Changeling Read Free Page B

they
released him at last to settle his business at the Port and to
register his upcoming marriage with the Guild.
    * * *
    THE LINES WERE signed, the contract sealed.
Elsu Meriandra received her Delm's kiss and obediently allowed her
hand to be placed into the hand of Delm Obrelt.
    "Behold, the treasure of our Clan," Jabun
intoned, while all of Clan Obrelt stood witness. "Keep her safe and
return her well to us, at contract's end."
    "Willingly we receive Elsu, the treasure of
Jabun," Obrelt responded. "Our House stands vigilant for her, as if
for one of our own."
    "It is well," Jabun replied, and bowed to his
daughter. "Rest easy, my child, in the House of our ally."
    The cousins came forward then to make their
bows. Ren Zel stood at the side of his contract-bride and made her
known to each, from Obrelt Himself down to the youngest child in
the nursery--his sister Eba's newest.
    After that, there was the meal of welcoming.
Ren Zel, who held lesser rank in Obrelt than his wife held in
Jabun, was seated considerably down-table. This was according to
Code, which taught that Obrelt could not impose Ren Zel's status on
Elsu, who was accustomed to sitting high; nor could her status
elevate him, since she was a guest in his House.
    He had eaten but lightly of the meal,
listening to the cousins on either side talk shop. From time to
time he glimpsed his wife, high up-table between his sister Farin
and his cousin Wil Bar, fulfilling her conversational duty to her
meal partners. She did not look down-table.
    The meal at last over, Ren Zel and Aunt Chane
escorted Jabun's treasure throughout Obrelt's house, showing her
the music room, the formal parlor and the tea room, the game room
and the door to the back garden. In the library, Aunt Chane had her
place a palm against the recording plate. This registered her with
the House computer and insured that the doors allowed to
contract-spouses would open at her touch.
    Departing the library, they turned left down
the hall, not right toward the main stair, and Aunt Chane led the
way up the private stairway to the closed wing. In the upper
hallway, she paused by the first door and bowed to Elsu
Meriandra.
    "Your room, contract-daughter. If you find
aught awry, only pick up the house phone and call me. It will be my
honor to repair any error."
    Elsu bowed in turn.
    "The House shows me great kindness," she
said, most properly, her high, sweet voice solemn. She straightened
and put her hand against the plate. The door slid open and she was
gone, though Ren Zel thought she looked at him, a flickering glance
through modestly lowered lashes, in the instant before the door
closed behind her.
    Though it was not necessary, Aunt Chane
guided him to the third and last door on the hallway. She turned
and smiled.
    "Temporary quarters."
    This sort of levity was not like his Aunt and
Ren Zel was startled into a smile of his own. "Thank you,
ma'am."
    "Thank us, is it?" She tipped her head,
considering him in the hall's dim light. "Let the flowers aid you,"
she said softly. "It will be well, child."
    He had his doubts, in no way alleviated by
the few words he had actually exchanged with his wife, but it would
serve no useful purpose to share them with Aunt Chane. The Clan
desired a child born of the union of pilots: His part was plainly
writ.
    So, he smiled again and raised her hand,
laying his cheek against the backs of her fingers in a gesture of
kin-love. "It will be well," he repeated, for her comfort.
    "Ah." She seemed on the edge of saying
something further, but in the end simply inclined her head before
walking, alone, back the way they had come.
    After a moment, Ren Zel put his hand against
the door and entered his temporary quarters.
    He had been here yesterday, moving in his
clothes and such of his books as he thought would be prudent. He
had even opened the inner door and gone into the middle room--into
the contract room itself--walking lightly on the lush carpet.
    The bed was ornate, old, and piled