by Jean Lorrah
“Oh, Sergi!” she said in amused exasperation, and pulled him into lip contact.
Sergi poured selyn into her as fast as she could accept it, like no other Companion. Today, though, there did not seem to be a flow through nerves at all—it was as if all the barriers were gone—as if they were one and the same, filling and filled, satisfying and satisfied, healer and healed.
It did not end until she was beyond any former satisfaction, as if he opened new depths in her simply for the pleasure of filling them.
Stunned, Risa stared at Sergi, seeing him, as always immediately after transfer, with only those senses they had in common. But his eyes were unfocused, and he seemed to be drawn within himself, one with her on that awesome nageric level. Then he blinked, and his eyes focused on her.
He could not speak, nor did he have to. They reached out to one another, clinging, crying with a joy too strong for laughter.
For a while they lay quietly, absorbed in one another. Then, tenderly, his hand caressed her hair. Desire flowed from him to her, awakening her own.
She kissed him deeply, her body yearning for his. Where he was smeared with ronaplin, contact was even more intense. They moved together, their rhythm matching as easily and naturally as their fields resonated together. Risa could not sort out her responses from Sergi’s—nor did she care.
Such sweet passion led inevitably to the moment of fulfillment, and they lay panting, Risa cradling Sergi’s bright head on her breast, his cool skin a tender pleasure on hers. Finally she had to speak. “Sergi, what’s happening to us? I’ve never felt like this before.”
“Torluen.” The word was muffled against her.
“...what? You mean lortuen?”
“When the man is Gen and the woman Sime, it’s called torluen.” He pulled her down into his arms. “I don’t know why there are two different words. Who cares which one of us is what?”
“I don’t care,” she replied, not yet realizing the implications. “I just love you.”
His arms tightened about her. “Would you like to have our marriage celebration right away, or wait until the householding has pledged to you?”
“What?” She sat up in sudden horror. “Sergi, I—I’m sorry!”
“Sorry for what? Risa, everything is perfect now!”
She got up and moved away, picking up his shirt and draping it over herself against a sudden chill. The strange new connection between them did not lessen with distance. “Don’t you realize what I’ve done to you?”
“We did it together.”
“We shouldn’t have! Oh, my love, I know I can’t stay at Keon without committing myself—but Keon won’t have me as Sectuib. Not after all the trouble I’ve caused.”
“Of course we will. Risa, you have been Sectuib in all but name since Nedd’s death. We’ll put it to a vote of the membership, if it will make you feel better.”
She nodded. “But what if they vote against me? What will happen to you, Sergi?”
“I stay with you, whatever happens. But I know what will happen,” he added serenely. His confidence was so great that Risa barely knew her own fears. Sergi watched her, then got up and handed her her clothes. “Let’s go set up the vote for tomorrow—you won’t be happy until the whole householding lets you know how we feel.”
“They know how I feel, and I can’t change. Keon’s traditions are not my traditions. I don’t believe in community property—”
“Which is why Keon’s members are now individual stockholders in Keon Steel.”
“I can’t live closed in behind stone walls!”
“And we have no reason to rebuild the gates. You have changed Keon, as every Sectuib does. If people didn’t like what you were doing, they would leave—but no one has left.”
“They have no choice. Where else could they go and be safe as Gens, or not kill as Simes?”
“Gen Territory!” Sergi answered as they went down the stairs. “Carre. Other householdings in other territories. My brother is at Imil, over in Nivet Territory. No one is forced to stay here. Keon’s virtue is freedom—and we have never been so free as since you came here, Risa.”
“Risa—Sergi!” Rikki came out of one of the transfer rooms with Dina. “I wasn’t going to disturb you—but we could use your help! We’ve got two changeovers going on at once.”
“Where do you want us, Rikki?” Risa asked resignedly.
Loid’s son, Dron, was expected to be a channel like his father, so Rikki sent Sergi and Risa to help the boy through. The diagnosis proved true; Gevron provided First Transfer, and Keon had enough channels again, even with its added work load—or would have as soon as both Dron and Susi completed their training.
It was another occasion for a party—it seemed that Keon had done nothing else for days!
Risa tried to put aside her worry about the future. Then, as she stood watching the parents of the two new Simes toasting each other in porstan, Dina came up to her and asked, “Will you send me back to Carre now, Risa?”
There was something hidden in Dina’s nager, but Risa could not fathom it in the crowd of happy people. “It’s not up to me,” she replied. “Rikki—”
“No. When Keon can operate without my services may be the controller’s decision, but whether or not you allow me to stay is the Sectuib’s. After what I have seen here—I want to stay, but only if I can pledge to you as my Sectuib.”
Loid joined them, saying, “Dina is right. Risa—my son cannot pledge unto Keon until you accept the title. There are a dozen others houseless—all who have changed over or established since Nedd’s death. We must have a Sectuib in name as well as in deed.”
All around them, people took up the theme. “It’s time to take the title, Risa.” “You’ve certainly earned it!”
The crowd parted to let Litith come through, carrying her child. “Risa,” she said, “when Nedd died you were still a stranger to many of us. But that is true no longer. You are our Sectuib. Let us recognize you.”
She handed her baby to Dina, and pulled her householding ring from her finger, handing it to Risa. All over the room, Simes and Gens did the same, crowding forward to hand them to Risa—in moments her hands were full, her handling tentacles weighted down with rings as people ran for members not at the party, hurrying them into the dining hall for the occasion.
“Sergi!” Risa called.
