"The sooner the better," the warrior said. "The longer we wait, the higher the chances some Elder will stumble across the cutting and end things for good."
"It would certainly end it for Prr't-zevisti," Thrr-gilag said grimly. "The Dhaa'rr leaders were supposed to run the final rites and ceremony of fire on hisfsss organ four fullarcs ago."
"They've changed their minds," the Elder spoke up. "I spoke with Prr't-casst-a last fullarc, and she said that the final rites have been postponed indefinitely."
"Well, that's some good news, anyway," Thrr-gilag said, a small bit of pressure easing from his shoulders. "Thrr-mezaz, who'll be going on this climb?"
"Just the two warriors here and me," Thrr-mezaz told him. "Vstii-suuv, how soon can we leave?"
"I'm not sure," Vstii-suuv said. "The weather patterns for the next two fullarcs are predicted to be very unstable."
And climbing in unfamiliar territory in heavy wind and rain was a good way to wind up in premature Eldership. "We'll aim to leave in two fullarcs, then," Thrr-mezaz decided.
"Maybe the Human-Conquerors will have settled down by then, too," Qlaa-nuur added. "They've been unusually active since the battle."
"Yes," Thrr-mezaz agreed. "In the meantime, Thrr-gilag, I want you and Klnn-dawan-a to go full haste on these studies of yours. If there's some biochemical trick to this species, I want to know it before we try walking into their territory again."
Thrr-gilag looked down at Sergeant Janovetz, tail twitching for a beat before he remembered that the Human didn't understand their language. "We'll do our best," he promised his brother.
The other two Elders returned. "All perimeter warriors are ready, Commander," one reported. "As are all ground defenses."
"Go alert the warriors outside that we're bringing the prisoner out," Thrr-mezaz ordered them, gesturing to the two warriors to unstrap the prisoner from the table. "All right, my brother. Tell your test subject to put on his new obedience suit, and we'll all go for a little stroll."
" 'We weren't given details of the debate between Warrior Command and the Overclan Prime, Speaker,' " the Elder repeated Searcher Gll-borgiv's words. " 'But the indications are that it was short.' "
Speaker Cvv-panav shifted position on his couch. "And what indications are those?" he asked.
The Elder nodded and vanished. "You didn't really expect them to have a long discussion, did you?" the other Zhirrzh in the room asked from his lazy sprawl on the Speaker's visitor's couch.
"Not if the Mrachanis are right about CIRCE already being assembled," Cvv-panav said grimly. "That would scare Warrior Command's collective tongue limp."
"I don't doubt it," the other said. "Personally, I think the Mrachanis are lying."
"Really," the Speaker said, eyeing him thoughtfully. In the five cyclics since he'd taken the young warrior into his private service, Mnov-korthe had been one of his best covert operatives, carrying out a variety of quiet jobs that had advanced the Speaker's power and the prestige of the entire Dhaa'rr clan. His execution of those jobs had generally been flawless, his instincts and hunches equally so. "What makes you say that?"
The Elder returned before Mnov-korthe could answer. " 'The fact that they apparently made the decision to accept the Mrach offer during our walk from the conference room back to theClosed Mouth,' " he said. " 'We held a complete discussion aboard ship for the benefit of any listeners, but it was clear from the start that Supreme Warrior Commander Prm-jevev had already made up his mind.' "
"What's going to happen now at your end?" Cvv-panav asked.
The Elder nodded and vanished. "You were saying?" the Speaker prompted, looking back at Mnov-korthe.
"I've been reading about the attack by the Human-Conqueror ground warriors on Dorcas two fullarcs ago," the warrior said, gesturing to his reader. "Their commander risked both of his Copperhead warcraft in order to chase the Zhirrzh warriors away from an underground chamber."
"Meaning?" Cvv-panav prompted.
Mnov-korthe shrugged. "Meaning there's something in there the Human-Conquerors didn't want Commander Thrr-mezaz's warriors to have."
Cvv-panav slid his tongue tip gently across the inside of his mouth. "Such as, for example, a CIRCE component?"
Mnov-korthe shrugged again. "Could be."
The Elder returned. " 'For now, we're effectively trapped here on Mra. The Overclan Prime is going to send a shipment of supplies to one of the Mrach mining worlds, where it'll be repacked into a Mrach spacecraft for transport here. Valloittaja doesn't want to have Zhirrzh ships coming to any of the main Mrach worlds.' "
Cvv-panav smiled tightly. The Zhirrzh mission itself was hardly trapped; this supply-shipment technique could just as easily be run in reverse to send them all back home to Oaccanv. But of course neither side was likely to suggest that as a course of action. For Warrior Command, abandoning theClosed Mouth on Mra would be completely unacceptable; for the Mrachanis, letting potential hostages depart before any alliance was officially established would probably be equally so. "A wise move on Valloittaja's part," he said to the Elder. "What are you learning about the Mrachanis themselves?"
