Crystal Dragon by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee Read Free Book Online Page A

prompted.

    Hesitation, then a sensation very like a sigh.

    My study of the ley lines discovers no possibility in which I am not captured and enslaved. Many are worse—that I remain in servitude to those whom you call Iloheen, forced to continue annihilating star systems and living creatures—that I find most often. This here and now—where I am bound and diminished—this is kindest, and most full with possibility.

    Possibility ? She queried, but he did not answer.

    Did you feel your Iloheen's pleasure? he asked instead. That you found the dominion of so small and dull a tumzaliat exhausting? It thought you a weak thing; poor in will. And it was pleased.

    Shivering, she recalled the Iloheen's laughter, and drew a breath deep into her body's lungs.

    We are all poor and flawed creatures, in the perception of the Iloheen , she said, which was among the first things she had been taught.

    The fierce eyes closed, and Rool Tiazan bowed his bright head.

    How long , she asked, when he said nothing more. Will you be able to disguise your true essence? It will be noticed if you alter from what has been probed.

    He raised his head, and looked into her eyes.

    It is a simple deception and uses very little energy. He extended a hand, and softly touched her face.

    You are my ...dominant.

    She lifted her chin. That is correct. You may not act, save through me.

    And yet I have acted from my own will and desire , he said, and she had to admit that this was so.

    I offer , said Rool Tiazan, partnership. We learn each from the other and work together toward common goals.

    In fact, she thought privately, he offered submission. If it eased his pride to name it differently, it changed nothing to allow it.

    Standing well within her walls, he heard her thought as it formed, and waited, a cool and silent green presence.

    Partnership , she sent, and extended her hand to touch his cheek in reflection of his gesture. Agreed .

One
Light Wing
Transitioning to the Ringstars

    TOR AN YOS'GALAN SIGHED softly, rubbed his eyes and released the shock-webbing. The main screen displayed a profusion of green, violet and yellow flowers tangled across an artful tumble of natural rock. Arcing above the rocks and flowers was a piata tree, slender silver trunk bent beneath its burden of fruit. Had he been at home, and the back window of his room ajar, he would have heard the midday breeze in the ceramic bell he'd hung in the piata's branches when he'd been a boy, and smelled the flowers' pungent perfume.

    The odors here, on the bridge of the ancient single-ship the clan had assigned to his use, were of plate metal, oil, and disinfectant. Ship smells, as comforting in their way as the constant whisper of air through the vents.

    Tor An sighed again, and looked to his secondary screen, where the time to transition end counted down slowly, and pushed out of the pilot's chair.

    Soon. Soon, he would be home.

    He had hoped to arrive during the census—the grand gathering of ship and folk that took place every twelve years, by Alkia clan law. Alas, his piloting instructor, aside from being a demon on rote, had disallowed his request to double his shifts so that he might depart a Common month early with his big-ship license. Worse, she had then seen fit to short-shift him, so it was only by taking on extra work with the astrogator that he was able to amass the minimum number of flight-points required to attain the coveted license.

    All that being so, he'd sent his proxy and his apologies to his sister Fraea, coincidentally the Voice of Alkia. He'd half-expected a return message, but was scarcely surprised when none came. The census was a time of frenetic busyness for those in Administration—and besides, he had received a message from her shortly before he had sent off his regrets, and that missive had contained more than enough information with which he might beguile his few unclaimed hours.

    Clan Alkia, so Fraea had written, had recently entered into