[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
studies, so insensitive to him that he trapped me easily. However& . The amber
eyes flicked from the purple to the black. If you want the story, I ll tell
it another time. Harskari projected quiet amusement, the understanding and
acceptance of foible glowing over them all.
Listen, young Aleytys. Gapp has gone to the kipu about what happened here.
You ll be summoned soon. You ve about& . The eyes closed briefly. About two
hours to get ready to counter.
Aleytys jumped up to stand trembling beside the bench, a sudden panic jarring
through her. What! She wrung her hands. What can I do? Tell me what to do.
Use your head. It s a good one, Aleytys. Don t start depending on us to do
your thinking that s foolish and futile. We can and will aid once you sketch
out a course of action. I will say this. Don t run in circles. Make the kipu
work for you.
Page 45
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
How? Do you know&
Not enough. Do you forget we are as strange here as you? Talk to Burash.
Burash?
He waits. The amber eyes looked quietly amused. To scrub your back.
Aleytys tingled to the combined auras even after the yellow, black, and
purple eyes were shut and the personalities faded. She staggered as she took a
step, paused, disoriented, as she sought the outward world after the intense
inward turning. She licked her lips and said the names like a litany.
Swardheld. Shadith. Harskari. There wasn t even an echo inside her head. She
was alone.
Circling around the bench she ran toward the mahazh.
Chapter IX
Burash looked up as she came in. You all right? His betraying antennas
flickered erratically, the iridescent colors rippling. Do you want me or
should I go?
His anxiety hit her like a blow, sending blood in a crimson flush over her
face. The phenomenon startled her into stopping to look at him, then, after a
moment s futile search to reduce the experience to something she could handle,
she moved to the bed and knelt beside him. Still disturbed, she touched his
cheek a second then settled herself beside him. I ve been thinking& She
stirred and looked. Where s the hiiri?
He flicked a finger at the tapestry. In there. Her eyebrows went up.
He nodded. The old queen liked to keep hands and feet around her to run her
errands and fuss when she felt like being fussed over, but she wouldn t have
them underfoot.
The old queen. She took his hand and cuddled it in her lap running a
forefinger up and down the length of it while she thought. You knew her
well? She watched intently as he answered.
He drew his antennas together in a taut tense curve. I was her migru for the
past year.
She smiled and cupped his captive hand around the side of her face. Poor
love. Can the hiiri hear us?
There s only that between us. He indicated the heavy tapestry. Why?
She shook her head vigorously, a warning in her sudden frown. Did you fix my
bath?
The water should still be hot. His eyebrows arched gently while his
antennas tilted into interrogating curves.
She stretched and yawned. Scrub my back? In the bathroom she slipped off
the crumpled chiffon, letting it fall into a rosy pool at her feet. As she
sank down on the deep-piled rug, she murmured, Tell me about her. She curled
her fingers around his calf, briefly pleased by the warm alive feel of his
flesh. If the kipu thought the old queen had waked in me, what would she do?
Page 46
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
He stripped off his kilt and knelt beside her, touching his lips to her palm.
Impatiently she freed her hand and put it over his mouth. There s no time.
Against her fingers she could feel his mouth curve into a brief smile.
Pulling her hand down he said, Gapp?
She s probably with the kipu now.
That s all you can think of to fight her?
That s all.
You ll never fool the kipu.
Does it matter? If she sees the value for her in the illusion?
Ah. He radiated a shrewd appreciation with an underlying aroma of humor.
After settling himself more comfortably, he pulled her against his shoulder
and looked past her at the image of two of them in the full-length mirror.
Hm. His antennas swayed gently. When the old bitch was irritated, she d rub
her left thumb over the back of her right hand. Is that what you want?
Drowsily she nodded, her hair sliding over his chest. As he spoke, softly,
slowly, thoughtfully, building a picture of an imperious complex devious old
female, she recorded absently what he was saying but on another level of
consciousness let her mind drift, staring into the mirror, examining him as he
frowned at the slowly popping bubbles in the bathtub.
Blocking her empathic outreach she ran her eyes over his image as
dispassionately as she could. His body was human, more or less, enough that
there was no shock to her senses. But his face& huge black eyes, size of
teacups, divided into hundreds of tiny octagonal facets, bulging from a narrow
rather elegant face. A thin nose, sensitive and mobile mouth, pointed chin.
Rising above all, the spectacular antennas, whose movements reflected his
every mood. He was alien& she let the empathy flood back and the strangeness
was gone, evanesced into the steamy air, the image was simply Burash, the
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]