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seemed wholly beyond her ability to calculate. It felt like a week, must have
been several hours. She found herself stumbling the last few steps beside an
impatient gyr, going over and over this as if this was the only important
thing left in the world. The gyr bumped into her as he stepped clumsily off
the roadway and began ripping up great chunks of that dewy succulent grass.
She pulled her hands hard down her face, rubbed at her eyes, stared at the
grass and tried to find the last bit of strength in a body that threatened to
fold under her.
She went to the gyr with Aleytys still draped across his back, cupped her hand
along the side of Aleytys s face, lifted the heavy head, the sweat-sticky hair
dropping to curl about her wrist. She stared at it a moment. A bracelet of
bright hair about the bone, she thought, blinked. Where did that come from?
Oh god, my brain s mush. She let the head fall back went round behind the gyr
and wrapped her arms about Aleytys s hips, pulled her off the gyr with a
desperate lurching rug, fell with her onto the grass. The dew struck cold into
her. She coughed. I hope Aleytys can cure the common cold, she thought and
giggled, the giggle breaking into another cough. She pushed Aleytys off her
and went to help Wakille unroll the groundsheet.
When they had Aleytys wrapped in a blanket and Linfyar tucked up next to her,
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Shadith straightened and stood rubbing at her back. We should stand watch,
she said slowly. No telling what s out there wanting to eat us. She smiled
wearily at him. At the moment I wouldn t care much if something did try to
eat me. You?
Wakille yawned and didn t bother covering the gape. He swung his blanket
around him. Me? I m going to sleep a week. Mangxi s twenty demons stomp any
fool who tries waking me. He went to his knees, fussed a bit with the
blanket, rolled about until he was satisfied, then went still. A moment later
Shadith heard a soft snore.
She untied the strap to her blanket roll, snapped the blanket out, hesitated.
She turned in a slow circle. To the south, the city was a dark blotch outlined
against the dimmed blaze of the stars. To the east there were more trees, here
and there among them glimmers of white, ruins of fancy houses, she thought,
riverfront property. It doesn t seem to change world to world, well, not domed
cities, but on oxygen worlds like this whatever the species, the privileged
have the air and the sunlight and the riverview. She flipped the blanket
about, knowing she d make the same choice if she wanted to settle anywhere and
had the money for it. Which I certainly don t have. Never been this broke I
can remember. She grinned. Except the day I was born. About the same thing, I
suppose. I think I d better settle on Wolff if anywhere. Has its problems, but
it ll never have too many people and the ones it s got are too bloodyminded to
admit anyone could be better than them. I wonder if Lee will settle there.
She s got a nesting look about her. Not me. Wonder what the lifespan is on
this body. She smiled and turned a little more. Thick trees to the north.
Forests on this world seem to have nasty secrets, wonder if this is the same.
I should be sleeping. I m too tired to sleep. Can t find the stop-switch. She
walked past the grazing gyori to the shallow bluff and stood looking down at
the great river. Two-three kilometers wide. Hope we don t have to try crossing
that. No way, unless some natives are running a ferry. She stretched, yawned.
It was getting cold. Heading into winter. Front must be passing through. Rain?
No clouds, not yet anyway. Could be it s going to stay clear a while. She
shivered. Lee, you better wake in the morning. My throat feels like something
with a lot of teeth and claws died there. And Linfyar ... I hope you re with
us tomorrow, healer. Besides, Wakille s getting snarky again. Thank god, he s
such a little creep. Strong though. Lot stronger than this body. Hey, Shadi,
it s your body now, get used to that. And take care of it. You re stuck with
it. A corner of her mouth curled up as she thought of the body she d really
like to have. Aleytys s. But that was impossible and she might as well be
satisfied with the one she had, she d asked for it, no, demanded it. Time to
forget what was and get on with what is. She stretched out on the plastic, the
blanket tucked around her, beginning to relax as she grew warmer. Her last
thought was about Swartheld and joining him once she got back to Wolff.
2
Shadith woke with a feeling of urgency, great danger, lay very still in the
blanket s warmth holding her breathing steady. Cautiously she opened her eyes.
Wakille was bending over Aleytys, his hands about her throat.
With a surge of desperate energy dredged up from she didn t know where, she
was on her feet the blanket dropping away, launching a kick that tumbled him
away from the inert body he crouched over. Then she was standing between him
and Aleytys, the zel knife in her hand gleaming like ivory in the long light
of the early sun. His eyes on the knife, Wakille got carefully to his feet,
stood without moving, the dappled leaf-shade playing over his face as the
morning breeze stirred the branches over his head. When he spoke, his voice
melded oddly with the wind until it seemed the wind not he spoke the words.
You saw her back there, it said. You saw the diadem. The RMoahl diadem,
little savage. You ve got no idea what wealth that means. Off this cursed
world and living high the rest of your life, everything you ever wanted,
everything you ever could want. And power. Who are you, little savage? What
are you? So what if she saved your life. You aren t lovers, I d know that.
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There s some tie between you, I don t know what it is, but think. Friends and
lovers, little savage, they re easy enough to find out there if you ve got
wealth enough. Don t be a fool and let a splendor out of your life. Whatever
you owe her, you ve repaid her a dozen times over. Look at her, she s worse
than dead in this state, a vegetable, not a person; help me release her from
that ...
The voice went on and on, searching out her weaknesses, but that was the least
part of what he was doing. She felt warm touches in her mind, touches that
gently and steadily leached away her anger, or rather turned that anger from
him onto Aleytys, touches that searched out and enhanced the resentments she
already felt and was ashamed of and tickled away that shame. Wakille, the
trader, working at his top, seducing her as much with his mind manipulations
as with his words, which were after all just the paint on the surface,
partially there as a distraction from what he was doing in her head, not from
any great hope he could talk her around, though he might think he could do
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