“I can take care of myself! You know,” Summer said, turning and leaning on her elbow as he was, “you guys go on and on about how g’hir are honorable warriors—”
“Not all of us!” he burst out, flinging his hand out in an uncharacteristic show of frustration. “Did you think a city full of males from a dying race would let a beautiful human female just walk by without seeking to capture her? If you had even reached the capital! You would have to cross Erah land and Arnaru lands before you came to the city outskirts. And with no resources—”
“What the hell happened to thinking I’m brilliant and brave? Those are resources. Besides, I have a truckload of stubbornness and a backpack full of jewels!”
“You—?” He shook his head a little. “What do you mean—what jewels?”
“The jewels the Betari gave me as the next clanmother.”
“What?”
“Well, I had to have something to bribe or buy my way back to Earth! It’s not like they take Visa.”
He stared. “You are a thief!”
“You can’t steal what people give you!” she threw back. “They insisted I take them! Swore up and down that they were mine!”
“I do not think using the riches of a hundred generations of Betari clanmothers to flee their enclosure is what they intended!”
“Oh, well, oops.” She gave an exaggerated shrug. “Maybe next time they kidnap someone they’ll explain the terms in writing.”
“This is an affront to their enclosure.” He passed his hand over his face. “Now they will say I have stolen you and their heirlooms.”
“Stolen me?” she asked. “What are you talking about?”
His face flushed with annoyance but then he met her eyes and his expression eased. “There are traditions, forms that must be observed to prevent war—”
“I guess your clans really hate each other, huh?”
“An ancient rivalry,” he grumbled. “And a pointless one, since we are all dying out.” He shook his head again. “The jewels must be returned to the Betari.”
“But not me?”
“Of course not,” he growled, sounding surprised. “I would never return you to them.”
He actually seemed to mean that.
“I’m not sure I was going to make it to the city anyway,” she mumbled. “I mean I figured I could do ten miles a day easy, maybe fifteen if I pushed it. Turns out I was figuring it with paved roads in mind. I really underestimated how hard it was to travel through uncut forest. I’m sure I didn’t have enough food. I didn’t really know how to find water—I can’t smell it like you can. And now, with the storm—”
“Then it is fortunate the Goddess brought me to that riverside,” he said with a faint smile.
She hesitated. She shouldn’t even care but . . . “What were you really doing way out there anyway, Ke’lar?”
“Foresting.”
“Yeah . . . you may not have noticed but I’m human,” Summer said dryly. “I don’t really know what you mean when you say that. It seems a bit like a mix of what humans call ‘camping’ and exploring but from just the way you guys say the word I know it’s more.”
He regarded her thoughtfully. “It is a difficult concept to express in words. It is something instinctive to g’hir, something we understand from earliest childhood. To forest does mean to travel, to explore the land as our ancestors did, but it is more,” he agreed. “It is a sacred journey as well. A way of opening oneself to the lifeforce that is Hir, that is our All Mother.”
“So you weren’t . . . Look, I’m just going to say it—Were you out there to spy on the Betari?”
He gave a short huff, a surprised g’hir chuckle. “No. I confess it did not even occur to me. I care little for enclosure politics. I only sought a solitary place.”
“Why?” He was silent for several moments and she raised her eyebrows. “Is this some kind of secret g’hir thing humans shouldn’t ask about?”
“I sought to commune with Hir,” he said reluctantly. “With the All Mother, the giver of all life. I was praying to Her.”
“For something? Or because you’ve done something you were sorry for?” She covered her eyes with her hand and flopped onto her back. “Never mind. I can’t believe I even asked you that. It’s none of my business anyway.”
“The answer is both,” he said quietly after a moment. “I went to ask the Goddess for something but also to loose my anger upon Her.”