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"No," Keff said with more emphasis than he intended.
"No father would do what he did. To us, life is sacred."
Plenna stared at her hands. She gave a little sigh. "I wish
I lived there, too."
"I hate this world more than ever," said Carialle, for whom special
intervention to save her life had begun before she was bom. "Corruption is
rewarded, child mur-
der not even blinked at; power is the most important thing,
over family, life, sanity. Let's have them put an interdict on this place when
we get out of here. They haven't got space travel, so we don't have to worry
about them showing up in the Central Worlds for millenia more to come."
"We have to get out of here first," Keff reminded her.
"Perhaps we can help them to straighten things out before we go."
Carialle sighed. "Of course you're right, knight in shin-
ing armor. Whatever we can do, we should. I simply cannot countenance what
this poor girl went through."
Keff turned to Plennafrey. She stared down toward the floor, not seeing it,
but thinking other past.
"Please, Plennafrey," Keff said, imbuing the Ozran phrases with as much
persuasive charm in his voice as pos-
sible, "I'm new to your world. I want to learn about you and your people. You
interest me very much. What is this?" he asked, picking up the nearest
unidentifiable gew-
gaw.
Distracted, she looked up. Keff held the little cylinder up to her, and she
smiled.
"It is a music," she said. At her direction, he shook the box back and forth,
then set it down. The sides popped open, and a sweet, tinny melody poured out.
"I have had that since, oh, since a child."
"Is it old?"
"Oh, a few generations. My fathers fathers father," she giggled, counting on
her fingers, "made it for his wife."
"Its beautiful. And what's this?" Keff got up and reached for a short coiled
string and the pendant bauble at the end of it. The opaline substance
glittered blue, green, and red in the lamplight.
"Its a plaything," Plennafrey said, with a hint of her natural vitality
returning to her face. "It takes some skill to use. No magic. I am very good
with it. My brothers were never as skilled."
"Show me," Keff said. She stood up beside him and wound the string around the
central core of the pen-
dant. Inserting her forefinger through the loop at the strings end, she
cradled the toy, then threw it. It spooled out and smacked back into her palm.
She flicked it again, but this time moved her hand so the pendant ricocheted
past her head, dove between their knees, then shot back into her hand.
"Ayo-yo!" Keff said, delighted.
"You have such things?" Plennafrey asked. She smiled up into his face.
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Keff grinned. "Oh, yes. This is far nicer than the ones I
used to play with. In fact, its a work of art. Can I try?"
"All right." Plenna peeled the string off her finger and extended the toy to
him. He accepted it, his hands cradling hers for just a moment. He did a few
straight passes with the yo-yo, then made it fly around die world, then swung
it in a trapeze.
"You are very good, too," Plenna said, happily. "Will you show me how you did
die last tiling?"
"It would be my pleasure," Keff told her. He returned die toy to her hands. As
his palms touched hers, he felt an almost electric shock. He became aware diey
were stand-
ing very close, dieir tilighs brushing slighdy so diat he could feel die heat
of her body. Her breatii caught, dien came more quickly. His respiration sped
up to match hers.
To his delight and astonishment he knew that she was as attracted to him as he
was to her. The yo-yo slipped unno-
ticed to die hassock as he clasped her hands tightiy. She smiled at him, her
eyes full of trust and wonder. Before she said a word, his arms slid along
hers, encompassing her narrow waist, hands flat against her back. She didn't
pro-
test, but pressed her slim body to his. He felt her quiver slighdy, then she
nesded urgentiy against him, settling her head on his shoulder. Her skin was
warm dirough die thin stuff of her dress, and her flowery, spicy scent
tantalized him.
She felt so natural in his arms he had to remind himself diat she was an alien
being, dien he discarded inhibition. If things didn't work out physically,
weU, diey were sharing die intense closeness of people who had been in danger
togetiier, a kind of comfort in itself. Yet he let himself believe diat all
would be as he desired it. There were too many other outward similarities to
humanity in Plenna-
frey s people. With luck, they made love die same way.
Plennafrey had none of die seductive art of die gauze-
draped Potria, but he found her genuine responsiveness much more desirable.
While her elders were tormenting
Keff, it had probably not occurred to her to diink of him as anything but an
abused "toy."
She was merely being kind to an outsider, or less chari-
tably, to a dumb animal that couldn't defend itself. Now that they were
together, intriguing chemistry bubbled up between them. He watched die long
fringe of her lashes lift to reveal her large, dark eyes. He admired the long
throat and die way her pulse jumped in die small shadow at die hollow inside
her collarbone. The comers of her moudi lifted while she, too, stopped to
study him.
"What are you diinking?" he asked, looking up at her.
"I am diinking diat you are handsome," she said.
"Well, you are very beautiful, lady magess," he whis-
pered, bending down to loss the curve of her shoulder.
"I hate being a magess," Plennafrey said in a voice that was nearly a sob.
"But I am glad you are a magess," Keff said. "If you hadn't been, I would
never have met you, and you are the nicest thing I have seen since I came to
Ozran."
He put his hand under her chin, stroked her soft throat with a gende finger
like petting a cat. Almost felinely, Plenna closed her eyes to long slits and
let her head drift back, looking like she wanted to purr. She raised her face
to his, and her hand crept up the back of his neck to pull his head down to
her level. Keff tasted cherries and cinna-
mon on her lips, delighted to lose himself in her perfume.
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He deepened the kiss, and Plenna responded with ardor.
He bent down to kiss the curve of her shoulder, felt her brush her cheek
against his ear.
Suddenly she let go of him and stepped back, looking up at him
half-expectandy, half-afraid, Keff gathered up her hands and kissed them,
pulled Plenna close, and brushed her lips with soft, feather-light caresses
until they opened. She sighed.
"Sight and sound off, please, Cari," Keff whispered.
Plennafrey nestled her head into the curve of his shoulder, and he kissed her.
Carialle considered for a moment before shutting off the sensory monitors.
While in a potentially hostile environment, especially with hostiles in
pursuit, it was against Courier Service rules to break off all communications.
The Ozran female let out a wordless ciy, and Keff matched it with a heartfelt
moan. Carialle weighed the requirement with Keffs right to privacy and decided
a lim-
ited signal wasn't unreasonable. Such a request was permissible as long as the
brain maintained some kind of contact with her brawn partner.
"As you wish, my knight errant," she said, hastily turning off the eye and
mouth implants. She monitored transmis-
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