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.After a while Saba came in, looked all around, and started out.He saw her and stopped.“There you are.” He sat down on the bed, opened her satchel, and took out a bottle of whiskey.“You don’t like it, do you?”“It isn’t very pretty.”“We’ll go eat in a few minutes, you can see a little more.” He drank deeply of the dark red liquor.At the rate he was drinking it two cases would not last him an Earthish year.She would have to arrange for more.He said, “We’re going to the Akopra, too.”“Oh.” The Akopra was the Styth theater.“You never go to the one in Matuko.”“Matuko is a third-rate Akopra.The Vribulo company is the best in Uranus.”“Where do I sleep?”“Here.With me.” He lay back on his elbow across the bed, smiling.“You can seduce me, like the first time.I liked that.”She pushed back the hood of her blanket.“I’ll sleep in the chair.”He frowned at her.“What’s the matter with you?”“Nothing.I just like things the way they are.”The whiskey sloshed in the bottle.In a crabbed voice, he said, “I don’t care, you know.I’m—I was just trying to do you a favor, that’s all.”“I appreciate it.” She leaned forward, reaching for the bottle, and he gave it to her.He said, “I mean, it’s been a long time for you.”She drank a small warming mouthful out of the bottle and stretched to give it back to him.“When are we going to eat?”“You’d better not be taking on someone else behind my back.”“I’m hungry.Let’s go eat.”He stoppered the bottle and put it on the floor under the bed.She could tell by the way he moved that he was angry.There was a narrow rack in the wall opposite the window, and he took out a clean shirt and stripped himself, all in the same hard, short gestures, his back to her.“Come on,” he said, and yanked the door open.They went a short way down the street to a drinking dock called Colorado’s, after a Vribulit Akellar who had been Prima some long while past.Paula’s coat had a veil attached to the hood, which she kept fastened across her face under the eyes.The place was huge, the floor deep in sand, and gloomy as an old church.There was nowhere to sit except on the floor.The Styths stood in clumps drinking and talking.The face-cloth narrowed her vision and as soon as Saba had gone off somewhere she lowered it.There were plenty of other women, and none of them was veiled.Their faces were painted in figures of red and white, yellow, green, as concealing as veils.Their clothes were spectacular.A woman passed her in a dress of ribbons that fluttered around her while she walked.Paula watched them all, fascinated.“He did bring you,” Tanuojin said.Paula looked up; she had not seen him come in.“I think he’s still trying to civilize me.” He stood with his hands flat under his belt, his gaze moving slowly over the room.She had forgotten how tall he was.She said, “He’s over there someplace.”“I know where he is,” he said, as if she had insulted him.He crossed his arms over his thin chest.She moved away from him.She was hungry; she cast around for something to eat.Saba was coming toward her, a woman beside him.Her eyes and mouth were traced in three colors.He and Tanuojin met like lovers, their arms around each other.Paula went in among them.“I told you to wear that veil,” Saba said.“I can’t see.And I’m hungry.”The painted girl was looking down at her.The rings of color glowed faintly in the dark, accenting her huge black eyes.“Aren’t you from someplace strange?”The two men were talking.Paula nodded her head.“From the Earth.My name is Paula.”“Mine is Tye.Why did you come here?”“Dumb, I guess.”The girl laughed.Her dress covered her from throat to feet; the supple cloth moved like water over her body.“I’ve heard a lot about you, and none of it makes you sound dumb.”“Look,” Saba said.“Do you want to eat or not?”There was a slave beside her with a tray, holding it by habit up at the level of his head.She pulled it down to her range and took a plate off it.The plate was divided into sections and held beans and soup and leaf.She sat down on the sand to eat it.Tanuojin went off somewhere into the gloom.Saba and the painted girl stood face to face talking.She laughed at something he said and reached out and started to unbuckle his belt.He caught her hand.A pair of strange boots tramped up, scattering sand into Paula’s lap.She raised her head.The boots belonged to a tall young man in a shirt much decorated with chips of metal.He was staring down at her.She went back to her half-eaten dinner, now liberally salted with sand.“Leave her alone, Ymma,” Saba said.She put the plate down beside her.The young man swung toward Saba.“Oh, is she yours, Matuko? You’ve always had strange tastes.But now the Prima thinks it’s time you came back inside the border.”Saba had the painted girl by the hands.“Tell him to draw me a map.” He smiled at the girl.Tanuojin came up behind Ymma, a plate in his hand.“Running messages, Ymma?” He fed himself, his eyes on the dish.The younger man swung around to face him, his head thrust forward, belligerent.“I have a couple for you, any time you want to take them.What your friends do could hurt you, you know.”“Talk, talk.” Tanuojin turned away.He spoke without missing a bite.“Are you sure you’re getting enough to eat?”“Yes.Want some?” Tanuojin palmed the dish and pushed it into Ymma’s face.Paula stood up.Across the room someone yelped with laughter.Everybody turned to watch.Ymma gobbled wordlessly through a mask of thick soup and vegetables.Paula circled around to Saba’s far side, out of their way if they fought.Tanuojin leaned over him.“If you want to fight me, Ymma, do it in the pit, where it matters.” He walked off toward the gate.Dripping food, Ymma started after him, and Saba got in his way.“Maybe you should wash your face, Akellar.” Ymma backed up a step, pawing at the mess on his face, and Saba pushed him.The younger man retreated from him.“Paula,” Saba said, “let’s go.” He turned to the painted girl, Tye [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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