Chapter 4

She did not finish her internal negotiations until later, and returned to peer through my window only just before dawn. I was awakened by her soft cries of "Mister! Mister!"

"Mph?" I replied, being still in a dream of seductive women doing my bidding in very explicit ways, I am ashamed to say. Then the fear of firedancers jolted me wide awake in an instant, and I fell out of bed while becoming entangled in my blanket. Three things struck me at once. The first was the amazement that this dingy, little room had floorspace enough for me to lie straight on it. The second was that any firedancer would have had ample time to make me die screaming in a blaze of flame. The third was that the unnamed woman found my antics extremely amusing.

"What?" I said as I managed to free myself.

"Nice legs," she said and winked at me.

I grumbled, turned around and put my pants and shirt on. Coarse hemp stuff, dull beige, but far better in this warm climate than my woolen clothes.

"Nicer buttocks," she grinned, covering her mouth.

"What do you want?" I went over to the window. "I told you that I ... That you still are my..."

"Slave?"

"Yes," I said, a bit embarrassed.

"Can't we let the matter rest? Let me in, please. The sun will rise in a moment, and I still don't want to be caught staring in."

I shrugged. Last night I had told her that I expected her to accept her slavery, and she had left in a fury. At the time I had been consumed by desire for that power I had seen displayed in the slave market. Now it all just seemed silly.

"So," I said to her as she sat on the other side of my bed, "now you can tell me your name, maybe?"

"Maybe," she smiles pleasantly. If being in a room alone with a stranger bothered her, or if the dark looks the hostel watchman had given her had stung, then her partly amused, partly defiant manner did not betray it. "But I think that your tale has to be far more interesting than mine."

"Please begin," I said, determined to have my way. I had always been single-minded once I my mind was firmly fixed upon something, and this woman nourished this part of me like a mug of beer did a drunk.

She sighed theatrically and shifted her legs. She had a way of moving that I liked. Not very elegant, almost slightly clumsy even, but with an inner energy that spoke of a fiery soul. "My name is Moonshine."

"Because of-" I began.

"Because of the baldness, yeah." She passed her hand over her new-grown hair. It was at least the fourth time she did this since she had entered my room, and the only time she had done it consciously. "The light of Which of the Seven they refer to I am not sure, probably all of the less fortunate ones."

"Has it grown more?" I asked. What kind of race was she really, this strange woman? There were bald people in the far north-east of the world where they say that the fabled Pearl Islands lie like so many paradises int the glittering seas that were seething with fish.

"Yes," she nodded. "Half an inch it is now. I felt the tickling sensation when I told you my real name. I never did tell people my name since I came here because, well you know. But lying to you ... It is so hard somehow..." She shook her head almost irritable.

"How about a new one?" I smiled as she started creasing her brow in frustration.

"A new what?"

"Name. How about ... Nightbreeze?"

"Why?" She looked intensely at me.

"Well, now your head is dark like the dead of night, but there is also a feel of ... wind about you?" Now why did I say that?

"Was that a missing tooth joke?" Her eyebrow shot up like an interrogator out of his chair when the accused man being questioned claims he has 'done nuttin'.

"No, no. It was a reference to flowing hair that is to come."

We looked at each other for a few moments, and then she gritted her teeth to unsuccessfully hide a little smile. "And what is your name? I'll see if I like it. If not I will have to change it at my whim."

"Sleetspray."

"Huh? What kind of name is that? Why were you given that one?"

"Because I am thought to be persistent and annoying," I smiled.

"Really? I would never have guessed."