Evershore(Skyward #3.1)(24)

But it also meant we could swiftly make the wrong decision, if the person at the top made the wrong call.

I thought about what Arturo said, that our lives were easier when we could think about things simply. We had to kill the Krell because they were trying to kill us. There was no moral ambiguity, no diplomacy to navigate. I supposed after a fashion my parents had been doing something brave, trying to pioneer a new way.

In other circumstances, they might have been heroes.

Goro looked ruffled, like he felt he was starting to lose the argument. “We must settle this matter decisively,” he said. “Allow my champion to fight a champion of the humans’ choosing. Our might will decide the victor.”

He seemed to have only that one argument, and I noticed no one in the senate had brought a champion with a sword. We hadn’t seen anyone else dressed like Goro in the city either. He was the only one insisting that a trial by combat was a reasonable course of action.

“The humans have already said they mean us no harm,” Kauri said. “They don’t want to fight with us. A physical fight between kitsen and giant would only cause unnecessary pain.”

“To them maybe!” Goro said. “My champion will fell the giant like our heroes of old! They will not stand before the blades of—”

Yeah, his argument was starting to reach the fever pitch of someone who knew they were losing. But the senate members hadn’t given their opinions yet, so why would he be?

Goro looked over at me and seemed…confused.

Was he trying to bait us into fighting him? That would certainly make his argument easier.

Kauri followed his gaze and I raised a hand, indicating that I wanted to speak.

“For my next argument,” Kauri announced, “I would like to introduce the witness testimony of Flightleader Weight.”

Goro hunched a bit, looking disgruntled.

“Jorgen?” FM whispered. “What are you doing?”

“Trying something,” I said.

“This is preposterous,” Goro mumbled. “A human should not speak to the senate.”

“Kauri is allowed to enter the testimony of another to make her argument for her,” Adi said imperiously. “Flightleader Weight, you may speak.”

Stars, I wished I was more prepared for this. I’d have preferred to have FM do it, but there wasn’t time. She was right. If we gave even the slightest indication that we would participate in Goro’s duel, we solidified their already terrible preconceptions of us. “On behalf of my people,” I said, “I’m sorry for what you’ve suffered at human hands. But we aren’t interested in fighting you.”

“They arrived with destructors on their ships,” Goro said, “and they expect us to believe—”

“You will wait your turn,” Adi admonished him, and Goro snarled a bit but shut his mouth.

“Our destructors are used in defense,” I said. “Of ourselves and of our allies. And we would very much like you to be our allies.”

Goro’s furry little brow bunched, and his champion leaned over and whispered something to him, though Goro waved her off.

Kauri gave a triumphant little smile. “I rest,” she said. And she nodded to me.

Goro had been trying to bait us into something. And if we’d risen to the bait and fought his champion, we would have proven everyone right about us. Goro clearly wanted that. Was it because our presence weakened his power, or did he think he was doing his people a favor by trying to reveal our true intentions?

“Very well,” Adi said. “The argument is over. We will now hear from the senate.”

Kauri turned around and raised her fist at me, in a gesture I was coming to recognize as both a greeting and approval.

Goro floated closer, his champion standing beside him with her gauntleted arms crossed. “I don’t know what your game is, human,” he grumbled.

“I don’t have a game,” I said. “Except to bring our people home, make peace with you, and coordinate a resistance against the Superiority.”

Goro narrowed his beady little eyes at me. “Your people never looked at us as allies before.”

“And I’m sorry for that,” I told him. “But we aren’t them. We’re concerned about your welfare, and the welfare of all the species the Superiority claims are lesser.”

I looked over at FM and she nodded her approval. Stars, maybe I was getting some of this right at least.

“Hmph,” Goro said, crossing his arms to mirror his champion. “Well, we will see.”

Paws waved in the air all around the room, and Adi floated her microphone over to them, allowing the senators to speak.

The first few senators focused on Goro’s argument—his right to challenge newcomers to a trial by combat. Several felt there was no harm in granting his request—though they all seemed to regard it as odd—and suggested we should be obliged to appoint a champion or leave the planet in disgrace. The kitsen with the rings in his ears said that Goro had no authority over Dreamspring or the surrounding island, so his challenge was invalid. Goro would need to wait and reissue it if one of us set foot on his island, which had another long name I didn’t quite follow.

Stars, it was getting hot in here. We were inside the rock, where it should have been cooler, but the heat of so many bodies in one place was starting to make the room humid and stuffy.