Liaden Universe [19] - Alliance of Equals - eARC by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee Read Free Book Online Page B

if it were reawakening, then it had likely fallen asleep due to lack of needed repairs…
    The Uncle was well placed to repair such a thing…
    Tolly laughed, and shook his head, looking up at the pilot with an apologetic grin.
    “I haven’t heard any such rumor, myself, but I’ve been out of the loops, this last while.” He felt his grin widen.
    “Sure would be interesting, if true,” he said, and saw an answering grin in the shadows of the pilot’s face.
    “It would be,” she said. “Wouldn’t it?”
    —•—
    A chime sounded.
    Shan raised his head, blinking out of an abstraction of First Thoughts. It occurred to him, somewhat distantly, that this was not the first time the chime had sounded.
    Or the third.
    A quick series of taps saved his document, and cleared the screen. He spun his chair about, and reached for his glass—which was empty.
    “Come!”
    The door opened and Lina Faaldom stepped through, tiny and definite, brown hair just slightly disheveled, as if she had only now come back inside from a turn in the garden.
    He considered her; most especially, he considered the flavor of her emotions: determination wedded to a certain wariness. Determination—certainly, he knew Lina to be a determined woman, a Healer of rare skill; devoted to helping those who were perhaps less determined to achieve and maintain Balance.
    Wariness, though…that was not at all like Lina. Oh, she was hardly a fool, and certainly he had seen her frightened a time or two in their long friendship. Caution, he might expect, but wariness…?
    “I have disturbed your work,” she said, pausing a mere three paces into the room. “Forgive me, old friend. Tell me when I will be convenient, and I will return at that hour.”
    “In fact, your arrival is a happy circumstance, and not only because I’m always pleased to see you,” he said. “I fear that I may have been overthinking something. It will do me good to step away from it and entertain another problem for a time.”
    He tipped his head and gave her a half-smile.
    “You do have a problem for me, don’t you, Lina?”
    He expected a laugh; she produced a slightly harried smile.
    “I fear so,” she said, drifting forward again, and slipping into the chair.
    No, this was not much like Lina. Shan considered her again as she settled herself: determination, wariness, puzzlement.
    Well.
    “Would you care for wine?” he asked. “I am about to pour for myself, as my stupid glass has come empty. I can’t think how it might have happened.”
    That earned a slightly less harried smile, and a small inclination of the head.
    “Wine would be pleasant, thank you.”
    Lina drank red. He rose and filled two glasses, placing hers on the desk near her hand before he once again took his own chair.
    He raised his glass. She raised hers. They drank.
    The wine was pleasant, though spiced with increased dismay. He thought he understood that she was unsure of the best way to broach her topic.
    “Best to leap in with both feet,” he murmured.
    Lina moved her shoulders, neither a shrug nor a shiver. “It seems I must, since I have no facts to lay before you, merely feeling.”
    “We are Healers; emotion is the primary tool of our trade.”
    Lina sighed, and sipped her wine again. Shan allowed a breath of calm to waft between them, which took only the tiniest of liberties with their long friendship. Unless Lina chose to see it differently, of course.
    She smiled slightly.
    “Thank you,” she murmured.
    She put her glass aside with a tiny click, and raised her eyes to his.
    “As we had arranged, Padi came to class and danced daibri’at today. I will say immediately that I have had students who were more eager to embrace the art.”
    “Was she disrespectful?”
    Lina shook her head.
    “Disrepectful—no. Perhaps a little disdainful, at first—but that is not unusual for one coming to the Small Dance after having partaken of menfri’at . I had the impression, when she entered the room,