Crystal Heat

3

She was yawning as she palmed the lock on her apartment; all the strain of the job, all the suspicion and the chewing over and over of what might happen, how she could counter it, all that had caught up with her and weariness was like a blanket smothering her. What she wanted more than anything was to stretch out on her bed and sleep for a week.

Instead, she put on water to boil for tea, logged a call through one of the Rhapsody skipcoms and had a shower while she waited for it to go through.

Aleytys raised a brow. In the screen her face was slightly distorted and her skin had acquired a greenish tone, but her voice came through clearly enough. “I see you survived.”

“I took your advice and was tactful.” Shadith patted a yawn. “Spla, I’m tired. All tensed up and ready to act, then the whole thing just dribbled away. Whatever. Tell Lylunda she should probably hang about for the rest of the month, but after that the heat should be off her.” She yawned again. “You talked to Harskari yet?”

“About an hour ago, matter of fact. She says the injection is taking just fine and the new plants she picked up are thriving. She’ll be going back for more in a few months, give the source time to settle down. Have you decided what you’re going to do?”

“Probably I’ll go see if Swarda’s home. I need to talk to him. Then I’ll probably go have a look at Harskari’s garden.”

Aleytys’ mouth twitched; it wasn’t a smile. “I might join you for a few months. I’m tired of the sniping round here. Nice that your severance was a friendly one. And go get yourself some sleep, Shadow. You can start your new life tomorrow.”

Shadith came to awareness abruptly.

She was, seated in front of a sensor board. In a familiar pilot’s chair. She was on the Backhoe. Her body leaned forward, her hands lifted, began moving over the board, entering a destination code. She watched the code print out on the main screen, committed it to memory automatically, then realized with dull horror that she couldn’t turn her head, that no part of her body answered her will.

This was confusing.

She’d meant to leave the Backhoe in the University tie-down. If Digby wanted it back, he could send someone to fetch it.

She should have been frightened and angry. She couldn’t feel anything.

It was as if she were back in the Diadem, looking through the body’s eyes, but with no connection to the other senses or to the body’s emotions.

Her mind barely worked. A word or an image rose to awareness, then faded. A long time later a new thing welled up to take its place.