Read Online Palace by Katharine Kerr, Mark Kreighbaum - Free Book Online

Tia shook her head in mock-sadness. ‘You poor guild boys! They don’t really give you a chance to grow up, do they?’ She winked. ‘Not in the fun ways.’
    He grinned, suddenly eased.
    At the next door Tia knocked, and in answer the door slid open with a whisper. From perfumed shadows a young woman came to meet them. Although she was delicate and small-boned, she had heavy breasts; he could see them clearly under her wrap of transparent black. Her hair, cut in an exotic fan around her heart-shaped face, did indeed gleam with reddish highlights among the brown. Between her dark eyes sat the tattooed red sun. She smiled and let her wrap fall open, just a little, so he could see pale skin, a soft curve of stomach and a tuft of dark hair just below. All at once he realized that he never should have worried about being able to go through with this.
    ‘Darla, this is Se Rico,’ Tia said. ‘Please show him every courtesy.’
    Darla smiled and caught one of Rico’s hands in hers to draw him inside. He managed to wait before the door behind them closed to kiss her, but only barely.
    * * *
    Since The Close was Aleen’s personal home, and she demanded quality, its kitchen was the best in the entire sector. When Vida came downstairs again, washed and exhanged into a worn shirt and an old pair of shorts, she found its long tables spread with refreshments ready for the reception buffet out in the Pause: steaming platters of weidal topped with cinnamon, fruits and klosh with fancy icings, plates heaped with pastries stuffed with exotic meats from the swamps beyond the city walls. When the cook looked the other way, she stole a few cinnamon pasta wheels and crammed them into her mouth.
    Sugar, the old saccule that Aleen had bought some fifty years ago, caught her theft and shook a floury fist at her, but it ‘laughed’, or rather, the little bladders clustered on its face let loose a delicate fruit-like scent. Vida laughed, too, then went to the work-table to help stuff pastries. As the saccule flipped pieces of raw pastry over fillings, the overhead light prismed through the fine web of membranes between its fingers so that Sugar seemed to be adding rainbows to each piece. When Vida nudged Sugar and made a low honking sound, the saccule reached out and gently squeezed her arm. In the bright light Vida could see the bulging veins and age-white tissue covering all the pouches and bladders around its neck. Fifty years was a very long time for a neuter saccule. Vida moved away fast before Sugar could smell how sad she was. At least Aleen refused to have her saccule servants put down when they got old the way some humans did.
    Laughing and shoving each other, some of the Marked men who worked the brothel hurried into the kitchen to grab platters for the buffet. Lera drifted behind them, saw Vida and her chance to put off working for a few minutes.
    ‘Was Tia real mad at you?’
    ‘She got over it.’ Vida shrugged. ‘I just hope Aleen doesn’t chain me to a post until Marking Day.’
    ‘Once you’re Marked, you’ll be a full citizen and you can leave The Close any time you want. Then Aleen will stop treating you like a baby.’
    ‘I sure hope so. What about that kid? The first-timer?’
    ‘Oh yeah! His name’s Rico, and he is so sweet. His uncle’s outside in the Pause, making business contacts, or something. You know Hivel Jons. He hasn’t even looked at any of the girls.’
    ‘How about the boys?’
    ‘Nah. He’s a dull one. Rico’s with Darla, now.’
    Vida smiled. Darla made a specialty of virgins.
    ‘Come on, Lera,’ Jeri called out. ‘It won’t break your back to carry something, too.’
    Lera pouted in his direction but picked up the smallest tub of klosh.
    ‘Come back later and tell me how it went,’ said Vida.
    ‘Sure.’ Lera leaned close and added in a whisper, ‘Too bad you’re not Marked, this Rico asked if we had any red-haired girls. He looked so cute! I took one look into those deep dark eyes