Changeling by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

 
    CHANGELING
    Adventures in the Liaden
Universe ®
    Number Six
     
    Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
     
    Pinbeam Books
    http://www.pinbeambooks.com
     
     
    This is a work of fiction. All the characters
and events portrayed in this novel are fiction or are used
fictitiously.
     
     
    CHANGELING
     
    Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2011
by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller . All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author.
Please remember that distributing an author's work without
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    First published in May 2001 by SRM,
Publisher.
     
    ISBN:
    Kindle: 978-1-935224-63-1
    Epub: 978-1-935224-64-8
    PDF: 978-1-935224-65-5
     
    Published May 2011 by
    Pinbeam Books
    PO Box 707
    Waterville ME 04903
    email [email protected]
     
    Cover Copyright © 2011 by Steve
Miller
    Cover design by Steve Miller
     
    CHANGELING
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    Changeling
     
    THE FIRST THING THEY told him when he emerged
from the catastrophic healing unit was that his wife had died in
the accident.
    The second thing they told him was that her
Clan was pursuing retribution to the fullest extent of the
Code.
    They left him alone, then, the med techs,
with instructions to eat and rest. The door slid closed behind them
with the snap of a lock engaging.
    Out of a habit of obedience, he walked over
to the table and lifted the cover from the tray. The aroma of
glys-blossom tea rose to greet him and he dropped the cover, tears
rising.
    He had not known his wife well, but she had
been pretty and bold and full of fun--one found it inconceivable,
newly healed from one's own injuries and with the scent of her
preferred blend in the air, that she was--that she was--
    Dead.
    The tears spilled over, blinding him. He
raised his hands to cover his face and wept where he stood.
    His name was Ren Zel dea'Judan, Clan Obrelt.
He was twenty-one Standard years old and the hope of all his
kin.
    * * *
    THEY WERE SHOPKEEPERS, Clan Obrelt. It
scarcely mattered what sort of shop, as long as it wanted keeping.
In the hundreds of years since the first dea'Judan took up the
trade, Obrelt had kept flower shops, sweet shops, hardware shops,
book shops, wine shops, green groceries and shops too odd to
mention. The shops they kept were never their own, but belonged to
other, wealthier, Clans who lacked Obrelt's genius for
management.
    Having found a trade that suited them, Obrelt
was not minded to change. They settled down to the work with a will
and achieved a certain reputation. Eventually, it came to be Obrelt
managers that the High Clans sought to manage the stores the High
Clans owned. In the way of commerce, the price that Obrelt might
ask of Clans desirous of employing their shopkeepers rose. The
House became--not wealthy, not in any Liaden terms--but comfortably
well-off. Perhaps not nearly so well-off by the standard of the far
homeworld, Liad itself; but comfortable enough by the easy measure
of outworld Casia.
    A Clan of shopkeepers, they married and begat
more shopkeepers, though the occasional accountant, or librarian,
or Healer was born. These changelings puzzled the Clan elders when
they appeared, but honor and kin-duty were served and each