A Passage of Stars Read Online Free

foyer. “Come in here.”
    Lily walked to the entrance of her mother’s office.
    “Come in, girl. You needn’t pretend to avoid me.” The Saress rose from her chair, pausing to erase a screen from her computer. Lily stayed in the doorway. “You continually disobey me,” the Saress continued, beginning now to pace the large room. Metal-sheathed walls mirrored her stride, her height, the long, tapering fingers that she clasped and unclasped before her. Only her expression was lost, for lack of detail. “I have offered you any number of options for your future, but you refuse to listen to me. The time has come that you simply no longer have a choice—”
    “This is an emergency,” Lily said, stepping back.
    “You will wait, young woman, until given my leave.” The Saress swept one hand over her scarf, brushing a stray strand of black hair, tensing as she forced it back into its place under the coiled cloth. “Emergency! I tell you, my girl, when the next offer—”
    “You never listen to me!” cried Lily.
    Her sister stepped out from the communications room, shrugged, and went back in. Lily whirled and ran to her father’s door.
    “Lily!” came her mother’s voice from behind her. “As of this moment—”
    The Sar’s door slid open. Lily dodged inside as the door sighed into place behind her. Here, the still, dry air smelled as if it had been touched by some unidentifiable spice.
    “Excuse me, Sar-father,” Lily said into the silence.
    His dark head remained bent over a graph. “If you must argue with your mother, at least do so in private, not where the entire field division can overhear you.” He turned in his chair to face her, straightening a sleeve that had slipped askew. “I am aware,” he continued, “that we have not been able to provide you with a job that suits your talents. I don’t want to force you into a bond that you would despise, but eventually you may leave me no choice. You must have some occupation, Lily.” A frown creased his face, a soft break in the copper of his complexion. “I feel constrained to add that you haven’t even done us the courtesy of providing children for our House.”
    The familiar litany faded past her. “You don’t understand.” Eight strides took her to his chair. “I just came from the Academy. Someone—they weren’t even human—someone abducted Master Heredes.”
    “An alien abduction? Lily, that’s ridiculous. In this weather? And what you were doing out I can’t—”
    “They had an aircar . I saw it.”
    Black eyes met black eyes, “By the Void, did they now.” He stood up. “An aircar.” He paused suddenly, considering her. She, in her turn, was struck by that unequal balance of years between him and Heredes. The Sar was as young a sixty as anyone Lily knew, since he could afford the occasional dose of rejuv. Yet Heredes, looking thirty years younger, felt as old to her. And picturing him, she experienced so strong a rush of fear that it took all of her years of training not to run out of the room.
    “Lilyaka,” said the Sar finally, almost a sigh. “Only Central has clearance to grant bounties and to allow intersystem arrests. And only Central would have access to aircars, if there were any. I’m afraid that Hiro’s tale must have been correct. If you like, we’ll send out a query, follow the usual channels. I’m sure we can get word of him. What happened to your hand?”
    She thrust the bandaged hand behind her. “It’s nothing to do with Central. I know it.”
    “Even if it were nothing to do with Central, which I doubt, what possible responsibility do you have toward Heredes?”
    “Because—” She faltered, thought of Heredes unconscious in an alien grasp, and went on. “Because he’s the only person who understands what I want out of life. The things that matter to me. Not mining.”
    For an instant she saw a flash of emotion in his face, as if some old pain had returned to haunt him. “Of all my children,” he