"--and so, sky lords," Groft brought his oration to a close, "we come to
ask that you send your young men to this hunting so that they may know
the joy of plunging knives into the scaled death and see the horned ones
die bathed in their own vile blood!"
Dane needed no hint from the Queen's officers that this invitation was a
sharp departure from custom. By joining with the natives in such a foray
the Terrans were being admitted to kinship of a sort, cementing relations
by a tie which the I-S, or any other interloper from off-world, would
find hard to break. It was a piece of such excellent good fortune as they
would not have dreamed of three days earlier.
Van Rycke replied, his voice properly sonorous, sounding out the rounded
periods of the rolling tongue which they had all been taught during the
voyage, using Cam's recording. Yes, the Terrans would join with pleasure
in so good and great a cause. They would lend the force of their arms to
the defeat of all gorp they had the good fortune to meet. Groft need only
name the hour for them to join him--
It was not needful, the young Salariki chieftain-to-be hastened to tell
the Cargo-master, that the senior sky lords concern themselves in this
matter.
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