Crystal Line

Chapter 8

"The Guild has received the biggest order ever requested, to facilitate the colonization and exploitation of seven new systems," the Guild Master told the twenty singers he had called back from their travels."We must be able to fill these orders for black crystal.All of you"-and his blue eyes settled on one after the other-"have cut black crystal from time to time."

"When I could find it," someone said facetiously.

"The chosen few," another added.

He wasn't really all that much like Shad, Killashandra thought, her mind jumping as much from crystal deprivation as deliberate inattention because it was Lars Dahl who was talking in his Guild Master role.Just because they both have blue eyes and love the sea, that doesn't make them comparable.Or it shouldn't.And if any of us could find black crystal, we would, without him having to order us!

"To facilitate that search," Lars Dahl continued as the screen behind him lit up with a variety of paint emblems, "the Guild is canceling the markers of singers who, for one reason or another, are not actively working in the Ranges."That caused a stir and some consternation."I should amend that-singers who have been known to bring in black crystal," he went on, raising his voice slightly over the murmuring."We must follow up every potential source of black crystal."

"Leaving no stone unturned?" the wit asked, rousing some laughter and groans.

Lars Dahl grinned in response."That's it.Now"-he gestured behind to the screen-"these are the canceled markers.If, however, one of you finds black on the claim of a still-existing singer…"

"Can't regress 'em back far enough to tell you where they cut black yet, eh, Lars?" someone asked, ending with a malicious laugh.

Regress?The word reverberated, jogging an uneasy memory, and Killa sat upright, trying to locate the speaker."Regress"?Why should that word alarm her?

"I'll be forced to use that option, Fanerine, if you sane and active ones can't cut the blacks the Guild is obligated to supply.As I was saying, if an existing singer's claim is worked, there'll be a levy of twenty-five percent on your cut which is to go to the original claimant."He held up his hand to interrupt the sharp protests."That will include the Guild tithe, so you aren't losing much to gain a viable site.Of course, you have to find it, first."Killashandra rather liked that droll touch.Lanzecki had reserved his humor for private moments."Now, here're copies of these released markers for you to take with you.Secure it somewhere highly visible and try to remember why the sheet's there.First comer to any of these reopened clams has possession: mark it with your own colors."

"Most of you realize that we've just had Passover so that's one hazard that won't interrupt the search.Met says there's a period of stable weather due us-isn't it always after Passover?"His remark generated a few polite chuckles, but Killashandra regarded him stony-faced.

He shouldn't think he could jolly them into doing the impossible even with that ploy of reopening worked claims that might possibly be black crystal.Why was the Guild "obligated" to supply anything?Worlds should be grateful for whatever the singers cut.She flicked her gaze around the room from one face to the next.Of the twenty, she recognized two or three.She ought to be able to recognize more.The buzz in her body made it hard for her to think.On the other hand, did any of the twenty recognize her?But then, she was seated at the back and hoping to get this meeting over with.She hugged herself, wishing she could squeeze out the itch.Maybe she could sneak out, but there was someone standing right in front of the door.To prevent premature exits?

Resignedly she listened to Lars go through his act, stirring the singers up to do the impossible-find enough black crystal to fill those contracts.Muhlah!She gave a humorless snort.He was doing a good job of communicating the urgency of this search.She couldn't recall another such all-out effort!Or that Lanzecki had ever thrown open unused claims before the paint marker was completely obliterated.

She rose when the others did, but was not unduly surprised when her name was called out.The Guild Master pushed his way through to her.

"Killa, can we let bygones be and cooperate duo on this?" he asked in a quiet voice so that only she could hear him.

She was unnerved to have the regard of those intense and brilliant blue eyes focused on her alone.That was one difference between Shad and Lars Dahl-Shad's eyes were kinder, milder, undemanding.She turned her face away.

Damn that Biyanco!She shouldn't have let herself be persuaded out of a good partner by sentiment.True, even if she had brought Shad back with her, he wouldn't have been ready for a massive search this soon, even if had he been lucky enough to have a Milekey Transition.But she would have had such fun shepherding him, deftly guiding him to learn the intricacies of a new trade, watching his sensitive face perceiving new and marvelous things… and especially hearing the dawn song of crystal with someone as gentle and loving as Shad Tucker.And how he would have enjoyed the seas of Ballybran.What sort of a ship would he have bought with his first big cut?

