Page 20 (1/2)

"I drive," he was still s at me He drove The vehicle was an ancient hovercar, but it ran I got the idea he was the one who kept the vehicle in good repair Xiri and I learned he was called Nenzi Nenzi took us to a thriving market about a click away Solar poas in use, so eration were kept cold or frozen

"Buyfood" Nenzi held up a necklace chip

"How much?" I asked, unsure howout an arm Plants, dust and children seeh thethe least aet aith The native population was darker-skinned than the reptanoids--I saw that right away The children were running and shouting as they played, using a language I didn’t know

Xiri and I ht behind us He paid for everything--we had to get quite a bit to feed the crowd at the plantation Nenzi didn’t seee keepers--ere going to need them Tropical fruit was everywhere and freshly picked I had a sauce recipe that required some of the fruit we found That went into our purchases

The hovercar was packed full for our return trip, so I paid more attention to the fields we passed on the way ho for drakus seed but didn’t see any froh

They have grapefruit, orange, nanna, o, pineapple, avocado and roundlocally They also had reen nuts too

Reah, I know that’s iood it will do us, Lendill replied I’d have gotten out s were grown in one place But then I wasn’t Vice-Director of the ASD, either

Then give it to Chash as a research assignrumped and ended our communication

"It would have worked perfectly, if sootten wind of us," Norian wanted to shout or put his fist through a wall; he couldn’t decide which "When we caught that fool wizard Haral on Reliff, Aryn’s compulsion worked flawlessly Haral spilled the information that the reptanoids were in this up to their foreheads We would have had all of the theo to lion snake so badly it was al Realizing it was very close to the full moon on Le-Ath Veronis, he did his best to cal to work, we could have turned the wizard over to King Wylend He has a death warrant out on that one, and probably most of San Gerxon’s other wizards too" Lendill was nearly as frustrated as Norian was They should have had Reah back by now Both he and Norian had thought it would only be a uess at a timeline--they didn’t even knohere Reah and the others were Lendill didn’t want to hand the infor as he anted infor his mother to ask Norian about Reah every day

"Reah, do they expect you to do this every day? Work froht? What are those house servants for?" Teeg was hauling me inside the door We’d been at the plantation for a week and there hadn’t been anyone there to offer us a day off or give us a break I fell in bed every night, asleep before my head hit the pillow ed myself to the shower, cleaned up and went off to the house

It took Xiri, Ande, Malin and me all day to serve three meals, drinks and snacks for all the people at the plantation Arvil went off in a hovertruck a time or tith Farzi, Nenzi and several wizards I wasn’t invited along I could only assu to inspect the crops Jazal, Anith, the twins, six courtesans and Delvin stayed behind, lazing around the pool and sipping drinks that wethirty-six people--that included the staff at the plantation Nenzi had driven us to theover it

"Teeg, just let it go, all right? I don’t see anyone else with cooking skills, do you?"

"I don’t see any one of the, and Arvil doesn’t think you need et into an argu hiet to knock off work before the evening ed by termites

"That’s nice" I was headed toward the bed

"Reah, I want to love you But I’irl when she’s so tired she can’t stay awake"

That stopped o to bed"

"Then I’ll take you," he gruht off the floor

"I see we tire our cooks" Farzi walked into the kitchen the nextthe second pan of pastries from the oven The kitchen was hot from the oven--the plantation’s solar air cooler could only do so much and the hu himself and Ande and Malin looked like a bucket of water had been duined I’d look just the same

I didn’t really have time to talk with Master Farzi but I wasn’t rude, even if I wanted to be I drizzled glaze over the pastries as Xiri put plates of sliced fresh fruit out, and then added broiled strips of bacon Eggs were difficult to find, so we saved those for sauces and baking e trays of breakfast plates into the dining room--it was cooler in there, at least Arvil was served first, as usual, and then Farzi, who sat down, still watching us We went down the sides of the table after that, putting a plate in front of everyone The staff’s plates were left on the island in the kitchen--at least they ca did the same, only he usually took his breakfast outside where it was cooler