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do it! You won't get another warning!"
He turned then and left the room, and strangely enough he didn't seem
to be angry. I sank down onto the bed and sat there, slowly pushing
hair out of my eyes as I tried to figure out what was wrong with
Ringer. The only time he sounded at all familiar was when he was
taking precautions against me, but despite the fact that he still
approached me coatless, his attitude wasn't what it had been the day
before. It was almost as if -
I cut the thought off and groaned, resisting the urge to bang my head
against the wall. Ringer was seeing me as a little girl again, and
that was why he kept giving me those ridiculous orders. I looked at
the tray of food he'd brought, then stretched out on my side of the
bed. I wore a white shorts outfit and was barefoot, and I could just
imagine what Ringer saw when he looked at me. It sure as hell wasn't
what Val saw, and I wondered why Val could see me as a woman when
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Tanderon by Sharon Green - Chapter 4
Ringer couldn't.
Then I absentmindedly crossed my ankles, and managed to whack my left
foot with the chain before remembering that it was there. Suddenly I
was up off my back, cursing and pulling at the damned chain for too
long a time before I got control of myself again. I hated being
chained and I hated being considered a child, and I buried my face in
the ice-blue bed cover, right near the foot of the bed, almost to the
point of tears. I rarely cried, rarely found the need for tears, but
the whole damned thing was so frustrating!
Every time I turned around things got worse instead of better, and I
couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong! My mind was almost as
tired as my body from constantly poking and prodding at the problem
of breaking loose from the insanity Ringer and the Council had me
pointed toward. But there was no way out, unless I found a way to
open that chain and lose Ringer and Val.
I rested my cheek against the cool blue cover, my body curled up at
the foot of the bed, my eyes closed in an attempt to gather strength,
and I must have fallen asleep for a short while. The next thing I
knew Ringer was standing at the foot of the bed, right in front of
me, and his hand was pushing the hair out of my eyes and away from my
face.
"The food hasn't been touched," he said, taking his hand back when he
saw my gaze on him.
"I wasn't very hungry," I answered, closing my eyes once more to
block out the sight of him. Ringer was concerned again, and I didn't
know how long I could take it without screaming.
There was a minute of silence and then Ringer said, "I'll unlock the
chain if you give me your word not to make any more trouble or try a
fast fade. Is it a deal?"
I opened my eyes again and bent my head back to get a better look at
him, and my thoughts must have been printed in iridescent ink on my
face. He flushed under my stare, and stuck his hands in his pockets.
"Quit looking at me like that," he growled, his whole manner faintly
uncomfortable. "I've known you long enough to know how you feel about
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Tanderon by Sharon Green - Chapter 4
being chained, and I don't like the way you look. Give me your word
and I'll get you out of that."
"I thought I was the one who wasn't known for Simon-pure honesty," I
commented, still staring at him. "Now, suddenly, my word is good?"
"Stop being a damned fool," he said with a snort as he met my gaze.
"You'll lie about anything under any circumstance, but you'll keep
your word if you give it. Don't you think I know that?"
"As a matter of fact, I didn't," I muttered, then raised my voice.
"Ringer, don't go on with this," I urged, raising up on one elbow.
"The more I think about it, the more this whole setup reminds me of
Zalento. The Council made up their minds then too, if you'll recall,
and you know what happened there."
"This has nothing to do with Zalento!" he denied sharply, momentarily
sharing the sickening memory. Then his tone softened again. "And
there's nothing I can do to change things now. The Council was ready
to skin you alive, and this was the only alternative they were
willing to accept. If you're smart you'll accept it too, and make the
best of it. It won't be forever."
"Forever tends to show up different places on different scales," I
told him, then lay down on my back again. I was doing no more than
wasting my breath trying to get Ringer to change his mind. He'd fight
the Council for something he believed in, but not to get me out of
what he considered a well-earned punishment. I wondered if it would
have looked the same to him if he were the one being sent back to the
Academy as a cadet, but the question was irrelevant. Ringer wasn't
the one being sent back, and my shoes were a bad fit on him.
"Well?" Ringer prompted after another short silence. "Are you ready
to give me your word?"
"I'm ready to give you lots of words," I said without looking at him.
"You're just not ready to hear them."
"You damned stubborn female," he growled, an echo of my own
frustration sounding in his voice. "You could have been rid of that
chain, but giving your word would be too easy. Okay, do it your way.
I hope Valdon gets so used to having you like that that he does it on
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Tanderon by Sharon Green - Chapter 4
his own!"
I twisted around fast to glare at him, but he wasn't looking at me
any longer. He walked around to the other side of the bed, picked up
the tray, then left with a door slam. I kicked at the footboard to
agree with his slam, then just sat there on the bed, trying to think
of something to do to fill the time. I had more than two weeks of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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