The Course of Empire(148)

The female's whiskers quivered and he thought he detected something quite unexpected in the line of her shoulders. "I reminded the Subcommandant of your orders, and very forcefully. But the Pluthrak declines to obey at this time." She forced her body into shocked-disapproval, but it did not hang well on her. Her lines kept slipping and he was certain something else, far less appropriate, lay beneath it. "The Subcommandant says he must follow his own vithrik in this matter."



"His own vithrik?" Oppuk leaped upon the hapless Ullwa and crushed her to the wet deck with his weight, hands anchored in her luxurious nap. "Vithrik is vithrik!" he cried into her face. "It does not vary from one individual to the next! I will have him declared kroudh for this!"



She writhed within his grasp, ears flattened, then visibly forced herself to be still, surrendering to his authority. Her nap was soft beneath his hands, her scent pleasantly fresh. He ran a finger across her cheek, tracing that oddly compelling pattern.



His own eyes must be blazing with unmitigated fury, but she did not look aside.



"Aille krinnu ava Pluthrak has declared himself kroudh, Governor. He asked me to relay that new status to the Naukra. Which I did."



Oppuk stared down at her, his mind dumb. Declared himself kroudh.



Dimly, in that long-unused part of his mind that had once glided easily and surely through the tactics of kochan rivalry, he realized what a disaster had just befallen him. Whatever happened, Oppuk would be shamed irrevocably. Shamed, and dishonored. Even if Aille died, Oppuk's own life was sure to be demanded by Pluthrak—and, most likely, Narvo would accede to the demand. At the very least, he would be declared kroudh himself. He faced ruin and destruction now, not simply exasperation and bitterness.



Advance-by-oscillation. Why did I not see it before this moment? I have been a fool!



He was still staring at Ullwa. She, for her part, was straining every muscle to remain quietly and safely neutral. But then her body and mind betrayed her and he realized profound-admiration had crept into her limbs. A posture which was certainly not being bestowed upon him.



It was too much to bear. With an incoherent cry, his massive muscles surged, snapping her neck as easily as if she had been human. Then he lurched back onto his feet. The ship's engines thrummed through the hull as he gazed down at the lifeless body.



Aille would follow "his own vithrik," would he? As if there could ever be two equally proper courses of action in a situation, rather than one best!



He shoved aside—drove under—that decrepit ancient part of his mind that nattered at him about tactics. It was all nonsense. The Naukra Krith Ludh would never condone such disrespect.



Surely not. Long ago, Narvo had been granted oudh status here, first among all kochan on Terra. By refusing to follow orders, Aille had placed Pluthrak firmly in the wrong. Oppuk could demand a price for this insubordination, not the least of which would be Aille krinnu ava Pluthrak's life. He would see Pluthrak itself shamed in the bargain.



He was breathing more easily now, relaxing again. Still, that annoying part of his mind chattered at him, but he ignored it completely.



All that assumed, of course, that the crecheling survived the Ekhat attack on the planet. Oppuk thought it extremely unlikely, but rather hoped the fool did. It would be so much more entertaining to accept his life before an assembly of high-status Jao than to hear he had perished and his ashes were mingled with whatever was left of this lost world.



But, either way, Terra would be no more, Aille krinnu ava Pluthrak would be dead, and Pluthrak's precious vithrik would be forsworn—all outcomes very pleasant to anticipate.



His satisfaction ebbed a bit, as his eyes fell on the corpse of Ullwa again. Now he had no servitors left who were even half-competent.



Though, now that he thought about it, Ullwa had not been a servitor. She had been a member of his personal service. The only one left, in fact.



Odd, that he should have forgotten that.

* * *



Caitlin, unlike the others, had not left immediately to carry out Aille's orders. "I need to be able to pass along more general guidelines to my father," she said after Tully had gone. "Organizing the children to be taken into the shelters is clear enough. But there's much more that will need to be done. The Jao administrative officials are now either in orbit with Oppuk or in the shelters. Even the ones in the shelters, by the time they get back to their posts, will be too few to handle everything."



Aille's head was cocked in some posture she couldn't quite read. Careful-consideration, perhaps, or subdued-disapproval? It seemed years since she'd had enough sleep and she felt utterly adrift.