Free Waking Dream [Tales of the Citadel 23] by Viola Grace Page A

trader and fantastic miner, but when it came to confronting Wiyra, he went to pieces.
    She really hoped that her grandfather was all right.
    “Fine. I will work for the Citadel but on a limited contract to pay for your services. Will that be acceptable?” She swayed a little. It was taking a lot of energy to stay in communication.
    “Are you all right?”
    “I have been out of my body for eight hours. It took me two to find you, and I am a little tired with no body to rest in.” The concentration required to speak to him was giving her an astral headache.
    “Rest in me while I get the documents drawn up.” Burin smiled invitingly. “I have a segmented mind, so there should be room enough for you to get your point across without killing yourself.”
    She had ridden in bodies before, but this was the first time she had been invited in. “It is an invasion of your privacy.”
    “Yes, but if we don’t keep your astral form safe until we find your body, I won’t have a partner. Come in.”
    He opened his arms, and she hesitated again. “Promise me one thing.”
    “Name it.”
    “Put some pants on.” She stepped into him and turned to face the world through his eyes, her astral form sighing in relief at the comfort of a living body to recharge in.
    She heard him laughing as he got dressed in a bodysuit and robe. He ran his hand through his hair as he worked the com unit, and when an equally scruffy figure answered, he gave the woman a list of the caveats needed for the contract.
    “When do you want this, Master Tracker?”
    “As soon as you can get it ready, Legal Master. The candidate in question is currently residing inside me in astral form. Until I get that contract, I can’t help her find her body.”
    The legal expert blinked, rubbed his eyes and nodded. “You will have it within the hour.”
    Burin got to his feet. “Close your eyes, Wiyra. There are some things I can’t put off even for you.”
    She turned her senses inward as he used the lav, took a solar shower and brushed his hair and the sharp points of his teeth. The second set of canines was an installed feature. Burin’s Wyoran-Azon physiology allowed for mating teeth, but the double canines that Burin favoured were not common. They were designed as a defense-and-attack mechanism.
    Having a ringside seat to his grooming was peculiar. Being in a body did not allow her control over it. If she weren’t so depleted, she would have waited outside and then stepped into him once he emerged, but right now, she couldn’t be picky.
    “No, you can’t be picky. It is so strange how I can hear your thoughts as if you were standing next to me.” Burin shook his head, and he swiftly tied his long deep blue hair into a tail that hung down his back. His skin was a charcoaled blue and only a few shades lighter than his hair. He was designed to be incognito with the exception of his blue-green eyes.
    You don’t need to shave?
    “No. I don’t grow facial hair. The surface of my skin has an even velvety coating that doesn’t require much maintenance.” He shrugged into another bodysuit and the robes that he wore when on official Citadel business.
    The com unit chirped, and Burin quickly brought up the file. “Can you read it through my eyes?”
    I can. What is it?
    “Your contract. Read it and use the stylus to sign it. Can you take over my hand?”
    Not in my current state. I might be able to give you a locked-in code that will be unmistakably mine. Will that work?
    “Like what?”
    Open an audio file.
    He flicked his com and enlarged the contract. “Read it first.”
    She read it and it held the caveat she asked for, that she would be free to leave after she paid off his efforts to retrieve her body.
    I, Wiyra Elyena Kwinto, speaking through Master Tracker Burin, am the mistress of the Waking Dream, fourth child of Kevia and Weinrel Kwinto, granddaughter of Vecho Kwinto and the inadvertent haunt of the Echiken bachelor party. I hereby agree to the