There was green and purple blood on his face. "My chest hurts. Burns." I saw traces of the Odnallak dust on his nostrils and in the corners of his mouth. "You took me from the chamber." I could remember it clearly now. "He was going to suffocate you in that dirt." He carried me onto the scout and snarled something at the pilot before dropping into a seat with me. The scout's engines engaged. "I should have known. He has suffered much, and cannot..." He looked down at me, and his expression changed as he pushed me off his lap. "Warm-blooded. He should have killed you." I remained where I had fallen on the deck. "He meant to, I think. When he was finished tormenting me. The renegade Jorenian pressed his hands to the sides of his head, and then pulled them away and stared at them with visible horror. "What has he done to me? He has made me like one of you. How can this be?" Now he was speaking in the hissing tone of the Hsktskt. "You were like the people once. He said you were an outlaw and that he changed you.
