Gaze Read Online Free PDF Page B

at all.”
    “Let me see if this is correct. You were born blind?”
    Gaze nodded. “No link between my brain and my eyes. I wore a blackout visor so that my randomly wandering eyes wouldn’t upset folks. It seemed they were constantly looking for input though they couldn’t tell my brain about it.”
    “Accident?”
    “Birth defect. It just never developed.”
    Hargu blinked a few times, her huge aqua eyes filling with tears. “I am so sorry.”
    Gaze leaned forward. “Don’t be. It’s all right. I am fine. I survived my childhood and what I learned made me a candidate to leave my world. That brought me to an experiment in the imperium, and now, I have eyes that see more than I could have ever imagined.”
    She smiled and Hargu’s mood lightened. Gaze could see the energy pouring off the woman, and it shifted from a miserable grey to a bright blue-green.
    “What happened to your body? I can see the clothing that you are wearing and you don’t seem to have a taboo about touching others, so I imagine that you are covering something.”
    “The suit regulates my body temperature. I suffered burns over seventy percent of my body. I should not have survived, but I did.”
    Hargu was staring at her as if she could see the flames. “What happened?”
    “An aunt was staying with my family, and she was smoking in the family room. She fell asleep and her cigarette lit a fire.”
    “Cigarette?”
    “A shredded leaf full of stimulants and toxic chemicals, wrapped in paper. It is lit and the smoke is inhaled. Unfortunately, after a while, the stimulant effects wear off and it acts as a sedative. She fell asleep, and I was told later that she got up and ran for the door when she saw the fire.”
    Hargu gasped and leaned back. “What happened? How did you get out?”
    “My parents tried to get to me, but the fire raced up the stairs to my room. I heard them calling, and I made for the only exit we had. I had to go through the fire.” She closed her eyes and remembered the heat on her skin, the searing pain and the screams of panic from her parents outside the house.
    “A firefighter caught me and ran with me outside where I was extinguished and wrapped up. I spent weeks in and out of a drug-induced coma, and when I came out, I had to wear a compression suit and monitor my temperature every half hour. I got used to it, but when I was offered the chance to leave my home and possibly heal my skin, I jumped at the opportunity.”
    “Did it work?”
    “The scars are gone, my skin is sensitive, but it is there. The suit simply takes care of monitoring my body for me.”
    “Can you move around without the suit?”
    “Of course. I even can run around with normal clothing on my ship. Now, if that nervous woman is any indication, it is time to get you dressed. Have I distracted you?”
    Hargu blinked. “You have done that.”
    “Stand up then, you giddy bride. Your general is waiting.” Gaze took the box of fabric from the attendant and shooed Hargu onto the platform in the centre of the pavilion.
    She opened the box and lifted out the gown. “Now, which part of this is the front?”
    Hargu let out a nervous giggle and her mood was back to joyous excitement.
     
    * * * *
     
    Korwait sat with his soon-to-be family member. “So, Niyu, are you ready to be a family?”
    General Niyu Haynin smiled shyly, her scarred face glowing with happiness. “I am more than ready. Hargu has run out of reasons to delay.”
    Korwait laughed. “You agreed to have the first child then?”
    Niyu smiled. “I did, and the next day, our engagement was official. I have to say that I am excited at the idea of being a mother, now that I have gotten used to it.”
    Korwait leaned back and grinned. “She has always been stubborn. I have been waiting for her to be settled before I found my own match, so I will tell you, I am relieved.”
    Niyu served him a glass of water, and she sat back with her own. “Do you have someone in mind?”
    “Six