They walked in silence, with nothing but the gentle surf of the ocean to disturb them.They walked in silence, with nothing but the gentle surf of the ocean to disturb them. They took the SDisk back to Shardik Castle without a word between them. "Welcome back," Shardik said quietly, looking up from the book he was reading. Nickolai's command had been "Take us to Shardik Castle," and he had momentarily forgotten that there were several SDisks in the complex. This one had deposited them on the sands surrounding the lagoon. Shardik was lying on a beach towel directly adjacent to it. "You two seem happy." "Very," Furry said. "Good. Just a second." He raised his voice and shouted "Skii! Where are you?" "Up here!" a voice came from the roof of the Castle. Nickolai looked up and wondered how the sound had traveled that far, then realized that when Dave was a major member of the family, trivial details like space and time didn't matter very much. "Well, come down here. I have something for you to do." The Felinzi shrugged and leapt over the railing. That was another thing Pendorians didn't seem to have much concern for... gravity. Nickolai suddenly realized he'd been labeling accelleration with the word "gravity," when of course it wasn't gravity at all, but incidental centripetal acelleration, that kept his feet planted firmly on the ground. "What's up?" Skii asked, dusting sand from the tip of his tail. He hadn't landed very gracefully. "You have an errand to run." "I do?" "Yes. As I recall, you left three of the family Jialani's out at Carraraug. I expect them back in the vehicle bay by one tomorrow." "You mean, I have to go get them?" "Well, you can enlist help, if you like. These two look like safe, trustworthy-" he put particular emphasis on that word- "Jialani riders." "Well," Skii said, seeming pleased if a little unbalanced by the offer, "We did leave 'em there. Want to go and recover them?" "Sure," Nickolai said, smiling. "I don't see why not. |