Fire Sanctuary by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel

Author:Katharine Eliska Kimbriel [Kimbriel, Katharine Eliska]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Katharine Eliska Kimbriel, fire Sanctuary, mobi, prc, ebook, nuala, nook, science fiction, book view cafe, kindle, pdf, sony ereader, epub
ISBN: 9781611380569
Publisher: Book View Cafe

Chapter Thirteen

MT. AMURA, NUALA

SIXTYDAY, LAUDS (MOONSET)

Braan hesitated at the partition. He knew it was traditional to be as noisy as possible when waking the members of the wedding party, but they had been up so late, and Liel slept so soundly. Oh, why not. They could not complain; he was alone and had nothing to pound on. The marriage of Ronüviel and Moran deserved some boisterous celebration.

“Up! Everybody up in there, hurry, hurry, it is a bannsday! You have been chosen; now you are called! Awake!” There was no sound. The guaard before the door did not move. Then the temporary partition folded back, and Teloa stood there, eyeing him balefully, completely bundled in a blanket, her hair a wreath of light,.

“I hope there is precedent for this,” she began, her words dripping ice water.

“He is being nice, Tay” came a sleepy voice from the darkness within. “When Libra got married, I woke up to a twenty-piece band! Go away, Braan, we shall be there.”

“We are meeting in the assembly room before we go to the garedoc. Arrez will have candle straws for you. Do not eat anything!” Braan added as a reminder. Teloa, still amazed over the twenty-piece band, closed the partition. Controlling his laughter, Braan slipped back up the passageway toward his room, his guaard a shadow at his back.

He was so involved in thoughts about the wedding that he nearly ran into Shinar as she staggered around a corner. The Atare took one look at her face and seized her arm. Looking wildly for the sanitation room, he ripped open the partition and dragged her to a portable commode.

“Get a healer!” Braan yelled at the roommate who had been awakened by Shinar’s movement. The woman disappeared.

“Atare, I am sorry—you should not,” Shinar gasped out between heaves.

“Be quiet and let your stomach settle,” he replied, nodding to another bunk mate who had brought a blanket. With the guaard’s help the two of them managed to force Shinar flat on her back in the aisle. In a few moments the first roommate returned, Elana behind her. The doctor looked pale for early rising, Braan noticed, but she was not only the final medical authority, she was mother as well. Even with the young adults bunking together by age and sex until proper family units could be constructed, parental rights remained.

The healer checked her daughter’s forehead as she pulled out her diagnostician’s monitor. Shinar still perspired, her expression wide-eyed but otherwise alert.

“Just my stomach, nothing else,” Shinar said, anticipating her mother’s questions. Elana played with the dials on her tiny computer, her face betraying nothing. The roommates stood in the doorway, visibly worried.

“Congratulations, you are going to be a mother.” The bunk mates responded with gasps of surprise and joy, even as puzzled expressions crossed their faces. “You two—I left the rest of my bag in the life shelter and I need my comp connector to punch in a milk requisition. Go!” The surprised young women took off down the corridor.

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