Dreamsnake by Vonda D. McIntyre Read Free Book Online

spread through the tent. Jesse smelled it and
turned scarlet with shame. “I can’t live like this!” she cried.
    “It’s all right, never mind,” Merideth said, and went to get a cloth.
    While Merideth and Snake cleaned her, Jesse looked away and would not speak.
    Alex returned warily. “The mare’s all right.” But his mind was not on the
mare. He looked at Jesse, who still lay with her head turned toward the wall,
one arm flung across her eyes.
    “Jesse knows how to pick a good horse,” Merideth said, attempting
cheerfulness. The tension was brittle as glass. Both partners stared at Jesse,
but she did not move.
    “Let her sleep,” Snake said, not knowing whether Jesse was asleep or not.
“She’ll be hungry when she wakes up. I hope you have something she can eat.”
    Their frozen attention broke in relieved if slightly frantic activity.
Merideth rummaged in sacks and pouches and brought out dried meat, dried fruit,
a leather flask. “This is wine—can she have that?”
    “She hasn’t got a serious concussion,” Snake said. “The wine should be all
right.” It might even help, she thought, unless alcohol makes her morose. “But
that jerky—”
    “I’ll make broth,” Alex said. He pulled a metal pot from a jumble of
equipment, drew his knife from his belt, and began to cut a chunk of jerky into
bits. Merideth poured wine over shriveled sections of fruit. The sharp sweet
fragrance rose and Snake realized she was both thirsty and ravenous. The desert
people seemed to skip meals without noticing, but Snake had reached the oasis
two days ago—or was it three?—and she had not eaten much while sleeping off the
venom reaction. It was not good manners to ask for food or water in this region,
because it was worse manners not to offer. Manners hardly seemed important right
now. She was shaky with hunger.
    “Gods, I’m hungry,” Merideth said in astonishment, as if reading Snake’s
feelings. “Aren’t you?”
    “Well, yes,” Alex said reluctantly.
    “And as hosts—” Apologetically, Merideth handed Snake the flask and found
more bowls, more fruit. Snake drank cool-hot spicy wine, the first gulp too
deep. She coughed; it was powerful stuff. She drank again and handed the flask
back. Merideth drank; Alex took the leather bottle and poured a generous portion
into the cooking pot. Only then did he sip the wine himself, quickly, before
taking the broth outside to the tiny paraffin stove. The desert heat was so
oppressive that they could not even feel the heat of the flame. It flickered
like a transparent mirage against the black sand, and Snake felt fresh
perspiration sliding down her temples and between her breasts. She wiped her
sleeve across her forehead.
    They breakfasted on jerky and fruit, and the wine, which struck quickly and
hard. Alex began to yawn almost immediately, but every time he nodded, he
staggered to his feet and went outside to stir Jesse’s broth.
    “Alex, go to sleep,” Merideth finally said.
    “No, I’m not tired.” He stirred, tasted, took the pot off the fire, set it
inside to cool.
    “Alex—” Merideth took his hand and drew him to the patterned rug. “If she
calls us, we’ll hear her. If she moves, we’ll go to her. We can’t help her if
we’re falling over our own feet from weariness.”
    “But I … I … ” Alex shook
his head, but fatigue and the wine stayed with him. “What about you?”
    “Your night was harder than my ride. I need to relax a few more minutes, but
then I’ll come to bed.”
    Reluctantly, gratefully, Alex lay down nearby. Merideth stroked his hair
until, in a few moments, Alex began to snore. Merideth glanced at Snake and
smiled. “When he first came with us, Jesse and I wondered how we could ever
sleep with such a noise. Now we can hardly sleep without it.”
    Alex’s snore was loud and low, and every so often he caught his breath and
snuffled. Snake smiled. “You can get used to nearly