from bed only for dinner. Nonetheless, at the meal Lissa enjoyed telling the staff what had happened. Nobody mentioned the dispute.
As they returned to their quarters, Orichalc asked, “Can we visit honored Torben Hebo in the morning?”
“I’m sure we can,” she said. “I mean to.”
“With some privacy.”
“Hm?” She caught the implication. A thrill shot through her. “Well, we’ll see what the conditions are.”
XL
They slept luxuriously late and enjoyed an extravagant breakfast before they walked over to sickbay. Morning had brought a mild, silvery rain, filled with odors of growth and cheery animal cries. It veiled the ugliness of prospecting operations. The buildings immediately around were for housing, recreation, and the like, almost deserted while the day’s work was under way.
As Lissa and Orichalc rounded one of these, they saw a man coming in the other direction. She jarred to a halt. Sensing tension, the Susaian dropped to a half crouch, taut beneath the heal-patches scattered over his wounds.
The man neared them and stopped too. Raindrops glistened in dark curls. The sharp features drew into a smile. “Good day, milady,” he greeted. “I was hoping we’d meet again.”
“Good day, Romon Kaspersson Seafell,” she replied formally.
He sketched a salute. “And to you, honorable Orichalc,” he said.
“Likewise,” the Susaian answered through the trans, “although we are not acquainted, sir.”
“I’ve heard of you, however, seen your image, admired your deeds. Who on Asborg and now Freydis hasn’t?”
Lissa wondered whether Romon really felt the cordiality he expressed. Probably not much. “I didn’t know you were here,” she said.
“I’m fairly often on the planet, milady,” he told her. “House Seafell has a substantial investment in Venusberg Enterprises, and naturally wants to keep up with what’s going on, beyond what scheduled reports we get.”
She nodded. “And you’re the observer.”
“One of them. Perhaps the main one. I do have a suitable technical background as well as experience on other planets. Besides, Captain Hebo and I have been associated from the beginning. I first introduced him to the financiers who’ve backed his venture. In fact, I’d say I had more than a little to do with persuading them to it.”
“That was good of you.”
Romon made a new smile. “ ‘—a good deed in a naughty world.’ ” It must be one of his quotations, for she barely got the meaning of the antique words. “Actually, I confess to self-interest, as well as the interest of my House. We expect to gain from this. And, yes, the undertaking’s fascinating, often exciting.”
“I daresay the news about our rescue flashed from here, around the globe to headquarters.”
“Of course. I’m glad I was on hand.” Momentarily, his voice shook. “And, and you’ll never know how glad that you came through safe. The greatest poets couldn’t have told—” The bland mask came back down. “I flew over as soon as possible.”
“Thank you… for your kind thought.”
“You have come from seeing our friend?” inquired Orichalc.
“Correct,” Romon said. “He’s doing excellently.” He stood for an instant in the soft rain before he added, “I wanted to see— both—all three of you, and offer my best wishes.” The tone went dry. “Besides, I hadn’t had time to visit Forholt before, it being so new. I’ll take the opportunity to look around; the Seafell sponsors ought to be interested in a first-hand account.” Again the mask cracked. “If only we could talk more.” Hastily: “But there’s a great deal for me to do back at headquarters. I’ll stop by in a few hours and call on Captain Hebo again, briefly, just to reassure myself, then I must return. I hope we can meet with more leisure sometime before too long, milady and… sir. May your stay here be pleasant and your trip home happy.”
“Likewise, sir,” they responded. He strode onward…
Lissa kept herself from staring after him. “Is he really that rushed?” she wondered. “This isn’t quite like him, unless he’s changed in the last several years.”
“I sensed conflicting emotions,” Orichalc said. “They are warm toward you, I think, although with an ambivalence. I believe he would have liked to linger, but feels stressed. Or is ‘eager’ more appropriate? Perhaps he is indeed anxious to get on with his business in the opposite hemisphere.”
“Not necessarily skulduggery,” Lissa conceded.
“You are clearly not cordial toward him.”
“Nor hostile, really. He’s always been polite enough, even made amiable overtures I pretended not to notice. Because I’ve simply never been able to like him. Due mainly to conflicting views of the universe, I suppose. I wouldn’t have expected he’d be this brusque.” Lissa shrugged and grinned. “So I should be relieved he didn’t suggest we share lunch! C’mon, let’s go.”
They found the infirmary nearly vacant. The injured Susaians had been returned to New Halla after getting preliminary care, and Uldor Enarsson was being given preliminary physical therapy prior to making the same trip. The medics would soon decide whether he could finish his recovery there or had better be taken from the spaceport on the island to Asborg for it. The prognosis was favorable in either case.
An attendant conducted Lissa and Orichalc to Hebo’s room. It was small but adequate. A window stood open to the wet wild air, which sent fragrance eddying from a vase of fireblossoms on the bedside table. Pale from blood loss, he nonetheless sat propped up, alert, screening a book. A biopromoter encircled his thigh, humming mutedly as it hastened cellular renewal.
He stopped the screening when they entered. She identified the text.
She offered her hand. The clasp lingered. “How are you?” she asked.
“Fine, considering. I should be on my feet and out of here in two or three days at most. Meanwhile, the place is programmed for halfway decent food.”
She nodded at the vase. “Nice of them to give you the flowers, too.”
“Oh, Romon Kaspersson brought those. From clear across the globe.”
“That hardly sounds like him.”
“Yeah, he’s mentioned knowing you.” Hebo laughed. “Don’t stand there so astounded. He was only the courier. They’re from a lady in my office.”
Lissa discovered she wasn’t quite happy to hear that, even though it explained what might otherwise have been an unsuspected side of Romon’s character. And Torben’s? “She must… think highly of you.”
“Well, we’re pretty good friends. Romon himself didn’t have much else to convey. He’ll look in again later today, then take off.”
“Yes, he told us. We met on the walk.”
“Hey, for God’s sake, why’re we gabbing about that? Sit down, please do. I’ve been waiting and waiting for you.”
And I didn’t bring flowers, Lissa thought. Not that I had a chance to get any. She took a chair beside him. Orichalc coiled on the floor, head raised.
An unwonted awkwardness came upon Hebo. His voice stumbled a bit. “It seems I owe you two my life.”
“As I owe mine to both of you,” Orichalc replied. “Yours would not have been imperilled had you not come after me.”
Lissa made a flinging gesture. “Spung the sentiments! We all three clowned our way through a string of bollixes that should never have happened in the first place. Because we were ignorant, right?”
“I wouldn’t call you that, ever,” Hebo said. “And this makes twice you’ve saved me, milady Windholm. I haven’t forgotten the time on Jonna. I never will.”
Orichalc gazed at him before briefly bowing his head and whistling three low notes of melody. Lissa
