Crystal Singer Read Online Free PDF Page B

everything.
    “You can’t get such goods on Ballybran, Killa,” Carrik told her as he slowly began to fold the gaudy grallie-fiber shirts. The stimulus of confirmed passage had given him a surge of energy. But Killashandra had been rather unnerved by the transformation of a charming, vital man into a quivering invalid. “Sometimes, even something as inconsequential as a shirt helps you remember so much.”
    She was touched by the sentiment and his smile and vowed to be patient with his illness.
    “There are hazards to every profession. And the hazards to crystal singing—”
    “It depends what you’re willing to consider a hazard,” Killashandra replied soothingly. She was glad for the filmy, luminous wraparounds, which were a far cry from the coarse, durable student issue. Any hazard seemed a fair price for bouts of such high living and spending. And only 4,425 in the Guild. She was confident she’d make it to the top there.
    “Do you have any comphrehension of what you’d be giving up, Killashandra?” His voice had a guilty edge.
    She looked at his lined, aging face and experienced a twinge of honest apprehension. Anyone would look appalling after the convulsions that had wracked Carrik. She didn’t much care for his philosophical mood and hoped that he wouldn’t be so dreary all the way to Ballybran. Was that what he meant? A man on vacation often had a different personality than when working at his profession?
    “What have I too look forward to on Fuerte?” she asked with a shrug of her shoulders. She wouldn’t necessarily have to team up with Carrik when she got to Ballybran. “I’d rather take a chance, no matter what it entails, in preference to dragging about forever on Fuerte!”
    He stroked her palm with his thumb, and for the first time his caress didn’t send thrills up her spine. But then he was scarcely in a condition to make love, and his gesture reflected it.
    “You’ve only seen the glamorous side of crystal singing—”
    “You’ve told me the dangers, Carrik, as you’re supposed to. The decision is mine, and I’m holding you to your offer.”
    He gripped her hand tightly, and the pleasure in his eyes reassured her more thoroughly than any glib protestation.
    “It’s also one of the smallest Guilds in the galaxy,” she went on, freeing her hand to finish packing the remaining garments. “I prefer those odds.”
    He raised his eyebrows, giving her a sardonic look more like his former self. “A two-cell in a one-cell pond?”
    “If you please, I won’t be second-rate anything.”
    “A dead hero in preference to a live coward?” He was taunting her now.
    “If you prefer. There! That’s all our clothing. We’d better skim back to the spaceport. I’ve got to check with planetary regulations if I’m going off-world. I might even have some credit due me.”
    She took the skimmer controls, as Carrik was content to doze in the passenger seat. The rest did him some good, or he was mindful of his public image. Either way, Killashandra’s doubts of his reliability as a partner faded as he ordered the port officials about imperiously, badgering the routeing agent to be certain that the man hadn’t over-looked a more direct flight or a more advantageous connection.
    Killashandra left him to make final arrangements and began to clear her records with the Fuerte Central Computer. The moment she placed her wrist-unit and thumb in place, the console began to chatter wildly, flashing red light. She was startled. She had only programmed a credit check, keyed in the fact that she was going off-world, and asked what immunization she might require for the systems they were to encounter, but the supervisor leaped down the ramp from his console, two port officials converged on her, and the exits of the reception hall flashed red and hold-locks were engaged, to the consternation of passersby. Killashandra, too stunned to react, instead stared blankly at the men who had each seized an