in performing his duty, not the conflict it entails. This is a soldier.”
“Very well.”
“Whereas, to human perception, the Hkh’Rkh are warriors, first and foremost. Your wars are but greatly amplified versions of your personal challenges: the same forms of declaration and resolution exist. Is this not so?”
Yaargraukh’s facial contortions were identifiable as grimaces. “Up to three hundred of your years ago, this was true. Now, our wars are quickly becoming more akin to yours.” He paused. “Holding such opinions makes my current position with the scions of Old Families-unusually challenging.”
“How so?”
“They wanted only Old Family scions on this delegation, but none were willing to work as your Advocate.”
Elena’s smile was slow. “Why? Because when a Hkh’Rkh represents the Unhonored, he begins to be associated with them? Our status as lesser beings rubs off on you?”
Yaargraukh nodded. “It is as you say.”
“That is also how a human woman feels when she is treated as though she does not exist-as simply being a ‘female.’”
Caine held his breath. Yaargraukh looked at Elena, who kept smiling at him without the slightest hint of impatience or displeasure. She had managed to offer a correction without also making it a remonstration. “That is exactly how it feels for us,” she emphasized.
“Yet-you served me.”
“Among you, to be served has a particular meaning, and I was happy to make you comfortable. Among humans-” and she turned toward Caine, with a forkful of carpaccio heading quickly towards his mouth-“it means something else.” Caine had just enough time to get his lips and teeth out of the way. But the fork didn’t jab in; the wafer-thin shaving of raw meat seemed to land on his tongue like a butterfly. He opened his eyes, found hers less than a foot away. The fork left his mouth slowly; her eyes stayed on his.
“So what does it mean among you, for one to serve another?” Yaargraukh sounded puzzled. “I do not understand; how is that not serving him? He who has met challenges and acquired honor?”
Caine knew, looking at Elena’s earnest face, and Yaargraukh’s stance-of patient futility? — that a careful delineation of nuances was not going to make the point. He reached over, took the plate gently but firmly out of Elena’s hand. Caine made a quick pass with the fork, and then he was tapping her upper lip with a sliver of proffered asiago. Eyes surprised, she opened her lips: as had she, he inserted the utensil carefully, let the slight friction against her tongue drag the cheese off the tines.
Yaargraukh reared back. “Caine, this is-I do not understand.”
“Your eyes told you no lies: I served her.”
His head seemed to quiver. “So you are showing me that, if you choose, you can be less than she is?”
“No.”
“Then why serve her?”
“To show you that I am no less than she is, but I am also not more. Human women have no less honor than males.”
Yaargraukh’s spine fur rose slightly. “This is what I find most alien in your race. As your Advocate, I worry how the Hkh’Rkh-particularly the Old Families-will assess you, were I to push them to believe this.”
Caine smiled. “Yaargraukh: you are our Advocate. We leave it for you to decide what to tell them: we trust your judgment. But we needed to tell you this.”
“Why?”
“Because sharing truths-particularly the dangerous ones-is how we will build a bridge of honor between us, and perhaps, a pathway of understanding between our peoples.”
Yaargraukh’s eyes disappeared for a moment, then bulged forth again. “Yes. This shall be how we make the bridge between us. We shall build it not merely by finding our easy similarities, but also by sharing-and accepting-our difficult differences. And I foresee that this could be a costly promise-for both of us.”
Elena lowered her head slightly. “‘Promises, like honor, are not washed away, but strengthened, by blood.’”
He stared at her. “You have already read the poet-sages.”
Her nod was almost a shrug. “I encountered a few of their writings when reading your self-reference.”
Yaargraukh slowly took his eyes from Elena, looked at Caine and nodded. “Caine, you are lucky in your mate.”