Chapter Four: Accusations

Three days later:

Donona was just as Gui'Yata remembered it, its cluster of growths tightly packed around the junction of several large branches. The two spires shining as they rose through the canopy above, gathering energy to help run the city. Looking up at its magnificence he could just make out the heat signatures of the citizens moving between the dwellings and businesses.

Gui'Yata wondered vaguely if his old residence was still standing unoccupied, for that matter if Sora's was. He snorted under his breath, sure that they had long since been parceled out to some other promising Saru selected for the Pack. Still if given the time he would like to go and see it.

They traveled slowly up one of the large lifts that had been installed recently in the hollow of the largest tree. The party was silent as the lift moved, none of them sure how this was going to go. Certainly throwing the accusation that the Ot Eesan or someone supported by them had attacked Taysa, was dangerous, extremely so. Even after their acceptance as a city, these Soua, rooted in their traditions looked upon them only as Sai, only tolerated to maintain the peace. If not put in the utmost of respectful inquiries they could easily be killed. They reached the top and moved more swiftly toward the Doana.

There was only the four of them this time, Quona, Courtney, Yaha, and himself. Everyone else had stayed back to help with reparations to the city and the tending of those who would survive the attack. The human had been left behind, Quona had insisted. Gerard was nothing in this society, he held no saving Yanahara status, he had set no foot on the road to becoming a Soua in Clusu flesh. He had shown no interest in learning to live in their society. The Ot Eesan would not take kindly to another clusu on the planet, and if seen he would surely be cut down. The longer he remained hidden the better off they all would be. Hopefully they would be able to schedule a "hunt" in Earth's sector within the next rotation or so and redeposit him on his own planet.

Gui'Yata pulled his Yimhi up short as Quona stopped in front of him at the base of the steps leading up to Doana. He watched as the older Soua, his own Grandfather jumped lithely to the ground, pausing for the rest of them to catch up. One by one they all dismounted gathering behind their Quona. Gui'Yata looked down at Courtney seeing the sour expression and the heat of anger in her face. He looked up again at the Doana. There were many unpleasant memories for them both that centered on this growth. The first and most Poignant of those was their bonding forced on them by the very Ot Eesan they were coming to get answers from regarding the attack.

He glanced down once more seeing the uncovered scar on her forearm. In this City she could not attempt to hide the scar. She was not allowed to be ashamed of her bonding here, and she was too notorious for this crowd, too well known to try and pass it off as non-existent. His gaze moved back to his hunting mate, seeing that her face had now smoothed of all emotion. It was an act that she had perfected after long years of visiting the more root bound cities that surrounded them.

A noise, the sound of weapons being drawn brought his attention sharply back to his surroundings. All around them now stood a ring of Huada, weapons at the ready and more than one of them looked eager to strike them down.

"What is the meaning of this?" The Quona asked indignantly, "We are here on official business with the Ot Eesan."

The Huada Magara stepped to the fore of the protective ring of Soua. His face reflected that he still held ill will after all the rotations between about Quona's defection. An act that killed many Huada in the process, "None of your treacherous words, Lyonas," He spit, "Again you bring dishonor to your line!"

The Quona's head tilted ever so slightly to one side as he said, "You speak in riddles, Magara. That is unbecoming of one who is usually more sharply tongued."

Magara's eyes narrowed, "Inside!" He ordered vehemently.

They moved into the twilight of the city's oldest growth, and again the feeling of age came down upon them, the smell of many rotations of hunters following the code living and dying for their people, contributing to the splendor of this hall. The escort did not leave them at the doors as was customary, but continued on providing their ruling body protection against what they currently deemed a threat.

"You are bold to so openly enter this city after such a cowardly act of treason."

Gui'Yata clacked his mandibles together. Again they were being accused of an act of which they had no knowledge. What was going on here?

"Treason?" Quona thundered, "You talk to me of treason when you break the truce that you initiated? You who have decimated our city and left many of our citizens dead?"

Gui'Yata winced inwardly. This was not what they had planned on when they came here, they had intended this to be a fact finding excursion, a gentle probe into whether the Ot Eesan had ordered the slaughter of Taysa's citizens. This outburst was a step in the wrong direction and the thought that they might not walk out of Doana was coming closer and closer to a certainty.

Gui'Yata winced again as the Ot Quona stood indignant at the Lyonas' tone, "You fling accusations?" The grizzled Soua growled, "How fortuitous that you visit us now, how coincidental."

He paced before them like an angry cat, "Just yesterday a large band of Soua attacked Donona field laying waste to four short range jump Mecca and heavily damaging the Taya Menanu. She will be unable to make her projected jump time for Pack this summer, her repair will take four moon cycles to correct."

