Nightshade - Laurell K. Hamilton [86]
‘I am not saying that your people killed Alick, but I believe they supplied the poison.”
‘No.”
‘May I question your scientists?”
Portun looked directly at Worf for a moment. “I do not know what to say. It seems you must be right and we did make a plant that was intended only for death. But that, too, is against our basic beliefs. Could it not be one of the upsiders?”
‘I am trying to find that out, Leader Portun. Help me to clear your people. If it is not one of them, then I can search elsewhere. We are running out of time to save our respective people.”
‘You are right, Ambassador. If we are involved, the truth must be discovered. You have my permission to question my people. I do not believe in violence to save our friends, but if the truth can save them…I believe in the truth.”
‘Honor cannot exist without truth.”
Portun stared around at the children. Most were listening intently now. “I know little of a warrior’s honor, Ambassador, but know something of dealing honorably with the land and its bounty. To have made such a plant is to betray that honor.”
‘I will find the truth, Leader Portun. You can be sure of that.”
He smiled suddenly, but his eyes still held sadness. “I have every confidence in you, Ambassador. But suddenly, I do not have such confidence in my own people.” He stared straight at Worf. “Isn’t that odd?”
Worf didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing. There was a saying among Klingons: Silence is one road to honor. And for now it was certainly the kinder road.
Chapter Twenty-two
Talanne led them out onto the surface, where the weak sunlight had faded to twilight. The thick, sulphurous clouds were aflame with crimson and violet. The sunset was among the prettiest Troi had ever seen, and yet her stomach dropped into her feet, pulse pounding.
She grabbed Worf’s arm. “The executions are scheduled at full dark.”
‘I know, Counselor, I know.”
‘We must hurry,” Talanne said.
‘We have discovered nothing except that the poison must have come from the Greens,” Worf said.
‘And none of the Greens we’ve questioned so far were involved,” Troi said.
‘I will speak with Basha,” Talanne said. “I will do my best to persuade him to postpone for a few hours.”
Worf nodded. “And we will question the only remaining Greens that we have not questioned.”
‘Do you think it was one of the ones under arrest?” Breck asked.
‘It must be,” Worf said.
Talanne strode off across the open stretch of ground, and the others followed. That awful sensation of being watched was still there, creeping down their spines, but now Troi knew what it was.
All planets were alive, but Oriana had been one step beyond just being alive, animate. The planet had been truly alive, intelligent, though in a way that most humanoids would not have recognized. Even the Orianians had not realized how very alive their land had been, until it was too late.
The Greens, through a melding of science and faith, had recreated pockets of what the planet had once been. They had three earth-healers, empaths who were connected with the ground and growing things rather than people. Breck had been nearly overwhelmed when he discovered he, too, was an earth-healer. He had thought himself giftless because there was no surface for him to feel.
The horrible, angry watching was the remnants of the planet’s awareness. All that remained was a lingering rage at the violation.
If the Greens, any Green had been responsible for the murder, how would they convince the Torlicks and Venturies that not all the Greens were evil? It would just reinforce all the existing prejudices. And without the Greens, Troi wasn’t at all sure the planet and people could be saved. The memory of what the life-force felt like inside her mind, on her skin, was a rush of pleasure-dim but still very real.
Breck stumbled as he entered the tunnels, but it wasn’t out of fear. He simply wasn’t terribly aware of his surroundings. Troi touched Worf’s shoulder, and whispered, “Breck is confused about what has happened to him. I don’t know if he will be able to fight.”
Worf nodded.