A Princess of the Aerie by John Barnes Read Free Book Online Page A

Sure, let’s go back to my apartment.”
    Afterward, as Jak and Myx lay comfortably naked on his bed, idly touching, Jak said, “Sometimes I speck you’re the only person
     who feels like I do about sex and friendship and so on.”
    She kissed him lightly. “You mean, sex is good, friendship is good, sex with friends is really good? And that’s about all?”
    “Something like that.”
    She rolled over onto her belly, letting him admire her perfect back. “Hmm. Well, of course, that was always Sesh’s attitude,
     too, masen? Except I don’t think she cared much. She could always buy all the sex and most of the friends she wanted.”
    “Kind of a cold thing to say about a friend.”
    “Just realistic. You didn’t notice a lot of things about her. Not being male, I wasn’t hypnotized by the high firm tits, or
     the long legs. Or that cute little sweet smile, which I’d watched her practice in the mirror when we were both fourteen. She’s
     cold inside. All her life people have been fun to hang and dine and fuck with, but toktru disposable. Now, maybe she’s sentimental,
     the way people are about pets. Maybe she was trying on the feelings of friendship and loyalty just to see if she liked them,
     the way she used to try on feeling in love or being proud or being horny. Maybe I’m completely crazy and just projecting everything
     backward.
    “But still … this whole deal smells weird, Jak. Toktru. Sesh wants her old gen school toves for a secret mission? She could
     hire two or three top-end private ops or mercs for a year out of her monthly shoe budget. And besides, if she’s not as ‘aristocratic’
     as she always seemed and she actually
can
form real, close, personal friendships, then wouldn’t she have one or two by now, maybe among her ladies, maybe in her guards,
     that would be better on the job than we would? Since they would know their way around the Aerie, and around Greenworld?
    “So I don’t know about all this, Jak. Of course it would look fine to Dujuv—she’s a friend to him because once a friend, always
     a friend. And it would look good to your uncle and to the Dean, because as far as they’re concerned, it doesn’t really matter
     what Sesh actually wants, it’s a chance for someone from the Hive to do some big favors for the Karrinynya heir. But I’d rather
     know what the other players are playing for,
before
they deal me in to the game.”
    “But you’re going.”
    “Weehu, yeah, I’m
bored,
Jak.”
    “Me too, Myx.” Jak turned toward her and found himself lost in the green and blue star patterns of her eyes. “Toktru, sometimes
     I think I’m just bored stiff being here, bored stiff with being an ornament in Fnina’s social life, bored stiff with all the
     things in my life that weren’t those few weeks of adventure a few years back. Just plain bored stiff.”
    Myxenna smiled and turned on her side; Jak stroked under the curve of her full breast. “Mmm. Well, I do know something that
     will get you stiff, besides being bored. Do you want to think or have more sex?”
    “How about one then the other?”
    The second time was slower, gentler, with more laughter. When they were both sated and happy, lying in each other’s arms,
     Myxenna traced a finger down Jak’s sternum and said, “So it’s in your liver.”
    “Unh-huh. Uncle Sib wrote that down on the agenda for that mission, back then. Deliver the sliver in the liver to River. Not
     that anyone actually calls Riveroma ‘River.’ He’s not the kind of heet who gets nicknames—I speck that Sibroillo just figured
     that if word of it ever got to him it would precess him. Imagine two petty ten-year-olds who hate each other—that’s Sibroillo
     Jinnaka and Bex Riveroma.”
    Myxenna sighed. “So the sliver is still in there?”
    “ ’Fraid so. I’m safer with it than without it. No one would ever believe I’d had that little sliver of silicon removed, and
     if I’m ever captured by Riveroma, or by