Eidolon Read Online Free Page A

arm
flung out, pointing.
    " What is that?" she snapped, heedless
of customers within hearing distance of clan business.
    Ceola blinked. "Jas Per,"she said softly.
"He has been helping me keep the bar. I depend upon him a great
deal," she added, only then realizing that it was so; "and can
scarcely think how I'd go on without him."
    "Oh, indeed!" Min made no effort to moderate
her voice, which was made sharper by the edge of sarcasm. "And here
I thought it was Shadow you had in your eye. Well! If you care for
misshapen Low Porters..."
    Ceola gasped, and leaned forward, her hand
perhaps a bit too heavy on her sister's arm.
    "Min," she said quietly, "will you shout
such things into the ears of our customers, some of whom value Jas
Per high?"
    For a moment, she thought that Min would
continue--and what course stood open to her, Ceola thought, if that
came to pass? Surely, she could not ask Jas Per to escort her own
sister to the door, like a grease ape in his cups?
    Fortunately, it did not come to that. Min
slid to her feet and moved toward the back alcove, her uncertain
stride speaking of more than one glass of the house red.
    She spun unsteadily and leaned against the
back wall of the tiny office, crossing her arms over her breast;
her face set and hard.
    "Why is that abomination working behind my
counter?" she asked, her voice high and ugly.
    Ceola considered her, and took a deliberate
breath. Centering herself, Shadow called it.
    "He is here because we were robbed," she
said.
    Min's face lost some of its rich color.
"Robbed?" she repeated. "How much was in the till?"
    "Only the 'change money," Ceola told her,
keeping her voice even. Gods, had it always been this difficult to
speak soft? "However, the security company would not come, on
account of non-payment, and I . . . took some minor harm because of
it."
    Min shook her hair back. "Non-payment! Those
deposits went out! Check the ledgers."
    Ceola felt herself settle into the
ready-pose--her weight balanced over her knees, shoulders firm,
chin up.
    "Do not trouble yourself," she said, and her
voice was so cold her skin pebbled. "I've traced the pathway that
money traveled, sister. The deposits went out, right enough, and
into your private account."
    Min tipped her head. "That was clever work,"
she commented, without a trace of shame. She tossed her hair again.
"But, let us not brangle! I have come to bring you to a meeting,
and you have very nearly made us late."
    Ceola blinked. "A meeting? I can't leave the
bar now!"
    "Why not? Surely your charming Jas Per can
handle the custom."
    "Min, I am not leaving the
bar for a meeting .
Do you mean to stay here?"
    "I do not mean to stay here!"her sister
snapped.
    "Then give me your direction. I will come to
see you tomorrow during Day Port."
    "You will do as you are instructed by the
eldest of your House," Min spat, and snapped forward, her hand
whipping toward Ceola's face.
    She was tipsy with the wine she had drunk,
and angry besides. It was no trick at all to catch her wrist, and
hold it--tightly.
    "Release me, you wretched brat!"
    "And be struck in the face? I think
not."
    Min took a hard breath, lashes fluttering,
and looked Ceola in the eye. "Sister, I beg your pardon," she said,
sweet and low. "My last few days have been an adventure, and my
temper is perhaps not what it should be. Truly, it is imperative
that you come with me to a very short meeting, quite nearby. I
won't keep you from your duty above an hour. You know I would not
ask it of you, if it were not important."
    It was everything that was gentle, and
surely it should have melted a heart of adamantine--had that heart
not been mated to eyes which had observed this very behavior many,
many times in the past. This was Min, playing every trick to her
hand, in order to get her own way.
    Ceola saw a movement from the corner of her
eye, and looked to see Jas Per, peering worriedly 'round the door
frame.
    "Is all well, mistress?" he asked.
    Easy words rose to her tongue;