The weevils are here illegally, and they will get off this planet and back to their ships. Do they want a war? An excuse to try to kill us all? We won’t be pushed any farther. “We know the Raksamat tried to kill you,” put in the constable. “And we’ve had it with the weevils thinking they own our planet. “There are three weevil farmsteads in those woods,” cried someone from the back of a groundcar.
“And where are you going, Constable,” asked the Sovereign, “with six groundcars and dozens of people behind you, some of them with guns? There’s nothing behind us but trees.” Town’s that way.” She pointed back along the way the procession of groundcars had come. “Glad to see you safe, Sovereign,” said the woman, “but I am constable of this precinct and you are blocking my path. “Just what do you think you’re doing here?” Attempting more or less credibly to sound imperious even despite the one hand holding the cloth over her face, but the girl’s voice shook a little. Murmured the translator clipped to Ashiban’s shirt. “I am the Sovereign of Iss,” announced the Sovereign. Just as she came up behind the Sovereign, the passenger door of the groundcar facing them opened, and a woman stepped out onto the road. She opened her own door and clambered awkwardly down. But the Sovereign looked so small standing by the side of the road, facing the other groundcar. Getting out of the passenger seat would be slow and painful, and Ashiban really didn’t want to. Closed the door, pulled her cloth up over her face, and walked out into the pool of light at the edge of the road. Slowly the Sovereign opened the groundcar door, slid out again. “What could you possibly say to them, child?” But there wasn’t much good doing anything else, either. Nothing more happened for the next few minutes, except that the people in the backs of the cargo cars leaned and craned to see what was going on. Began to turn, and stopped when its lights brushed their stolen groundcar. The first car in the procession slowed as it approached the path where Ashiban and the Sovereign sat.