The arrow within the hart would not abide,

eyes held hers steadily and a worried crease to his brows emphasized his warning. Its a long haul to the Optherian system. Youd be gone from Ballybran nearly a full year All the better You say that now when youre full of crystal resonance. You cant have forgotten Carrik yet. His reminder conjured flashing scenes of the first crystal singer she had met: Carrik laughing as they swam in Fuertes seas, then Carrik wracked by withdrawal fever and finally the passive hulk of the man, shattered by sonic resonance. You will in time, Ive no doubt, experience that phenomenon, Lanzecki said. Ive never known a singer who didnt try to push himself and his symbiont to their limits. A major disadvantage to the Optherian contract is that you would lose any resonance to your existing claims. As if I had a decent claim among the lot. Killashandra snorted in disgust. Rose is no good to anyone and the blue petered out after two days cutting. Even the white vein skips and jumps. I cut the best of the accessible vein. With the kind of luck Ive been enjoying, the storm has probably made a total bollix of the site. I am not not, I repeat spending another three weeks in a spade and basket operation. Not for white. Why cant Research develop an efficient portable excavator? Lanzecki cocked his head slightly. It is the firm opinion of Research that any one of the nine efficient, portable and durable, a significant pause, excavators already field-tested ought to perform the task for which it was engineered except in the hands of a crystal singer. It is the opinion of Research that the only two pieces of equipment that do not tax the mechanical aptitude of a singer are his cutter though Fisherman does not concur and his sled, and you have already heard section and paragraph from the Flight Engineer on that score. Havent you? Killashandra regarded him stolidly for a few moments, then remembered to chew what was in her mouth. Overheard him, she said, with a malicious grin. Dont try to distract me from this Optherian business. Im not. I am bringing to your notice the several overt disadvantages to an assignment that involves a long absence from Ballybran for what might, in the long run, be inadequate compensation. His expression changed subtly. Id rather not be professionally at odds with you. It interferes with my private life. His dark eyes caught hers. He reached for her hands, lips curved in the one-sided smile that she found so affecting. She no longer canon digital sports camera shared a table with her Guild Master but with Lanzecki the man. The alteration pleased her. On numerous occasions, during sleepless nights in the Milekey Ranges, she had fondly remembered their love-making. Now, seated opposite the charismatic Lanzecki, she found that her appetite for more than food had been completely restored. Her smile answered his and together they rose from the little table and headed for the sleeping room. Chapter 2 Killashandra pushed herself back from the terminal and, balancing on the base of her spine, stretched arms and legs as far from her body as bone and tendon permitted. She had spent the morning immersed in the Optherian entry of the Encyclopedia Galactica. Once she had got past the initial exploration and evaluation report to the release of the Ophiuchine planet for colonization, and the high-flown language of its charter to establish a colony of Mankind in complete harmony with the ecological balance of his adopted planet: to ensure the propagation thereon of the Species in its pure, unadulterated Form. She kept waiting for the fly to appear in the syrupy ointment of Optherias honey pot. Optheria was an old planet in geological terms. A near-circular orbit about an aging sun produced a temperate clime. There was little seasonal change since the axial wobble was negligible, and modest glaciers capped both poles. Optheria was inordinately proud of its self-sufficiency in a civilization where many planets were so deeply in debt to mercantile satellites that they were almost charged for the atmosphere that encapsulated them. Optherian imports were minimal with the exception of tourists seeking to enjoy the gentler pleasures of old Terra in a Totally Natural World. Killashandra, reading with an eye to hidden significances, paused to consider the implications. Although her experience with planets had been limited to two Fuerte, her planet of origin, and Ballybran, she knew enough of how worlds wagged to sense the iron idealism that probably supported the Optherian propaganda. She tapped a question and frowned at the negative answer: Optherias Charter Signers were not proselytizers of a religious sect nor did Optheria recognize a federal church. As many worlds had been colonized for idealist forms of government, religiously or secularly oriented, as for purely commercial considerations. The guiding principle of foundation