" 'Not as much as I'd hoped to. There's information here for us to read, but of course the number of actual Mrachanis we can speak to is very limited. I hope that after all this is over, we'll be able to examine the culture more closely.' "
"Just be sure to keep your mind on the task at hand," Cvv-panav said, fighting to keep his voice civil. He'd been warned that Gll-borgiv was young and inexperienced, with the stereotypical searcher's infuriating tendency to lose track of what was truly important. "You're there to learn about CIRCE and the Human-Conquerors and to keep me informed. That's all. Understand?"
The Elder nodded and vanished. "He's a fool," Mnov-korthe suggested, looking up from his reader again. "Didn't the clan have anyone more competent who could have been put in this group?"
"There were several," the Speaker said, flicking his tongue contemptuously. "Unfortunately, there was no one more mindlessly loyal to the Dhaa'rr clan. Certainly no one who would have been willing to ignore the Overclan Prime's orders and deliver these private briefings to me."
Across the room the door slid open, and Mnov-korthe's brother, Mnov-dornt, stepped into the room. "We've got confirmation, Speaker Cvv-panav. There was definitely-"
"Just a beat," Cvv-panav cut him off. The Elder would be back any beat now....
The Elder reappeared. " 'I understand, Speaker Cvv-panav,' " the answer came, the tone appropriately humble. " 'I won't let you or the Dhaa'rr clan down.' "
"See that you don't," Cvv-panav said. "Farewell." He nodded to the Elder. "Deliver that, then close the pathway."
"I obey, Speaker Cvv-panav," the Elder said.
He disappeared again. "What's been confirmed?" Cvv-panav asked, looking over at Mnov-dornt.
"Your hunch," Mnov-dornt told him. "Prr't-zevisti'sfsss organ has indeed been tampered with."
"Well, well," Cvv-panav said. "How interesting. So a second cutting has been taken?"
"In a manner of speaking," Mnov-dornt said, pulling some documents from his waist pouch as he crossed the room. "Someone apparently used a sampling needle to withdraw some of the semiliquid tissue from the interior of thefsss. The healers estimate the equivalent of a five-thoustride cutting was taken."
"Ingenious," the Speaker murmured, taking the papers and glancing over them. "Will it work?"
"No one knows," Mnov-dornt said. "Apparently, no one's ever tried this before."
"I'm not surprised," Cvv-panav growled. "Elders hate having experiments done on theirfsss organs. So Searcher Thrr-gilag has obtained the extra cutting his brother, Commander Thrr-mezaz, wanted. And obtained it with the help of a Dhaa'rr traitor."
"There's no hard evidence that Thrr-gilag and Klnn-dawan-a were the ones who took the sample," Mnov-dornt cautioned. "In fact, the protectors who were with them at the shrine say-"
"I don't need any hard evidence," Cvv-panav snapped, thrusting the documents back into his hand. "And I don't care what those simple-minded Prr protectors say. The Kee'rr and his accomplice were the ones, all right. And I'm going to make sure they pay dearly for it."
"Not without proof you aren't," Mnov-korthe spoke up from his couch. "Sorry, Speaker, but you're going to need more than just a mutilatedfsss organ and a possibly coincidental visit to the Prr-family shrine by the accused."
"I don't need any amateur legal advice, thank you," Cvv-panav said icily. "Where's Prr't-zevisti'sfsss now?"
"The Prr-family leaders are holding it," Mnov-dornt said. "I told them to make it look as if it was Prr't-casst-a's petition that was holding up the final rites."
"Have them continue holding on to it," Cvv-panav said. "No, on second thought, have it delivered to me. I think I'll take it back to Oaccanv and drop it on the Overclan Prime's desk. His reaction should be interesting."
Still, he had to concede that Mnov-korthe was right. The indicators were tantalizing, but he would need evidence in order to hammer Thrr-gilag the way he wanted to.
Fortunately, there was a simple way to get that evidence. "In the meantime," he told them, "you two are going to take a trip to Dorcas."
The brothers exchanged glances. "Do you think that's wise, Speaker?" Mnov-korthe asked. "Our faces may be a little too recognizable right now."
"By whom?" Cvv-panav retorted. "The Prime is hardly going to be giving regular latearc showings of that film he took of you delivering Thrr-pifix-a's stolenfsss organ to her."
"The Overclan warriors who recorded the film would recognize us," Mnov-korthe pointed out.
