Waking Dream [Tales of the Citadel 23] Read Online Free PDF Page B

possible.” He smiled and showed her how to activate the lock with her hand.
    Wiyra staggered into the room, noting the soothing tones of the décor and the window that opened to let in the outside air. Her duffel was next to the bed, and she wanted nothing more than to join it.
    “Good night, Wiyra.” Burin inclined his head and left the room.
    She smiled. The light of Reevish was still bright, but he had guessed rightly that her body needed more than an average night’s sleep.
    Wiyra stripped off her baggy platform suit and shoved it into the laundry unit. The machine groaned at the effort it was using to separate the minerals from the fabric.
    Naked, she stepped into the shower and turned it on. The cold water that rapidly warmed briefly roused her body, and she scrubbed at her skin until she was glowing pink from head to toe. Her hair was still up in the knot that she wore every day, and she pulled the combs and set them aside before she returned to the shower and scrubbed her scalp. Water had always been a luxury on the platform, so she had used every landfall to enjoy the feel of the slippery stuff against her skin.
    Her hair cascaded over her shoulders, and she enjoyed the scent of the shampoo in the dispenser.
    She yawned again, and her body’s persistence to sleep had her shutting off the valve and drying herself with a blast of light and air.
    Naked, she returned to the bedroom and crawled between the sheets, curling into a ball and letting natural healing sleep take her over.
     
     

 
     
     
    Chapter Seven
     
     
    Waking took all of her effort. The bed was warm, the sheets smooth and the pillow supportive. There was no reason to leave her spot. She grimaced. Nature called, and it was not going to be denied.
    She slipped out of bed and stomped to the lav to do what she had to. When she was done, she rubbed her eyes and staggered to the mirror, glaring at the wild bed head that was her destiny.
    Wiyra stood in front of the mirror and used the brush provided, but it barely made a dent. She wandered into the outer room to find her personal effects, and a connecting door opened between her room and Burin’s.
    He froze, and she grinned as he came in and found her naked and crouching in front of her duffel bag. “Good morning, Burin.”
    He turned and faced the wall. “Good morning, Wiyra. Um, I thought you would be dressed by now.”
    “No. My hair is giving me trouble.”
    He turned his head and blinked. “It’s curly.”
    “Oh yeah. It takes superhuman effort to get it into that bun.” She grabbed her brushes, the fastening liquid and a clean set of combs and got to her feet.
    He shielded his eyes with his hand. “I can come back later.”
    “Why? One thing you have to know is that I have no bodily embarrassment aside from this damned hair. When you grow up on a platform, privacy is not something that can always be readily available.”
    “I get that. I am just surprised.” He kept one hand over his eyes as she walked past him.
    “If it will make you feel better, find me something to wear. I think the laundry unit choked on my suit.” She chuckled and stood in front of the mirror, her peculiar veining visible through her pale skin. It was a strangely graceful design and the musculature just under the surface of her skin supplemented the heartbeats that moved the blood through her system.
    It took her close to an hour to wrestle her hair into a tight bun at the back of her skull with the combs holding it fast. Burin handed her a two-tone grey bodysuit, and to her surprise, it fit.
    “How is it that the suit fits?”
    “I got it from the quartermaster. It was ordered after your bio-scans. You have been asleep for eighteen hours.”
    She blinked in surprise at her reflection. “I think that’s a record, but then, yesterday, I did pop in and out more than I ever have before without a break.”
    He nodded. “Would you like to join me for brunch?”
    Wiyra grinned. “Of course. When do I have to