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. Tamrisgot to her feet. I d better get started on this. She took a few steps,turned. Only occasionally dim you haven t said you want me on this with you. If you don t mind an atmosphere of confusion and hostility. Aleytys grinnedat her. Come back after you ve seen Head and spend the next few days here,we ve got some planning to do.AleytysHer house.The house on Wolff.The place she was beginning to think of as homethough she wasn t fully aware of her commitment to it as yet.Aleytys andTamris went over their meager reports again and again, argued over the Cazaritworld maps, spent the splendid summer days in the garden, the crisp summerevenings before a briskly crackling fire in the library.Three days.Swardheldshuttled between the port facilities where his ship was being worked on andthe house.Sometimes he joined them, grinning at Tamris s glares ofindignation as he teased Aleytys into wild, farcical, funny word exchangesthat left both of them helpless with laughter.At night Aleytys dreamed and woke sweating, dreamed and thrashed about in herdreaming because she was replaying old and painful events, time-jumbled andfragmented but consistent in that they centered about two ghosts from herpast.She dreamed:She lay in an open-fronted cell staring at a corridor visible but unreachablebeyond a force shield.She turned her back on it. Lee.Page 18ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlShe swung around.Stavver stood outside. Miks, she said.She thrust herhands against the yielding floor and shoved herself onto her feet. Where amI? What happened? How did I get here? Hush, Lee, listen.She brushed distractedly at hair tumbling over her face. Get me out of here.He ran a hand across his eyes.She could see the veins distended at histemple, running in a blue weaving over the back of his thin hand. Shut up andlisten.An ache began to beat behind her eyes. What about a few answers?The thief glanced nervously over his shoulder. Lee, I ve bought a few minuteswith you, not enough to waste like this.You re in the slave pens ofI!kwasset. Slave pens! Maissa tricked me.When I was out hunting down some friends, she gassed you,hauled you here and sold you, claiming you owed her passage money.When I gotback to the port the ship was gone. Sharl? My son?He rubbed his forehead, gestured helplessly. She took him with her.I msorry, Lee. Sorry. He ll be all right, Lee. No, Maissa is.ay, Madar, get me out of here. No way, not out of the slave pens. There was a fault beading of sweat on hisforehead though he tried to smile. Don t you think I d have you out of hereif I could? Would you? Or would you be just as happy to get me off your neck?He flattened his palms against the forceshield. I d have to. His mouthworked, the pale tip of his tongue flicked across his lips. You ve hooked mehard. He looked over his shoulder, turned back. My time is almost up.Ican t steal you out, Lee.And I haven t got the gold to buy you, you knowthat.After you re sold, then I can get you away.No owner will have the kindof security they have here.I ll come for you, I swear it. No. What?She stared at him, a long thin man with moonwhite hair tumbling over pale blueeyes, lover and rescuer, though reluctant at both. Go after Maissa, shesaid. By all we ve shared, get my son away from that crazy woman.He jerked away, took two steps down the corridor, wheeled and came back, hisface twisted with the pain that radiated through his body.Gasping, he bangedhis hands against the shield. Stop it, he cried,  stop it.Her mouth pinched into a grim line, she waited.He closed his eyes.The muscles loosened in his face and neck. All right,damn you, you win.I ll trace her and get him away from her.The stiffening went out of her spine; slumping, nearly falling as her kneeswent weak, she pressed her hands against the transparency near his shoulders. I m sorry, Miks, I wish.ah, man, you know how sick Maissa is.He stroked his hand outside the shield at the level of her face as if hecaressed her, pain in his face as if he did this against his will. Ill findyour son and bring him to you. No.Not to me.Madar knows where I ll be.Take him to his father.Vajd thedreamsinger.You ll find him on Jaydugar in a mountain valley called the Kard.Ask for the blind dreamsinger.A dark-faced guard tapped Stavver on the shoulder and jerked his head towardthe exit.He left her without looking back, the long narrow man who moved withthe elastic glide of a hunting tars, a sly man and a quick man and a mansuffering now under the geas she d wished on him.Once her lover, now hervictim, she watched him walk away and leaned her head against the transparencyand, once he had disappeared around a corner, wept.and woke with tears on her facePage 19ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlShe sat up, dabbed at her face with the corner of the sheet  Why am I doingthis to myself? Her voice sounded sharp in the darkness, the tremble in itfrightening her a little.She reached out to Swardheld for comfort but therewas only a cooling space where he d been. Harskari, mother, she whispered. Shadith, my friend, talk to me.Amber eyes opened in the darkness in her head. Aleytys.Violet eyes opened beside the amber. Lee.She felt warmth spread through her.Lying back on the bed, she punched thepillow, folded it and tucked it behind her head, stretched out her arms,wriggled around until she was comfortable, smiled into the darkness. Idreamed about him, my thief.Harskari said nothing.Shadith s violet eyes blinked slowly as her delicatepointed face materialized about them. That bothers you?Harskari s burnt umber face with its halo of white hair was suddenly besideShadith s. Why?Aleytys winced. Because I m afraid. Of what?Aleytys laced her hands behind her head. That Stavver is the ghost I have totrack down.When Head told me about the snatches, I wondered.Now I dream.It s his kind of thing, it stinks of him.Haven t I done him enough harm? A feeling and a dream why couldn t one trigger the other? I know all that, I m still afraid. She stirred, the sheets whispering abouther body. How can I take the chance it s him?Harskari was silent again, a disapproving silence. Head, she said quietlyafter a moment of that silence [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]