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.Alicia shook her head.“Simitta said.” What the Zimmer had said was blinkedaway before she continued.“I don't know, she doesn't talk.I don't think she'ssaid more than two words that haven't been to do with her work and even forthat I have to keep reassuring her that it's proper to speak with me.”Responding to Alicia as though she were dominant, Ulanda thought.Anddifferent than how she reacted to her.A subtle difference.More like Gennady did, obedience reined in by worship, not instinct.And tempered by the Zimmerdistaste for Temple.Gennady, at least, would prefer this aspect of his god to be more removed than not, and Bolda's habit of calling Cassa her mother, made itworse.Which is why Bolda did it.“What did Simitta have to say about Kori?” Ulanda asked.“He didn't, not about Kori.I was asking about Arasima.” Alicia shrugged, hersmall face thoughtful.“I don't think he likes freeborn.”Laurel Hickeywww.2morrow.bc.caEye of the Ocean – Book 2: AlisimUlanda got to her feet.Pushing a piece of broken tea bowl with her foot, shewaited for the room to settle, the scent of mead competing with the joss sticks.No, Simitta didn't like the crew freeborn.Gennady's pets, he called them.If Kori had someone on board, she might ask Simitta first about getting the manreleased to them.Alicia picked up a fragment of tea bowl and added them to those in the altar.“Have you thrown sticks tonight?” Ulanda asked.“Are some of those yours?”“You know I don't.” The smoke of the surviving joss sticks crowned her in aaura of gray.She attempted to wave the smoke away from her face, creatingeddies that spread upward.Ulanda pulled her eyes away from the smoke before she became lost in themantric shapes growing there and began to supply others.And lost her eyesinstead to the spiral formed of bits of colored stone on the floor.Finished twoweeks ago, the design was to be repeated on the walls but in plain stone, theshapes formed by carving deeply into the surface of each piece.One spiral wasjust started; the others were only chalk marks.She had thought to have moretime to establish herself here.Did she? Would the Empire ship remain neutral?“Perhaps I should be the one to throw them.I seem to be blind to anything tooclose to me, especially tonight.” Black sticks, she wondered? If any would work,they might.And what would she see? Would any burn - or would all of them beleft well out of the pattern growing here.A Zimmer custom.Perhaps the Spanntops instead, she thought, then shivered.Alicia had spun them and said she hadseen nothing, but Rit wouldn't touch them, not after a single glimpse that hadhim kick them half across the room.Alicia wore them as a barb more than adecoration, tending to play with them when he was around, twirling one betweenher fingers and humming tunelessly as though absorbed in what she was seeing.Ulanda flexed her fingers, using the pain as a focus then tucked her hands upas far as she could.“If Gennady does have this Ri-priest on the Ladybug.” Shehad remembered quite suddenly, during Kori's message, of having seen herbefore, a memory taken from the portal opening that led to Cassa's Initiation.And remembered from the world-altar on Lillisim, just before the overpatternspiral bloomed and shut everything out of her mind.And wondered why thatparticular memory would surface just then, even as the overpattern fell aroundher and she knew why.“What's wrong?” Alicia asked as she folded the cloth.She shook her head.She hadn't cared to challenge the Zimmer about the holesin Kori's message to him other than having used them as a prod to make himrespond to her.She needed him and his ship to protect her.Alisim Templeneeded them.But the only reason that Gennady would keep this woman a secretwas if she could access overpattern.Laurel Hickeywww.2morrow.bc.caEye of the Ocean – Book 2: AlisimAnd Rit? It wasn’t only Altasimic pattern that he had access to, butoverpattern.How much and how deep? He was a blind spot in her mind; heconfused her.Memory and mind.“I should have killed you,” she whispered again, hearing her own voice asthough it were from a dream.Very competent hands, scented with fermented honey and warm cotton fromthe cloth, checked the g'ta points along her neck.“What are you talking about?Do you mean Gennady?”With the blocker fresh, Ulanda felt none of the vagueness that she half fearedand half sought.She felt too human.Felt like laughing and felt like crying.Rit, not Gennady.She hated him.She wanted him in her bed; she had since firstseeing him at the Mound, Garm's hands on her, wanting it to be Rit's handsinstead.How could a Priest be so mixed up?He had a wife and a mistress and she was a Priest.She didn't know what hewas, but he wasn't hers in the way she wanted.She had made a choice.Smiling to rejoin their earlier play, she said, “Perhaps Nisstin would do atthat.” And said it loud enough for him to hear.The Senior Warrior left the door open behind him after bowing Eunni into theroom.“He would not,” he said firmly in Xintan, but with a fair and deliberateimitation of Quin'tat's deep rumble.“A poor male is this one, and usedshamelessly by females.”He stopped before her.He was all the color in the room, Ulanda thought,feeling the warmth of his lean body, enjoying his scent over that of the josssticks.Bright reds and greens and blues in the embroidery of the crests on hisdress tunic, colours doubled and tripled in the reflections from the tiny mirrors sewn into the fabric.She liked that he hadn't changed his way of dress as manyof those serving Temple had.“Very shamelessly,” she agreed.Eunni had stayed by the door, back against the wall.Hair that was bath-damphad separated into distinct curls, the look suited her more than the brushed outfuzz had.Bolda had chosen well, a good lady's maid among his other talents.Theearth tones of the silk chenille robe looked better on Eunni than on her.Shortened from one of Garm's, one of those brought from Palace.Bolda'sweaving.Tuffs of cut silk traced diamond shapes, the same pattern as the reedsin the door of Garm's room.Through the row of off-center fastenings was wovena dark brown and cream cord, the ends left long to the floor.Fur lined a mufffashioned from the leftover fabric and Eunni had both hands tucked in and wasenjoying the warmth much as Ulanda did Nisstin's scent.Complete, regardless ofother concerns.There was something in her of what Rossaliana had, buttempered.And something related, but different, something she couldn't quitecatch to see.Something wild that was hauntingly beautiful.She could see why Rit loved her.Laurel Hickeywww.2morrow.bc.caEye of the Ocean – Book 2: AlisimUlanda looked back to find Nisstin still watching her.“Have you thrown stickstonight?”“Should I?” he echoed, with a look to Alicia, only to get a shrug in return.Histouch burned through the silk as he put his broad tanned hands on her shoulders,his Alisim Temple oath cord on one wrist loosely tied and hanging free, the tattoo like a shadow under the braiding.“What do you want to do now?” he added, sounding bemused.“Everyone hashad a look at this Captain Slicanin and decided she is a rather large, well trained river otter, none of them having seen one other than the fur.And those who havespoken with her don't know what to think
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