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But by the time Arshel was able to take the sphere aside to examine it, many
people had handled it. The camp was filled with fantasies about it, she knew.
Yet the moment she laid her own hands on it, the wildest fantasy of all sprang
into her mind.Imade this thing! The recognition went bone-deep and proved
impossible to shake.
Exasperated, she got permission to work on the sphere in the office late at
night while everyone but the guards slept. She spent several nights poring
over the object and picking up shreds of its history.
It was all nebulous, save for one thing, which she re-ported with confidence.
"The inscription is not nearly as old as the ball itself. The ball was made
for one purpose; the inscription was added to negate that purpose."
"We're going to send it to Cairnhigh for molecular scan," said Madlain. The
inscription had been rubbed away in places. It would take fine scanning to
discern some of the words that remained. "The whole inscription may tell us
where to look next."
A few days later, Dorsan left them, his Guild contract up. Lantern announced
a delay installing their program-mers, and Nunin sent his native workers home.
At first the rest of the personnel relaxed, but it wasn't long before
inac-tivity began to pall and tempers frayed.
Dennis had been mating with one of the new security guards in her own place,
and now he took to spending most of his time there. Arshel was glad because
when he was with her, he only pressured her to find out more about the gold
ball. But she couldn't.
She felt fretful for a couple of days, which sparked a meaningless quarrel
when Dennis came home one evening to express her, and she wouldn't let him
touch her. That should have been an obvious tip-off, but in the heat of the
quarrel, neither of them saw it.
He stalked out the door, saying over his shoulder, "If you're going to go all
green priest on me, you can just wait until the day after tomorrow for me to
express you again! We're going camping, and we won't be back until then!"
When the door shut behind him, she said to the blank walls, "Well, I asked
for it. I suppose it's about time, too." The discipline would do her good, and
the vacation might do him good, especially with his mate along. She settled
down to spend two days alone in her module.
But later that night, she ovulated. That explained why she had been so
wretched. Feeling silly, she called the security bunker where Dennis was
staying, only to be told that he'd left with his lieutenant. Then panic set
in.Ineed my bhirhir!
It took her sternest discipline to quell the wrenching terror. But since she
hadn't even seen a male since her molt, the egg remained in its tiniest form
and traveled rapidly. She'd have had to live in total seclusion in order to
achieve such ideal conditions for her first balbhirhir pas-sage of an egg.
It was one of the things she'd have had to do to take the blue. When she saw
that she'd pass it during the afternoon of the second day, before Dennis was
due back, she told herself that there was no reason she couldn't do it without
his help.
There was no pond in their module. She'd have to use the river. By that hour,
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the predators would have all fed well. She spent the waiting time doing deep
relaxation rou-tines. The trick, she knew, was to keep the ovipositor from
spasm by controlling hormone levels. That was related to the venom control her
recent practice had improved for her. She still had it under control by the
time her ovipositor was extended so far that she couldn't stand contact with
sand anymore.
She threw on her beach robe and made her way across the quiet camp to her
favorite swimming beach. Apparent-ly, everyone, including the guards, was
taking an afternoon nap. The water was a soothing relief to her exposed
tissues, and she sank into her meditation as if she'd never moved from her
bed. She concentrated now on controlling the key muscles and sphincters as the
egg passed. Shadows crept over her, but her concentration never wavered. The
tiny egg had reached the final sphincter, when a shrill cry shocked her to
outer awareness.
"Shel! Shel!"
The gentle rocking of the river eddy turned to a choppy splash as Dennis
waded toward her. She couldn't suppress a shriek of pain as the egg was pushed
through the last sphincter by a sudden harsh contraction.
In a panic, he grabbed her out of the water where she'd been floating face
down, and he was halfway back to the beach before he realized that she wasn't
dying. He sank to his knees under her weight, relief sapping his strength, as
she explained, "I had to pass the egg!"
"Is that what this was all about? Why didn't youtell me?" Then he launched
into a tirade of foul language such as she'd never heard him use. She answered
back, and he accused her of going wholly balbhirhir on him.
She pointed out that he was encouraging her to do so, and he turned bitter,
and then pleading, and then sulky. In the end, she had a full venom sack, but
when he offered to express her, she wasn't sure that she wanted his touch. But
he persisted, and when it was over, she felt much better.
She went to sleep that night wrapped in the cold feeling that she didn't know
this man anymore. But he was her bhirhir. If she left him, she'd die.
Not for the first time, she wished fervently that she could talk to Khelin.
But late in the night, she dreamed.
Dressed in her finest feathers, she was presenting the golden model sphere to
the Emperor of Crowns, sur-rounded by all the symbols and ceremony of the
Capital. She was hailed as a great artist and master craftsman, and a special
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