"Killa!"

Someone had her by the shoulders, firm hands giving her a shake to focus her attention.

"Killa?"

"What?"

The Guild Master frowned at her with concern."One thing is sure, Killashandra Ree, you've got to get back to the Ranges whether you sing black, green or pink!You left your return mighty late.How do you stand the itch?"The sudden tender concern in his voice startled her, but she gave no hint of that surprise.

"I'll be all right as soon as I make the Ranges," she said wearily, her spine twisting with crystal hunger.

"If you can in this condition.So I'm not asking permission now.I am coming with you.It'd be outright murder to send you out solo in your present state.I'll meet you at the Hangar.Donalla…"

Killa peered at the woman who stepped forward.Her face was vaguely familiar, and although her smile was warm and friendly, Killa felt a flash of anxiety.

"Glad to see you safely back, Killashandra."When Killa recoiled slightly, the woman smiled reassuringly."We're only going straight to the Hangar.You really can trust me that far, you know."

"I'll need…" Killa pulled at the clothes she was wearing-they wouldn't last an hour in the Ranges."I've no boots…"

"Let Donalla take care of the details, Sunny, will you?"The loving tone of the Guild Master was gently supportive.

Some part of Killa was unconvinced, but the other, more dominant need for a respite from the crystal itch made that hesitation short.The hands that replaced Lars's were gentle, warm and subtly persuasive.It was easier to submit and be guided.

Killa rubbed at her forehead.How could she have let herself get in such a state?She ought not to be led about like a child.Surely, she wasn't that bad, that decrepit?She had walked off the transport ship on her own, hadn't she?Found the shuttle bay with no trouble!Why was she suddenly incapable of managing something as simple as getting to the Hangar?Her feet ought to know the way even if her head didn't.

But she let herself be taken.She really couldn't think straight with all that noise in her head and that buzz along her veins, spiking into her heart and lungs-a crystal shiver that no amount of radiant fluid would reduce, only cutting crystal.

She hated to admit it, even to herself, but the Guild Master had been correct.She had cut it fine.She ought to have started back to Ballybran the day she had felt the first shock of crystal deprivation.And that was what was shorting out her decision-making faculty, too.

Now that she put a reason to her mazedness, she also knew how to cure it: cut crystal!Let it sing through her body, bones, and blood.Let it clear the confusion in her mind and strengthen her flagging energies.Crystal!The worst addiction in the galaxy: difficult to live with and impossible to live without.

She stumbled and Donalla's helping hand steadied her.

Then the noise and ordered confusion of the Hangar swirled about her.Faces peered at her; large blurred objects moved slowly past.She was gently propelled into a space that shut out much of the noise.Hands turned her body this way and that as she was inserted into a shipsuit; her feet were pushed into the familiar restriction of boots.

"My cutter…"

Her right hand was pressed against a hard, cold surface, and her fingers, of their own accord, fitted themselves around the grip, slipping into grooves exactly carved to fit her grasp.The tension within her eased further.

She was settled into the appropriate contour chair, and the harness was buckled about her.Passive now, because she didn't have to make any movement or decision, she waited.The air around her smelled familiar-and new, of paint and oil with enough of the pungent fuel odor to be acrid-and somehow comforting.

A sudden burst of noise, and a wave of fuel- and grease-laden air whooshed across the sensitive skin of her face.Someone had entered the sled, not so much noisily as confidently.She felt the throb of engines revving up, increasing the stink of fuel in the air, which also oddly reassured her.The sled moved forward, and she sighed with relief.Slowly she was pushed back against the seat cushions as the sled gathered speed.Sunlight pierced the windows, too brilliant for her tired eyes, and she made a protest as she closed them against the glare.Had she remembered to put in the refractive lenses?She blinked.She had, but it always took a few seconds for them to alter to the necessary refractory index.The blaze diminished, the backward pressure of takeoff eased, and she opened her eyes, suddenly more aware of her surroundings.Lars's lithe figure occupied the pilot's chair.

"Get some rest, Sunny," he said as he had so often said as they departed the Guild for the Ranges.

Because it was easier to obey than resist, she wriggled into the cushions, dropped her head back against the rest, and let herself slip into sleep.

