Heart Dance Read Free

spared him the knowledgethat his mother, D’Winterberry, was too deep into the yar-duanliquor addiction to leave her rooms anymore.
    “Your mother has paid little attention to me. As for mine . . .” Dufleur shrugged. “Fairyfoot has been a blessing in many ways, not the least because my mother is allergic to cats. If she pries, she pays.” Her smile was just as bleak as his.
    He nodded.
    Me! Can I go with you to the guardhouse, cuz Ilex? Another perky smile from Fairyfoot.
    They were out the front door and into the winter cold before Ilex answered. He looked down at Fairyfoot. “Not today, FamCat.” Then he whistled. A few seconds later his animal companion,a fox, slid out of the shadow of a nearby building and trotted up to them. “Fairyfoot, it’s been a long time since you accompanied Vertic on his travels, perhaps that would appeal to you?”
    Fairyfoot snorted but touched noses with Vertic. Then she opened her mouth a little and curled her tongue, using that sixth sense cats have. He smells like interesting places, she admitted grudgingly.
    Vertic lifted his muzzle. Cat may come with me today.
    “Gracious of you,” Dufleur murmured.
    Vertic inclined his head. Yes.
    Ilex coughed.
    The fox tilted his head. Cat’s whiskers on the right side of her face are shorter than the left.
    Fairyfoot hissed, sent a nasty look at Dufleur.
    Cat, come now. With a fluff of his full tail, Vertic turned and ran in the opposite direction. Fairyfoot followed. She was a small cat, and foxes were notoriously speedy.
    The FamCat would be exhausted by the time Dufleur returned to D’Winterberry Residence after work. Not a bad thing. Dufleur wouldn’t miss her cat’s comments on her time experiments, and before she let Fairyfoot back into the room she needed to do some serious shielding of the cat tree. The room, too.
    She and Ilex had reached the corner and turned left. The publiccarrier plinth had several people standing by it. Four carrier lines stopped here, in the once noble neighborhood, which was slowly disintegrating. Dufleur rode straight into CityCenter.
    “Sure you don’t want to teleport?” Ilex asked.
    It would take too much of her psi energy, her Flair, which she would need for her daily work as well as more experiments this evening. “I prefer not to.”
    He held out his hand, and she put her fingers in his. Bowing over them, he brushed a kiss on her knuckles. “Thank you again for the lovely gift.”
    “You’re welcome.”
    “Dufleur . . .”
    “Yes?”
    “Be careful.” He dropped her hand and he disappeared from view, teleporting back to his beloved wife and her large optimisticfamily. He lived in Clover Compound now, surrounded by cheerful people.
    Dufleur had never felt so lonely.
    That afternoon Saille T’Willow, GreatLord T’Willow, stood with hands clasped behind him as he stared at the cryogenicstube, holding his not-quite-late MotherDam, the Mother of his Mother. He struggled to keep his bitterness from showing.
    Ruis Elder, Captain of the ancient colonist ship, Nuada’s Sword , stood beside him. “As you can see, her life indicators are still doing well. When the Healers find a cure for her debilitatingdisease, we will be able to awaken her for treatment.”
    “I thank you for all you have done,” Saille said evenly. He hadn’t made any of the arrangements. She had, the former GreatLady D’Willow, also named Saille, who had despised him. Unlike most Celtans she hadn’t accepted death like a reasonableperson, but had fought its coming . . . because she loathed him, hated the fact that he was her Heir and would take the title.
    For generations the strongest Flaired person in the Willow Family had been female. Until him. His MotherDam took it as a personal insult that he, a man, would be the foremost matchmakeron Celta.
    Now she lay in the cryogenics tube, and deep in the fissures of her brain where a neuron still sparked with life she believed she would be revived. When she was, she’d