Demands of Honor by Kevin Ryan Page B

of the work, and it explains whatever I need to know.”
    Gorath shook his head. “You have done more here in a short time than I could have done in a dozen summers.” Gorath took his son’s shoulder. This caused blood to rush to Adon’s face. He might have been smarter than his father, but he was still a boy of fifteen summers and was quick to embarrassment.
    â€œI am ready to go with you,” Adon said, changing the subject.
    â€œNo. It will be just endless talk from Gurn. A father would never wish that on his son.”
    Adon smiled. “I don’t mind …”
    Gorath waved him off. “Why don’t you stay here and explore the computer simulations?”
    Adon immediately raised his head. He and some of his friends enjoyed playing with simulations on the green-skins’ computers. Gorath himself had no patience for them, but the offer of a whole evening playing those games was too much for Adon to refuse.
    â€œHe does talk an awful lot, Father,” Adon said, smiling.
    â€œI will see you when I return. Then I will relay it all in painful detail.”
    His son laughed as Gorath turned to go. He left the complex and headed to the meeting pit outside his village. In the past, councils were held in the clan pit of the village holding the meeting. However, since the green-skins had gone, the people needed more meetings between the clan leaders. Well, whether they needed them or not, they had held many more councils than ever before.
    Gurn had suggested a new meeting area outside of any individual clan’s village. He said it was to ensure that all clans were treated equally and given equal respect. The real reason, of course, was that after the Orionsleft, all councils had been held in Gorath’s village because of its proximity to the mine.
    Gorath had accepted the idea of a new meeting pit because to resist was to give credence to Gurn’s suggestion that perhaps too much power and influence was landing in a single clan: namely Gorath’s. Gurn’s was the loudest voice making that charge and, for a time, the only one. However, since the green-skins, all of the clans were worried about the future, and internal squabbling—petty as it was—was preferable to confronting the real dangers they had all faced and might face again.
    There had been many changes since the Orions had come and gone. The green-skins had brought change with their deadly machines. And while Gorath might curse the green-skins—and he often did—he would be a fool to deny that the world was very different today because of them. Now, for his son and for all of his people he would have to make sure that the changes did not destroy them, as the green-skins nearly did.
    To that end, Gorath would endure worse than one of Gurn’s tedious and needless councils. Of course, Gorath had seen something he did not like in Gurn’s eyes in the last meeting. He could not put it into words, but he did not doubt the call of his blood. That look was the reason he did not want Adon to come along. Though Gurn was probably too much of a coward to challenge him directly, physically or otherwise, Gorath didn’t trust the man and he instinctively wanted to keep Adon away from those who wore false faces.
    The walk to the new council pit would take him some time, and he found that he enjoyed the trip by himself. Walking the woods of his people, he remembered thetime before the green-skins had come, the simpler time of his youth. In his blood, he knew that he and his people would never see those times again, but it did not hurt to visit in his memory from time to time.
    Normally, he would have his second accompany him to council meetings, but Felan had died fighting the Orions. Originally, Gorath had not replaced him immediately because Adon was almost old enough to assume the position. Gorath had decided to wait until his son was ready, but now he doubted the decision. He realized that the clan