"Eeny meeny, pitsa teeny…" The old choosing phrase roused her.

"Muhlah!Any time I need to blackmail the Guild Master…" she murmured.

Lars laughed, the infectious laugh that had been one of his most endearing traits, and despite herself, she felt her mouth curving up in a grin.

"Works every time," he replied, and when she gargled a denial at him, he amended it."Well, sooner or later, it works."

She struggled upright in the seat, biting her lip as the movement stirred up the crystal sting that pinched at blood and bone.She was in the Ranges and it would ease soon… ease when she finally cut again.She released the harness and peered out at the steeples and ridges of deep Range.

"Where are we?"

"Scouring the parameters of an old claim."

She frowned, stared at him until recent memory returned."Oh?Whose?"

Lars grinned."Such details are irrelevant.The marker's on the list: that's enough."

"Where did you find a statute of limitation in Rules and Regs?"

"In the Guild Master's prerogatives."Lars grinned at her.When she snorted derisively, he added, "Why have the rule and not put it into effect?The Guild has to supply legitimate demands.Like Lanzecki, I use every trick I'm allowed-"

"You're not Lanzecki!"

"Thank you for that vote of confidence," he replied, and the buoyancy had gone out of his voice.After a long silence while she rubbed surreptitiously to ease the crystal sting, he asked,"Is it bad?"His tone held genuine concern.

"I've been worse," she said diffidently-though, candidly, she doubted that.She would have remembered it-and tried to avoid a repetition.

"Ha!Try that on someone who doesn't know you as well as I do, Sunny.Take heart.We're nearly there."

"Where?"Her voice had an edge on it."Oh, quick!Mark there!"And she pointed imperiously to starboard.The evening sunlight had just briefly glinted off crystal shard.

Lars gave an appreciative chuckle."You may be writhing with crystal itch, but your eye's as keen as ever."He veered to the right, slowing the sled and neatly landing it on the bottom of the ravine."You're one of the best in the Guild," he murmured as they saw the unmistakable evidence of a cutter's discards.

Killa could not control the trembling that racked her body.She fumbled with the door release, managed it the second time, and half fell from the sled.

"Careful now, Sunny," Lars called, rapidly flicking through essential landing procedures at the console.

She stumbled forward to the shards, crouching to gather handfuls, closing her fingers about them, oblivious to the sharp edges, even grateful for the caressing cut of crystal, grateful to spill blood and ease the sting that made artery, vein, and capillary itch.

"Easy, Sunny, easy," Lars cried, and gripped her firmly by the shoulders, pulling her to a standing position.

"Muhlah!" she sighed with relief."I needed that!"

"I don't think you need go to extremes, however," Lars said dryly.He leaned down and picked up a hunk that had crazed in faulty cutting.He tilted her bloody hands to tip the fragments out and replaced them with the larger, blunter piece.Putting his arm about her, he guided her back into the sled and washed each hand, while she held the shaft against her in the other like the talisman it was.The tiny crystal slices were already healing as he finished.

"You'd better eat, Sunny," Lars went on, still using that gently matter-of-fact tone.And he prepared a meal while she sat rocking the crystal against her, feeling it draw the sting from her, damaged as it was, as contact warmed it to her body temperature.

As she mechanically ate the meal he placed in front of her, she kept up her rocking motion, shifting the crystal to her thighs, bending her knees so the crystal touched her belly.She didn't resist when he put her to bed, letting her wrap herself around the crystal in a semifetal position.And that was how she spent the long night, comforted by crazed crystal.

When crystal song woke her the next morning, the damaged shaft sent out painful emanations.With a cry, she unwound, pushing the crystal from her as if it were polluted.Lars picked it up and flung it from the sled, relieving her of the sudden agony.

Then he spread himself across her body-she was arching in the agony of crystal song, too long away from it to be stimulated in the usual way.

"It'll ease, Sunny, it'll ease…" he murmured, struggling to keep her from straining herself in the paroxysms that were shaking her.If she had been alone in such a state, she would have launched herself to the nearby lode.In such disorientation, compelled by the irresistible need to reestablish contact with the ecstasy of sun-warmed singing crystal, she could have done herself a fatal injury.

Writhing against his restraint, she screamed at him, desperate to get to the crystal face and ease the intolerable sting and achings.

