Part 45 (2/2)

He had turned pin'Weltir down, and when thehis cloak and calling for a cab He re the cab, and the driver asking for his direction He re, ”Home,” an idiotic reply eedly patient, as if she dealt with drunken lordlings every night-which, he thought now, in the discoht very well

After that, he reive her the direction of his mother's house-and if his mother had been late at her studies and had observed his return He wondered if people died of hangovers, and, if so, how he h his head and he twisted in the bed, gagging, eyes snapping open to behold-Not the formal bedchamber he occupied in hischahts

Despite the headache, Pat Rin smiled Drunk into idiocy he may have been, but his heart had known the direction of ho taken an analgesic against the headache, he glanced at last night's bedraggled finery, flung helter-skelter on the si He bit his lip, ashaathered it all up and took it into the 'fresher, where he bundled the lot into the valet to be cleaned and pressed

Returning to his bedroom, he paused at the old wooden wardrobe, coaxed open the sticky door and was very shortly thereafter dressed in a pair of sturdy work pants and a soft, shapeless shi+rt

Closing the wardrobe, he considered hi ht, chin pointed, ht he looked a laborer, or a dock worker, or a pilot at leave-then he glanced down at his long, well-kept hands and sighed

Looking back to the mirror, he frowned at the mass of wet hair snarled across his shoulders The torentia was all the kick this season, and Pat Rin yos'Phelium Clan Korval, apprentice at play, naturally wore his hair so, spending asthe thick, unruly stuff into the long, artful chaos fashi+on demanded

But not today Today, he turned 'round, snatched a coh the tangledthe comb aside, he raised both hands, pulled his hair sharply back, holding the tail in one hand while he ru up a si, which he snapped into place

The lad in the mirror presented a more austere face, noithout the fall of hair to soften it Indeed, he eneral policy in the circles in which he lately moved that Pat Rin yos'Pheliu, too Al upon endless repetitions of tests taken and proved- No

He would not think of Cousin Er Thom-of Korval-pernard'i And he assuredly would not think of testsIn fact, he would go downstairs to tell Luken that he was to house

”Goodup with a s lay on the tabletop aal breakfast, the tree-and-dragon-Korval's seal-stae

Despite everything, Pat Rin s, father,” he replied, soft in the h, well enough!” His foster father waved a ringless hand toward the sideboard ”There's tea, child, and the usual Have what you will and then sit and tell ht bitterly He turned to the sideboard, taking a deep breath Luken, alone of all his relatives could be trusted to honestly care for Pat Rin's news, and to take no joy in his failures

He poured hiht coax his sto his usual seat across from Luken, there in the ed alcove

Outside, the sky shone brilliant, the sun fully risen Odd to find Luken so late over breakfast, dawn-rising creature that he was

”Are you quite well?” Pat Rin asked, around a prick of panic ”I had looked to find you in the warehouse”

Luken chuckled ”Had you arisen an hour earlier, you would have found me precisely in the warehouse,”

he said ”What you see here is a second cup of tea, to aidout just what it is that Er Thom means me to do with these” He picked up the ain to the table

In addition to his melant'i as Korval-in-trust, Er Thooods, therefore, had a way of co been his habit to send theand exotic textiles to Luken's attention

Pat Rin assayed a tiny sip of tea, eyeing thethe h two, to Pat Rin's knowledge, were on display in museums, and one covered the white stone floor of the Terounds

”Not these, I think,” Luken said picking up his tea glass ”It see itself of the Southern House and the place is being e the back attics, which I daresay is where these were found”

Korval was selling the Southern House? Not a heartbeat too soon, in Pat Rin's opinion He had been to the place once, and had found it dismal Nor was he alone in his assessment While most of Korval's houses enjoyed more-or-less steady tenancy, the Southern House most often sat empty, undisturbed by even the housekeeper, who had his own quarters in another building on the property

”Perhaps Cousin Er Tho another cautious sip of tea

Though rugs Luken dismissed as back attic fare hardly see and preservation

”He doesn't write Only that the house is being cleared, and that these ht interest me” Luken sipped his tea, and h of that Your news, boy-dear-all of it! I haven'tseen you this age Catch e, the two of theh there was, after all, the nehich was no news at all

Pat Rin looked down into his glass, then forced hiray eyes

”Korval-pernard'i bade hten and fought an impulse to look away from Luken's face ”I failed, of course”

”Of course,” his foster father rave interest

”I don't knohy,” Pat Rin sand, after a moment, ”I can't be left in peace How many times must I fail before they will understand that I alance down, his eye snagging on the il of the clan in which he was second of two freaks, his ain, I will not,” he stated, and raised his glass decisively

”Well,” Luken said after a moment ”Certainly it must be tedious to be asked to take the same test repeatedly, especially when it is so distressful for you, boy-dear But to speak of turning your face aside fro the clan's pilots falls squarely within his duty-and deterht be a pilot, as well He doesn't send you to the testing cha ently said, but Pat Rin felt the rebuke keenly Yet Luken, as nearly all the rest of his kin, was a pilot Granted, a mere third-class, and there had lately been a tiiven all of his e a license ad that Pat Rin yos'Phelium was a pilot, third class

He told himself he didn't care; that five failures would teach him the lesson Cousin Er Thom refused to learn

He told himself that

”Child?” murmured Luken

Pat Rin looked up and smiled, as best as he was able around the headache

”I hope I didn't disturb your rest when I caht,” he said softly

Luken moved his shoulders ”In fact, I had been late in the showroo up myself when you were dispatched from your cab”

Blast He didn't remember that Not at all

”I'ht,” he said, around a jolt of self-revulsion

”A trifle,” Luken allowed ”I guided you to your room, we said our sleepwells and I retired”

None of it Pat Rin bit his lip

”I ht,” he said ”Not only did I fall into h to play cards-and lost ht expect””Ah” Luken finished off his tea and put the glass aside ”You also toldthe stairway, that you had come away early because a certain-pin'Weltir, I believe?-had becoainst him, then and there, which is not, perhaps, entirely idiot”