Read Online A Thousand Words For Stranger (10th Anniversary Edition) by Julie E. Czerneda - Free Book Online

That doesn’t matter. Sira will try to reach the shipcity, to look for transport. She knows the way—and she knows to avoid Enforcers or Port Authority.”
    “Won’t she be looking for you?” Morgan probed.
    “No!” At once, Barac knew he’d made a bad mistake; he was familiar enough with Humans to see that Morgan was plainly startled by his denial. The Clansman flushed. “No,” he repeated at a more reasonable volume. “I’m not her concern. Sira needs to leave Auord.”
    “Your ways are stranger than I thought, Clansman,” Morgan said with a return to his former coolness.
    “I was her escort here, nothing more. Sira must go to Camos; Auord was merely a stopover to change transport. At least, that was the plan.” Barac went on quickly, feeling himself forced to explain more and more, wondering if it was worth it. “She’s alone,” he repeated. “With no power or weapon of her own. Any chance she has depends upon my leaving this world and your helping her do the same.”
    Morgan drummed his fingers on the table thoughtfully. “This favor of yours will create a debt against the Fox. I’ll have to pay penalties, extra dock fees . . .”
    Relieved, Barac quickly pushed a small clear bag of currency gems in front of Morgan. “If you need more, we’ll settle it on Camos.” He stood.
    Morgan stayed where he was. “You said you can’t detect her. Could it be because she’s dead?”
    Barac froze. It was a reasonable question, but answering it was treading into dangerous waters, even with a “friend.” Not answering would probably lose Morgan’s cooperation. He sighed.
    “I can’t detect Sira because she travels under a special form of protection—one that hides her from Clan adepts.”
    Morgan poked at the bag of gems with one finger. “I’m sure you won’t tell me why,” he commented.
    “No,” Barac agreed, tight-lipped. He studied Morgan’s face, then added with a sudden recklessness. “But there is one more thing I have to tell you. Because of this protection, Sira will not know who or what she is.” And with those words, his face and body shimmered and disappeared.
    Jason Morgan, captain of the trade ship Silver Fox, and native to a system so distant from this one that few recognized its name, calmly cursed in a tongue definitely not learned in his planet-bound youth. Then he picked up the currency gems and, tipping the bag, let their multicolored richness spill over the tabletop.
    “Not enough for this one, Clansman,” he muttered, walking out, leaving the gems behind.

Chapter 3
    WELL, my chances of leaving Auord seemed to be improving. A comfort of sorts, I decided, but one that did nothing to push away the darkness in my closetlike prison. I bit my lip to stop its trembling as my thoughts twisted through the hours just past, hours spent being poked, prodded, and otherwise treated like a slab of meat.
    However, and quite unexpectedly, I was alive. Presumably this meant those same tests had satisfied Roraqk. Of course, the Tulis might simply not have bothered to kill me yet. I shuddered, thinking of the drug they had pumped into me. I felt the same, which didn’t necessarily mean normal. What had they given me? And why? What Kort had said made no sense to me. What was a mindcrawler? The word made something in my thoughts slide away.
    I shook my head to clear it. Maybe the Tulis were killing me, I concluded, tired to the bone and almost more frustrated than afraid—hungry to the point of light-headedness, too, though by fumbling in the dark I’d found a water outlet and a small basin for essentials. A coverless cot took up the back wall. I’d been lying on it most of the time—finding it hazardous to pace given the lock bar fastened across my ankles.
    But rest eluded me. Other questions were waiting, rising and whirling through my mind like eddies in a stream: Who was I? What was I? Why was I sure Auord wasn’t my world? Where were these ideas in my mind coming from, trying to