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empty. It was one of her bad days.
Ah well, see you around. Shadith hesitated a mo-ment, made a note to tell
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Tank when she got back, and walked past the woman, more disturbed than before
when Teri looked through her as if she didn t exist. When she reached the next
alley, she turned and looked back, squinting against the dazzle as the sun
moved suddenly-from behind a cloud. A man was standing beside Teri, talking to
her. Shadith sighed and moved on. She thought again about Tank, but what could
he do? The question niggled at her until she reached Kemros flier park and
started negotiating for a half day s rent.
4
Shadith took the open flit low, swooping just above the wave peaks. The air
was brisk and briny, the sea out beyond the clouds a brilliant turquoise,
several de-grees brighter than the sky. She played with the flit for a while,
swinging it back and forth as if she were tacking against the wind, then went
nosing along the offshore islands, racing in and out, between and around them
as if she played a game with herself using them as markers. At the same time
she kept an eye on one of Digby s specials, an asteroid miner s detec that
he d had titivated by someone until it could smell out a ship even at the
bottom of an ocean of sludge. Or so he swore to her.
Whether that was true or not, the watchlight turned green when she swung
around the fourth and largest of the islands. She sighed. No proof it was
Lylunda Elang s ship, but she didn t really need proof.
She went scooting out to sea after that, chasing cloud shad-ows, and spent the
next hour whipping back and forth along the coast. At the end of that time she
set the flit on hover, stretched out, and just enjoyed the feel of the wind
and the smell of the ocean, layering im-pressions in her mind about the song
she wanted to write.
5
Shadith nodded to Getto, played a phrase or two of the song to let him get a
feel for it. This one s for you, Gee, since you gave me the idea. It s a song
still working on, though I have enough for now.
The mirrors on Getto s drums shivered in the sun-light as he drew a whispering
undersong from them, the mirror on his ear was a small sun itself.
Briny winds, she sang.
Briny winds blow clouds away.
The sharded sea skips to their song.
I slide from peak to peak on sapphire waves looking for answers in the sun.
Nothing but shadows in the shine
Sad shadows of friends that I left behind.
Briny winds blow clouds away
Spit fillips of foam into my face
Gust through the ghosts within my mind
Till even the dance of memory s gone.
Briny winds blow clouds away.
At the last word she segued into sweeping arpeggios meant to suggest sea
winds, then took the sound back to let Getto reprise the verse with his
drums. He could go wild on those drums, get your blood pounding till your feet
moved on their own, but at times like these he had a precise yet lyrical touch
that could make them sing until you could almost hear the words.
At the end of the set, when she brought the collect-ing bowl back to him, it
was heavy with local credit to-kens and coins from a dozen worlds. He wanted
her to take half, but she wouldn t.
I enjoyed myself out there and I ll probably go back, she said. And I got a
song, or at least the start of a song. Might not ve thought of that myself. So
I owe you. She stooped to slide her harp into its case, straightened when
she d snapped the clips.
She thought, I can trust him not to talk about me. He hears things. What if I
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asked him about
Lylunda Elang? He might even know.
She watched him taking apart the drums, folding them down and down so he could
carry them back to his place, wherever that was. But she saw a distant sheen
in his eyes that reminded her of Teri and she remembered how eagerly he tried
to please the people he liked. If he didn t know, he d ask around. And that
might mean more trouble than she wanted to cope with.
See you, she said, hefted the case, and slipped her arm through the strap.
That night, as she sang in The Tank wearing the sil-ver fantasy Teri had
crafted her, she looked out over the patrons and wondered if the Kliu s other
agent was among them and if there was anyone at those tables who d have access
to the warrens on the far side of the Wall. It didn t seem likely. They were
mostly traders and crew, transients who might pass through here sev-eral times
a year for a while and then move on to an-other round.
Oh, we shall go awandering along the secret ways, she sang and put a throb
in her voice; the sense she had of this crowd was a lightly drunken
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