“Ah.” He smiled at her. “We are aware. Master Trader yos’Galan, as contract holder, has sent that Theo must come home—here to Surebleak. I have sent, as her brother, suggesting the same. Once she is here, where it is, strange to say, somewhat safer than space, we can together consider what is best to do. Certainly, she will wish to fly. It only falls to us to discover how she may fly without inviting unprovoked attacks upon her ship, and slurs against her good character.”
“Depending on where she was, exactly, on that loop Shan sketched out for her,” Miri added, “she could definitely be here within the relumma.”
“There’s more,” Kamele said, looking between the two of them. “I was—I believe that one of my fellow passengers on the cruise liner wished to take me as a hostage to the reward for Theo’s apprehension.”
Val Con frowned, his mouth tightening.
“How did you elude this ambitious person?”
She sighed. “I left the ship and everything I had with me, except what was in my jacket, and hired as working crew on the Judy, bound in to Surebleak.”
He smiled.
“Excellent.”
“What I think you ought to do,” Miri said, “since you brought these things to us—I think you ought to stay here. Sooner or later, Theo and her father are bound to show up, and when they do, you’ll be on the spot.”
“I couldn’t impose—” Kamele began automatically, even as she began to wonder if there were hotels, or a scholar’s hostel on—
“Yes, you can,” Val Con interrupted her. “The house is large, as you will have noticed, so it is not a question of our having no room. I believe Mrs. ana’Tak told me only this morning that the pantry is full, so you will be no strain on our supplies.”
“And,” said Miri, smiling, “if Theo gets bull-headed about coming home, you can talk her down.”
Kamele looked from one to the other. She thought of Jen Sar who, beyond those given, would have had one more reason for wanting her to stay—the real reason.
And what would be the real reason, she asked herself, that Jen Sar’s son wanted her to stay inside his clanhouse?
It was very simple, really.
Security.
She was known, now, as the mother of Theo Waitley, who piloted for Tree-and-Dragon, and who shared a father with . . . half of the delm of Korval.
The . . . enemies of Korval; the people who had targeted Theo—those people now had her in their range, as well.
Kamele sighed.
“Space is not safe,” she said. “I understand.”
She sighed again, and bowed.
“Thank you.”
Table of Contents
PRELUDE
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY-ONE
THIRTY-TWO
THIRTY-THREE
THIRTY-FOUR
THIRTY-FIVE
INTERLUDE
THIRTY-SIX
THIRTY-SEVEN
THIRTY-EIGHT
THIRTY-NINE
FORTY
FORTY-ONE
EPILOGUE
Dragon Ship Page 39