I taught you Language so you could
complete the Ordeal quickly, and so you could communicate easily with
your n'ruhar. We did not teach you forestcraft, because there was
something you had to learn for yourself while Hovan taught you that."

Tarlac nodded almost immediately. "How to open up," he said. "Even
. . . that I could open up, to love a whole clan and not be ashamed of
it."

Kranath nodded. "Yes, and you learned it quickly, despite your human
conditioning. I had to learn to be alone, you to be close--even the
most minor of gods must know both.

"Someone subject to external limitations, as a Ranger or ruler is,
should have no bias. We are limited only by our own feelings, though;
everything we do must be tempered by love for our charges."

"External limitations?" Tarlac chuckled. "I'd say I didn't have many!"

"You had the ultimate limitation, Steve. Mortality."

"Huh?" Tarlac found that his coffee had remained at the perfect
drinking temperature, and took another swallow.

"You could give almost any order and have it obeyed, granted. But if
someone disliked what you did or commanded intensely enough-- You have
a saying that nobody is safe from a truly determined assassin, not
true?"

"I hadn't thought of it like that, but you're right. And you--no,
we--can't be killed." Then Tarlac frowned. "Godhome gave you a choice,
Kranath. It said you had to be willing--why didn't I get that option?"

"Did you need it?"

"I don't understand."

"Did you need it?" Kranath repeated. "It seems to me that you had
already made the choice."

"Ruhar," Carle said gently, "you have been both Ranger and Cor'naya,
earning high status in both societies, and Daria was right when she
told you that was vital to peace. Tell me, though: would that have
been enough? Were you persuasive enough to convince two star-spanning
civilizations to cease ten years of hostility just with words? Is any
mortal?"

Tarlac shook his head. "I'm an operator, not much of a diplomat--
Linda's the expert at that, and I don't think even she could bring that
one off." He looked at them speculatively, then nodded. "I guess I do
understand, at that. I did choose this, didn't I? Twice, and without
realizing it."

The three other Lords smiled proudly at him. "Yes," Kranath said.
"Once when you accepted Ranger Ellman's invitation, once when you
accepted the Ordeal. That you were persuaded into both decisions is
irrelevant; none