B00CH3ARG0 EBOK (20 page)

“Ah, forgive me.” He caught Laura’s eye again. “Hello, my
name is Kazryth,” he said in passable English. “I am heir to Parania.”

Laura broke into a delighted grin. “You speak my language!”

“A little,” he said, returning the grin.

“I’m Laura Howard. Just call me Laura.” She started to
extend a hand across the table, but stopped herself.

“I am very glad to meet you, Laura,” Kazryth said, and
surprised Marianne – and Laura too – by extending his own hand across the table
to grasp Laura’s.

Marianne thought she saw something flash in the Paranian’s
eyes, but he was holding his barriers so tight, she couldn’t be sure what it
was. Laura gave his hand a firm shake, radiating pleasure, her face wreathed in
a huge smile.

“You’re the first Tolari I’ve met who will shake my hand,”
she said.

He gazed at Laura for a moment, a distracted look in his
eyes, before he seemed to shake himself, smiling. “I have been studying human
manners. You are an interesting people.”

“At times,” the Sural said. “They are still undisciplined.”

Kazryth mouthed the unfamiliar word. “I do not know this
word.”

Marianne gave it in Paranian. He nodded his gratitude, and then
did a double take.

“You speak my language!” he said, in the same tone of voice
Laura had used.

She grinned. “‘A little,’” she quoted, her mouth twitching
itself into a grin as she tried – and failed – to keep a straight face.

“We must speak later,” he said in Paranian, chuckling.
Switching back to English, he addressed Laura again. “Do you stay here long?”

Laura shook her head. “I’m staying here indefinitely,” she answered.
“I can’t go home. If things change... maybe someday, but for now, it’s too dangerous
for me to leave.”

“I am very sorry,” Kazryth said, his eyes softening in
sympathy. “Do you have family in the human worlds?”

“Five children, nine grandchildren.”

“Five heirs?” He blinked several times, his eyebrows
climbing.

“I know,” she said, “it seems like a lot to you. It’s a
large family for us, too. People used to have even larger families, hundreds of
years ago, but two or three is the usual now. Five or six is the most I have
ever seen.”

Kazryth had his brows drawn together as he tried to follow
her words. “Five or six heirs – for two parents?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“But your lives are so short!”

Laura opened her mouth, closed it, and said, “I don’t know
what you mean.”

Marianne butted in. “Humans have their children all at once,
dear one,” she told Kazryth. “They have a child, then a few Earth years later,
another child, then a few years later, another.”

“Many young children at one time?” he asked.

“Yes,” said Laura. “That’s the usual way.”

He shook his head slightly, a small, incredulous smile on
his lips and, Marianne thought, a gleam of growing respect in his eyes. “And
you had five children in this manner?”

“Yes, exactly. Mine were all about two years apart. Earth
years.”

“I found having my one daughter was a challenge,” he said. “Vondra
was very—” He stopped. “I do not know the word.” He looked over at Marianne. “
Headstrong
,”
he said in Paranian. Marianne translated.

Laura laughed. “Yes, I had a couple of those.”

“More than one – headstrong – child at one time?”

“Oh, yes. Patrick was very difficult, and Elizabeth was next
to impossible.”

His smile grew wide. “I am impressed.”

Laura blushed and looked down. Kazryth’s eyes lit with
delight.

The Sural’s eyes were glittering, and to Marianne’s mind, a
little dangerous. “How did you come to name your daughter Vondra?” he asked, affecting
casual disinterest.

He’s not disinterested
, she thought, wondering what
it was about his daughter’s name that had caught her beloved’s attention.
He’s
very
interested.

Kazryth cocked an eyebrow, radiating mild surprise at the
question. “I was ... uncertain how to name her,” he answered. “Mother suggested
it.”

“Ah. How is your mother?”

The Paranian’s face clouded. “Not well.”

“I had not heard this.”

He glanced at Laura, then back at the Sural, and switched to
Suralian. “She allows herself to age,” he explained. “She is now quite old. In
truth, it surprised me when she ordered me here. She seldom allows me to leave
Parania. When she gave me orders to come here and messages to relay, I think
she did not realize who I was.”

