Free Mouse and Dragon by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee Page A

against her?"
    "I think she would be delighted," Daav said truthfully. "And now, Pilot—are your straps secure?"
    She touched the shoulder harness and the lap strap.
    "They are. May I know why the pilot asks this question?"
    "Because now that we are out of the city, I intend—very much—to give over holding down my speed."
    Aelliana smiled, and settled back into her seat, moving her hand from his knee to her own.
    "Good," she said.
     

Chapter Eight
Each clan is independent and each delm law within his House. Thus, one goes gently into the House of another clan. One speaks soft and bows low. It is not amiss to bear a gift.
—
Excerpted from the
Liaden Code of Proper Conduct
 
    The wind roared, yanking her hair hard enough to bring tears. Aelliana recalled that she had used to be frightened of speed; certainly the blurred countryside through which they pelted—houses, trees, flowers, and fields smeared into the abstract—ought to sent her curling into the corner of the seat, face hidden behind her arms.
    Instead, she laughed, and sat forward, giddy with sensation. Drunk with speed. Drunk, indeed, with Daav's joy and a sort of feral alertness, so potent that there was no need to touch him in order to clarify what he felt.
    The car swooped to the top of a hill, spun into a thin lane and dashed downward. Stomach in free fall, Aelliana laughed again, and heard Daav laugh, too.
    At the base of the hill, he downshifted, and followed the lane to the left, through a series of twists and turns, slowing almost imperceptibly as they negotiated each until, by the time they passed beneath an archway thick with flowers, the car was proceeding very nearly at a stately pace.
    Colmeno bushes lined the lane on both sides, their lemony scent cleansing away the sweet breath of the flowers. At the end of the line of bushes, the lane intersected another. Aelliana caught a glimpse of a stairway, a glitter that was perhaps a window, then Daav turned the little car left, then right, going quite slowly now, and pulled into a 'crete apron between a building that might have been a garage, and a pleasant lawn.
    "And so we arrive," Daav said, shutting the car down. He raised his hands and smoothed them over his head, utterly failing to tame his wind-snarled hair.
    "That did no good whatsoever, if you were trying for decorum," she told him, her voice effervescent in her own ears.
    "Now, have I ever tried for decorum?" Daav said musingly, looking down at her from snapping black eyes. "I must have done, mustn't I? Once or twice?"
    "Surely, Korval must be decorous!" she returned.
    He moved his shoulders. "Korval of course must be decorous, lest society fail. Daav rarely has such calls upon him. However, you are correct! One's brother has endured an unsettling morning, and very likely a less-than-amusing afternoon. He deserves better than to be treated to the spectacle of the two of us, with the dust of the port—and half the valley!—on us and our hair in matching mares' nests." He raised an eyebrow.
    "There ought to be a comb or three in the drawer under your seat."
    There were, she found, exactly three—disposables, each sealed into a transparent envelope. She handed him one and took another for herself, reaching behind her head to open the silver clasp.
    "Ouch!" Biting her lip, she worked the comb carefully through the knotted mass of her hair, and after a time was able to once again snap the hair clasp into place.
    "Behold us," Daav said gaily as she slipped the comb into the pocket of her jacket, "respectable!"
    "If your brother's day has been distressing," Aelliana said, frowning up at him, "ought we to disturb him with a stranger's affairs?"
    "We ought by all means make him aware of the clan's obligations, and immediately. He stands as nadelm, recall. If aught were to happen to me, it is Er Thom who will continue those arrangements guaranteed by Korval. You may be sure he would ring a peal over me the like of which you have never heard if I