Free The Final Key: Part Two of Triad by Catherine Asaro Page B

again." "Again?"
    "Bothering me about a drink." He wondered if the same person who programmed the cleaning bots had coded Etude. "Don't you have anything else to do?"
    "One of my functions is to protect your health. You consume too much alcohol and take too much medication."
    Eldrin tensed. How could it know about the phorine? He used only the syringe he had brought, which had no connection to any mesh in the palace. The syringe belonged to Dehya, which meant if she needed more of the medicine, she wouldn't have it. Alaj could issue her another one, though. She apparently hadn't used the phorine since then, anyway. He doubted she had even noticed the syringe was missing. Sometimes he wondered if she knew he was missing from her life.
    "What medications?" he asked warily.
    "I don't know. However, judging from your behavior before and after you inject this drug, it has a strong effect"
    Eldrin poured himself a glass of whiskey, which he now kept in the carafe instead of wine. "Yes, well, that's why I have to take it."
    "Your symptoms indicate either a neurological disease or an addiction. I have no record of any disease."
    Eldrin's hand jerked and gold liquid sloshed over his fingers. "Are you calling me an alcoholic?"
    "No. Are you?"
    "No. I can stop drinking any time I want."
    "This may be. However, your situation has triggered alarms in my systems. I should contact the medical authorities, but I have been unable to do so. I'm blocked by a security protocol called Epsilon."
    "I know." Eldrin didn't actually understand Epsilon. Taquinil had found it on Dehya's console and said it gave people privacy. Eldrin had the impression the files were games Dehya had left for the boy. He had asked Epsilon to prevent Etude from sending out warnings about his use of the medicine. He didn't know why it worked, but apparently Taquinil was right this Epsilon game did protect his privacy.
    He returned the dragon flask to the cabinet. "I have reason to want a drink."
    "Perhaps you would tell me this reason?" it said.
    Eldrin didn't want to tell it anything. He had developed a taste for alcohol after his marriage. He had been sixteen, well below the legal drinking age among Skolians. But Dehya was gone so much, and she never locked her wine cabinet Confused, angry, and lonely, he had found that alcohol helped.
    They married him to Deyha, literally at gunpoint, and then left him on his own to deal with the impossible.
    So he drank.
    When he had first come to the Orbiter, Eldrin had seen a specialist a military doctor who helped him deal with his "post-traumatic stress" from combat Those sessions had been an oasis in the midst of his confusion. On Lyshriol, people treated him as a hero, but he knew the truth. He had committed murder. He killed two men with his sword and
    another in hand-to-hand combat. His people called him a man of courage and honor, but he felt like slime. Going to a counselor had helped. But after the Assembly forced him to marry Dehya, he stopped seeing the specialist. He hadn't wanted to talk to anyone. He had just plain hated himself.
    Somehow, incredibly, he and Dehya had found their way to each other. They formed the bonds only Rhon psions could know. They were alike far more than he could have imagined. She understood his painful sensitivity to emotions because she was the same way. She and Taquinil became gems in a life that otherwise bewildered him.
    Eldrin hadn't drunk as much then, but since coming here, he often sought the solace of alcohol. He felt ripped in two by this separation from his family. He took a swallow of whiskey, and it spread warmth through his body. He didn't need phorine yet; although the euphoria had faded, he felt no symptoms of his illness. Whenever he stopped taking it, his head ached, worse and worse, until he went into convulsions. He knew he should go to a doctor, but he hated to admit his weakness, and the doctors would reprimand him for using medicine without supervision. They might even