"None of whom will be on Dorcas," Cvv-panav reminded him. "Or on the Dhaa'rr ship that takes you there; or at the Dhaa'rr landing field you'll be leaving Dharanv from."
"What if Thrr-pifix-a described us to her son?" Mnov-korthe persisted.
"Not a chance," Cvv-panav said, flicking his tongue in a contemptuous negative. "An old female who saw you once? Not a chance. You could walk up to Thrr-gilag and tell him you know his mother, and he still wouldn't catch on as to who you are."
The brothers exchanged another glance. "I'm sure it'll be fine," Mnov-dornt said. "Shall we take one of your flash-ships?"
"I'd prefer you be a little more inconspicuous if possible," the Speaker said, calling up spaceflight data on his reader. "There's a supply ship called theWilling Servant heading out for Dorcas in three tentharcs from the Icetongue landing field. Can you get there in time?"
"No problem," Mnov-korthe assured him, turning off his reader and getting up from the couch. "Our transport's right outside. What exactly do you want us to do on Dorcas?"
"I want you to find that illegalfsss cutting," the Speaker told him. "And with it, evidence that will implicate Thrr-gilag and his brother."
"Commander Thrr-mezaz?" Mnov-korthe said. "That might be a bit difficult."
"I'll make sure it won't be," Cvv-panav promised grimly. "I'll have a very special document for you before you leave."
"And if the evidence you want doesn't exist?"
Cvv-panav flicked his tongue. "In that case," he said softly, "you will, of course, create it."
The Human-Conqueror prisoner stood in front of the hole in the storehouse, his curled-up hands resting against the sides of his lower torso as he spoke. "No question," the translation of his words came in Thrr-mezaz's ear slits. "The blast came from the inside."
"How can he be sure?" Thrr-mezaz asked.
Thrr-gilag translated the question. The alien replied, waving his hands at the edges of the hole, then pointing a finger first at the ground at their feet and then through the hole at the ground outside. "The edges of the hole have an outward twist to them," the translation came. "That means the force came from this side of the wood. There's also the pattern of debris. Not enough wood fragments on the inside; too many on the outside."
"Interesting," Second Commander Klnn-vavgi commented from beside Thrr-mezaz. "We'd wondered about that ourselves."
"Yes," Thrr-mezaz conceded, frowning hard at the Human-Conqueror. "Though of course we have only his word that that's what it means."
"What reason would he have to lie?" Klnn-dawan-a asked.
"For one thing, cousin, they're our enemies," Klnn-vavgi reminded her. "Enemies often lie just for practice. He could also simply be wrong."
"Let's assume he's not," Thrr-mezaz said, flicking his tongue thoughtfully. "So the explosions came from the inside. That means the Mrachanis had to have set them off themselves."
"How?" Klnn-vavgi asked. "And why?"
"Those are the questions, all right," Thrr-mezaz nodded. "Though come to think of it, I seem to remember one of the Elders telling me they'd hung some decorative cloths on the walls around the room."
"You think they could have concealed the explosives?" Klnn-dawan-a asked.
"It's an obvious possibility," Thrr-mezaz said. "Thrr-gilag, ask him if he can tell us anything else about the explosions. The strength of the blasts; the type of explosive used, maybe, if he knows about different types."
There was a brief exchange of words, the Human-Conqueror pointing across the storehouse toward another of the blast holes. "Not from this one," the translation came. "May I look over there?"
"Go ahead," Thrr-mezaz said, gesturing permission to the prisoner's escort. "Warriors, watch him."
Thrr-gilag translated, and the alien set off across the storehouse, Thrr-gilag, Klnn-dawan-a, and the warriors forming a moving semicircle around him. "There's one other possibility, Commander," Klnn-vavgi said as he and Thrr-mezaz followed more slowly. "We know now that the Human-Conquerors can detect spacecraft in the tunnel-line, which means they knew we were coming. Could these explosives have been left behind as ensnarement traps for us?"
"Why only in this one storehouse?" Thrr-mezaz asked.
"Maybe they weren't only here," Klnn-vavgi suggested. "Maybe the whole village is set up to explode around us."
"If so, why haven't they used them?"
"Because they know that raising the whole beachhead to Eldership won't gain them anything," Klnn-vavgi said. "As long as the encirclement forces are overhead, they'll still be trapped here."
And those encirclement forces were about to be withdrawn. Thrr-mezaz glanced upward, an eerie feeling flowing over his tongue. To be sitting here in the middle of a Human-Conqueror ensnarement trap... "No," he said slowly. "If they'd deliberately set up a trap in the storehouse, they surely would have done a better job of it. As it was, all they did was blow off the doors and make a couple of holes in the walls."