Colemenoport
Wayfarer
“Good evening, Lady Selph.”
Padi unlocked the door to the norbear’s residence. Lady Selph marched out, stopping at the edge of the table and rising to her back feet.
Padi lifted her to one knee, keeping her hands firmly against portly norbear sides. Lady Selph settled down, with the suggestion of a sniff, followed by a query.
“It was a moderately pleasant day, yes,” Padi said. “Jes is quite the dynamo. I would hardly have credited it, had I not seen it for myself. And I must say that sending Mar Tyn to hand-deliver the contractor solicitation letter was a stroke worthy of the master trader himself.”
Another query formed, and Padi laughed.
“Restful? Well, perhaps not, but very effective, and interesting, too. Surely you’ve seen her in the Pet Library?”
Lady Selph agreed that she had previously been acquainted, though slightly, with Jes, adding that she had never seemed half so busy then, and had smelled pleasantly of growing things.
“That was probably your good influence at work,” Padi told her. “I wonder, do you care if Tekelia—and Eet, too, if his duty allows—call on you just now?”
Lady Selph let it be known that Tekelia was always welcome. In the case of Eet, she had been anticipating his arrival ever since Padi had discussed his situation with her.
“I had only wanted to be certain that you were of a mind to entertain,” Padi told her. “Allow me a moment.”
But instead of simply whispering “Tekelia,” she paused. There were other resources available to her now. She ought to make a study of them all.
So.
She concentrated, as if she were about to show Lady Selph the face of a new acquaintance, and—thought the words, Lady Selph will be pleased to entertain Tekelia and Eet.
It seemed she heard a hum, as if of a wire in the distance, and a tug at the base of her spine. She turned her head in time to see the mist dissipate and Tekelia stand forward, a strap slung over one shoulder, supporting a bag from which a quizzical furry face peeked.
“You heard me,” she said, absurdly pleased.
Tekelia grinned.
“As you see. Now—”
Tekelia came forward to kneel next to Padi, and put the bag on the floor before them.
“How do you think it best to proceed?”
“I think,” Padi said, “that Lady Selph ought to greet Eet on her own ground, so to speak.”
She put her hands around the lady’s ample middle and lifted her to the table. Lady Selph immediately entered her residence. Padi then turned to the bag and its wide-eyed occupant.
Carefully, she offered her signature, as Lady Selph had taught her. She felt Eet accept it, and offer his own, which she accepted in her turn. Before she could ask permission to lift him to Lady Selph’s level, a face took shape, very slowly and carefully, in the space behind her eyes.
A dark-haired woman, thin face dominated by a pair of sparkling blue eyes. There was a taste of sorrow attached to the image, and Padi felt tears start to her eyes.
“I do not know her,” she said, gently.
The image faded. A second arose—strong faced, and long nosed, with dark, decided brows.
“That is Trader Isfelm,” Padi said, offering her own image of the trader as she had been this afternoon.
Eet accepted the match with a sense of satisfaction, and Padi took a breath.
“I think we had best allow Eet and Lady Selph to have their coze,” Tekelia said. “There will be time to exchange acquaintances later. Padi will lift you, if you allow it.”
On the heels of this came a rather acid observation that Lady Selph had no fresh fruit to hand.
Padi laughed, and looked to Tekelia. “Do you mind calling down to the kitchen?”
“Not at all.” Tekelia rose, and moved to the comm.
Padi reached into the bag and got a grip on Eet, who was a good deal thinner than Lady Selph, and wiry, where she was accustomed to norbears who were decidedly plump.
She placed Eet on the table, and sat back carefully, hands hovering on either side, in case he should suddenly bumble off at a tangent. Indeed, he hesitated, sitting on his haunches, and shifted, as if he would turn away—and just at that moment, Lady Selph, standing inside the entrance to her residence—chirped.
The effect on Eet was immediate and telling. He went to all fours and all but ran forward, not stopping until his head was pressed against her belly.
Lady Selph chirped again, and Padi felt a wash of what might have been concern.
“Here we are,” Tekelia said, putting a tray on the floor on Padi’s left. As she might have expected, there were sandwiches, a pot of tea, cake—and a small saucer of freshly cut fruit.
Tekelia put the saucer inside the residence, and locked the door before settling back and giving Padi a smile.
“We should eat something.”
“So I gathered.”
Padi chose a sandwich, and shifted slightly, so that she leaned against Tekelia. “I had completely forgotten to ask where we are called to, this evening.”
“And I should have told you without prompting. My Aunt Asta moved into her cottage today. She would very much like to meet you.”
“And Sort me?”
“It’s possible that’s also in her mind. I should tell you that she Saw something with regard to meeting you this evening.”
Padi lifted her eyebrows.
“Shall I be disturbed?”
“Disturbed . . . no. But it’s always wise to be cautious around an oracle.”
Padi laughed and took another sandwich.
“I will bear that in mind,” she said. “Now, before I forget—”
She rolled to her feet and went to the desk. Returning, she held a data-key out to Tekelia.
“The results of the search on norbear intelligence,” she said.
Tekelia smiled.
“That was very quick! Thank you.”
“You won’t thank me when you open it,” Padi said darkly, and glanced into the residence. The norbears were at the saucer, each busy with a piece of fruit.
“If you will hold yourself at Lady Selph’s word,” she said to Tekelia, “I will change into something more suitable.”
* * *
Tekelia was sitting on the end of her bed, back toward Lady Selph’s residence, when Padi came out of the ’fresher. She had taken her sartorial cue from Tekelia, who was dressed neatly, but unexceptionally, in sweater, sturdy pants, and boots, and had pulled her hair back into its usual tail.
She paused, looking over Tekelia’s shoulder to Lady Selph’s residence, where she saw the saucer, but no norbears.
Padi sat down next to Tekelia.
“Tell me they have escaped together in a ship left Eet by his grandsire, and they mean to set up as pirates of the spaceways.”
Tekelia laughed softly.
“No, how could I? Not that I don’t think they’d do well persuading people out of their goods.”
“Oh, born to lawlessness, never doubt it,” Padi agreed. “But I see no norbears in that cage.”
“They’re under the platform. Listen and you’ll hear them,” Tekelia said, adding, “not too closely. Eet had a great need to unburden himself, and I felt that I was . . . an unwanted third.”
Padi concentrated, as if she were about to present Lady Selph with a new face for her collection, and there, indeed, was a swift murmuring, interspersed with flashes of things seen: a shelf crowded with bric-a-brac; a swirl of mists; Torin’s face—
Padi withdrew her attention.
“I see,” she murmured. “Do you think we ought to leave them together while we call on your aunt?”
Tekelia sighed.
“I promised Torin and Vaiza that I would return him to their care when I came to see Aunt Asta.”
“Ah. Well, then, how do you propose—”
But just at that moment, there came a sharp suggestion that Eet was needed by his children.
“I should never have doubted,” Padi said wryly, and came to her feet. She approached the residence, Tekelia at her side. Lady Selph and Eet were just inside the door. Eet was holding Lady Selph’s doll tightly against his chest.
Padi touched the lock. Eet stepped out onto the table, the doll still cuddled close, and climbed into the bag Tekelia held open. Lady Selph stood inside, watching.
When Tekelia lifted the bag to settle it over a shoulder, she turned and marched back in to the residence, passing the saucer that still held some fruit as if it wasn’t there.
Padi extended a tentative thought of comfort.
In return, came a flash of teeth, and sharp reminder that Padi beware of predators.