Dreamsnake

“I think there will. I think I’ll never be able to come home again, because even if I do learn what I need, people here will always wonder about me. The rumors will still be there.“ He shrugged. ”But I have to go anyway. I promised. I’ll go to Middlepath.“

“Good.” Snake reached back and turned down the lamp to a tiny spark. “The new technique has other benefits, I’m told.”

“What do you mean?”

She touched him. “It requires you to increase the circulation in the genital area. That’s supposed to increase endurance. And sensitivity.”

“I wonder if I have any endurance now?”

Snake began to answer him seriously, then realized Gabriel had made his first, tentative, joke about sex.

“Let’s see,” she said.

A hurried knock on the door woke Snake well before dawn. The room was gray and ghostly, highlighted in shades of pink and orange from the lamp’s low flame. Gabriel slept soundly, smiling faintly, his long blond eyelashes gently brushing his cheeks. He had pushed away the bedclothes and his long beautiful body lay uncovered to mid-thigh. Snake turned reluctantly toward the door.

“Come in.”

A stunningly lovely young servant entered hesitantly, and light from the corridor spilled over the bed.

“Healer, the mayor—” She gasped and stood staring at Gabriel, the blood on her hands forgotten. “The mayor…”

“I’ll be right there.” Snake got up, slipped into her new pants and the stiff new shirt, and followed the young woman to the mayor’s suite.

Blood from the opened wound soaked the bedding, but Brian had done the proper emergency things: the bleeding had nearly stopped. The mayor was ghastly pale, and his hands trembled.

“If you didn’t look so sick,” Snake said, “I’d give you the tongue-lashing you deserve.” She busied herself with the bandages. “You’re blessed with a superb nurse,” she said when Brian returned with fresh sheets and was easily within hearing. “I hope you pay him what he’s worth.”

“I thought…”

“Think all you like,” Snake said. “An admirable occupation. But don’t try to stand up again.”

“All right,” he muttered, and Snake took it as a promise.

She decided she did not need to help change the sheets. When it was necessary, or when it was for people she liked, she did not mind giving menial services. But sometimes she could be inordinately prideful. She knew she had been unforgivably short with the mayor, but she could not help it.

The young servant was taller than Snake, easily stronger than Brian; Snake expected she could handle her share of lifting the mayor and most of Brian’s as well. But she watched with a distressed expression as Snake left the room to go back to bed and padded barefoot down the hallway.

“Mistress—?”

Snake turned. The young servant glanced around as if afraid someone might see them together.

“What’s your name?”

“Larril.”

“Larril, my name is Snake, and I hate being called ‘mistress.’ All right?”

Larril nodded but did not use Snake’s name.

Snake sighed to herself. “What’s the matter?”

“Healer… in your room I saw… a servant should not see some things. I don’t want to shame any member of this family.” Her voice was shrill and strained. “But… but Gabriel—he is—” Her words caught in confusion and shame. “If I asked Brian what to do he would have to tell his master. That would be… unpleasant. But you mustn’t be hurt. I never thought the mayor’s son would—”

“Larril,” Snake said, “Larril, it’s all right. He told me everything. The responsibility is mine.”

“You know the—the danger?”

“He told me everything,” she said again. “There’s no danger to me.”

“You’ve done a kind thing,” Larril said abruptly.

“Nonsense. I wanted him. And I have a good deal more experience at control than a twelve year old. Or an eighteen year old, for that matter.”

Larril avoided her gaze. “So do I,” she said. “And I’ve felt so sorry for him. But I—I was afraid. He is so beautiful, one might think of… one might lapse, without meaning to. I couldn’t take the chance. I still have another six months before my life is mine again.”

“You were bonded?”

Larril nodded, “I was born in Mountainside. My parents sold me. Before the mayor’s new laws, they were allowed to do that.” The tension in her voice belied her matter-of-fact words. “It was a long time before I heard the rumors that bonding had been forbidden here, but when I did, I escaped and came back.” She looked up, almost crying. “I didn’t break my word—” She straightened and spoke more confidently. “I was a child, and I had no choice in the bonding. I owed no driver my loyalty. But the city bought my papers. I do owe loyalty to the mayor.”

Snake realized how much courage it had taken Larril to speak as she had. “Thank you,” Snake said. “For telling me about Gabriel. None of this will go any farther. I’m in your debt.”

“Oh, no, healer, I did not mean—”

There was something in Larril’s voice, a sudden shame, that Snake found disturbing. She wondered if Larril thought her own motives in speaking to Snake were suspect.

“I did mean it,” Snake said again. “Is there some way I can help you?”