Inkiri frowned, his eyes fixed on Vergis. “The Koa Esher have guns now.”
Vergis just shrugged.
Charles cleared his throat, then spoke. “That may be so, but they don’t know how to use them.” Charles crossed his arms. “How about this: Vergis promises he’ll let you know if we need help.”
Vergis rolled his eyes and reached for more of the nuts.
Inkiri didn’t move for a few seconds, but then he nodded. “Yes. That can work. Vergis, you’re sentenmen. Remember that. Tell us when you need us.”
Vergis opened his mouth, and if I knew him even a little, he was going to say something dismissive. Charles turned to him though, and I saw him kick his son under the table.
With only a very mild glower, Vergis said, “Yeah, fine, I get it. Goddamn.”
The war council went on, but to me it seemed as if we had the basic plan laid out, even if Charles and the guys wanted to go over it a couple of times, ironing out details about exactly where everyone would be. When Charles went to print out a map of the area just to mark out which way we’d all move, my mind started to wander.
I hoped this would work, that there would be no more evil monsters coming to Earth.
It had to work.
Chapter 22
For the next few days, we just waited for Kinnek and Zeddira to get back. There was a tension in the air that hadn’t been there before, but now everyone knew that something big was ahead of us all.
Inkiri, Fellisse, and Lissir spent a good amount of time with our Raiken guests. That included morning training sessions, which were bigger now and tended to last longer.
The morning after our planning session, I took up my spectator position. Inkiri brought the folding chair out every morning, and Fellisse generally checked I had my sun hat on or dropped it on my head if I didn’t.
Everyone was doing some slower warm-up stuff, but one of the Raiken guests peeled away from the group and came over to me.
“Hello,” he said.
I looked up. “Uh, hi.”
That seemed to be enough of an invitation, and the tall guy folded his legs under himself to sit on the ground next to my chair.
He put his hand on his chest. “Good morning. I am Tador. It is nice to meet you.”
He spoke with a heavy accent, but had the kind of careful pronunciation that told me he had practiced this. This wasn’t exactly new either—several of the Raikengana were testing out their language skills, sometimes with help from Luëris, but often simply doing their best with what words they had.
“Rory. Nice to meet you too.”
I gave the guy my hand to shake. It wasn’t a bagua thing, but some of them seemed very eager to try handshaking.
Tador beamed and carefully took my hand in his. He did three shakes. They all did that, and I figured they’d gotten some lesson that said this was the proper way to do it. His grip was loose, almost like he was afraid he’d squeeze my hand too hard.
“No training today?” I asked, making sure to speak slowly.
Tador shook his head, paused, then nodded. “Yes, training. Uh. Soon?”
“Oh. You’re taking a break.”
He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. “Taking…break?”
He mimed breaking something in two.
I shook my head. “Not like that. I mean…yasu. Taking a yasu.” This was one of the first Lugarran words I’d mastered, given that yasu meant there were cookies or iced tea instead of having to practice my writing while Kinnek told me to make it neater.
Tador lit up. “Ah! Yes, so is. Yasu.” His lips pressed tight, and he turned his head toward the others, who were just starting their sparring. “Lissir is…nice.”
