Jinx on a Terran Inheritance Read Online Free PDF Page A

my poor best to divert you."
    "Try that again?"
    "Amuse. Entertain."
    "Whoa, lucky me. Well, what're you having, mantra-man?"
    He slid his goblet away. "No more of that wine. What've you got?"
    She studied him for a moment, lower lip outthrust, then began putting crushed ice in a glass. As she worked she said, "So, your sidekick left you high and dry, hm?" She was pouring, squirting, shaking, dabbing. The light seemed to adore her, glimmering and rippling across her finery.
    "Naw, that's just business." He can't be down there layin' commo cable! Not Ho!
    That's what Alacrity had been trying to tell himself for the better part of an hour. He wanted very much file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis...aley%20-%20Jinx%20on%20a%20Terran%20Inheritance.htm (16 of 320)19-2-2006 17:12:28
    [Fitzhugh 2]-JINX ON A TERRAN INHERITANCE
    to believe things were taking so long because Yumi was drawing Floyt's blood drop by drop. Each from a different spot on his body. The dirty, lucky …
    "Business, sure." The barmaid scoffed, setting a columnar glass before him. "And next I'm supposed to swap you two tens for a five, right?"
    Alacrity considered the frosted glass and its orange contents. "What's in this thing, pet? And to what alias does it answer?"
    "Orange juice from Satori—see the pulp?—ouzo we picked up on Hellas, ice I made myself, and a few odds and ends. I call it an Archimedes' Screw."
    He sipped warily, then drank. "Woo! You oughta patent this phlegm loosener!"
    "Thanks. But then, they always taste better when they're on the house, don't they?"
    "I'll drink to that." But he went easy on it; there was no telling what sort of complications he and Floyt might face at the Epiphany spaceport.
    The barmaid's name was Charivari. They got into a more or less standard bar volley about what it was like to work in the Pearl, how he'd gotten there, where she came from, and where he'd visited.
    Elsewhere could be heard the Severeemish, slightly the worse for alcohol and whatever else, trying to teach the very amused young women of the Daubin' Band one of their a cappella battle dirges.
    "For a breakabout, you look like you expect to be doing an awful lot of walking," Charivari observed.
    He'd changed to a frayed and faded flying suit, with its abundant pockets, pouches, loops, and tabs. It was bare of insignia, ship patches, or badges of rank. Around his neck under his collar, knotted in the style of the cowboys, was a blue bandanna. He also wore the prized pathfinder boots he'd had made on So Far. The pathfinders were versatile and tremendously durable, of fascia, vertical reinforcements and elastic joints, with knee-cupping shields like a knight's genouilleres. They showed a good deal of hard use.
    "It wouldn't be the first time." He shrugged. The Daimyo's fee was a terrific windfall, but a pittance against interstellar passage. Alacrity, member of any number of spacers' unions and guilds, might be allowed to deadhead if a starship had room, but for Floyt they must come up with lots of cash. At least deadheading's been getting easier these last few years, he thought. The increasing speed of travel and volume of traffic, as the Third Breath of Humanity swung into high gear, made the difference.
    "Here's to a new day," he proposed as the Pearls roundabout course brought her up on the dawn line over a tranquil green ocean. Charivari toasted with an Irish coffee he insisted she drink. As for you and file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis...aley%20-%20Jinx%20on%20a%20Terran%20Inheritance.htm (17 of 320)19-2-2006 17:12:28
    [Fitzhugh 2]-JINX ON A TERRAN INHERITANCE
    your Jinx, Dincrist — go twirl on it!
    "Here's to luck and the Breakers," she said.
    Alacrity left off contemplating the dawn to look up at Redlock and Dorraine. The Queen of Agora was much taller than her husband, supple but erect. Her hair was as dark as Yumi's, and longer; her brown skin seemed a fiery orange with the rising of Halidome, Epiphany's sun.