Free Heart Thief by Robin D. Owens Page B

shoes.
    â€œAunt Menzie,” Ailim said, “you know we’re not a Family prone to allergies. Canadena is just upset, not suffering sinus problems. Perhaps she should receive a Fam, too. It would give her something to focus her attention on outside of herself.”
    Danith looked at Ailim with raised brows.
    Ailim nodded.
    Moving to Canadena, Danith took her hands and stared into Canadena’s sad slate-blue eyes. Canadena’s lips trembled. “D’SilverFir canceled my Tranquility Treatments.” Her heartbroken whisper lilted through the room. She sniffed.
    â€œI’ll send you a kitten. It will soothe you and be Primrose’s playmate,” Danith said. “They’re at an age to accept each other.”
    â€œA kitten!” Canadena gasped.
    Danith dropped Canadena’s hands, turned to Ailim, and inclined her head, one FirstFamily Lady to another, then left.
    Danith made dealing with hostile people look easy. Of course, they weren’t her relatives. Still, the GreatLady’s secure self-confidence was something Ailim vowed to learn.
    Want down. Down! DOWN! Primrose insisted.
    In a moment. Ailim cuddled her new Fam closer.
    â€œA kitten.” Cuz Canadena drifted out the door.
    â€œCona, please show GreatSir Reed to his new suite in the northwest round tower,” Ailim said.
    Cona glared at her. “You’ve not heard the last of this.” Cona pasted a smile on her face and simpered at Donax. He looked stunned at her liveliness.
    Ailim sighed.
    Primrose licked Ailim’s chin. Down!
    Ailim placed the small energetic bundle of fur on the area rug. The puppy took off at a run. Cona sent it a repugnant glance and hastily moved away, her hand on Donax’s arm.
    â€œAwful thing!” Backbone stiff, Aunt Menzie marched away, trailing the men in her wake.
    Primrose nipped at their heels, and they sped their retreat. The door slammed behind them.
    Primrose sat on the floor facing Ailim, tongue lolling. Love You . The puppy’s eyes filled with adoration. She puddled on the pine floor.
    Ailim collapsed into her chair.
    Â 
Before Ruis reached Eastgate, he took off his red silkeen shirt and dragged it through dirt until no bright color showed.
    He opened the arched door in the guard tower wall and ducked into the small building, crouching under the sill of the large window of the guardroom to his left. Due to his Nullness the spell-light wavered. The guard’s snores hesitated. Ruis hurried through the tower to the door opening into the city. He sighed with relief as soon as he shut the portal silently behind him.
    Druida had quieted into night’s slower pace, but Ruis kept to the shadows. A fine tension imbued him, sharpening all his senses. Whispering, he sent Samba ahead to scout for any danger. Stealthily he followed.
    A septhour later he walked into the large dim park at the southwest part of Druida. This was the last area before the cliffs. Leaving the nightpoles that framed the park on the city street behind him, he glided through tall trees, avoiding the crisp leaves underfoot. He strode past the Summer Pavilion. Samba bounded beside him.
    Then he stopped and looked up and up and up at his new home.
    It loomed above him, dark and massive, blotting out the starbright sky and even the radiant twinmoons’ light. It blocked the horizon on both sides.
    The only whole spaceship left. Nuada’s Sword .

Four

    The ship filled Ruis’s vision.
    Stretching six kilometers in length, two in width, and twenty-five stories high, it was too huge for the FirstFamilies to protect with shieldspells. By law no destruction or pilfering was allowed, and none had taken place.
    Celtans were superstitious about the ship. The technology that had brought the colonists had long been superseded by the combination of psi power/technology developed by the Celtans. Preferred by the Celtans. Now the old mechanical and nanoelectron engineering systems were almost