Righteous Anger (Okal Rel Saga #2)

PART 3.1: Exile

SanHome

Horth's first impression of SanHome was the double embrace of a crisp breeze and Zrenyl's bear hug. The breeze made him sneeze.

"Allergies?" Zrenyl sympathized with his more Vrellish brother. "It'll pass. It did on Tark, remember?"

Horth's nostrils attempted to pinch closed as he inhaled and his eyes narrowed. The air was peppered with dried leaves, battered to scraps as they tumbled in the wind.

Everything was shades of brown, from the overcast sky to the bare, thorny bushes encroaching on the edge of the landing field.

Hill was greeted by a Nesak woman with a round face and dressed in a light coat that covered her, shapelessly, from neck to ankles.

"This is my wife, Vera," Hill introduced her proudly.

"Hello Horth," said Vera.

"I am positively fantasizing a home-cooked dinner!" Hill exclaimed, taking his wife's hand, and the two of them set off at a brisk walk for a nearby group of buildings surrounded by a wall.

"We're headed for Sarn Haven," said Zrenyl. "A haven is a bit like a hearth, except it is held in perpetuity by something the Nesaks call soulright. We don't have those because you have to have priests to do it. The zer'stan — that's the council of priests — keep records of everyone's descent to be sure they know which descendants are eligible, and then perform rituals to determine if a soul is present in a new form. Possessions based on soulrights are pretty stable, because it is hard to get the zer'stan to endorse a challenge. Liferights, on the other hand!" Zrenyl exclaimed. "Now they're exciting! Men here fight for everything imaginable in the way of property. And," Zrenyl added with even more excitement, "I do mean the men! You won't find a Nesak woman on the planet taking fencing lessons or learning how to fly, either. We have that side of things pretty much to ourselves!"

Horth listened without grasping all the details.

The path they walked on was flanked by sculpted shrubs that told stories about evolving shapes, without resorting to the kind of repetition that would disconcert a pilot with good navigational instincts.

"Is Horth really only eleven?" Vera asked Zrenyl as they neared the Sarn Haven enclosure.

"It's the Vrellish in him," Zrenyl said, sounding awkward.

Horth could tell his brother was trying to make a good impression and did not want Horth messing that up, so he forgave Zrenyl just this once. Otherwise, he would have expressed himself with a punch.

The wall around the Sarn Haven compound appeared to be for keeping in both domestic animals and the younger children of the settlement. Horth counted about fifty buildings and estimated a population of a few thousand.

They crossed the compound to the building that Hill called the Great House, with Hill explaining everything too fast for Horth to follow, interrupting himself only to extend cheery greetings to people they encountered in the courtyard.

The front of the Great House had a wide porch, but they skirted that to enter by a back door. Inside, Zrenyl insisted they stash their swords and clean off their shoes in a mudroom.

Hustled along by his companions, Horth dreaded the reception to come, expecting it to be like one on Fountain Court. But his next surprise was a good one. Horth's party merely added themselves to the hubbub of people already in the dining hall.

Men were visiting with one another while women put out dishes and dealt with the children. Even among the children themselves, Horth noted that it was the girls who helped with food preparations and the boys who hindered them by getting underfoot.