The Bronze Skies by Catherine Asaro

Author:Catherine Asaro [Asaro, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, General, Action & Adventure, Space Opera
ISBN: 9781481482585
Google: zQYzvgAACAAJ
Amazon: 1481482580
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2017-09-05T04:00:00+00:00

I slept in a deserted building among the ruins of an ancient city that had existed long before humans on Earth reached for the stars. I slept beneath a sloping roof with a crack that jagged up the wall. I slept with starlight pouring across—

Oh, fuck it. I didn’t sleep at all.

I turned back and forth all night. Two of the Uzan’s copies had left me here with nothing more than my jacket to soften the floor. I stretched out on my back and gazed at the broken roof, watching stars move past in the sky. My wrist ached. I no longer felt the intelligence I had sensed in the palace, but I had no doubt it existed within these ruins. So here I lay, proving my fidelity to a long dead city.

This is strange, I thought.

A lot of strange happened tonight, Max thought. As, for example, restless sands.

What do you mean, restless sands?

That should be my question to you. When the Uzan told you ‘The desert sands shift in unison,’ your pulse practically went through the roof.

I turned over on my stomach. Through the roof? That makes no sense.

It’s an Earth idiom. And you are evading my question.

You didn’t ask a question.

What did—

I flipped onto my back again. It’s none of your business.

Based on your increased heart rate, I surmise his comment concerned intimacy.

Let me sleep.

You’ve been trying to sleep for hours. At this point, it is unlikely our interactions will change your inability to achieve that state.

I crossed my arms. You can be really annoying, Max.

My apology. He asked you to have sex with him, didn’t he?

No, he did NOT ask me to have sex.

Max was silent.

Fine. If you could growl a thought, I was doing it. He invited me to start a relationship.

That is surprising.

Thank you so much for your faith in my ability to attract a lover.

I have no doubt about your ability to attract a mate. I meant I didn’t expect the leader of the pharaoh’s bodyguards to ask any woman such a thing.

Why? They get lonely, too.

Yes, of course. Another silence, which was a comment itself given that his mental processes worked much faster than human thought. Then he added, The Abaj were selected for their ability to survive on their own. Their women were dying out.

They aren’t all asexual or gay, if that’s what you mean. Some of them marry or whatever. They just don’t stay here if they want to live with their lover. Only Abaj could live in Izu Yaxlan.

Why did you turn him down? You live close enough.

I didn’t turn him down. I told him that he honored me greatly, and I didn’t deserve him.

That is a gracious way to say no. But it is still no.

Max, stop.

It’s because of your casino man.

Go away.

Jak.

Fine. It’s because of Jak. Now will you let me sleep?

You need to come to terms with your repressed emotional—

Stop! I drew in a deep breath. I don’t want to talk about this.

It harms you.

Unbidden, a memory came to me from my eleventh birthday.

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