He came to stand beside her, saying, “I know my part, but I cannot perform it until all the members have gathered.”
“Did you plan this?”
“Do you think I arranged the changeovers?”
“I don’t know what you may be capable of arranging!” she admitted.
One of the dining tables became a platform, chairs set before it for people to step up on. The red capes were brought out, and one was draped about Risa’s shoulders as with relief she put the rings down on a smaller table Loid set up on the large one. Sergi at her side, she faced the members of Keon, all now crowded into the dining hall. These people could not be choosing her to lead them—and yet their collective nager told her that it was indeed so. They wanted her. They trusted her.
Sergi brought out the length of white chain Risa had seen at Kreg and Triffin’s pledge ceremony. The channels and Companions stood ready to have him fasten it about their throats, like collars. They would expect Risa to—
As she stepped back at his approach, Sergi said, “You may discard this part of the ceremony if you wish, Risa. It’s your householding.”
“But Keon has its traditions,” she replied, eyeing the chain doubtfully. “We should keep our links with the past.” She swallowed hard, dreading the feel of that chain clasped tight about her throat—and suddenly she knew— “Give me that, Sergi.”
She took the jewelry pliers from his hand, measured a length of the lightweight enameled chain, and made a circle large enough to slip over her head. “We are free to choose,” she said. “We can wear the chain freely only if it is loose enough to remove if we see fit.”
> Sergi quickly fashioned the chain into lengths that the channels and Companions could put on and off easily—and all put them on, accepting the burden of their free choice.
Then Sergi took Risa’s hand, saying, “As First Companion in Keon, I choose you, Risa Tigue, as Sectuib ambrov Keon. To you I pledge my life, my strength, my talent, and my future. Unto Keon, forever!”
There was silence in the room, but the ambient nager vibrated as with a huge cheer. Sergi slipped something onto Risa’s finger—the ring he had showed her before. But now it was finished, gleaming gold, the ruby surrounded by diamonds, marking it as the Sectuib’s ring. When had he had the time—?
Sergi held out his own ring, huge and heavy on the palm of his hand, and Risa slipped it onto his finger, not knowing what to do next. “Tell me you accept my pledge,” he murmured.
“Sergi ambrov Keon, I accept your pledge,” she told him. Again the silent cheer—and when Risa turned once more to face Keon’s membership, the oath was repeated by every voice there.
When she had accepted the pledge, she asked Sergi, “Shouldn’t I promise something?”
“You have,” he replied. “In accepting us, you have accepted Keon.”
People surged forward to claim their rings. Dina, who had stood silent, still wearing her Carre ring, told Risa, “If you will have me, I will send a message to Yorn at once. He is still my Sectuib until he releases me—and Carre may require my services for the winter.”
“You will be welcome whenever you are free to join us, Dina,” Risa told her.
Then she was surrounded by people congratulating her, finding their own rings somehow, and having her place them on their hands. People who had to hurry back to their duties were allowed to go first, but the festival mood continued.
Rikki was among the last to come forward, bringing with him the children of Keon who had never pledged, having changed over or established while the householding had no Sectuib. Loid’s son Dron was there—and so was Susi Darley.
“Susi,” Risa said as the girl came forward, “you shouldn’t do this without consulting your father. He wants you to live in town, with him—”
“And I will,” Susi replied serenely, “as you told me at my changeover. I am an adult now, Risa—and I want to devote my life to Keon as you have made it.”
Zlinning the girl’s sincerity in her nager, Risa accepted her pledge, and the others’. The final ritual was complete. Music played. People burst into song.
Sergi stepped down from the platform, and lifted Risa down. She let him, feeling again the new but no longer strange link between them. Their red capes draped over their arms as he lifted her, the white chains prominent against the bright fabric—but Risa no longer felt bound. She felt freer than she had ever felt in the midst of those she loved, who loved her. The white chains were a link with the past—and a link to the future. Her future—the one she would build with Sergi—a part of Keon, forever.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JEAN LORRAH lives in Kentucky with her dog, Kadi Farris ambrov Keon, and two cats, Earl Gray Dudley and Splotch the Wanderer. The cats are licensed therapy animals who visit schools and nursing homes.
Jean has published more than twenty books through the years, several of them award winners and best-sellers. She teaches the occasional creative writing workshop in person, and with Jacqueline Lichtenberg runs a free workshop online on their domain, www.simegen.com. For information on Jean’s latest publications, essays on writing, and anything else currently going on in her life, visit:
www.jeanlorrah.com
THE SIME~GEN SERIES FROM THE BORGO PRESS
House of Zeor, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#1)
Unto Zeor, Forever, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#2)
First Channel, by Jean Lorrah and Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#3)
Mahogany Trinrose, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#4)
Channel’s Destiny, by Jean Lorrah and Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#5)
RenSime, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#6)
Ambrov Keon, by Jean Lorrah (#7)
Zelerod’s Doom, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah (#8)
Personal Recognizance, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#9)
The Story Untold and Other Stories, by Jean Lorrah (#10)
To Kiss or to Kill, by Jean Lorrah (#11)
The Farris Channel, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#12)
Other Jean Lorrah Books from Wildside:
Savage Empire (Savage Empire #1)
Dragon Lord of the Savage Empire (#2)
Captives of the Savage Empire (#3)
Flight to the Savage Empire (#4, with Winston A. Howlett)
Sorcerers of the Frozen Isles (#5)
Wulfston’s Odyssey (#6, with Winston A. Howlett)
Empress Unborn (#7)