Marianne exchanged a significant look with the Sural. Senility,
she thought, would explain much. She sensed the Sural relax as he seemed to come
to the same conclusion.

“I understood a little of that,” Laura said. “Your mother is
very old? And you seldom leave Parania?”

“Yes,” he said with a smile, but he shifted uncomfortably
and changed the subject. “Laura, will you like to see the art we brought with
us?”

“Oh, yes, very much!”

He rose and rounded the table to help her out of her chair. Laura
flushed with pleasure and gave him a delighted smile. Marianne grinned as she
watched the pair head into the corridor.

The Sural shook his head. “I did not expect her to draw the
attention of a provincial heir,” he said.

Marianne turned back to him. “I caught the interest. You
think he’s attracted?”

“Very much so.”

“Well, well, well,” she said. Then she frowned. “Oh my. What
if they become entwined? He can’t stay.”

He shook his head. “Living in my stronghold for the
remainder of her days is perhaps not the best outcome for Laura.”

She huffed. Then she caught his eye. “About the Parania, were
you thinking what I was thinking?”

“That her mind wanders with age? Yes. It would explain
much.”

“Maybe she kept him out of your sight in consideration for
your loss.”

He nodded, staring out the refectory door with a thoughtful
expression. “I prefer that theory,” he murmured.

* * *

Kazryth offered Laura his arm before they ascended the
stairs leading to the top floor. She took it, not even trying to suppress the
smile that came to her lips when he covered her hand with his own. Warmth
pooled in her belly. She took a deep breath and pushed the feelings away.
You
only just met him, you silly goose,
she thought.

But he’ll be gone in a few days.

“I disagree with the Sural,” he said. “Human manners are
delightful.”

Laura pressed her lips together. “I miss my culture,” she
admitted. “It’s so nice of the Sural to call this conference for me.”

“He did this for you?” His eyes were wide.

“That’s what he said. Where I come from, we have big affairs
in ballrooms of reinforced glass, floating over events like special art
exhibits and concerts and theater openings. This conference is probably as
close to that as you can get on Tolar.” She paused, wondering how much of that
he could have understood, and added, “He wanted to entertain me.”

“Very kind of him,” he said with a warm smile, as he guided her
to the first room of Paranian exhibits.

The room was full of paintings, the sight of which drew a
burst of enthusiasm from her. “They’re so vibrant!” she exclaimed. “The
Suralian art is exquisite, but this – this is
bold
.” She stopped in
front of a painting of sea creatures breaching during a storm. “Dramatic! Look
at the colors!”

When she glanced up at him, a pleased smile lit his face.
“The oldest works begin here,” he said, as he led her toward them. He began, in
sometimes halting English, to outline several hundreds of years of art history
in his province, as artisans and laborers arranged and rearranged the displays.

Laura soaked it in, dragging him from one exhibit to
another. When he’d told her as much as he knew, she pulled him over to the
Sural’s collections to show him the spectacular sculpture by Tarric.

Kazryth stared at it, unconsciously stroking her hand with
his thumb. She couldn’t stop herself from shifting her weight to be a little closer
to him. He glanced down at her with a warm look, and her breath caught in her
throat. Was he attracted to her? The answering tremors in her stomach took her
by surprise. If he wanted her as much as she was beginning to want him...

You’re too old for this
, she told herself sternly.

The part of her that was interested in Kazryth denied that.
Sixty wasn’t old. And it wasn’t like she looked her age, even then; she’d had
the best care Central Command could offer. She didn’t look a day past her early
fifties, and she could still fit into the wedding dress she wore at nineteen. He
appeared to be about her own age of sixty, but if he was grey, and men four
times her age still had black hair...

She gave him a sideways glance. It couldn’t hurt to flirt a
little. After all, this Tolari prince was acting very much the gentleman, and
the schoolgirl quivers she was having were a welcome change from the dreary
loneliness of missing John. She smiled up at him. Heat flickered in his eyes,
and her knees turned to jelly.

