Eye of the Ocean Book 3 Ji'jin Station

Eye of the Ocean – Book 3: Ji’Jin Station
He didn't want to hear what the medic said. “I'll get up,” he said, interrupting
his wife. He turned to his side and got to his elbow first, moving carefully and it
still felt as though he left half his body behind. Or as though he was likely to
crack and fall apart into small bits. Tika moved into the spot he left, and started
to purr loudly. He couldn't even roll back.
Alicia wore a sour look but didn't leave his side until they reached the patio
and he could sit. She hovered, there wasn't any other word for it and then tucked
him around with a blanket. A blanket on a hot morning - she both hovered and
fussed. “I'm quite fine,” he said, exasperated with her.
Cayse waited until she had gone before speaking “Lord Ritsiniti,” he said
formally, giving a bow as Rit shifted gingerly to see the man without having to
turn.
“Is this necessary?” he asked rudely.
“You must be feeling better,” Cayse laughed. “Breakfast first, then we can
talk.”
“Why?”
“We've found her.”
Rit nodded slowly, looking past the other man to the silver of the river. Alicia
could have told him, he would have preferred the privacy. The Net had the details
on a heavily protected link. No analysis, just her. Images: her talking, laughing.
Where she lived... how she lived. “And the purpose of all this?” he asked tiredly,
motioning to the breakfast dishes but meaning the meeting.
Other than raising an eyebrow, Cayse didn't respond.
He wanted to go somewhere. The river, Rit thought. A walk, he could take the
Net record with him, draw it out until the link threatened to snap. Had Eunni felt
like that, the choices overwhelming until only escape seemed desirable? Rit
sighed and made a motion of acceptance of the tea bowl the attendant offered
him. Breakfast first at any rate.
Capping a rise of ground overlooking the Endicastrom River, the Guesthouse
was set in the wall of Intil Capital, very close to the High Market gardens. Intil
proper stretched towards the mountains like the tail of a comet, a lesser wall
enclosing most of it. Xintan style architecture mainly, adobe and tile and woolen
cloth to make awnings, the lines were fluid, organic, not the squared off timber
and stone he grew up with in Wilni Province and different again from the Ocea
inspired Holding. There hadn't been anything this close to the river on his Alisim,
Intil had been further to the west, away from the river, a destination for the trade
that came overland across the mountains. Now, the city straddled the Pilgrim’s
Road. The old Post road.
Temple Net had recognized Cayse's ranking even as the local Temple officials
had the lameness of the story offered them about a flitter wreck. Did they see no
recourse other than to cooperate, or was this simply courtesy mixed with
Laurel Hickey www.2morrow.bc.ca