The Call of Earth: 2 (Homecoming) Read Online Free PDF

obviously had not heard her coming up the stair, and the sound of her voice froze Obring. For a moment he held his post. Then he turned his head, looking quite foolish as he gazed mournfully over his shoulder at her. “Kyoka,” he said. “You’re home early.”
    “I should have known,” said the woman on the bed. Her face was still hidden behind Obring’s naked back, but Kokor knew the voice at once. “Your show is so bad they closed it in mid-performance.”
    Kokor hardly noticed the insult, hardly noticed the fact that there wasn’t a trace of embarrassment in Sevet’s tone. All she could think of was, That’s why she had to find a new hiding place, not because her lover was somebody famous, but to keep the truth from
me.
    “Hundreds of your followers every night would be glad for a yibattsa with you,” Kokor whispered. “But you had to have my husband.”
    “Oh, don’t take this personally,” said Sevet, sitting up on her elbows. Sevet’s breasts sagged off to the sides. Kokor loved seeing that, how her breasts sagged, howat nineteen Sevet was definitely older and
thicker
than Kokor. Yet Obring had wanted
that
body, had used that body on the very bed where he had slept beside Kokor’s perfect body so many nights. How could he even be aroused by a body like that, after seeing Kokor after her bath so many mornings.
    “You weren’t using him, and he’s very sweet,” said Sevet. “If you’d ever bothered to satisfy him he wouldn’t have looked at
me.”
    “I’m sorry,” Obring murmured. “I didn’t mean to.”
    That was so outrageous, like a little child, that Kokor could not contain her rage. And yet she did contain it. She held it in, like a tornado in a bottle. “This was an accident?” whispered Kokor. “You stumbled, you tripped and fell, your clothes tore off and you just happened to bounce on top of my sister?”
    “I mean—I kept wanting to break this off, all these months . . .”
    “Months,” whispered Kokor.
    “Don’t say any more, puppy,” said Sevet. “You’re just making it worse.”
    “You call him ’puppy’?” asked Kokor. It was the word they had used when they first reached womanhood, to describe the teenage boys who panted after them.
    “He was so eager,” said Sevet, sliding out from under Obring. “I couldn’t help calling him that, and he likes the name.”
    Obring turned and sat miserably on the bed. He made no attempt to cover himself; it was obvious he had lost all interest in love for the evening.
    “Don’t worry about it, Obring,” Sevet said. She stood beside the bed, bending over to pick up her clothing from the floor. “She’ll still renew you. This is
one
story she won’t be eager to have people tell abouther, and so she’ll renew you as long as you want, just to keep you from telling.”
    Kokor saw how Sevet’s belly pooched out, how her breasts swung when she bent over. And yet
she
had taken Kokor’s husband. After everything else, she had to have even
that.
It could not be borne.
    “Sing for me,” whispered Kokor.
    “What?” asked Sevet, turning to face her, holding her gown in front of her.
    “Sing me a song, you davalka, with that pretty voice of yours.”
    Sevet stared into Kokor’s eyes and the look of bored amusement left her face. “I’m not going to sing right now, you little fool,” she said.
    “Not for me,” said Kokor. “For Father.”
    “What
about
Father?” Sevet’s face twisted into an expression of mock sympathy. “Oh, is little Kyoka going to tell on me?” Then she sneered. “He’ll laugh. Then he’ll take Obring drinking with him!”
    “A
dirge
for Father,” said Kokor.
    “A dirge?” Sevet looked confused now. Worried.
    “While you were here, boffing your sister’s husband, somebody was busy killing Father. If you were human, you’d care. Even baboons grieve for their dead.”
    “I didn’t know,” said Sevet. “How could I know?”
    “I looked for you,” said Kokor. “To tell you. But