Venus of Shadows Read Online Free PDF Page B

loved him enough to share his shame. He thought of Wadzia, who had been quick to let others know her connection with him was a casual one, and of Luciana, who had found only excuses to give him.
    Malik rubbed at the stubble on his face; he might not seem so attractive now, disheveled as he was. Maybe Yekaterina Osipova only pitied him.
    He and the woman had fallen behind the others. Malik halted for a moment, took out his canteen, drank, then offered his water to Yekaterina. She took a sip, then handed the canteen back.
    "You spoke of yourself, Malik Haddad," she said as they walked on. "Perhaps I should tell you a little about myself."
    "If you wish."
    "I applied to be a worker with the Venus Project. My Counselor tried to talk me out of it and said I had no chance, but I insisted."
    "Then you were rejected," Malik said, "or you wouldn't be here."
    "Perhaps I should have listened to the Counselor. Those I went to said they had no need of a woman whose only work was growing vegetables. I told them people had to eat wherever they were. They said I had no skills, and I said that I had learned to read, could speak Anglaic, and that I could learn anything else they felt I needed to know. They said a settler's life wasn't easy, and I said that I came from people who took pride in how much suffering they could bear. They turned me down. I went home to think of ways to make them change their minds."
    "What happened then?" Malik asked.
    "I had a lover, Yuri. That was enough — I wanted no more from him. But I was nearly twenty, and he kept after me for a pledge. Soon, my parents were taking his side — they were going to renew their bond and wanted a ceremony for me at the same time. My mother told me I was a fool, that Yuri wanted me enough to pledge two decades or even three. It's the way she thinks, that you should have a bond with a man for as many years as possible, so that when it's time to renew the bond or let it lapse, it's harder for him to leave."
    Malik nodded. Yekaterina clearly came from a community where such bonds were valued, and her Counselor would have insisted that she follow custom.
    "I know a little of other lands," Yekaterina continued. "I told my parents there were places where people scorned bonds or wore them lightly, but they wouldn't listen — their ways are the law of the world in their eyes. I had some love for Yuri. He was strong, and a hard worker, and his smile made my heart dance, but I knew that he would demand too much from me. Yuri was content in our village — he didn't want me to think of trying to leave it again. He mocked my learning and said it was useless."
    Malik arched his brows. "Your learning?"
    She smiled. "It isn't learning like yours, only what I could find out with my screen and band. I can read. I've had some lessons, but not enough to be chosen for a school." She lifted her head. "On Venus, all children can go to a school. They don't have to hope that a Counselor will choose them or find a way to pay for the lessons if they aren't chosen."
    The rest of the group was getting farther ahead of them; the two picked up their pace. "Why did you come here?" Malik asked. "Did you decide there was no point in applying to the Project Council again?"
    She shook her head. "Alexei wanted to come. Even our parents saw that it might be better for him to be away from our village. I couldn't let him come here alone. My mother wept, but she knew that I'd try to look out for him."
    "He seems old enough to look after himself."
    "He's seventeen." She paused. "I don't like to say this about my brother, but he thinks freedom is only the chance to do what he likes, with no one to hold him back. Whatever freedom is on Venus, it cannot be that kind, but —"
    Yekaterina put on her hat, then thrust her hands into her coat pockets. "Alexei has often been troublesome," she murmured, "and he'd fallen in with a few like himself. The Counselor would have done something about that eventually, but happily my