The beauty of his playing, the beauty of his face as he played, struck an aching in her bones.When his playing ceased, she felt empty.
She had been leaning toward him, perched on a stool, elbows on her knees, supporting her chin with cradled hands.So he leaned forward, across the guitar, and kissed her gently on the mouth.They rose, as one, Shad putting the guitar aside to fold her in his arms and kiss her deeply.She felt the silk of his bare flesh beneath her hands, the warmth of his strong body against hers and then… The others came pouring back with disruptive noise.
As well, thought Killashandra, as Orric boisterously swung her up to the beat of a rough dance.When next she looked over her shoulder, Shad was in his corner, watching, the slight smile on his lips, his eyes still on her.
He is very much too young for me, she told herself, and I am brittle with too much living.
The next day she nursed what must have been her first hangover in a century.She had worked hard enough to acquire one.She lay on the beach in the shade and tried not to move unnecessarily.No one bothered her until midday-presumably everyone else was nursing a hangover as well.Then Shad's big feet stopped on the sand beside her pallet.His knees cracked as he bent over her and his compelling hand tipped back the wide hat she wore against sun glare.
"You'll feel better if you eat this," he said, speaking very softly.He held out a small tray with a frosted glass and a plate of fruit chips on it.
She wondered if he were enunciating with extra care, for she understood every soft word, even if she resented the gist of them.She groaned, and he repeated his advice.Then he put gentle hands on her, raising her torso so she could drink without spilling.He fed her, piece by piece, as a man feeds a sick and fretful child.
She felt sick and she was fretful, but when all the food and drink were in her belly, she had to admit that his advice was sound.
"I never get drunk."
"Probably not.But you also don't dance yourself bloody-footed either."
Her feet were tender, come to think of it, and when she examined the soles, she discovered blisters and myriad thin scratches.
Tucker sat with her all afternoon, saying little.When he suggested a swim, she complied.The lagoon water was cooler than she had remembered, or maybe she was hotter for all she had been lying in the shade.
When they emerged from the water, she felt human, even for a crystal singer.And she admired his straight tall body, the easy grace of his carriage, and the fineness of his handsome face.But he was much too young for her.She would have to try Orric, for she needed a man's favors again.
Evidently it was not Shad's intention that she find Orric: he persuaded her that she didn't want to eat in the hostelry; that it would be more fun to dig bivalves where the tide was going out, in a cove he knew of, a short walk away.It is difficult to argue with a soft-spoken man, who was taller than she by several centimeters, and could carry her easily under one arm… even if he was a century or so younger.
And it was impossible not to touch his silky flesh when he brushed past her to tend the baking shellfish, or when he passed her wine-steeped fruit chips and steamed roots.
When he looked at her, sideways, his blue eyes darker now, reflecting the fire and the night, it was beyond her to resist his subtle importunities.
She woke on the dark beach, before the dying fire, with his sleeping weight against her side.Her arms were wrapped around his right arm, her head cradled in the cup of his shoulder.Without moving her head, she could see his profile.And she knew there wasn't any crystal in her soul.She could still give, and receive.For all she sang crystal, she still possessed that priceless human quality, annealed in the fire of his youth.
She had been wrong to dismiss him for what was a mere chronological accident, irrelevant to the peace and solace he brought her.Her body was exultant, renewed.
Her stretching roused him to smile with unexpected sweetness into her eyes.He gathered her against him, the vibrant strength of his arms tempered to tenderness for her slighter frame.
"You crazy woman," he said, in a wondering voice, as he lightly scrubbed her scalp with his long fingers and played with her fine hair."I've never met anyone like you before."
"Not likely to again."Please!
He grinned down at her, delighted by her arrogance.
"Do you travel much?" he asked.
"When the mood strikes me."
"Don't travel for a while."
"I'll have to one day.I've got to go back to work, you know."
"What work?"
"I'm a guild member."
His grin broadened and he hugged her."All right, I won't pry."His finger delicately traced the line of her jaw."You can't be as old as you make out," he said.She had been honest enough earlier to tell him they were not contemporary.
She answered him with a laugh, but his comment brought a chill to her.It couldn't have been an accident that he could relieve her, she thought, caressing his curving thigh.She panicked suddenly at the idea that, once she had tasted, she could not drink again and strained herself to him.
His arms tightened and his low laugh was loving to her ears.And their bodies fit together again as fully and sweetly in harmony as before.Yes, with Shad Tucker, she could dismiss all fear as baseless.
Their pairing-off was accepted by Orric and Tir, who had his ready credit now and was off to apply it to whatever end he'd had in mind.Only Biyanco had searched her face, and she had shrugged and given the brewman a little reassuring smile.Then he had peered closely at Shad and smiled back.
That was why he said nothing.As she had known he wouldn't.For Shad Tucker wasn't ready to settle on one woman.Killashandra was an adventure to him, a willing companion for a man just finished with a hard season's work.
They spent the days together as well, exploring the coastline in both directions from Trefoil, for Shad had a mind to put his earnings in land or seafront.She had never felt so… so vital and alive.He had a guitar of his own that he would bring, playing for hours little tunes he made up when they were becalmed in his small sloop and had to take shelter from Armagh's biting noonday sun in the shade of the sail.She loved to look at him while he played: his absorption had the quality of an innocent boy discovering major Truths of Beauty, Music, and Love.Indeed, his face, when he caressed her to a fever pitch of love, retained that same youthful innocence and intent concentration.Because he was so strong, because his youth was so powerful, his delicate, restrained lovemaking was all the more surprising to her.
The days multiplied and became weeks, but so deep was her contentment that the first twinge of uneasiness caught her unawares.She knew what it was, though: her body's cry for crystal song.
"Did I hurt you?"Shad asked, for she was in his arms.
She couldn't answer, so she shook her head.He began to kiss her slowly, leisurely, sure of himself.She felt the second brutal knock along her spine and twisted herself closer in his arms so he wouldn't feel it and she could forget it had happened.
"What's wrong, Killa?"
"Nothing.Nothing you can't cure."
So he did.But afterward, she couldn't sleep and stared up at the spinning moons.She couldn't leave Shad now.Time and again he had worked his magic with her, until she would have sworn all crystal thought was purged… until she had even toyed with the notion of resigning from the Guild.No one ever had, according to the Rules and Regs she had reviewed over and over.No one ever had, but likely no one had wanted to.When she had to have crystal, she could tune sour crystal.There was always a need for that service, anywhere, on any world.But she had to stay with Shad.He held back fear; he brought her peace.She had waited for a love like Shad Tucker for so long, she had the right to enjoy the relationship.