The Burning Ground

THE BURNING GROUND 287

behind her, her eyes once again searching the crowd. “What I seen the last few days, bet I would. Uh-oh, Fishbreath isn’t giving up. We better move on some. I know, I’ll take you to the Arbiter’s place. I can get you there real easy, I was a guide till a few days ago.”

Thann followed her, bemused with how much xe was trusting this child. Under the surface charm, the femlit was angry and hurting for some reason, but oddly cheerful for all that. As they moved swiftly through a maze of narrow streets, a disturbing thought came to xe. Am I making her into Isaho, what I hoped Isaho would be?

The babbit stirred restlessly, disturbed by what xe was reading of Thann’s sudden revulsion.

Xe slipped xe’s hand inside the pouch, guided the babbit’s mouth back to the teat, then stroked the small, strong body, bathed xe with the burst of helpless love that flooded xe.

The femlit tapped xe’s arm. “There,” she said and pointed to a large blocky building with black iron bars on the windows. “You go in there and somebody’ll fix you up with a place to live where you won’t have to be scared of the flesh mal.”

Thann withdrew her hand from the pouch. +Wait. What are you going to do?+

The femlit scowled at xe. “You going to try running my life, too?”

+I thin you don’t like that much. Hm, say it’s curiosity. I like to know what’s happening to people I’ve grown fond of. You know you’re a charmer, so untwist that face and tell me.+

“You’re sharp for an anya. They usually dumber’n rocks. All right. I’m going to keep my head down till Fishbreath’s ship steams out, he works on this coast trader, then go nosing round and see what’s hanging loose.”

+Then you’ve got time to come in there with me and show me how to work them, so they don’t notice I’m not dumber than a rock. Besides, I’ll tell you my story while we’re waiting. If you’ll tell me yours.+

The femlit eyed xe a moment, still wary, then she grinned and nodded. “You got it. My name’s Zot, and I helped take the Fence down.”

Thann waggled xe’s hand in anya laughter. +My name is Thann, and I flew to Linojin on a broomstick with someone I think is a friend of yours, an offworld person named Shadow. This should be interesting for us both.+