The Abulon Dance by Caro Soles Read Free Book Online Page B

will have the gift, like my grandfather. In ten years, I guess I’ll know.”
    “Ten years?”
    “I’ll be married then, living in my husband’s home, practicing his ceremonials and watching my children grow. What about you. Will you be married in ten years?”
    He laughed, spilling wine on his bare chest. “We usually don’t get married till we’re around forty in your years and I don’t think I want any children. I certainly don’t want to have one myself. I think it’s messy and inconvenient and you lose your figure. Besides, you have to take time off from dancing.”
    She looked at him, perplexed. “I don’t understand. Do you mean you can have babies?”
    “Of course,” said Cham, casually. “Triani has a child, you know. Actually, he paid this other dancer to have it with him about three years ago, but he doesn’t like to talk about that part. I shouldn’t really be telling you, I suppose. Anyway, I don’t have time for all that. I’m going to be famous some day, touring everywhere. I just hope I have the time to do this sort of thing and know someone like you to do it with.” His eyes looked into hers for a moment, then slid away. “No matter how you meant the invitation, I want you to know I appreciate it. So I made you a present. I like to make jewelry.” He reached for his bag and dug out a pendant on a crystal chain. It was a silver disk with a design worked into it in tiny colored stones.
    “It’s lovely! Put it on for me?” She held up her heavy hair with both hands and bent her head.
    Cham fastened the chain around her neck, taking his time as he breathed in the sweet, spicy girl scent of her warm body. He was surprised at the effect she was having on his senses. She was so different from Triani, from any Merculian, for that matter. He gazed in fascination at her right ear with the three green rings fitted into it and ran a small finger over the edge and around the earlobe.
    “I’d love to have external ears like you,” he said wistfully. “Then I could wear earrings, too.”
    She twisted her head around to look at him. “You don’t have ears?”
    “Oh, yes. But they don’t stick out.” He pushed back his hair to show her the thin membrane covering the sensitive inner ear. He could feel the heat from her body as she leaned close to look.
    “Do you want to go for a walk? I think I hear water somewhere.” She jumped to her feet and they wandered together through the tall grass onto the stony ground higher up the slope. The sound of water was louder here, tumbling over boulders, rushing headlong between narrow, rocky walls. Hand in hand, they ran to the edge of the river.
    It was Quana who saw it first. “Look! Somebody’s watchdog!” she exclaimed. “Poor thing. It must have gotten lost in the storm yesterday and drowned.”
    The animal seemed to hang suspended just under the sparkling surface of the water, its long, thin tail streaming out behind it, waving lazily with the current. Somehow its huge paws had become cruelly wedged between the stones at the bottom. Its large head hung down in defeat, the tip of its narrow, black tongue showing between its teeth.
    Cham let go of Quana’s hand and bent down to examine the creature more closely. The leathery coat was slippery and cold to the touch. Two glassy eyes stared sightlessly at the bottom of the stream. But the third eye blazed like a jewel an inch from the forehead, bobbing about with every movement of the water. It was held there by one thin, silver wire.
    Cham knelt and touched the glowing orb and its tiny wires. It came away in his hand. “It’s some sort of video transmitter,” he whispered, dazed.
    “How do you know?”
    “It’s obvious. We used to make them in school.” He took a deep breath. “These dogs are nothing but walking video spies!”
    “I don’t understand.” Quana was staring from the eye to Cham’s face and back again. It was obvious that she knew nothing about it.
    Cham felt cold horror