Free Jack Vance - Gaean Reach 01 by Gray Prince Page A

dinner; the table was laid with fine porcelain, silver and crystal; the conversation was confined to dignified subjects and lapses of decorum were not tolerated. As a child Schaine had found these dinners tedious and she could never understand why Muffin was not allowed to dine in the Great Hall where his fancies and drolleries would certainly have enlivened matters. But Muffin was excluded; he dined alone in the kitchen.
    When Schaine was eleven her mother drowned in a boating accident on Shadow Lake. Dinners in the Great Hall became subdued rather than merely decorous, and Uther Madduc inexplicably—to Schaine—turned gruff and unreasonable; frequently she had been aroused to anger and even rebellion. Not that she did not love her father; Schaine was too warm not to love everything connected with her life; still Schaine had decided that her father must be taught a lesson on how to get along with people and how not to be so arrogant with the Uldras, specifically poor Muffin.
    Uther Madduc at this time had been a man of remarkable appearance, straight and tall, with thick gray hair worn in a style of elegant simplicity, clear gray eyes, features of classical regularity. He had been neither easy nor gregarious. Schaine remembered him as a man of brooding imagination and sudden impulses, simultaneously calm and restless, lacking all talent or taste for frivolity. His rare angers were cold and controlled, and diminished without perceptible aftermath; neither Schaine nor Kelse had ever incurred punishment at his hands except possibly on that last climactic night—if being sent to an expensive boarding school on Tanquil could be reckoned as punishment. Really, thought Schaine, I was an arrogant feckless self-important little wretch…And yet, and yet…
    Kelse and Gerd Jemasze had flown south in the Morningswake cargo carrier to salvage the Apex and the Sturdevant. With them flew two of Gerd Jemasze’s cousins and a pair of Ao ranch-hands. An automatic cannon had been mounted on the cargo deck, to fend off sky-shark attacks. Elvo Glissam had not been invited to join the party, and he had not volunteered his services; instead he and Schaine enjoyed a leisurely breakfast under the green-gums. Elvo Glissam told Schaine: “By no means feel that you must entertain me; I know you have a hundred things on your mind.”
    Schaine grinned. “I’m not worried about entertaining you. I’ve already shown you a wild erjin, as I said I’d do—and whatever the hundred affairs on my mind, I don’t intend to consider them for several days, if ever. In fact, I may very well decide to do nothing at all for the next month or two.”
    “When I think back now,” said Elvo Glissam, “I can’t believe it all happened. And yet it did.”
    “It’s certainly one way of getting acquainted,” said Schaine. “On a five-day march, a certain intimacy is almost unavoidable.”
    “Yes. At least with you, and with Kelse. Gerd Jemasze—I don’t know. He puzzles me.”
    “Me no less, and I’ve known him all my life.”
    “I’d swear that he enjoys killing Uldras,” said Elvo Glissam. “It seems churlish to cavil at his motives. He brought us home alive—as you predicted.”
    “He’s not bloodthirsty,” said Schaine. “He just doesn’t consider the Hunge human beings, especially when they’re attacking us.”
    “He amazes me,” said Elvo Glissam thoughtfully. “Killing just isn’t one of my skills.”
    “You did yourself credit,” said Schaine. “Kelse and Gerd both respect you, and I do too, so don’t go agonizing over imaginary deficiencies.”
    “Oh, I’m not agonizing. Still, I can’t believe I did anything noteworthy.”
    “You made no complaints. You did your share and usually more of whatever work was needful; you were always cheerful. I think that’s all very commendable.”
    Elvo Glissam made a careless gesture. “Inconsequentialities. I’m back in an environment I prefer, and whatever good qualities I possess