Read Online Kinsmen 01 - Silver Shark by authors_sort - Free Book Online

departed. The top of the trolley opened like a flower, revealing half a dozen larger dishes, each supporting long skewers threaded with vegetables and meat.
    "Pick one."
    She puzzled over the choices and chose a skewer at random. "This one."
    Ven lowered the skewer into the openings cut in the rim of the brazier, picked out his own skewer, and placed it next to hers. Flames licked the meat.
    "Do you feel lightheaded at all?" he asked casually, plucking a bottle painted with icy lace of frost from the trolley. "Any strange vision problems, like tiny glowing threads flying about?"
    He was trying to check if she suffered any mind lesions. Claire smiled. "I'm fine."
    Ven opened the bottle and poured shimmering pink liquid into two glasses. "I'm sorry. I should have never put you into that position."
    Ven would have never attacked a civilian. In his mind, that sort of action was filed under It's Just Not Done. His mind-shields were down - probably so he could scan her mind at the first sign of trouble - and his emotions leaked out. He was intensely worried about her well-being.
    Claire smiled.
    "Am I funny?"
    "No."
    "Then why are you smiling?"
    "I find your customs - Dahlia customs - antiquated. Charming, but antiquated."
    "We're a very violent society," he said, turning the skewers. "We have to have customs and ceremonies, otherwise we'd constantly offend each other and soon none of us would be left. Some things are not done. Attacking a civilian is one of them."
    "Were you worried?" She sipped the pink drink. It was sweet, tart, and refreshing, with a trace of alcohol. She realized it must be wine.
    "Yes," Ven said. "I was worried. I didn't want you to be hurt because I was caught off-guard."
    "I wasn't worried," she told him.
    "I noticed. You handled the whole situation with the poise of a seasoned kinsman ." He laughed. "A violent psycher paralyzes your mind, and when he lets you go, you calmly ask if you should alert the authorities. You kill me, Claire."
    Kill. A dangerous word. "I considered screaming in blind panic, but I didn't want to break your concentration."
    "Was that a joke?"
    "Possibly."
    He raised his glass. "Congratulations."
    "Thank you." She grinned and drank her wine.
    Ven frowned. "I don't know what Castilla has on Sangori, but I called a friend of mine in the Provinces, Celino Carvanna. The man is a financial shark, so if something is going on with Sangori, I will soon know about it."
    Ven took a plate from the trolley, used a fork to slide the meat and vegetables off the skewer onto it, and passed it to her. Claire took a bite. The meat tasted smoky and tender and completely delicious.
    "This is great."
    "There is something about food cooked over the open flame," he said. "I don't know if it's a racial memory from the time we huddled around the fire in animal skins, but there are few things as flavorful."
    He raised his glass. She raised hers and he clinked it against hers. "Do you like the wine?"
    "I love it. This is my first taste."
    "No wine on Uley?" he asked.
    "No. Occasionally we would be issued grain alcohol, but no wine." She bit the meat and chewed, savoring the taste. "Do you and Castilla have some sort of prior history?"
    Ven sighed. "Yes. Yes, we do. My father was an off-worlder. He came to Rada with nothing except the clothes on his back, but he was a very powerful psycher and my mother's family took him in. He became a client It's the next step up from the retainer. When you're a client, you are almost family. My father fell in love with my mother and she fell in love with him. They married. He took the Escana name, because our family had status and name recognition, while his surname meant nothing. They were both older at the time, so it was a surprise when I came along."
    "Were they happy you were born?"
    He nodded. "Yes. I had a happy childhood. The money was tight, but tight by kinsmen standards. We had a nice house. During summers, we'd go to the coast to swim in the ocean. It was