All but Quona looked at each other fearful… had the remaining citizens taken matters into their own hands? Had they formed a retaliatory force and come here for revenge? Had their efforts here been undermined by the more hot-blooded of the Taysa? Certainly they would not, Quona had forbade any such action until a source of trouble could be confirmed. Even if they had they would not have gotten ahead of their own party's arrival.

The Ot Quona had gone on, "It is you and your people who again break the rules, who trample the generous peace offering this Council has made. It is you who have broken the truce!"

Gui'Yata looked over as Courtney drew a sharp breath. She looked up at him locking his eyes as she leaned in and spoke to him solely in English, "It wasn't them!" She whispered.

"How can you be so sure? They could just be trying to cover their guilt." Gui'Yata replied feeling defensive.

"Gui'" Courtney said, "Why, if they were guilty would they try to cover it up? They did not when we were at war the last time. Look at them. They're angry, and scared, it is not an act, it is not because they are guilty. Something has upset their lives, something they consider beyond the code."

Gui'Yata stared at his partner for a long time assessing her words as much as he was assessing her body language. She was confident in her assessment of this situation. Slowly he turned his eyes to the Ot Eesan, opening his reception to receive the chaotic thoughts drifting through the air, ricocheting back and forth between the members. One, his eyes turned the direction of the vivid images he received, the one on the far left, he had been at Donona field when the attack had occurred. Gui'Yata just noticed how his sword arm hung limp at his side. Through his head ran a series of images, some sharply etched in the mind of the Soua. Gui'Yata caught a repeated loop of many bodies running and fighting, figures dancing as they doused the helpless Taya sleeping in her berth. One of the figures suddenly lurched into close-up, as if the warrior had leapt at one of the aggressors. It was without a doubt a Soua…Soua had attacked Donona Field, and the Ot Eesan thought it had been them. If they did not convince the council otherwise there would be an all out war to eradicate the city of Taysa and the threat they were thinking it had become.

He leaned closer to Courtney as he whispered back to her in English, "They were Soua, our brothers and sisters were right in their assessment."

Gui'Yata looked up realizing that it had become deathly quiet in the Doana and he heard as his comment echoed off the high ceiling of sightless eyes watching the proceedings. Both the Council and Quona Lyonas were staring angrily at him.

"You will speak Sou when you are in the presence of this council, Sai!" The Ot Quona hissed, pausing a moment before saying, "What did you feel was so important that you would disgrace this hall with the Clusu's language?"

Courtney looked up sharply now, but she held her tongue, not disgorging the angry words that Gui'Yata could feeling roiling in her head.

Gui'Yata looked back at the council bowing his head in a posture of submission and apology, "Taura Raha has pointed out that we have both been touched by the same menace, Ot Quona."

The Ot Quona's whole presence was fixed on Gui'Yata now. The statement had gotten his attention, "What menace would you be speaking of?"

"Quona Lyonas would know better than I the details, Ot Quona." Gui'Yata expertly deferring honor back to his Grandfather and just barely escaping an unforgivable breach in etiquette. He felt rather than saw the Ot Quona's eyes leave him and move back to Lyonas.

Gui'Yata looked up at Quona seeing him blink as the connection became clear to him, one that had been obscured by his own preconceived notions about what had taken place at Taysa.

"A large force, reportedly of Soua overran the City of Taysa, killing Sougra and Saru alike. They succeeded in burning many of our homes, and threatened the support structure of our city with houta fed fires. Seventy-five of our citizens were lost, all else were wounded in the attack. The attackers, took trophies, haphazardly, Souata, Saru, Sougra, none were exempt from the culling."

The Ot Eesan was listening intently now, and Gui'Yata caught the surprised looks from many of the Ot Eesan. The Ot Quona's brow ridges furrowed, "Trophies were taken at Donona Field as well. The circumstances were odd, even for Sai such as you. I still do not believe that you were not involved with this killing however."

"Our People were specifically ordered not to take these matters into their own hands."

"But you are here and they are there. Who is to say that they were not rallied to action?"

Quona shook his head, "Ot Quona, a party that large Taysa no longer has, only fifty of the remaining citizens are in any condition to hunt at all much less make a full scale assault on Donona field. All were still in Taysa when we departed to come here, and there is no way that even had they, that they would have arrived before us."

"Then you did not attack us?" The Ot Quona seemed confused by this.

"No Ot Eesan, we did not."

The older Soua paused only a moment before replying, "I assure you that they Council has had no reason to bring death to your people, to this point there have been no breaches of the accord set into place by our parties." He looked down a moment, "It would seem then that some other faction has attempted to pit us against each other for its own inscrutable ends."