"Let me go!I'm begging you, Lars, let me go!I've got to get to-"

"You do and you're dead," he yelled back at her, resetting his hands on her wrists, managing, each time she nearly squirmed free, to cover her body with his and deny her freedom."Hang on, Sunny.It won't be long now.Just let the sun get up!"

She twisted and bit at him, tried to knee his crotch, but he was quicker, stronger, and fitter than she and evaded her savage attempts to inflict enough pain to get free.

Abruptly the dawn chorus ended as the sun's rays flicked up and over the surrounding ridges and lit the ravine.She sagged against the hands that held her, limp, weeping because the itch was back, intensified.The compulsion to seek crystal, however, had eased.Wearily, she rubbed sweat and tears from her face on the quilt beneath her.

"Let me up, Lars," she said dully.

He kept his grip a moment longer, and then his fingers slowly released her wrists and he slid off her.

"Sorry about that, Killa, but you know I was right."

"Yes, I know," she replied, absently rubbing her wrists before she elbowed herself to a sitting position."You're sneakier than an Altairian tangier," she said nastily.But the purely physical aches distracted her nerves from the interior throb of crystal sting.

A mug of some warm liquid was thrust at her.

"Drink this.Stuffed full of stimulants," Lars said, and she obeyed.

The beverage coursed down her gullet and seemed to find an immediate path to her armpits and stomach, radiating out from those points to her extremities.

"Thanks, Lars," she said.

He ruffled her hair."That's my Sunny!"

"I am not your Sunny," she said, shooting him a brief, dark scowl of denial.

"No, you're not much like my Sunny, are you?" his voice had gone expressionless again.

She tried not to care, but perhaps it was as well."We're here to cut, aren't we?Let's do it."

Stiffly she got to her feet and walked as firmly as she could to the cutter rack.The weight of the tool was almost more than her flaccid arm could support, but just as Lars's hand came to her assistance, she managed to heave the cutter strap on to her shoulder.

"Let's go."

As she descended from the sled on to the rock- and shard-strewn ground, she was vaguely aware that he had slung more than his cutter to his shoulder.By the time she had scrambled to the rock face only fifteen meters from the sled, she was panting with exertion.She paused long enough to catch her breath to sing.She chose an A; heard Lars sing out in C and the face echo it back.Not a strong rebound but enough to encourage her.With her hand flat on the rock, she tried to find the source of the echo.

"It's stronger over here," Lars said, and she closed the distance between them with a leap."Don't break a leg!" he shouted.

She sang A again, and the reverberation rippled through her hand.

"Easy, girl," he said, but she was too busy tuning her cutter.

Old habit guided them both, and Killa managed to hold her cutter against the buck of the subsonic blade through the crystal that had lain hidden since the tectonic pressures had formed it.

"Hold it steady!"Lars's voice penetrated her cutting fever and steadied her just enough so that their initial cut was true.Lars did the underslice as Killa held out eager hands to receive the excision.Her fingers clawed it free, ignoring the lacerations, and she held it up-a form in green, clear and solid.

Sunlight caught it, making it sing in her hands.The shaft sang on and on, its sound coruscating through her skin to bone and blood, flowing down her arms to her body, through her body to her legs, flowing and blotting out the sting with its resonance, leeching the agony of her long absence from the crystal that rejuvenated her.

When someone wrenched the shaft from her, she screamed and received a hard slap across her face; she dropped to the ground, bruising her knees on the scattered crystal debris.

"Killa!You've been thralled!"Lars's voice caught her just as she was about to launch herself at him, a formless silhouette in the haze beyond her crystal rapture.

Slowly she got to her feet, crawling her hands arduously up her legs to straighten a body shaking with fatigue and the residue of thrall.Lars reached out to support her, one hand gently brushing dirt and sweat from her face.Instinctively she leaned into his body, accepting support, unconsciously entreating sympathy, and his arms closed about her, his chin on her head, as they had so often stood after a good cutting.

"There, there, Sunny," he said, patting her shoulder and cuddling her."You needed that.Feel somewhat better?" he asked, tipping her head back and looking down into her haggard face.

"How long did you let thrall last?" she asked, aware of her incredible weariness.

"Considering your condition," he said with a laugh, "most of the day,"

She pushed away from him."You mean, you let me thrall all day long when I could have been cutting?An hour or so at most would have been enough."

