Unexpected Stories by Octavia E. Butler Read Free Book Online Page A

but in order to buy him even that, some of them had to die. She should have found some of them dead when she came in—her coming, slow as it had been, should have triggered a few deaths. A corpse should have been flung at her as she entered. Diut should have done everything he could to make her and her fighters believe they needed vengeance more than they needed a successor Hao. But Diut had not been brutal enough. And now, it was too late. She kept her eyes on him but spoke to her nonfighters.
    “Take the children and leave quickly.”
    The nonfighters obeyed immediately, Choh’s foster mother leading the way. Diut moved as though to a group that was warily passing him. When he moved, Tahneh danced several quick steps toward him. He turned back to her barely in time to stop her rush.
    She let him back away, now that he understood how well she would use his slightest inattention. He made no further effort to stop the nonfighters. They filed out slowly and when they were gone, Ehreh’s voice came through the doorway behind her.
    “They’re all safe, Rohkohn Hao.”
    “Close the door,” Tahneh ordered.
    There was a period of silence during which Tahneh saw that she had surprised Diut and guessed that she had surprised Ehreh as well. She had come to take part in the capture on hearing that Diut held nonfighters and children hostage. Her only thought then had been to free the hostages safely. The Tehkohn Hao concerned her deeply and what was about to happen to him sickened her, but her own people came first. She could not have stood by and watched them destroyed by a foreigner, even though that foreigner was blue. Now that the hostages were safe, however, she found herself emotionally and physically unable to stand aside and permit her fighters to take Diut. She knew that she was only putting off the inevitable. Diut had to be taken; she could give him only minutes. But at least she could see that he got those.
    Ehreh spoke very carefully. “We are ready for him, Rohkohn Hao. He cannot escape us again.”
    “So,” agreed Tahneh. She stepped aside, away from the doorway so that Ehreh was not directly behind her. She saw Diut grow tense and knew he thought she was giving him to her fighters. But out of the corner of her eye, she also saw Ehreh become tense. The chief judge knew her far better than did Diut. He could read her tone of voice even when her coloring remained neutral. He could understand when it was best to be silent and obey. Tahneh spoke again very softly. “Close the door, Ehreh.”
    Without another word, Ehreh stepped back out of the apartment and closed the door.
    When he was gone, Tahneh gave her full attention to Diut. He had lifted his head slightly, much as he had lifted it the night before, but this time the gesture was open challenge.
    Tahneh ignored the challenge, sadly quoted her own words of the night before. “‘There is only one thing that the Hao does not control, and that is the succession.’ ” She grayed with helpless regret. “I don’t want this, little cousin.”
    “Don’t you? I’m comforted, Tahneh!” He spat the words at her.
    “Your own people will commit this same act when you don’t return to them,” she said. “No tribe would deliberately remain without a Hao … and I can’t give my people the successor that they must have.”
    “But they have you now! Later your judges might produce …”
    “A Hao from the air? How often do such things happen, Diut?”
    “They happen!”
    “They are considered miraculous. Do you think my people would let you go and gamble their future on a hoped-for miracle?”
    He did not answer. He turned his face away from her in a way that was calculated to be insulting. Again she ignored the insult. She spoke gently.
    “You’re the miracle, cousin, coming to us in this time of trouble when the people have finally admitted to themselves that I can’t give them a successor; when our river is drying up, dying …”
    “And what can I do