older than Michael named Cedric. I hired Cedric to run my household the way he thinks is best, just as I had hired Michael to run the winery the way he thinks is best. Cedric reminds me of the nicest of the men who raised me at my Uncle’s estate on Udell. I think I am going to love it here.
I still had every intention of traveling to other planets, but that would have to wait. My gloride monster killing days were over. The possibility that the next time a gloride monster attacked me my ability might not take over and save me was a chance I never wanted to take again.
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Michael should have been exhausted, but he had never felt so full of life. Buying new equipment, supervising the repair of old equipment, it was amazing how much you can get done when money isn’t a problem. The fun of taking bids on the repair of the irrigation system and repairing buildings when you know you can afford the best. Michael had the fun of telling the men working on the estate that the winery wasn’t shutting down so they could stop scrambling to find other work.
Even Barnabus was happy. “Michael, I’d hate to see you and Mildred leave. Who else can my wife Sarah and I have over to play cards who won’t mind losing?”
Silus was the one sour note, but he took his defeat with humor. “If I’d known there was another buyer I’d have paid half again as much and still thought I was making a good deal. It was just so much fun having old Sam between a rock and a hard place. The man you’re working for is swimming in a lake of luck. If I were you I would jump in there with Bob the first chance I got.”
Michael didn’t tell anyone about the ghoul hunter part. Cocuru doesn’t have any gloride deposits and is real short on gloride monsters. If Bob stayed on Cocuru the man’s ghoul hunter days are over.
The man’s, all of Michael’s children were far older than Bob and his grandchildren almost as old. The boy from Udell did seem to have a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Swimming in a lake of luck, it sounds nice, but you can drown in any kind of lake.
With his ship finally out of Cocuru’s gravitational grip, Merritt sat and watched Cocuru shrink in the rear monitor. That such a skill as Bob’s would not be used seemed a terrible waste. The boy just needed the proper incentive to go back to ghoul hunting. Merritt had heard the Kinzu were having a problem with a pod of setti in a gloride mine on the planet Kinzu Prime. Merritt would check into the matter.
CHAPTER 3
THE KINZU HOOK
◊I had not finished repairing the big house, the large wood and brick building the previous owner had lived in, when Merritt called from Cocuran Space Control asking for permission to land on my property.
Merritt had agreed to buy my entire first year’s production of wine. The Falcus Federation was interested in buying wine from the man who helped them from once again becoming subject worlds of the Sindar Empire, but the wine was still being aged and wasn’t ready yet.
I could not believe Merritt had made a mistake in the timing of his return, as everything Merritt did would involve a profit or a potential profit. I could only believe he had come to sell me something. Merritt had to know my funds were diminished. I didn’t have the money to buy anything that would make a trip to Cocuru profitable.
When the Kinzu warrior stepped out of the ship after Merritt, I could not believe my eyes. As a child I had lived for tales of Kinzu adventures. The Kinzu were the white knights of the galaxy. Taller than a man with shoulders twice as broad and five times as strong, with a narrow waist and folds of black skin on their heads, which from a distance resembles thick black hair. The gloride planet they had developed on had resulted in their hides being thick and tough, but they were more than just physical power and speed. To a Kinzu honor and justice were everything.
A Kinzu warrior will keep his word or die trying. A Kinzu warrior will not twist his words to say one thing while meaning another. Have the Kinzu on your side and you will prevail, incur their wrath and you will fail. Beware lying to a Kinzu. They can look into your soul and uncover any falsehoods.
Since the first meeting between humans and Kinzu, the words hero and Kinzu have been interchangeable. They were the stuff of adventure tales to tell small children to get them to finish their chores and eat their vegetables.
The Kinzu were the ones who would come to the rescue in the nick of time or find a way out when things seemed hopeless. Believing the Empire of the Lan-Thu was a source of justice for all thinking beings, they became the Emperor’s bodyguard. Their betrayal by the evil Emperor Thu-Lan-Thu was said to be one of the main reasons for the breakup of the Old Empire. After the Kinzu disposed of the evil Emperor, the remaining Kinzu retired to their home worlds.
Although they are a valued member of the Market trading sphere, they were no longer involved in the wider galaxy. Except for the occasional quest a Kinzu would become involved in, Kinzu were seldom seen except in diplomatic missions or to trade and these were very rare.
To actually see a Kinzu warrior, to actually meet a Kinzu warrior, was an incredible honor. If he had come simply to buy wine I would have been crushed.
I asked the two of them into my house for refreshment. The Kinzu went in first, sideways, his shoulders were too wide for the doorway. Then Merritt, who said in a low voice, “Don’t grovel, stand up straight.” Fortunately I had a house master’s chair, left behind by the previous owner, which was oversized and very sturdy. I directed the Kinzu to sit in the house master’s chair while Merritt and I took two others. The Kinzu had the strong lindler tea and brandy; I had the same although my stomach would pay for it later. Merritt had his usual honey beer.
The Kinzu would be able to tear me apart as though I was made of thin paper, but I was not the tiniest bit afraid of him. He looked at me eye to eye for awhile and Merritt just sat looking uncomfortable. I sat with an idiotic grin on my face, once again a small boy waiting for a tale of adventure to begin.
The Kinzu’s voice was deep and his words carefully chosen, “My name is Ischuk and I am a District Master of the Kinzu. I understand you have killed three crocs and a tic with your bare hands. As is my right, I have come to offer you the opportunity to ask for the honor to hunt setti.”
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The Kinzu had shared their world with an animal called a setti since time forever. The setti are not gloride monsters and do not ordinarily go into gloride deposits. They live in the wilderness lands where they would not be touched. If the setti leave the wilderness areas they could be hunted, easily killed with a well placed shot from a force rifle.
In the season when the pods of setti would leave the wilderness areas, groups of equal numbers of young Kinzu warriors would form to hunt them. They would each use a force rifle with only one charge. If each warrior waited until the setti was close enough to make their shot true, their setti was dead. If the shot missed, the Kinzu was almost certainly dead, for setti are very difficult to kill with other weapons.
The setti is a tubular torso on top of sturdy legs with slits along the sides from which spines could be extended or withdrawn. These spines could pick up food and place the food in the mouth at the top of the tube. These spines could also slice through a Kinzu hide with ease and slice him into pieces which the spines could lift and place in the creature’s mouth. These flexible spines were incredibly sharp and could easily cut through the hide of any known creature.
Before the advent of the force rifle, Kinzu life had revolved around building shelters where one could be safe from setti attack. The Kinzu no longer feared the setti.