He stepped back from her ire, grinning more broadly now, holding up his hands in mock appeal."That's more like my Sunny."

"I'm not your Sunny," she said, needing to rant and rave herself back to a more normal humor than the limp and nauseating lug she knew she had been.

"Well, then, it's a good deep green, and I cut around you, in case you didn't hear, locked in that thrall."

She both hated and admired Lars in this sort of a mood: far too amenable, far too effective, far too… right!Shard his soul!

Glaring at him, she sang out a high C, lost it for lack of support in her weakened condition, set her diaphragm muscles, and sang it again.She could hear his A an octave below.The green resonated, and their blades touched its bright surface as one.

When they had excised five shafts, Lars refused to let her pitch for more.He even refused to let her help him carry the carton back to the sled.When they got back and had racked their cutters, he insisted that she needed to wash, however briefly, and when she was obviously unable to stand up under the dribble coming from the shower head, he undressed, too, and supported her.

He made her lie down under the quilt while, buff naked, he made a quick meal for them both.She managed to spoon it into her, but the effort was all she had left and he caught the sagging plate before it tipped over on to the quilt.

"Can't mess it up.It's the only one we've got."

She tried to think of a smart reply to that.Honor demanded that she not let Lars get away with the last word today, but she fell asleep before she could think of something appropriately scathing.

Crystal song woke her and, aware of the warmth of the body beside her, she turned, eager for the benison of relief.She matched the eagerness of her partner, accepting and returning the passion she found.The gentleness and tenderness he displayed reminded her of Shad, and yet, as she opened her eyes, it wasn't Shad's engagingly innocent face that she saw.It was Lars Dahl's.

He gazed down at her for a long moment, his blue eyes dark with unspoken words as he searched her face.When she gave a little impatient twitch, he moved away.

"A better day today, isn't it, Sunny?" he said noncommittally.

"Yes, it is," she said with an equal lack of emphasis as she snagged her clothes from the floor.

It was easy to fall into the old habits.She might rail silently at finding herself accepting their former routine, but it helped.They didn't have much to discuss.Except the cutting.

"We shouldn't stay here," she said after they had finished eating."Green's not black, and that's what we're after."

"Feeling up to it?" he asked offhandedly.

She shrugged."I'd rather waste time on looking than on cutting."

"Green's easier to cut to get back into the swing of it."

"Ha!I'm back already."

He cocked an eyebrow at her."When thrall can hold you for hours?"

"That," she said, snapping her words out, "was your fault.I wouldn't have needed more than an hour."

"Ha!"He mimicked her.

But they were already, out of long habit, setting the cabin of the sled to rights to take off.

They bickered with some heat and contempt for the first hour in the air.Some equity was reached when they came across another worn paint mark that bore enough resemblance to one of the released ones for them to land.But as they were surveying the canyons, they caught sight of a sled in one of the gorges and quickly left the area, Killa swearing under her breath.

"What about one of the claims we cut?Aren't there any in the vicinity?"

Lars frowned thoughtfully."Should be."Then he banged his fist on the console."If only we could establish some method by which singers could register the location of sites…"

"Ha!And have renegades spend weeks trying to break into the program!"

"There are security measures available now that no singer could break."

"Ha!I don't believe you!I won't believe you."

"I know," he said, shrugging away her anger, and grinned over his shoulder at her."But I'll win 'em over to my way of thinking!"

"That'll be the day!"

"It'll come, Sunny.The Guild has to reorganize.It can't continue to operate on guidelines that're centuries old, incredibly obsolete and damned naive."

"Naive?"

"It's a rough galaxy we live in.The business ethics that motivated the earliest Guild Masters simply don't exist, and modernization is long overdue."

"Modernization?"Killa swept her hand around the cabin, where sophisticated equipment was installed in small, discreet, and effective packages.

"I don't mean the hardware.I mean"-he jammed a finger to his temple-"the software.The thinking, the ethos, the management."

Killa made a disparaging noise in her throat."This Guild Mastership has addled your software, that's for sure."

"Has it?"He cast her a sideways glance."I think you'll come to agree that updates are essential."

"Hmmm.Hey, isn't that a marker of ours to starboard…"

It was, though nearly rubbed completely off the flat summit.They touched down, as much to refurbish the marker as to see if anything was familiar.

