Liaden Universe [19] - Alliance of Equals - eARC Read Free Page A

up and tuned, and even then, I fear we’ll only have graduated to Halfbleak.”
    “Our house will be there,” she murmured, which was perhaps an attempt to give his thoughts a more cheerful direction, in which she was partly successful.
    “Our house will be there if ever Architect vin’Zeller will finish with the plans and send them to us! I’d hoped to break ground during the current year’s summer. If we need to wait through another winter—”
    A chime sounded, sweet and high: the door annunciator.
    “Your midnight snack arrives,” Shan said to Priscilla, and raised his voice slightly. “Come!”
    The door whisked aside, and Arms Master Schneider brought his tall and muscled self into the office. He paused and inclined slightly from the waist, his compromise between a bow and a Terran nod.
    “I hope I’m not inconvenient,” he said.
    “Not in the least,” Shan assured him, considering the swirl of the man’s emotions. “What may I be honored to do for you?”
    Jon came another step into the office, and gave them each a solemn glance, in turn.
    “Well, sir, ma’am—I’d like to talk to you about Padi’s defense training.”

CHAPTER TWO
    Dutiful Passage

    Padi yos’Galan bounced out of the lift and trotted down the long hall toward Hydroponics. She was smiling.
    Dance lessons always left her warm, and…happy. It wasn’t just the exercise, though that was certainly welcome, it was also the knowledge that she was good at menfri’at —which was the name of the defensive art most commonly taught to pilots and other spacers. Of course, she had begun her lessons long before the remove to Runig’s Rock, and had enjoyed them from the first. It was a particular pleasure to feel one’s muscles working cleanly together in quick, sure movements.
    She had, she thought, slipping into Hydroponics, comported herself well during the test session she had just completed with Arms Master Schneider. It was her expectation that she would find a reassignment to a more advanced class on her duty screen tomorrow.
    That pleased her, too. One liked to do well; to excel at whatever one did. Grandfather Luken said that the drive to excel was at Korval’s heart, and Padi believed that he was correct. After all, was it not said that There are fifty High Houses—and then, there is Korval ?
    Padi caught her breath, warmth fading a little, as she opened her locker and retrieved her belt-kit.
    For that was a thing said on Liad —which was no longer home , because Korval’s name had been struck from the Book of Clans.
    Now, on Liad, they would say, There are fifty High Houses .
    Now, on Liad, they would say, A Dragon does not change its nature .
    Which was perfectly correct, and nothing to do with the clan if, if lesser persons failed to take the time to understand the Dragon’s nature…
    A chime sounded, discreetly, and there came the soft fizzing from the room beyond that meant the misters had come on in.
    Padi caught her breath. She was going to be late!
    She threw her belt over her shoulder, slammed the locker door and half-ran to the assignment station. Her hand broke the beam, and she was logged in precisely on time. Sighing, she accessed the duty roster, belting the kit ’round her waist while she scanned the screen, looking for her name; finding it near the bottom, with the notation Tank Gr2, thinning .
    She touched the screen, acknowledging receipt of her assignment, and again ran her eye down the list, to find who else might be working this shift.
    Head Technician Varoth was in her office; the red triangle that meant do not disturb next to her name. Good. Padi had no desire to disturb the head tech.
    Faw Chen was listed as on-shift in Hr6, repair. Padi grinned.
    Hr6 shared an aisle with Gr2. She would have company—agreeable company—this shift.
    Still grinning, Padi jogged down the aisle toward her assignment. Faw Chen had only come aboard at Billingston, filling the hole left in the roster by Din Ref