The Refugee (The Korvali Chronicles Book 1) (29 page)

“I have something far better. Come.” He took her arm and led her back to the festivities. At the first booth they encountered, the Grono gestured to the musician, who immediately picked up a large canister and poured a rusty liquid into a clay cup.
 

Catherine hesitated. But, curious, she took the cup and sipped the cold sweet beverage. It tasted like unfermented kala. She then drank half the cup and immediately felt better. “Thank you.”
 

The Grono gestured again and the musician quickly refilled the cup, after which the Grono slipped something into the musician’s hand. “The one who attacked you… he is what the humans call a ‘biocracker.’ He knows you are a scientist, that you associate with the Korvali refugee. He sought to gain access to your data. We have been tracking him for two sun cycles.”

“Is that why the gumiia attacked us?”

He waved his arm dismissively. “These gumiia care nothing of science. They seek only to taunt the refugee. It is said they did not harm him because a female was present.”

Catherine shook her head in amusement. “And you still believe that?”
 

The Grono grunted. “She smiles,” he said in triumph to his comrade, who stood aside. “This is Grono Amui, Lieutenant. And I am Grono Amsala. You may call me Koni.” They held up their palms.

It was a good sign when a high-status Sunai male shared his given name, rather than his rank and family name. Catherine eyed them, suddenly feeling silly for her defensiveness. She met palms with each of them. “Call me Catherine.”
 

“Why do you enjoy the festival alone, Catherine?” Koni asked.
 

“My friends are here somewhere. I was trying one of the guitars before I went to fill my canteen.”

“Ah, you play guitar!” Koni said, appearing pleased.

“I do not. I’ve always wanted to learn how.”
 

“Then you shall.” He called to the musician, and the musician again hurried over to attend to Koni. He spoke a few words before turning back to Catherine. “It is my gift to you.”

Taken aback by the gesture, Catherine gave her thanks, unsure of what else to say.

“Catherine!” said a male voice.

She glanced over and saw Tom and the others coming their way. And with them was Eshel, taking a long drink from his canteen. Tom must have told Eshel about the temperature control and ordered a transport for him. She shook her head at Tom; she would explain later. She turned back to Koni, but Koni’s eyes remained on her friends. They remained on Eshel.
 

As if sensing he was being watched, Eshel looked their way. He looked at her before shifting his eyes to Koni.
 

“We’re glad Gronoi Okooii granted Eshel permission to visit Suna,” she said.

Koni stared at Eshel for a moment before turning back to her. “The Gronoi forgives, even those who do not repay debts.” He glanced at Grono Amui. “We must go. You will be contacted about this attack.” He gestured above him and looked up briefly. “Enjoy the moons.” And he and Grono Amui left.
 

After her lessons, Catherine looked up again at the night sky. The reflection from Suna’s rings had faded and she could count eight moons.
 

A week later, Catherine’s contactor chirped. Koni had sent her an invitation to hike to the Fires of Tonaili.
 

She accepted.
 

Once Catherine finished packing the things she needed for the hike, she headed to the ship’s exit. The guard cleared her to leave, on the order that she remain with Koni. After the incident with the biocracker, the brass barred her from leaving the ship alone. She tried to argue, but Yamamoto gave her his strictest look, which she knew not to challenge. Once Koni saw her, he ended his conversation with Commander Marks and approached her.
 

“Catherine!” Koni said. “I am most pleased you will accompany me to the fires. Nowhere else will you see such beauty.”

“Thank you for the invitation. My dad told me the fires were a must-see.”

“Ah, yes! I have not met Commander Finnegan. He visits Suna before I am Grono.”

They got into the transport ship, leaving just after sunset. When they arrived at the trailhead, it was still hot, but not so hot that Catherine couldn’t withstand the hike as long as she carried plenty of cold water. As they hiked, Suna’s moons, and the light they cast on its rings, illuminated their path. The hills looked like bell-shaped silhouettes all around them.

“Why did you make that hand gesture at me?” Catherine asked, demonstrating. “And why were you following me at the festival?”

