Loose Cannon Read Free

speaking as
if to a child, "Why, I will go to the Port House and do what I may,
and trust that the Goddess is good."
    It seemed to satisfy her, who never had
patience with my dream-tellings. She nodded and rose, Velesz with
her, and he gave her hand into mine with a little bow, as if all
were right and tight with him.
    But the eyes he lifted to mine in the moment
he gave Lil over were blighted with dread. His lips held the ghost
of the smile he'd shown her, but his eyes were the eyes of a man
looking at his death, or worse.
    I hesitated, thinking to offer--what? I had
no aid to give, trapped likewise by Cly Nelbern's coin. I nodded my
thanks and went away, my sister's hand warm in mine.
    * * *
    IT'S A MARVEL how many
repairs can be done to a ship, in the course of six short hours. A
marvel, too, how much it all cost: enough to put a sizable dent in
Cly Nelbern's cantra-piece. Though, truth told, the leavings of
money would be enough to give Luki some semblance of credit again--enough, even, to
claim a small amount of interest, if Lil would agree to forego real
coffee for a time.
    I had just thought that comfortable thought,
musing among the itemizations on the screen, when I caught a sound
behind me and spun the chair, fast.
    Cly Nelbern smiled her ugly smile and came
forward another step, to lean companionably against the co-pilot's
chair and nod at the bill on the screen.
    "Everything put to right now, Captain?"
    "Everything'd take a deal more than a
cantra," I said, reluctantly honest; "but we're set to fly."
    "Good," she said, somewhat absent, and I
asked the next question even more reluctantly.
    "You'll be wanting our escort tomorrow?"
    She looked up at that, alert as a dock-rat.
"But of course--and a lift out, too. If we're up against the
Temple--if that fool out there trips up..." The words faded and she
focused on me again. "Have us moved to a hot-pad, Captain."
    I looked at her hard. "We're ready to fly, I
said. I didn't say we were champing on it. Plan to look around,
take on cargo."
    "You have a passenger." The voice was
milk-mild and I felt my heart shudder, remembering her at the
tavern.
    I shook my head. "We're through with
passengers. Trade's what we were born to; trade's what we'll stay
with."
    "Indeed." She pointed at
the screen, at the invoice still visible, waiting for my thumbprint
so the funds could leave Luki's account. "I demand return of my loan, Captain
Betany."
    I stared at her. "That was no loan, and you
well know it. Payment for escort, was what you said."
    "Really?" she purred and then I knew how far
Lil had lost us. "Do you have a contract stating so, Captain?"
    I held onto my glare with an effort.
"No."
    "No." She smiled. "But I have a contract
stipulating that I offered a cantra in loan for needful repairs,
payable upon demand, else the ship resolves to me."
    My mouth dried and my heart took up thumping
so hard I thought the scans might read it. "You have no such
thing."
    "Oh, I do," she assured me; "and so do you.
Right there in the daily log." She leaned away from the chair and
started back toward the companionway. "Do move us to a hot-pad,
Captain; there's a good girl."
    It took me a long time to move, after she
was gone. The first thing I did was open the log and read the thing
she'd put there, sealed with my own codes.
    Ship and blood. Mam'd told me to save things
in that order, always. Ship first, then blood. I'd never in life
have signed such a thing, nor agreed for the sake of a
cantra...
    Ship and blood. I thumbprinted the invoice
and put the call through for the ready-pad. I okay'd those charges,
too, forgetful of the meaning of the numbers; and then I went to my
bunk to lie down, sealing the door and detaching the bell.
    After a time of lying there in cold terror,
eyes screwed shut against the awful sight of the ceiling, I fell
asleep and I dreamed.
    The dream was a confusion of pointing
fingers and harsh voices making accusations that echoed into
meaninglessness. At the center of it