Douglas sneered. “You’re soft—a soft sentimental fool.”
“Admitted,” Kennon said, “but that’s my nature.”
“Yet you’d destroy the family, wreck Outworld Enterprises, and throw a whole world into chaos over a few thousand animals. I don’t understand you.”
“They’re human,” Kennon said flatly.
“Admitting they might once have been, they’re not now.”
“And whose fault is that?”
“Not ours,” Douglas said promptly. “If there is any fault it’s that of the court who decided they were humanoid.”
“You didn’t help any.”
“Why should we? Does one treat a shrake like a brother?—or a varl?—or a dog? We treat them like the animals they are. And we’ve done no worse with the Lani. Our consciences are clear.”
Kennon laughed humorlessly. “Yet this clear conscience makes you want to kill me, so you can keep on treating them as animals—even though you know they’re human.”