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.Be very sure who s out there, chapa Tinoopa,be-fore you open the door.Use the peep to see if I m alone.Do you hear me? I hear, Aghilo chal.4She died again in her dreams.Plunged down and down through fire and pain andcrashed.She woke sweating.Tinoopa was getting up, smoothing her hair out of her face, shaking out hernightgown.Someone was pounding on the outer door.What.Kizra scrubbed at her eyes.There was a ter-rible urgency in thatknocking, though it wasn t as noisy as she d first thought when it crashedinto her dream.She kicked off the blankets, rolled from the pallet, and gotto her feet.Lifting the front of her borrowed nightgown so she wouldn t stepon it andfall on her face, she followed Ti-noopa into the anteroom.The knocking continued; she could feel the desperation, the fear and anger inthe woman on the other side of the door.Aghilo.What was happening?After a quick look through the peep, Tinoopa turned the key, slapped the barPage 92ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlup, and tugged the door open.Aghilo stumbled inside.Her face was drained of color, her mouth was working.She put out her hand, flattened it against the wall, and stood leaning intoher braced arm while she caught her breath and stifled her panic.After a moment she straightened, looked quickly from Tinoopa to Kizra. You dbetter get dressed,she said. There s trouble. She started past Tinoopa, but the Shim-marohicaught her arm. What happened? Contract woman.She killed Rintirry, hung herself.I have to wake theArring. Wait, wait, just a minute.It s barely light now, you ve got plenty of timebefore the Artwa goes nova.Sit down. Using her size and her grip on Aghilo sarm, she maneu-vered the smaller woman to, one of the benches and muscled herdown.Then she stood with feet apart, hands on her hips. How d you find out?MEMORY:The room was as stale and sordid as she d expected; she felt a little sickwhen she saw it.She closed her eyes and told herself it didn t matter.But itdid.Arel put his hands on her shoulders.He was exactly her height, his mouthon a level with hers.She fo-cused on that mouth, not daring to meet his eyes. Give me a minute, Luv. Whistling softly, he tossed the filthy bedding into acloset, brought out clean sheets.He made the bed with an expertise that had her smiling; he caught her at itand his whole body laughed.For a moment she couldn t breathe.He took an incense burner from his shoulder bag, filled and lit it.The scentof pines drifted to her, cool and clean.He brought out a pair of thick greencandles, lit them and turned off the light.The room was filled with flickering shadow, touched with magic.The outsideworld with its threats and dangers was banished for the moment. Come here, he said.Kizra collected Tinoopa s clothes, brought them to her, then started pullingon her own clothing.When she was dressed, she dropped to the rug behind Tinoopa, where she couldwatch Aghilo but be more or less out of sight.Aghilo twisted her hands around and around each other as Tinoopa wasdress-ing.The sight of theShim-marohi shaking out the nightgown and starting to fold it seemed toreassure her and she began talking. Well, first thing I knew, Loujary chalwas beating at my door, he d gone into the Honor Suite to clear up and makesure things were right for when they woke, you know, warm the towels, pick upwhatever was thrown about, kind of things they d expect to have done and get. she grimaced, get cranky about if it isn t.Any-way, P murr let him in,said it d been a quiet night, Rin-tirry hadn t given him any trouble.Loujarysaid they talked some before he went in, this and that, he didn t go into whatthey said except what I told you.Soon as he was inside, he twisted therheostat way down and turned the lights on and went around picking up, gettingthings ready, you know.He looked in at the Artwa.Old man was sleeping.Snoring.He went in, picked up there, folded, set out.You know.Artwa didn tstir, just kept snor-ing.He went in Rintirry s bedroom. She shuddered. Icouldn t believe him, I had to go see. She pressed her hand across her mouth,closed her eyes briefly, then forced them open. I can t forget.Tinoopa took her shoulders, shook her a little. No time for that now.Listen,I need to know what it means for us.Chaps and chat, what do we have to do toprotect our-selves?Aghilo squeezed her hands together, moving one over the other endlessly, thesoft sound of skin on skin filling the tense silence. Amurra bless, I venever seen worse, even. she shook her head while her hands kept moving. She cut his throat, that was first, I suppose.It had to be, that s where thePage 93ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm
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