Serpent's Gift by A. C. Crispin, Deborah A. Marshall Read Free Book Online Page B

you know the instant I hear from Rizzshor. In the meantime, good fortune in your digging."
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    "Many thanks, Esteemed One," the Heeyoon replied.
    Ssoriszs terminated the connection, then thoughtfully made his way out of his quarters, down the hall of the instructors' wing, then into the lift. Reaching the surface level, he slithered along the corridors until he came to the Observation Dome. Coiling himself in the middle of it, he stared thoughtfully up at the profusion of stars--stars of all colors and degrees of brightness--
    wondering, for the thousandth time, whether the archaeological dig out at the Lamont Cliffs might solve the ancient mystery of the fate of the Lost Colony.
    Silently, Ssoriszs invoked the Spirits of the Stars and the Sands, praying that it would.
    Securely strapped into the copilot's seat aboard the King, Heather Farley watched Serge at the control panel, admiring the quick, deft fingers on the controls as he eased the shuttle out of the docking cradle. Suddenly her eyes narrowed. Something about the shape and texture of the young man's hands was .. . wrong. Heather frowned. The fingers--long and perfectly tapered. Too perfect. The skin texture--even-grained, without blemish. Again, too perfect. The nails, smooth and unsnagged-- perfect.
    The King, now free of the cradle, swung around in space, propelled by tiny taps on its steering jets, then Serge reached over to boost the shuttle's thrust as they eased away from StarBridge Station. As he did so, his sleeve pulled back a little, and Heather could clearly make out the spot above his wrist where the too- perfect covering ended and human skin began. The hairs above that spot were coarser, slightly darker, and crushed where the sleeve had rested.
    But the hairs below .. . fine, golden, and perfect. . Suddenly Serge's hands froze on the controls, and Heather looked up to find his eyes fixed on her face. She'd been caught staring--there was no point in denying it. "Serge,"
    she said quietly, "what--what happened to your hands?" < ¦ "I had an accident when I was a little older than you," he replied tersely. "I was working on my parents' aircar--the timing was a bit off--and I made a mistake.
    A big mistake." "Oh, shit, I'm sorry," she whispered. Usually, she couldn't have cared less about other people's tragedies, but Serge had been so nice-- and he was so handsome. It hurt her to think of how it must have been, but she could see it wouldn't be a good idea to ask. Instead, Heather reached--
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    --and encountered his pain, as raw and fresh as the day it had happened, the pain that lay buried in his mind, far below the conscious level. For a moment she was there, on that fateful day, she was Serge, hearing the hissing sputter, then seeing the sudden white-hot flare from the engine. A heartbeat later she/he was staring with disbelieving horror at two charred, oozing horrors that had replaced her/his hands. Pain seared along the deepest fibers of her/his mind, pain that was every bit as white-hot and blazing as the original blast.
    Pain .. .
    As the echo of that agony resonated in Serge's mind, Heather quickly withdrew, not wanting to share any more of that particular memory. Despite her inward wince, she was experienced at keeping knowledge gained by telepathic snooping off her face.
    But Serge was staring at her, startled. Did he feel that? she wondered, but no. Touching the surface of his mind lightly, she was reassured--and amused--to find that it was her language that had startled him. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been staring," she amended.
    "That's okay." Serge shrugged. "I should have warned you."
    I know why you didn't, Heather thought. You can't stand to talk about it, any more than you can stand to think about it...
    As she cast about for a way to change the subject, the viewscreen suddenly lighted up. A heartbeat later a ship burst out of metaspace in a rainbow blossom of colors. Heather gasped in astonished delight. "That's beautiful!"
    "When I