A Bait of Dreams Read Free Page B

mother-of-pearl teeth as he sucked air into his breathing bladder then grinned at her. “T’ought it was you. No ot’er land crawler ever come here.”
    â€œTetaki?” She closed her fingers around his cool hard forearm. “I haven’t seen you in years.” Shaking her head, she smiled uncertainly at him. “Years.”
    â€œNot sin’ you was finger high.”
    â€œYou weren’t any bigger.” She shook his arm, amusement bubbling inside her. “Brat.”
    He perched easily on the narrow bar, his short crisp hair already drying and springing into the curls that used to fascinate her with their tight coils and deep blue color. “Good times. We were good friends then.” He was silent a moment, watching her. “T’is isn’t the firs’ year I come back. You never come here.”
    â€œI was thinking about you earlier today.” She pushed away from the pile and touched his knee. “The only friend I ever had.”
    His hand closed about hers, cool and metal smooth, his flesh unlike hers but the touch comforting despite that. “I come each time. You never here.”
    â€œAt first I couldn’t,” she said, her fatigue and depression coming back like a fog to shroud her, smother her spirit. She sighed. “Later … later, I forgot.”
    â€œWhat happened?” His hand tightened on hers. She looked up. The shining unfamiliar planes of his face seemed to banish the fog. Then he smiled. His teeth were a carnivore’s fangs, needle sharp and slightly curved. “Forget me? Shame.”
    She laughed and pulled free. “I turned thief. Abbrah made me. Remember him?”
    His teeth glinted again. “I got cause.”
    Gleia watched her feet swinging back and forth over the dark water, almost black here under the wharf but flickering with tiny silver highlights where the moonlight danced off the tops of wavelets. Remember.…
    A delegation of amphibian people had come to negotiate trade rights with the Maleek; Tetaki’s father was a minor official. She remembered a slim scaled boy with big light green eyes and tight-coiled blue hair poking through a dingy side street looking eagerly about at the strange sights. Alone. Foolishly alone. Abbrah’s gang gathered around him, baiting him, working themselves up to attack him. Something about his refusal to give in to them stirred a spark in Gleia that lit old resentments and she fought her way to his side in that stubborn all-out battle the gang knew too well. So they backed off, shouting obscenities, reasserting their dominance by showing contempt for her and her protégé. She took him back to his father and scolded the startled seaborn for his carelessness.
    â€œYou got caught.”
    â€œI was a lousy thief. Yes, I got caught. And bonded. See?” She turned her face so he could see the bondmark burned into her cheek. “What about you?”
    He chuckled, waved a hand toward the chismakka’s shadow. “Ours. This is t’ird summer we come to the fairs.”
    â€œHey.” She patted his arm, too weary to enthuse as she should.
    He bent closer, staring into her face. “You don’ look so good.”
    She yawned. “Tired.” She swallowed another yawn. “That’s all.”
    â€œCome wit’ me. Temokeuu would welcome you. You could live wit’ us.”
    She stroked the mark on her cheek but didn’t answer for a minute. He settled back, content to let her answer when she was ready. Finally, she shook her head. “Can’t, Tetaki. I’m stuck here till my bond is cancelled. You going to be here in Carhenas long?”
    â€œWe been having good trading.” He frowned. “Two, t’ree days more I t’ink.”
    â€œAt least we can talk some. I’ve missed having someone to talk to.”
    â€œCome see Temokeuu. He like you.” Tetaki grinned at her. “And we show you our