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admiring. His coloring remained a steady blue. He turned and spoke to her. "Your readdiction may serve
some purpose now. Be the first to withdraw from the meklah. Show your people that it is possible."
"That's what I had planned to do."
He looked at her for a moment longer, then turned and walked out of the door to his Garkohn and
Missionary guards.
The next morning a shaken Missionary guard brought Jules word that Diut had escaped.
CHAPTER FIVE
Diut
I decided to push Alanna into a liaison with one of my judges. She had stayed with the artisans for a full
season long enough. It was time for her to be treated as the adult she was. I thought a judge would be
best for her because the proportions of her body were much like those of a judge. She was tall and
slender. Her bones were large, but because of her height, they did not seem so. She presented a false
image of fragility. I would choose a judge for her. So.
But I chose no one. Other matters held my attention and I left Alanna with the artisans until she got into
trouble. A hunter a low hunter, but not as low as he should have been chose to make her the victim
of his frustration. Her season with the artisans probably helped him to believe that she was of no
importance. Else why had she been left in subjection to others for so long? And her coloring gave her no
protection. The hunter could not see her as blue enough to be dangerous to him or yellow enough to be a
nonfighter whom he must not harm.
Thus, there was the foolish confrontation.
Alanna had been ordered to help the farmers down in our hidden valley. They were digging up the year's
first harvest, and at the same time, sowing the seeds of the second. Alanna was carrying a large basket of
ohkahs when her trouble began. She was taking them to the storerooms. The hunter, also drafted
temporarily into helping with the harvest, was in a foul mood and eager to humiliate another person
since he felt himself humiliated by such "low" work. As Alanna walked past him, he thrust his digging
prongs between her feet.
She tripped and fell onto the rocks, scattering spilled ohkahs over a wide area. I was standing not far
away talking to a pair of judges. I saw Alanna look up at the hunter and see the white in his coloring.
Her hand closed on what I first thought was a small ohkah, and she hurled it hard into his face.
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The hunter shouted, fell, and did not get up. As I walked toward them, I saw blood on his face. I realized
that the woman had thrown a stone not an ohkah. The hunter moaned, tried to get up, and fell back.
Another hunter was advancing on Alanna as I reached her. I spoke to him quietly.
"What do you want with her?"
Anger had driven yellow into his coloring. "Didn't you see, Tehkohn Hao? She struck Haileh with a
stone, a weapon, as though he was an animal."
"I saw. And what weapon did Haileh use to provoke her?"
The hunter sputtered. "She is a foreigner! She has no right& "
"To defend herself? The lowest animal has that right. You will not interfere with her in any way."
There was a silence that I did not like and I let my coloring flare.
"I will obey, Tehkohn Hao," the man said quickly.
I turned to face Alanna and saw that though she had shown no fear of either hunter, she was afraid now.
Of me. That was not surprising. I am much larger than any hunter much larger than Alanna herself.
And I am blue. Jeh had said that the blue was not important to her that she had had to be taught to
respect it. But I had other differences Hao differences. I could not remember a time since my
adolescence when there had not been people who stood before me in fear. I spoke to her in the same
tone I had used on the hunter.
"Find Gehnahteh or Choh and tell them that your time with them is ended. Then go back to Jeh and
Cheah."
She looked at me for a moment seemed to force herself to look at me. Then she murmured, "Yes,
Tehkohn Hao," and went away quickly.
I did not like the way she had looked at me. There had been more than fear in her eyes. There was
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