Trident's Forge by Patrick S Tomlinson

G’tel, “And not child. Have child.”
    Kexx grimaced, afraid of Tuko’s reaction, but zer skin just fluttered in amusement. “Of course. Forgive me. Why did you come to our village six Varrs ago?”
    â€œTo learn. To see. Live whole life in a… cave. Wanted to explore. Tired of waiting.”
    Tuko considered this for a long moment. “You lost people during the travel on your…” Ze glanced up at Kexx, looking for the unfamiliar word.
    â€œBoat,” Kexx provided.
    â€œYes, your ‘boat.’ Many of you didn’t survive.” Mei’s lower lip quivered just the slightest bit, but she remained defiant. Tuko continued. “Why didn’t you just take this great bird instead? The one the other humans took?”
    â€œNot ours. We from different village. No great birds.”
    â€œThere’s more than one human village?”
    Mei shook her head, then caught zerself and wiggled zer hand in the G’tel way. “Only one now. Ours empty.”
    â€œAnd is this other village as big as yours was?”
    Mei wiggled zer hand again. “Bigger. Much bigger.”
    â€œWhere is this village?”
    Mei smirked. Kexx recognized the gesture, but doubted anyone else understood it. Ze raised a hand and pointed to the ocean, pointed up to the mysterious line in the sky, faintly visible even in daylight, then traced zer finger back down to the horizon.
    â€œThere.”
    A chilled silence ran through the crowd. There had been rumors of course, suspicions that these new visitors were linked to the strange happenings in the sky. Most had seen them as omens for either good or ill, but without confirmation, rumors were all they’d been. Two of the elders dropped to their knees in prayer, while a third seemed frozen in shock. The rest resumed arguing among themselves.
    Kexx had to admit, Mei had a flair for dramatic timing.
    â€œVarr has returned to us,” one of the elders, Chak, whispered solemnly. Ze referred to an old story. The oldest, actually: of Varr, the long exiled mate of Cuut and Xis. “We must open our doors to the humans and prepare an appropriate sacrifice.”
    â€œIs that true, Mei?” Tuko asked. “Have your people been sent to us by Varr?”
    Mei stumbled. “I… um.”
    â€œYou see?” Kuul pounded a fist on zer chest. “Ze is no child of Varr. Ze can barely speak!”
    â€œHow well do you speak human, Kuul?” Kexx bit back.
    â€œI don’t,” ze announced proudly. “Why should I fill my mouth with their mud?”
    â€œBecause Mei has honored us by learning our tongue as best and as quickly as ze can.”
    â€œAs ze should. Learn to speak like a civilized person.”
    Chak pushed back into the circle. “Varr has been in exile for thousands of years. How do we know zer tongue isn’t the human tongue? We can barely speak to the nomadic clans.”
    â€œBecause the nomads are little better than animals.” Kuul barked. “And we should drive them off just as we would those raiders!”
    Chak pressed zer small frame as close to Kuul’s body as propriety would allow. “You would spit in the face of our salvation? You are a spear with no mind to wield it.”
    Tuko stepped up and physically pushed the two of them apart. “So, as I understand it, our difficulty lays in whether we should worship the humans,” zer eyes darted over to Mei and back again, so quickly Kexx nearly missed it. “Or slaughter them, yes?”
    A general murmur of agreement made a lap around the circle of elders.
    â€œA stark choice.” Tuko paused. “A depressingly familiar choice. Isn’t this the essence of every choice we face? Isn’t this always your wisdom ?” The slowly falling bands on zer skin froze and broke up into flickering dots, a sign of extreme frustration. No one dared answer.
    Tuko absently rubbed at zer left shoulder, an old