Plenna stared at her hands. She gave a little sigh. «I wish I lived there, too.»
«I hate this world more than ever,» said Carialle, for whom special intervention to save her life had begun before she was born. «Corruption is rewarded, child murder not even blinked at; power is the most important thing, over family, life, sanity. Let's have them put an interdict on this place when we get out of here. They haven't got space travel, so we don't have to worry about them showing up in the Central Worlds for millenia more to come.»
«We have to get out of here first,» Keff reminded her. «Perhaps we can help them to straighten things out before we go.»
Carialle sighed. «Of course you're right, knight in shining armor. Whatever we can do, we should. I simply cannot countenance what this poor girl went through.»
Keff turned to Plennafrey. She stared down toward the floor, not seeing it, but thinking of her past.
«Please, Plennafrey,» Keff said, imbuing the Ozran phrases with as much persuasive charm in his voice as possible, «I'm new to your world. I want to learn about you and your people. You interest me very much. What is this?» he asked, picking up the nearest unidentifiable gew-gaw.
Distracted, she looked up. Keff held the little cylinder up to her, and she smiled.
«It is a music,» she said. At her direction, he shook the box back and forth, then set it down. The sides popped open, and a sweet, tinny melody poured out. «I have had that since, oh, since a child.»
«Is it old?»
«Oh, a few generations. My father's father's father,» she giggled, counting on her fingers, «made it for his wife.»
«Its beautiful. And what's this?» Keff got up and reached for a short coiled string and the pendant bauble at the end of it. The opaline substance glittered blue, green, and red in the lamplight.
«It's a plaything,» Plennafrey said, with a hint of her natural vitality returning to her face. «It takes some skill to use. No magic. I am very good with it. My brothers were never as skilled.»
«Show me,» Keff said. She stood up beside him and wound the string around the central core of the pendant. Inserting her forefinger through the loop at the strings end, she cradled the toy, then threw it. It spooled out and smacked back into her palm. She flicked it again, but this time moved her hand so the pendant ricocheted past her head, dove between their knees, then shot back into her hand.
«A yo-yo!» Keff said, delighted.
«You have such things?» Plennafrey asked. She smiled up into his face.
Keff grinned. «Oh, yes. This is far nicer than the ones I used to play with. In fact, its a work of art. Can I try?»
«All right.» Plenna peeled the string off her finger and extended the toy to him. He accepted it, his hands cradling hers for just a moment. He did a few straight passes with the yo-yo, then made it fly around the world, then swung it in a trapeze.
«You are very good, too,» Plenna said, happily. «Will you show me how you did the last thing?»
«It would be my pleasure,» Keff told her. He returned the toy to her hands. As his palms touched hers, he felt an almost electric shock. He became aware they were standing very close, their thighs brushing slightly so that he could feel the heat of her body. Her breath caught, then came more quickly. His respiration sped up to match hers. To his delight and astonishment he knew that she was as attracted to him as he was to her. The yo-yo slipped unnoticed to the hassock as he clasped her hands tightly. She smiled at him, her eyes full of trust and wonder. Before she said a word, his arms slid along hers, encompassing her narrow waist, hands flat against her back. She didn't protest, but pressed her slim body to his. He felt her quiver slightly, then she nestled urgently against him, settling her head on his shoulder. Her skin was warm through the thin stuff of her dress, and her flowery, spicy scent tantalized him.
She felt so natural in his arms he had to remind himself that she was an alien being, then he discarded inhibition. If things didn't work out physically, well, they were sharing the intense closeness of people who had been in danger together, a kind of comfort in itself. Yet he let himself believe that all would be as he desired it. There were too many other outward similarities to humanity in Plennafrey's people. With luck, they made love the same way.
Plennafrey had none of the seductive art of the gauze-draped Potria, but he found her genuine responsiveness much more desirable. While her elders were tormenting Keff, it had probably not occurred to her to think of him as anything but an abused «toy.»
She was merely being kind to an outsider, or less charitably, to a dumb animal that couldn't defend itself. Now that they were together, intriguing chemistry bubbled up between them. He watched the long fringe of her lashes lift to reveal her large, dark eyes. He admired the long throat and the way her pulse jumped in the small shadow at the hollow inside her collarbone. The corners of her mouth lifted while she, too, stopped to study him.
«What are you thinking?» he asked, looking up at her.
«I am thinking that you are handsome,» she said.
«Well, you are very beautiful, lady magess,» he whispered, bending down to kiss the curve of her shoulder.
«I hate being a magess,» Plennafrey said in a voice that was nearly a sob.
«But I am glad you are a magess,» Keff said. «If you hadn't been, I would never have met you, and you are the nicest thing I have seen since I came to Ozran.»
He put his hand under her chin, stroked her soft throat with a gentle finger like petting a cat. Almost felinely, Plenna closed her eyes to long slits and let her head drift back, looking like she wanted to purr. She raised her face to his, and her hand crept up the back of his neck to pull his head down to her level. Keff tasted cherries and cinnamon on her lips, delighted to lose himself in her perfume. He deepened the kiss, and Plenna responded with ardor. He bent down to kiss the curve of her shoulder, felt her brush her cheek against his ear.
Suddenly she let go of him and stepped back, looking up at him half-expectantly, half-afraid, Keff gathered up her hands and kissed them, pulled Plenna close, and brushed her lips with soft, feather-light caresses until they opened. She sighed.
«Sight and sound off, please, Cari,» Keff whispered. Plennafrey nestled her head into the curve of his shoulder, and he kissed her.
Carialle considered for a moment before shutting off the sensory monitors. While in a potentially hostile environment, especially with hostiles in pursuit, it was against Courier Service rules to break off all communications.
The Ozran female let out a wordless cry, and Keff matched it with a heartfelt moan. Carialle weighed the requirement with Keff's right to privacy and decided a limited signal wasn't unreasonable. Such a request was permissible as long as the brain maintained some kind of contact with her brawn partner.
«As you wish, my knight errant,» she said, hastily turning off the eye and mouth implants. She monitored transmission of his cardial and pulmonary receivers instead. They were getting a strenuous workout.
With her brawn otherwise occupied, Carialle turned her attention to the outside of Ozran. Most of the power and radio signals were still clustered on and inside Chaumel's peak. Each magiman and magiwoman proved to have a slightly different radio frequency which she or he used for communication, so Carialle could distinguish them. The eight remaining hunters who had pursued Keff and his girlfriend down the subterranean passages fanned out again and again across the planetary surface, and regrouped. The search was proving futile. Carialle mentally sent them a raspberry.
«Bad luck, you brutes,» she said, merrily.
On the plain, the eye-globes came out of nowhere and circled around and around her. Carialle peered at each one closely, and recorded its burblings to the others through IT. Keff was building up a pretty good Ozran vocabulary and grammar, so she could understand the messages of frustration and fury that they broadcast to one another.
Some time later, Keff's heartbeat slowed down to its resting rate. His brain waves showed he had drifted off