"Vaguely," was Killashandra's verdict.Something nagged at her, something quite insistent."I think," she began hesitantly, "I think it's black."

"You don't sound sure…"

"I think you were also right to ask me if I was up to it."She fought the frisson that racked her.

"We can go back and cut more green."

"No, we're here to cut black and black we'll cut, if it kills me."

"I draw the line at suicide, no matter how badly the Guild needs black right now."

She gave him a wry grin.

What they found was a deep blue crystal, one of the loveliest colors either had ever cut.They got three cartons of it and were back at the sled, filling up their water bottles, when the first twinge of storm warning caught Killashandra.She sucked in her breath at the intensity of it.The crystal deprivation must have made her doubly vulnerable.She caught at the side of the cistern, and Lars reached out to support her.

"What's the matter?And don't you dare say 'nothing', Killa," he said, eyes piercing hers with his growing recognition of the probable cause."Storm?"When she nodded, he cursed under his breath.Then he closed the water tap and covered his half-filled canteen, stowing it in place.He took hers from her limp hand and put it away, as well." All right, let's get ready."

"But it's only the-"

"Fardles, Killa, I can tell just from your reaction that it's going to be a bad blow."

"It's only because-"

"I don't care what it's because," he cried, irritably chopping his hand downward to interrupt her.He took her arm and turned her toward the galley."We're returning, and that's that.I'm not risking you to even the mildest blow.Your head's not on straight yet from deprivation."

Though she protested vehemently, she had to recognize the fact that he was absolutely correct in assessing her state.She wouldn't admit it to him-she argued out of habit.He refused to entertain her contention that they would have enough time to cut at least five, he agreed but discounted the fact that this was the best blue lode they had seen in decades.

"It isn't black," he said, his mouth and eyes angry."Try not to forget that, Sunny, it's black we need!"

"Then why did we waste time cutting this blue?"

"You thought there was black here!"He was moving around his side of the sled, securing cabinets and stowing oddments away.

"We cut good blue…" she began, going meek on him, a tactic that had often worked."I don't remember how many times you've told me that…"

The anger went out of him all at once, and reaching across the narrow space that separated them, he caressed her cheek briefly, his smile penitent."Sorry, Sunny, no matter how you try to slice it, we're not cutting any more… here… today."

"It should be a partners' decision, not one way," she said, wondering if he were weakening."You've never been this arbitrary before."

He gave a weary sigh."I'm arbitrary now!As Guild Master, I have more than a partner's stake in keeping your brain unscrambled."

"I didn't want you to be Guild Master."

"You've made that clear," he said, and his eyes flashed at her before once again he relented."We were the best duet the Guild ever had.I've seen the printout of our aggregate cuttings.Impressive!"The smile he gave her was suddenly boyish, and she felt her heart unseize as the Lars she knew so intimately surfaced briefly."Now let's scramble.I'm not risking you, or me."

In far better charity with each other, they returned to the Guild.By then the storm warnings were far-flung, and sleds from all sectors began pouring into the Hangar.Lars was calling for assistance to unload their crystal just as the flight officer handed him a comunit with the message that the call had top priority.

"I'll take ours through Sorting," Killa told him when he looked expectantly at her.

For a moment she watched his tall figure stride to the nearest exit, his head bent as he listened to the priority call.Someone else needing black crystal?

Guild Master's cut also took priority in the Sorting Shed and Killa waved her cartons toward Clodine's stall.She ignored the Sorter's initial nervousness and did her best to be pleasant.It was the cut that helped restore Clodine to their previous easy relationship.The market price of the blues would have been enough to appease the most desperate singer.

Once assured of the hefty credit balance, Killashandra became aware of externals-like the crystal pong emanating from her person and her clothes.Jauntily she strode to her quarters.As she palmed open the door, she heard the radiant liquid ploshing into the tub and smiled.That was nice of Lars.A good long soak, something to eat, and she would be back to normal.Well, as normal as any crystal singer ever was.At least she had worked free of all that crystal cramp.Good cutting was what she had really needed to cure it.

The moment she toggled the food dispenser, the screen lit up to display Lars's face.

"Killa?That's a handy total on the blues," he said.

"Shards, I wanted to tell you myself," she said, feeling a surge of disgruntlement.

