Free Dragon in Exile - eARC by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee Page A

added, softly, “I regret, very much, that I have come too late.”
    But Val Con’s eyes were bright with tears, and he was shaking his head.
    “No,” he said, his voice low. “You have come in good time.”
    “But—”
    “The decision was upon us—tomorrow, the delm would have sent their word. There seemed no other choice.” He raised the tiles again. “You have brought me a choice.”
    Rys stared, suspended between disbelief, joy, and anguish. He wanted to dance; he wanted to weep. In the end, he sipped his wine, and recruited himself to calmness, and looked up again to meet his brother’s eyes.
    “You agree, then, that the question must be put?” Somehow, he had never doubted it: Of course, Val Con would wish to liberate the agents, if it were possible. There was debt.
    He—they—had done so much that was terrible; lives ruined, lives cut short—if either of them attempted an honest accounting, their debt books would be soaked in blood. But here was a chance to Balance the harm they had done…surely that would compel a bold-hearted man who had once, perhaps, been kind?
    “Of course, they must have the chance—and the choice,” Val Con said. “May I review this thing you have made?”
    “Yes, certainly!”
    Val Con held the dream up between them, the silver frame gleaming like ice in the yellow light.
    “What protocol for access? I lack an Old Tech reader.”
    Yes, of course. Rys reached again into his vest and brought forth the box and cable Pulka had constructed.
    “This is an adapter.” He displayed the cable link. “My brother Pulka believes that it will jack into a standard sleep learner. The tiles are inserted here.” He showed the box.
    “Ah.”
    “You may also—Silain- luthia herself offers this—you may also at any time come to her and dream in her own tent. She naturally guarantees the safety of my brother.”
    “Of course.”
    There was a long silence, while his brother apparently took thought. And well he might think long and deep on this chancy gift, Rys thought.
    “Well,” Val Con looked up with a faint smile. “I will—and I suspect that you will also—need to talk this business over with Miri. How fare you, Brother? Are your reserves high, or would you rather engage with your sister my lifemate come morning?”
    Rys stopped in the act of reaching for his glass and looked up into serious green eyes.
    “Tomorrow morning would mean another trip out from the city, which I would rather not—”
    Val Con moved a hand, cutting him off.
    “In either case, you will of course guest with us tonight. Your room has long been made ready for you.”
    He thought to protest, but, really, it was only sensible that he rest this night in his brother’s care. Especially as he suspected that he would have a companion on his return to the kompani .
    “If we speak with her tonight,” he said, to his brother’s waiting eyes, “we may make an early start, tomorrow.”
    Val Con laughed.
    “Well-spoken, bold heart! Finish your wine, then, and let us seek the lady in her parlor! On the way, we will stop in the kitchen, and you will tell Mrs. ana’Tak what she must put into a basket for your grandmother.”
    * * *
    There came a knock at the door to their suite. Natesa was still drying her hair, so it was Pat Rin, his own hair still damp, who opened to Mr. pel’Tolian and the cold dinner.
    “Thank you,” he said, and stepped aside, experience having taught him that he would not be allowed to take the tray and bear it halfway across the room to the table. Mr. pel’Tolian had standards, which included the close-held belief that those of the serving clans served . Any attempt by Pat Rin to take the tray would be seen as nothing less than a usurpation of Mr. pel’Tolian’s proper duty.
    The tray disposed, his man turned, but did not immediately depart.
    “Because I refused to disrupt your evening by putting her call through to you, I was charged with the message that Chief Security Officer