Eidolon Read Free Page A

returning, silent and quick, to the
door, which he locked with a snap of his wrist. Ceola began to
protest, then bit her lip. She had asked him to solve this for her,
after all.
    "We will discommode your customers as little
as possible,"he said briskly, striding back down the room and
coming 'round the counter. "But if you will not have the Proctors,
then we still must find who did this."
    He took her gently by the shoulders, and
turned her face toward the brighter light over the back bar.
    "That wants some attention,"he murmured. "Is
there any other damage done?"
    "My--" She lifted her hand, showing him torn
fingers already beginning to purple. "He--He struck me in the ribs,
and I couldn't--but I can breathe now," she said hastily, as his
lips tightened. "So that's naught, really."
    "I see. Ceola, attend me:
Is there any other damage?"
    "I--" He was being delicate, she realized,
and laughed, the sound high and unsettled in her own ears. "They
were after the till, Shadow. It was their whole focus." The tears
rose again, and she looked away, misery cramping her chest. "They
took what they wanted and ran."
    "I see," he said again, and sighed. "Have
you a first aid kit?"
    "No," she answered, and did not add that the
ancient unit that had served to patch such minor bruises and
contusions as might sometimes occur on a busy night had failed two
relumma back, and they had not had enough extra to see it repaired.
There were so many things that they had not been able to
afford--the news feed, a part-time worker, a-- "Very well,"Shadow
said, interrupting these increasingly tangled thoughts. "Now, these
--people, who were so focused on the till. Have you seen them
before?"
    "No--no, wait." She frowned, which made her
face hurt worse. "The voice--last night, the door opened, then
closed--you recall it! I thought it only that someone had looked in
and failed to find a comrade, but the voice--it was the same."
    "The room was too full for them last night,
so they looked for easier game," Shadow murmured, perhaps to
himself. He released her shoulders, and fished the handheld from
its inner pocket.
    "Ah, good, you are about,"
he said into the device. "Bring whomever else you can find and come
down to The Friendly Glass, there's been some unpleasantness. . . .
a first aid kit and the forensic . . . Yes. I've locked the door;
ping me when you've arrived." He paused, then grinned. "Oh, by all
means, quickly ."
    *
    Scouts appeared, three of them, one bearing
a first aid kit, and another a different sort of kit which he
immediately unfolded onto a deserted table, with assistance from
the third.
    Shadow brought the Scout with the first aid
kit behind the bar, standing half-a-step before her. Ceola looked
up at him from her seat on the cold-box. He had, over her
objections, tucked his jacket around her shoulders. She held it
close, her injured hand tucked against the plush lining. It wasn't
cold--she knew that it wasn't cold--yet she couldn't seem to stop
shivering.
    "Ceola, this is Tonith," he said, "the best
medic among what is admittedly a disreputable crew. Will you allow
her to tend to your injuries?"
    She did very much, Ceola thought, want
someone to tend to her injuries. Her face felt as if she'd scrubbed
it with gravel and rinsed it with red wine. Even though she could
breathe, her ribs hurt where the thief had struck her, and her arm
was throbbing. Those were her major complaints, though there was a
growing litany of bruises and minor pains.
    "Indeed Shadow, I would be grateful to, to
the Scout," she murmured.
    The Scout stepped forward, her eyes as warm
as if she were approaching an old friend, and with no hint of
flinching away from the sight of Ceola's abused face.
    "Please, let us be Tonith and Ceola, as I
see you are already on good terms with the Captain." She glanced
over her shoulder to Shadow. "Where may we be private?"
    "Wherever Ceola wishes," he answered.
    "Well, that's generous, own it!" Tonith said
merrily, slinging her kit