Part 14 (1/2)
After a moment, she walked forward, angling toward the wall, then heard the ball strike just beyond her shoulder.
”Lina! Are you courting suicide? You could have been hit!”
”No,” she told him calmly, changing her course. ”You are far too quick for that, my friend.”
”Accidents happen.” Shan walked to meet her, paddle in one hand, ball in the other. His hair stuck in wet points to his forehead, lending him a slightly satanic air; he was breathing hard, and the wine-colored s.h.i.+rt showed darker patches. Lina set aside a spurt of fond sympathy; she stopped at precisely the proper distance and looked sternly up at him.”You are meddling!” She spoke in the High Tongue, as senior to junior.
”I always meddle,” he returned in mild Terran. ”You know that.”
”You will cease to do so in this instance. Immediately.” Her words were still in the High Tongue, commanding, as was proper.
”Dear me,” Shan murmured, looking down with a fine show of bewildered stupidity. ”Do you mind if we sit down?”
She laughed and turned with him toward the side benches. ”You are impossible!” she told him in Terran.
”You deserve to be scolded!”
”Often,” he agreed cordially, flipping paddle and ball into the wall slot and dropping into the first chair he came to. He thrust his long legs out before him. ”Scold me.”
She frowned. He was in a chancy mood. She began tentatively. ”Shan, it is serious. Please. You could do harm.” She extended a mental tendril.
She was met with opposition, the familiar Healer's barrier. He rarely took such complete refuge; never in all their years of friends.h.i.+p had he done so with her. Not at the time his mother had died so tragically, nor when Er Thorn yos'Galan had turned his face from kin and from duty to follow her.
Lina withdrew the tendril and considered him quietly. ”It is a bad thing,” she offered, ”for Healers to argue over a proper approach. Most especially when Healing has begun.”
”I agree,” Shan said.
”That is good. Now, I will tell you that I am puzzled. We spoke, did we not? And it was agreed that I should proceed, though Priscilla was drawn as much to you as to me. You insisted, old friend, saying you were captain, not Healer.”
”True. I do not act as Healer in the matter.”
Lina stifled a sigh. This was Shan at his least tractable, showing the streak of stubborn reticence that characterized Korval at the fore. In a way it was a blessing-if she could not read him through the protective barrier, neither could he read her. The Wall, like so much of healing, was reciprocal.
She considered that last thought. One did tend to become entangled with those one Healed. Priscilla...
He may have feared reciprocity, having felt the strength of her-even half-crazed with pain. And if he had been drawn enough to fear the Healing process...
”What is it that you want, old friend?” she asked.
He stirred. ”I want to be her friend.”
So. ”And her lover!” She put a lash to that. If he did not yet know...
”I am not,” Shan said carefully, ”made of stone. You will have noticed this.”
”Better you should have taken her to Heal yourself, then! The bond was there, from the beginning!
Healing across s.e.x is more rapid-you know that! Why-”
”And have her think herself hired to be the captain's s.l.u.t? Thank you, no.” There was Korval ice in that.Lina blinked and gave a flickering thought to her own protections. ”Why should she have thought so, old friend?”
Shan sighed. ”She came to me-as captain-for protection. One Liaden had already robbed her of status as a person. It would not have seemed at all wonderful to her if another continued-” He s.h.i.+fted irritably. ”Priscilla's Terran, Lina. She wasn't raised to melant'i. I am the captain to Priscilla. She believes it. It would have been nothing short of rape, a violation of trust so basic...” He took a breath and ran his fingers through his hair, standing it up in sticky spikes. ”I was in error, old friend. I act as Healer in the matter, in that I refused to act as one.”
”I am Liaden,” Lina said softly. ”I am her superior.”
”You are also friends. And I believe that the amount of influence a senior librarian exercises over a junior is somewhat less than what a captain may exercise over a crew member.”
There was a silence that grew lengthy. Then Shan leaned forward abruptly and took her hands between his.
”I want her to be well. Joyful and complete. That most. I want her friends.h.i.+p, but I don't-won't-force it. A pair of earrings? Call it rest.i.tution for another wrong done her by Trader Olanek, if you like, Lina. If it will make all easier-”
”You have already said they are your gift to her,” she reminded him. ”But I do not think harm was done.”
She smiled warmly. ”It is a good thing to have friends.”
”I think so, too.” He leaned back. ”I leave the Healing in your hands. My word on it.”
”So, then,” she said, satisfied. She brought a finger to the side of her head. ”I had almost forgotten the other. She did not mean it, Shan, when she welcomed you in esteem. I have explained, and it will not happen again. You must not be angry with her.”
”Angry with her?” He laughed. ”I'm delighted with her! She would have done no better if I'd coached her beforehand. What a devastating setdown for poor Sav Rid! The look on his face! I could have kissed her.”
”You must not encourage her to behave improperly,” she scolded him. ”You talk of being her friend! It is important that she learn to behave with propriety. Especially if you will present her to Lady Kareen!”
”Yes, Lina,” he said with wholly unconvincing meekness.
She shook her head. ”No, that will not do. I know you. Priscilla and I will work on her accent, and she will use sleep tapes. Lady Kareen will find her above reproach.”
”A matter of your own pride, in fact?”
She laughed and stood. ”Completely impossible. Good night, old friend.” She touched his cheek, very gently, noting that the Wall was yet in place. ”Sleep well.”s.h.i.+PYEAR 65 TRIPDAY 144.
FIRST s.h.i.+FT.
1.30 HOURS.
He did not sleep well. Nor did his interview with Gordy do anything to mend his badly frayed temper.
He had begun by snarling at the boy, and his mood was not improved by the realization that he sounded rather like his father in that tone.
Irritably, he crossed to the bar and poured himself a gla.s.s of morning wine. There were a few things to attend to here before going worldside to begin a local week of trading. He dropped into his chair and spun the screen around.
Buzzzz!
Shan looked up, not quite placing the sound.
Buzzzz!
Brutally, he rearranged the mob of doc.u.ments on top of the desk and eventually uncovered a s.h.i.+ny blue pad set with two unmarked keys. He depressed one at random. ”Yes?”
Buzzzz!