Eye of the Ocean Book 3 Ji'jin Station

Eye of the Ocean – Book 3: Ji’Jin Station
The next was going to be more difficult. “Peecit?” Rit asked. And got the
response, he'd expected.
“She has nowhere else to go but with us,” Ulanda said quickly. With the words,
the girl had looked up, but at him, not Ulanda. The brush in her hand dropped to
the stones and rolled to where Niv was kneeling, leaving a wobbly trail of black
ink and splatters.
“Silassic and I will stand as parents for her,” Kori said. There was no question
in her tone allowing the possibility that Silassic wouldn't agree and Rit didn't think
he'd find any in her thoughts either. Or that Ulanda didn't have the right to insist.
Or that it mattered at all if Silassic might or might not want their marriage.
“Peecit?” he asked again. She wanted to, he realized, startled by the
perception. When had that changed - or why hadn't he noticed?
“Do I have a family?” she asked in him Zimmer-native using the inflection that
she would to an Elder of her people. Then to Ulanda, she bowed and stayed
down, her hands held out in front of her to make a form of supplication.
Kori took a step forward, a fine line of black rimming the pupils of her grayblue
eyes. “As my daughter, she has a family.” As Peecit had, she spoke in her
native tongue.
Rit bowed, spreading his hands in a motion of allowance that Peecit wouldn't
see, then said it in words, pulling the appropriate ones from the Net. Then to
Bolda: “Didn't you mention something about packing?”
The short man looked up from the braids but his fingers didn't stop. “Like I've
got time.” Then to Ulanda, adding, “Cornmeal? How about it, think we've got
any?”
Her nose wrinkled and Rit felt her relax a little at Bolda's familiar joke.
“Probably that's all we've got. In the whole kitchen, nothing but cornmeal.”
Hic'lic protested in a rapid tic-tic. Rit escaped, Alicia with him, before the
explanations started. Kori and Silassic followed, Peecit trailing along behind.
“Lord Ritsiniti,” Kori asked before they'd gone far. He felt her reticence, a
hangover from earlier. “San Garm directed me to ask you. The others here - who
is needed?” With the question came her analysis. He looked at Alicia, she nodded,
her continuing anger a scent he could taste at the back of his mouth.
Just those at the meeting and a brief list of those who would be welcome and
might volunteer. A few more as a guard to their retreat. “If they agree,” he said.
The rest would be released by pulling the gird inwards.
The five Blackmouth ti'Linn guards were already waiting at his pavilion,
Op'ki'na still wore the red scarf from the break-ball game. “This one has watched
the world die,” it said after the formal greetings. “No life, no death.” Pincers made
the cross sign then added one of inclusion. “We will guard the leaving as asked.”
Laurel Hickey www.2morrow.bc.ca