“The gesture is the macai. It says I would speak to you. It is custom to acquaint ourselves with those who visit Suna for business. You were more interesting than the others, so I chose you. Also, on Suna, once one becomes Gron, then Grono, there is no opportunity for family. Our otherworld guests, they are our… amusement.”
 

“But Gronoi Okooii has children. Ov’Raa asked about them.”

“Gronoi Okooii is a Gronoi. When he was Grono, he had no wives, no children. To become Gronoi, one must dedicate all his time to service. On Suna, there is no… enlist for two years, enlist for four years. It is for life. Only the best become Grono, Gronoi, Gronoio.”

“How old were you when they recruited you?”

“I was one of the only boys accepted after five sun cycles. That is nearly seven Earth years.”

“And your father… is he a Gronoi?”

“My father? No, no. I do not know my father. When a boy is accepted, he no longer belongs to his family of birth.”

Catherine followed Koni, rusty dust collecting on her boots as she sipped more of her cool water, wondering what it would be like to leave one’s family at such a young age. “Does the Gronoi sit at the apex of the table so he can see all your signals?”

“He sits there because that is his place. A Sunai can see the signals of others from nearly any position. I can see you look down at the ground beneath you as you walk.”

She looked at him in surprise. His eyes remained forward. “How many times did I just blink?”

“Three times.”

She laughed. “Astonishing.”

As they continued on, Catherine asked Koni more questions. Koni liked answering them; they seemed to make him feel important, rather than bothered or invaded. It was a refreshing change after having spent so much time with an otherworlder who was so guarded.
 

After hiking for quite a while, Catherine noticed that the heat had begun to intensify, turning her comfortable sweat into a profuse one. She spotted a strange glow over the dark hill up ahead. As they climbed the hill, she began to hear noises… popping sounds. Once they crested, they looked down into a massive bowl that glowed orange-red as little flares popped up here and there. Suddenly, a loud sound reminding her of an abrupt shift in air pressure startled her, and a massive flame shot up into the air.
 

“Holy shit,” she murmured, backing up a little.
 

“Does that bring you joy?”
 

She nodded, watching the flames. “More than you can imagine.”

“I can imagine much joy, Catherine!”

Catherine smiled.
I’m at the Fires, Dad! I’m here with a friend and it’s beautiful!
Her smiled faded. “Koni… I’m sorry I was rude when we met. I… I’d formed a prejudice against your people.”

He put his big hands on her shoulders in the gesture of friendship. “You shall not be sorry. You are a warrior. And a warrior, even a female warrior, must always be cautious.”

Catherine looked up to count the moons.

“How many moons do you see?” Koni asked her.

“Ten.”
 

“There are only nine,” he corrected.
 

“Are you sure?” she asked, sure she counted ten.
 

“I am sure, nonaii.”
 

They enjoyed the fires for a while, flares occasionally shooting up, although none as big as the first one she saw. But once she began to feel overheated, she backed away a bit and Koni suggested they return to the trailhead.
 

As they hiked back, Catherine splashed some of her cooled water on her face and on the back of her neck, feeling herself recover. Just then, she heard a loud noise. She looked back, wondering if it were another large flare, but when she heard it again she realized it sounded different. She stopped, looking around her in concern.

“It is the mountain,” Koni said. “It will burst earlier than expected. We must go.” He pressed a button on his sleeve and spoke in Sunai. Catherine turned to look up at the mountain. A massive ash plume billowed from the peak. “We must hurry.”
 

They began to run. It took her best effort to keep up with Koni’s pace as she ran downhill, keeping her eyes down to avoid tripping on the rocks. Sweat soaked her. The mountain sounded again, so loud that Catherine put her hands to her ears. Soon she saw lights ahead; the transport ship landed nearby.
 

Once inside the transport, they quickly gained elevation as Catherine peered out the windows. Bright, glowing lava spilled from the peak and rapidly descended the nearby mountain. She continued watching as the transport navigated through the rain of ash, hardly believing the violence of the eruption and the deafening noise. Soon she could see Jula below, its citizens scurrying for shelter as the encroaching lava eventually surged through the viaducts.
 

