* * * * *
During the night sometime, while her dark head lay motionless on my
shoulder, I found myself staring into the darkness, wakeful. The
throbbing of my bruises had little to do with my sleeplessness; I was
remembering other chained girls from the old days in the Dry-towns, and
the honey and poison of them distilled into Dallisa's kisses. Her head
was very light on my shoulders, and she felt curiously insubstantial,
like a woman of feathers.
One of the tiny moons was visible through the slitted windows. I thought
of my rooms in the Terran Trade City, clean and bright and warm, and all
the nights when I had paced the floor, hating, filled to the teeth with
bitterness, longing for the windswept stars of the Dry-towns, the salt
smell of the winds and the musical clashing of the walk of the chained
women.
With a sting of guilt, I realized that I had half forgotten Juli and my
pledge to her and her misfortune which had freed me again, for this.
Yet I had won, and what they knew had narrowed my planet-wide search to
a pinpoint.
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