"I've ordered up a meal here, if you'd care to join me…" The hesitant tone of his invitation struck her as atypical, but it pleased her that this Guild Master was not as autocratic as Lanzecki had been.

"I think I might at that," Killa said graciously, and canceled the order she had just placed.Dinner with Lars, or for that matter, dinner with the Guild Master, tagged elusive wisps of memory, most of them pleasant.

Looking at the garments in her closet, she picked the one that suited a slightly smug mood and dressed carefully, spending time to comb out her snaggled hair and arrange it attractively.She ought to get it cut short again, she reflected.It had been a nuisance in the Ranges, sweating up and falling into her eyes when she wanted a clear view of her cuts.She peered at her face: she had a tan again, making her eyes brighter, canceling the yellow that had begun to tint the white.She pulled her hands down her cheeks: they were still gaunt, and were those age grooves from her nose to her mouth?She grimaced to smooth them away.Then she frowned.She did look older.She must be very careful not to tax her symbiont again as badly as she must have done to look this way.

As she entered the Guild Master's offices, the first thing she saw was the empty desk, its surface clear of pencil files or any work at all.She frowned.Trag?No, Trag was gone.Lars had not found a suitable assistant.He would have to.No wonder he had been snapping at her in the Ranges.She knew from the amount of work she had seen Lanzecki get through-and that with Trag's help-that the Guild Mastership was no sinecure.She snorted to herself: Lars had been a damned fool to get roped into the job.She bet he hadn't been sailing once since he had become Guild Master!

"When" was not a word she often used, but it suddenly flicked across her consciousness.When had he taken over from Lanzecki?She grunted, canceling that irritating consideration as she continued across the floor to the inner office.

Lars was deep in contemplation of whatever was on his desk screen.He had had time to shower and change; his hair was still damp.To one side, in front of the wide window that overlooked the immense doors of the Hangar, a table had been set, and the enticing odors of some of her favorite foods wafted to her.Becoming aware of someone else in the room, he looked up with a scowl that shifted into a smile as he jumped to his feet.

"Sunny!"He gestured for her to join him at the table, then seated her.

"What are you after now?" she asked, a teasing note in her voice to draw the sting of her cynicism.

"Ah, lovey," he said, dropping a kiss on her cheek before he took his own seat, "give me credit for some altruism."

"Why should I?"

Grinning at her, he searched her face and was evidently satisfied by what he saw.She cocked her head at him.

"So?"

"Eat first, talk later.I'd like to see a little more flesh on your bones before we go out again."

She groaned."So we're not going back out as soon as the storm clears?"

In place of an answer, he served generous portions of her favorite foods on to her plate.When he started to help himself, she saw that he had ordered the nicco spikes she hated even to smell.He grinned when she twitched her nose in disgust.

"You see, I'm not catering entirely to you, Killa Ree, and no, we're not able to go out immediately.Black crystal's not the only one of our products in demand."He ended the sentence abruptly."I'd be able to go quicker if you could see your way clear to giving me a little help."

"I thought helping you was finding black.I'll go alone."

"No!"The single word was so forceful that she stared at him in surprise.Lars hadn't used to take such a tone with her.She bristled, but he reached for her arm, shaking some of the milsi stalks from her half-raised spoon, before his touch softened in apology."No, Killa.Too dangerous.You're not completely over the deprivation and you'd thrall.Especially if you were cutting black alone."

While she still resisted his prohibition, she had to admit that she would be extremely vulnerable to black thrall.She also had to admit that she had been in a terrible state when they had gone out: as near as made no never mind to being a crystallized cripple.They might have been searching for black crystal, but she was bloody lucky they hadn't found any.Green thrall had been deep enough.She owed him a lot for risking his own neck taking her out at all in that state.

"So, what do you need done, Guild Master?" she asked flippantly.

He smiled, with genuine relief."Thanks, Sunny, I really appreciate it."

"So?"

"Eat first," he said."I can't think when my stomach's clinging to my backbone."

She was hungrier than she had thought and quite willing to concentrate on eating.Odd how a full belly could reduce resistance to unpalatable business.

When they had cleared the last morsel from the platters, Lars leaned back, patting his stomach and smiling.

"That's better.Now, if you could finish rounding up the figures and prices on the accounts I have on the screen, then I can go salve wounded feelings."

