Duty Bound Read Online Free PDF Page A

than excellent?"
    The Scout stared, absolutely still, then
gave a shout of laughter and slapped his two-fingered hand on the
card table.
    "Dragons dice early, I learn! Well said." He
looked back to Daav.
    "These gentles and myself have some business
to conclude. I will find you in an hour at the main eatery,
belowstairs. They serve a tolerable nuncheon. Tell them you're on
the Scout's ticket."
    Daav bowed, and Er Thom did, too. "One hour,
in the main restaurant," Daav murmured, but the Scout had already
turned away, and was reaching for the cards.
    * * *
    THEY PAUSED ON the threshold of the casino's
restaurant and embraced without speaking. Daav raised a hand as
they let the hug go, and ran his fingers, feather-light, down Er
Thom's cheek.
    "Keep you safe, denubia," he said,
light-voiced, as if he did not stand on the edge of parting from
his brother--his second self--twice in one scant lifetime, and
grinned with more courage than mischief. "Beware of idiots seeking
to chain you to a dummy board."
    Er Thom smiled, matching Daav's courage,
then exceeded it, by taking one step back and raising his hand.
"Keep safe, Daav," he murmured, and spun, perhaps too quickly, on
his heel and strode off, alone, across the clattering busyness of
the casino.
    Daav watched him go--a slender,
yellow-haired boy in trading clothes and well-made boots, the
sleeve of his jacket bearing Korval's venerable
Tree-and-Dragon--until he lost him among the tall crowd of
gamesters. He bit his lip, then, and blinked hard a time or two to
clear his eyes, then went into the restaurant and asked for a table
overlooking the floor.
    * * *
    SHOULDERS STRINGENTLY level, Er Thom went
across the noisy room. He looked neither left nor right--and most
especially he did not look back, being wise enough to know that his
fragile seemliness would never withstand the sight of Daav standing
at the entrance to the restaurant, watching him safely out the
door.
    Clack... clack.. .clack--as before, the
sound drew the ear as insidiously as the flaring lights pulled the
eye. Er Thom allowed himself a glance to the left and up, observing
the Wheel as it clack... clack.. .clacked to the end of its course
and was still, dark, but for a single wager-mark.
    "Blue Seven!" called the croupier, and
flourished his wand across the betting table, collecting the losing
wagers in a single, precise sweep.
    Er Thom discovered that he had stopped
walking and frowned, remembering the formidable list of errands he
had yet to accomplish in the high town for his parent. He put one
foot forward, but his eye had been caught, precisely as before, by
the Tree-and-Dragon sigil on the sleeve of Mechanic Bor Gen
pin'Ethil's jacket. As he watched, the man reached into his pocket
and pulled out a coin, his shoulders rounded as if he stood under
some unbearable weight.
    Hesitating, Er Thom tried to reckon the time
that had passed since he had first passed the Wheel and its cluster
of avid players, and then shook himself, crossly. What business was
it of his, how a crewman on leave chose to amuse himself?
    Bor Gen pin'Ethil placed his coin on the
table, his fingers hovering near, as if he might at any moment
snatch it away.
    Er Thom frowned again, liking that
round-shouldered pose of misery less with every heartbeat. He had
been several times over the last months assigned to the repair
bays, and more than once to Mechanic pin'Ethil himself. A gentle,
sweet-natured man, Bor Gen pin'Ethil, skilled in his work and an
able teacher, besides. The man who stood with his neck bent at the
base of the wheel was as unlike Mechanic pin'Ethil as--as Chi
yos'Phellum was unlike her twin.
    Er Thom hesitated, and in that moment the
croupier extended his glowing wand to the Wheel, Thick scarlet
sparks flared wetly and the Wheel began to spin, picking up speed
until the rimlights were but a foggy smear against the far indigo
ceiling.
    Alone among the crowd at the table, Bor Gen
pin'Ethil did not gaze, entranced, upward into the