The ship took them to the other end of the city, away from the erupting peak, and landed near the base of another mountain. “The transport must not fly further,” Koni said. “You are safe here, until the mountain is silent.”

When they climbed out of the ship, a swarm of heat, gas, and ash engulfed her. She began to cough. Koni grabbed her and ushered her into a small door at the base of the peak, and soon they were inside, out of the heat and fumes. She looked around and saw a dimly lit, cave-like room with a large window overlooking Jula.

“This is your home?”

“Welcome,” he said, raising his chin.
 

Koni’s home, like most who lived in Jula, was built into the side of the hill, allowing for better insulation from Jula’s extreme climate. It was cool, neat, and somewhat elaborately decorated, with numerous military decorations mounted on the main wall and a few musical instruments on a less prominent wall.

She checked her contactor, wondering why it hadn’t alerted her to the eruption and ordered her back to the ship. The screen was black. “I think the heat disabled my contactor, Koni. They’ll worry if I don’t check in.”

“I will contact your ship and tell them you are safe.”
 

Once Koni contacted
Cornelia
, they sat down on cushions tucked into a nook that offered them a view of Jula. A minute later, a Sunai woman emerged and brought them tea. The tea was infused with an herb—not the herb that created Jula’s smell and flavored the food at the festival, but a subtler, sweeter herb. Catherine commented on it.
 

“It is rare, from only the Kotui region,” Koni said. “The Kotui are difficult, always rebelling against their neighboring people, always giving trouble. We stopped these rebellions. Now, they do not sell us spice.” Koni drank his tea, appearing indifferent to the hot temperature that had already burned Catherine’s tongue.
 

She put down her cup. “You’ve been so generous, Koni. I wish there was something I could do for you, in return.”

He raised his chin. “There is.”

“What?”

“I was Gron once. Now I am Grono. But I want to be Gronoi. I want wives. I want children. I want my sons to leave me after five sun cycles to serve Suna, for my daughters to have more sons.” He paused. “If I know what another Grono does not, I will be Gronoi first.” His giant pupils shrank slightly. “These… Korvali. They are mystery, hiding what they know, guarding their customs and expertise. You were companion to the Korvali refugee at one time, yes? You must know what others do not.”

Catherine hesitated. That was one thing she couldn’t give him. “I have no useful information about the Korvali. Eshel is… he was very secretive.”

“Perhaps. But you will know how one must interact with these Korvali to gain their favor, their respect. This refugee chose you as his companion over others; you gave him something he valued, yes? Something your comrades did not give him.”

Catherine, despite her willingness to share that kind of information, still wasn’t sure how useful she would be. She took a deep breath, considering Koni’s question. “The biggest mistake people make when dealing with the Korvali is that they expect them to be… to be what they’re not. They say they understand them, and they recite those things we all know about the Korvali—that they don’t like outsiders, that they don’t share their scientific methods, that they don’t like being touched—but then they get angry when the Korvali actually behave in those ways upon meeting in person. If you want to succeed with them, Koni, you have to do what even Gronoi Okooii has difficulty with—you have to accept them for who they are. Even when they anger you.”

Koni grunted. She didn’t know if he disliked her suggesting that Gronoi Okooii’s handling of Eshel wasn’t ideal, or if he simply found her counsel difficult to swallow. “But what of conversational themes, gestures or words to avoid, formal addresses…”

“I can tell you all those things. But they won’t work if you don’t take my first suggestion.”

He grunted again, taking another swig of tea. “And you… you were able to accomplish this feat, to find no judgment in the ways of the Korvali?”

Catherine looked down, brushing a bit of ash from her pants. “Not always, unfortunately. But perhaps more than most.”

They talked a while more, until a gonging sound reverberated through the room. Koni pressed a button on his sleeve and spoke in Sunai. Once finished, he turned to her. “I must go. A transport will return you safely to your ship.”

And within minutes, the transport arrived.
 

“Thank you for a great day, Koni. I’ll never forget it.”