"Whose?"

"Clarend and Ritwili have legitimate grievances which must be addressed, and I've a delegation to meet at Shankill that I can no longer postpone."

"I might be better with the delegation than with the files," she suggested warily.

"It's the sort of thing you've done for Lanzecki before.D'you remember the Apharian contingent?Well, I've got the Blackwell Triad looking for favors now.Similar circumstances, similar solution, but I need the account figures on hand."

"Bor-ring," she said, rolling her eyes.

"A lot of what I have to do is boring, and yet…" Lars regarded her, his wide mouth curling in a grin,"I rather like finding out how this Guild hangs together against all comers."

Killashandra snorted."We've a unique product that no one else can produce, no matter how hard they try.We're in control."

"I like that 'we', Sunny."He reached across the table to fondle her hand."I'll go heal fractured feelings; you find me figures."

"Just this once, because I owe you," she warned him, pulling her hand away and shaking her finger at him."Don't think you can rope me into this full time.I'm a singer, not a key tapper!Find yourself a recruit with business training."

"I'm trying to," he said with a sly grin.

Once she became absorbed in the analysis, Killashandra found it more interesting than she had expected.Certainly the scope of the Guild's authority-and its unassailable position as the only source of communication crystal systems-was wider than she had imagined.Her job-the cutting-was but the beginning of a multitude of complex processes with end uses in constant demand throughout the inhabited galaxy.Deprive a world of Ballybran crystal, and its economy would collapse, so vital were the shafts, and even the splinters, to technology on all levels.The pure research buffos in the labs here kept finding new applications of crystal-even ground shards had uses as abrasives.The more brilliant of the smaller splinters could be made into resonating jewelry, much in vogue again.She wondered how the galaxy had let one Guild gain so much power.What had Lars been on about?Reorganizing?Modernizing?What?The Guild bought state-of-the-art technology in other fields.

Unable to resist the temptation of having unrestricted access to the Guild's master files, Killashandra ran some that she might never again have a chance to discover.Lars had said something about aggregate cutting figures.She wanted to know just how much she, Killashandra Ree, had contributed to the success of the Guild.Once in the ultraconfidential files, those entries were easy enough to find.But the dating of their first duet journey was a shock.They couldn't have been cutting that long.They couldn't…

She canceled the file and sat looking at the screen, patiently blinking a readiness to oblige her.She couldn't…

"Sunny?"Lars's voice on the comunit broke through the fugue such knowledge caused."Sunny, got those figures for me?Sunny?Sunny, what's wrong?"

His voice, concerned and increasingly anxious, roused her.

"I got 'em… " She managed to get the words out.

"Sunny, what's the matter?"

"Am I old, Lars?"

There wasn't much of a pause and, later on, she was never sure if there had been any before he laughed."Old?A singer never gets old, Sunny."His voice rippled with a laughter that sounded genuine to her critical ear.She couldn't even imagine that his amusement had been forced."That's why we become singers.To never get old.Give me those figures, will you, and then I can get back from Shankill and show you just how ageless we both are!Don't get sidetracked by trivia like that, Killa.Now, what are those figures?Patch them through, will you?"

Like an AI, she performed the necessary function and then leaned back in the Guild Master's comfortable but too big chair and tried to remember how she could possibly have cut so many tons of crystal over so many decades.

Lars found her there when he returned long after night had fallen over Ballybran.Nor could he, using all his skills as lover or persuader, bring her out her fugue.He did the only thing possible: took her out into the Ranges again.

She broke out herself when she realized that they were deep in the Milekey Range.On that trip they found the elusive black crystal, a full octave in E that was likely to sing messages around the biggest of the systems vying for comcrystals.But cutting the blacks enervated Killa to the point that she did not argue with Lars when he reluctantly but firmly turned the sled back to the Guild.For the first time it wasn't a storm that drove them in.

Dimly, Killa realized that he carried her in his arms all the way down to the Infirmary, refusing any assistance or the grav-gurney.He undressed her himself while Donalla attached the monitors and Presnol fussed over which medication would produce the best results in the optimum time.

"Shard the optimum!"Lars raved."Juice up her symbiont!Heal her!"

He saw her harnessed into the radiant-fluid bath before he stormed off.She let herself drift then and didn't even wonder how much credit that octave of blacks had earned them.