He looked back at the sculpture. “Do you understand
bonding?” he asked.

“A little. Marianne told me about it.”

“It is more than the body. This pair, their hearts are
joined. Like two ices melting into one pool. Then, when they are apart again,
some of each one is with the other. Always. Like water, they cannot be unmixed.
They are never alone again.”

Never alone again.
A pang shot through her. He patted
her hand gently. “My heart grieves for your pain.”

Laura swallowed. “That’s right,” she said, feeling a little rueful
that she’d forgotten he was an empath like the rest of them. “You can sense
everything I feel, especially if you’re touching me.”

“Does this trouble you?” He turned and searched her eyes,
concern flickering across his face.

Her breathing hitched, but she didn’t pull away. What was it
John always said?
Carp...
something.
Seize the day,
he said it
meant.
Live life to the fullest.

She met Kazryth’s gaze. “No,” she said. “No, it doesn’t
trouble me.”

* * *

Laura gazed into the garden, though the moon had set hours
ago and it was too dark to see very well now. What light came from the keep
didn’t reach these little gazebos, the farthest out, not far from the edge of
the plateau. Kazryth sat next to her in the tiny pavilion that seated only two
– perfect for courting couples.

Is that what I’m doing?

She put the thought out of her mind. It was late, past... She
frowned.
Why can’t they just call it midnight?

Kazryth laughed. “What makes you frown?”

“Everything is so different here,” she replied. “You don’t
mark time. You don’t even have the words, so if I use the English term, you
just look blank.”

The night was dark enough that she only knew he smiled
because she could see his gleaming white teeth. “What words do you want to
say?”

“We’ve been here for hours. It has to be past midnight.”

“Ah. We have no word for hour, but we do have words for
midnight. Night meridian will be a direct translation.”

“Night meridian.” She shook her head. “Wouldn’t it be easier
to call it midnight?”

Another laugh. “Does it disturb you so much?”

“I don’t have any sense of time – an hour feels the same to
me as five minutes. In my quarters on Tau Ceti station, I have a clock in every
room. Here... I’m a little disoriented all the time.” She stood and leaned
against one of the posts at the entrance to the gazebo.

Kazryth left his seat and leaned against the other post. “It
is late, as you say, and the conference begins early.” He offered his arm. “Will
you want me to escort you back?”

The conference did begin early, just past the morning meal,
with a concert by a leading member of Parania’s musician caste. Kazryth chose
to leave the place accorded to him beside the Sural’s heir and sat next to
Laura. He was surprised to find, when the performer began to play, that she was
enraptured by the music. She didn’t seem to sense the full extent of the
musician’s gift, or the more delicate nuances, but it was obvious that she
detected some of it and was transported by what she felt. Aching to share her experience,
he slipped a hand into hers to savor her enchantment.

They remained seated at the conclusion of the performance,
talking quietly as the rest of the crowd drifted out of the audience room.

“That instrument he was playing, we have one almost like
it,” she told him. “It’s called a Celtic harp.”

“Perhaps the idea for it came with us from Earth,” he
suggested. “Our peoples have only been apart for six thousands of your years.”

“I think that’s when we invented the wheel.”

He laughed.

“Is it true the Jorann is one of the ones who came from
Earth? It’s hard to believe anyone could live six thousand years.”

An almost reverent feeling filled him at the thought of his
ancient, still-living ancestor, and he smoothed his face into a more properly
respectful expression. “She is truly that old, and yes, she was born on Earth.”
He glanced around the room. It was empty but for the two of them – and, of
course, the omnipresent camouflaged guards. He had heard that the Sural engaged
more guards than most rulers. He mentally shook himself and turned his
attention back to Laura. “You do not seem to be as sense-blind as humans are
said to be.”

“That’s what Marianne and the Sural tell me. But I can’t do
the things you do, probing and sensing and all that.”

He took her right hand and raised it to his lips. She
blushed a little, giving her face a delightful glow.

“Tolari men,” she said. “You like it when we blush.”

“It is lovely.” He touched her reddened cheek with his
fingertips.