Free Jane Carver of Waar by Nathan Long Page B

were allowed to speak at these things, so Handsome spoke for her. You could almost see her pulling his strings. He told ’em that I’d saved Queenie’s life and had only attacked One-Eye because One-Eye’d tried to kill him, miming the whole thing so I could almost see it happening.
    One-Eye jumped in, waving all four arms and shaking his head. He hadn’t tried to kill Handsome, and he dared anyone to come forward and prove that he had. Handsome interrupted One-Eye’s interruption, gesturing again, with lots of looks back at Queenie to make sure he was getting it all right. He gave her testimony, acting out her running after me and seeing One-Eye leaning over Handsome with a knife. To back that up, Handsome showed everyone a small cut on his neck.
    One-Eye laughed at this. Of course he’d had his knife out. He mimed being in the middle of battle—and giving himself a lot more action than he’d really seen, by the way. He motioned to the guys from his squad, showing all the cuts they’d picked up during the fighting. Then he crossed to Handsome and pointed out all his cuts. He was playing the jury like Johnnie Cochran. How could Handsome prove that he hadn’t got that little cut in battle along with all the rest?
    I could see a lot of the big-wigs leaning his way, but the chief still looked undecided. He asked Queenie and Handsome if they had actually seen the attack. Because it was a direct question from the chief, Queenie was allowed to speak, but unfortunately she couldn’t give a good answer. She’d seen the knife and One-Eye’s position, but from her angle she couldn’t be certain if he was stabbing Handsome. Handsome said he’d still been knocked loopy and couldn’t remember exactly what happened. Triumphant, One-Eye again demanded my death.
    That seemed to convince the last of the doubters, but the chief was still frowning. He called One-Eye’s squad forward and asked them something. From all the leaping and choking gestures they made—and believe me, you haven’t seen gesturing until you’ve seen a guy with four arms tell a story—I could tell they were telling him about my fight with One-Eye.
    They were the last witnesses. After that we all stood around and waited for the chief to make a decision. It was a bit of a wait. The Chief rubbed his furry chest for what seemed to me, who had the most to lose in all this, a half an hour or more, but was probably under a minute. The crowd got so quiet I could hear the “skritch skritch” of his claws scratching his skin.
    Finally he spoke. This part I couldn’t figure out from hand gestures, but everybody took it big. The crowd gasped. One-Eye bellowed in anger. Queenie and the kids talked among themselves and looked over at me, faces going back and forth between relief and worry.
    After a gesture from the mouthpiece, my escort dragged me over to Handsome and dropped me at his feet. Queenie came out from behind him and scooped me up into a hug that could have killed a grizzly bear.
    “So, am I free?”
    Queenie shook her head. “Almost not yet. Chief think One-Eye weak not to kill you first time. Aarurrh not win fight with insect? And only a she-insect?” She laughed. I wasn’t sure if she was insulting One-Eye or me. “Now he think One-Eye coward too, asking chief to settle his fights.” She leaned in, rolling her eyes like I was supposed to get her meaning. “One-Eye ask for you execute, not trial.”
    I was confused. “Wasn’t this the trial?”
    Queenie shook her head. “Not trial like that. Like this.” She drew her dagger meaningfully. I still wasn’t exactly following, but I didn’t like the gist.
    “One-Eye say trial only for Aarurrh. He no fight animals. But chief, he hear how you jump. He want to see a good fight. Now, stay. We find armor.”
    Queenie and Kitten trotted off, leaving me and Sai with Handsome. My heart dropped into my colon. Now I got it. Trial by combat with a twelve foot, four armed monster. That was the chief’s