After that the Huada were excused, as the Taysa proved not to be the threat they first thought it was. The conversation then turned to discussing possible assailants, along with possible solutions to the problem they now faced. Their next best guess was the rogue population, and that scared many of the older Soua in the Doana, for it meant that their estimates of the Rogue population in the area were severely less than what the attacks were proving their numbers to be. The discussion lasted well into darkness and they were more than ready to take the generous offer of lodging before returning home.

Courtney sat on the simple pad that made up her bed, busily taking the braids out of her hair. She wanted to feel less like a Soua at the moment. A feeling that overwhelmed her every time she came to this city again. Gui'Yata lounged across from her chewing slowly on his meal and regarding the ceiling. As she loosened the last braid she set about brushing out her knee length reddish brown hair mulling over the conversation.

Finally she spoke, "Why is it that every time we come here I feel about a hair's breadth from death?"

"We always come here under dire circumstances, your feeling probably has merit," Gui'Yata replied pausing in his chewing, "You did well not to rise to the Ot Eesan's bait."

"It was a struggle believe me… there is already enough bad blood between me and that council. They still do not believe me worthy of being a Soua, even if I have passed all the tests set before me,"

"And that will probably never change, Raha," Gui'Yata said in his unflappable logic. He sat up staring at her again, just as he had the night before they had left to come here. Courtney frowned, as she knew that he had questions, one he was unsure how to pose.

Courtney was sure that this had something to do with Gerard's presence among them now. She knew that he noticed the growing attraction between the two humans in his life, but did he approve? She still to this day wondered just how deep Gui'Yata's feelings ran for her. He had escaped Donona because he had felt his people were being unduly harsh on him, placing him in bonding with her. That placed a restriction on his ability to mate, for he was to know no other. So he had fled and yet when they had established Taysa, when he was free to mate to whichever female would accept him, he hadn't. That bothered her, and while he had made no further mention of his unusual attraction to her since just after her impromptu Raya she still felt that attraction was holding him back.

"You look as if you have a question," Courtney said trying to spurn him to speak his mind.

"You are…becoming closer to Gerard," It was a statement, and she could hear the confusion in his voice, "I knew that you liked him." It wanted to be a teasing tone but did not quite manage it.

"Well being that he is the only other human on the planet…I am not sure whether it is just a physical attraction or something more…emotional."

Gui'Yata looked down and nodded.

"How do you feel about that?" she prodded.

He looked up at her sharply, "We are incompatible," He shrugged trying to seem disinterested in the topic, he did not succeed, and Courtney knew it, "It is good that you have someone now."

"And you as yet do not…why?" Courtney asked bluntly.

He snorted, "I have not been accepted yet."

"Gui'Yata…you have been hanging around me too long, you've learned how to lie, but you're not good at it."

He smiled at her, "I am jealous," He admitted, "Of you having Gerard now…That you divide your attentions between us. You have been my Raha for so long, been my partner in all things but the mating. I have grown attached to having you near me, having your advice and your ear. Your style of thinking is refreshing and I relish our hunts together. And that is why at times I find that being with another just feels…odd."

Courtney flushed red, flattered by his comment.

"I have been accepted, four times since Taysa was founded."

"I did not know that. You have hidden the fact well, even from me."

"I have had to be discreet, even from you. There are too many traditionalists that visit now, a bonded male mating outside of his bond… that would be reported to Donona immediately and I felt that they would revoke our status, they would make the city one full of Taysa Taru and without any legal standing. My latest mate was gravid when we departed…she was among those killed during the raid."

"I'm sorry," Courtney said feeling bad now for having pushed the issue.

He shrugged again, "I do not know that the child was mine…she was a traditionalist when it came to the mating rituals. I felt no emotional attachment to her or the child. I did my duty, contributing. As yet I have not found one with whom I wish to remain for the rest of my days. Nobaya makes that look easy. I would rather pretend our bond is legitimate…than take another…for the moment. You are much more fun to be around."

Courtney looked down, "I will not be around so long as you, my friend. We are not as long lived as the Soua."

She watched as he frowned, "I know this, and this is another reason that you should find your happiness as it is presented to you. If Gerard goes back to Earth, as he has indicated, you will be alone again. Or do you yearn to return to your former home?"

Courtney shook her head adamantly in the negative, "I have no desire to return permanently to Earth. The only thing I wish to do there is finding the rest of the ATP and rid your people of their threat. I would hate to have to suggest closing such prime hunting grounds."

"Then take advantage of the time that he has here," Gui'Yata nodded, "and do not worry about my feelings on this issue."