Changeling by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller Page A

was
trained to that which he suited, to the increase and best advantage
of the Clan.
    Into Clan Obrelt, then, in the last relumma
of the year called Mitra, a boychild was born. He was called Ren
Zel, after the grandfather who had first taken employ in a shop and
thus found the Clan its destiny, and he was a normal enough child
of the House, at first, second and third counting.
    He was quick with his numbers, which pleased
Aunt Chane, and had a tidy, quiet way about him, which Uncle Arn
Eld noted and approved. No relative was fond enough to proclaim him
a beauty, though all allowed him to be neatly made and of good
countenance. His hair and eyes were brown; his skin a rich,
unblemished gold.
    As befit a House in comfortable circumstance,
Obrelt was wealthy in children. Ren Zel, quiet and tidy, was
invisible amid the gaggle of his cousins. His three elder sisters
remembered, sometimes, to pet him, or to scold him, or to tease
him. When they noticed him at all, the adults found him respectful,
current in his studies, and demure--everything that one might
expect and value in the child of a shopkeeper who was destined,
himself, one day to keep shop.
    It was Aunt Chane who first suspected, in the
relumma he turned twelve, that Ren Zel was perhaps destined to be
something other than a shopkeeper. It was she who gained the Delm's
permission to take him down to Pilot's Hall in Casiaport. There, he
sat with his hands demurely folded while a lady not of his Clan
tossed calculations at him, desiring him merely to give the answer
that came into his head.
    That was a little frightening at first, for
Aunt Chane had taught him to always check his numbers on the
computer, no matter how certain he was, and he didn't like to be
wrong in front of a stranger and perhaps bring shame to his House.
The lady's first calculations were easy, though, and he answered
nearly without thinking. The quicker he answered, the quicker the
lady threw the next question, until Ren Zel was tipped forward in
his chair, face animated, brown eyes blazing in a way that had
nothing tidy or quiet about it. He was disappointed when the lady
held up her hand to show she had no more questions to ask.
    Also that day, he played catch with a very
odd ball that never quite would travel where one threw it--at
least, it didn't the first few times Ren Zel tried. On his fourth
try, he suddenly understood that this was only another iteration of
the calculations the lady had tossed at him, and after that the
ball went where he meant it to go.
    After the ball, he was asked to answer timed
questions at the computer, then he was taken back to his aunt.
    She looked down at him and there was
something ... odd about her eyes, which made him think that perhaps
he should have asked the lady's grace to check his numbers, after
all.
    "Did I do well, Aunt?" he blurted, and Aunt
Chane sighed.
    "Well?" she repeated, reaching to take his
hand and turning toward the door. "It's the Delm who will decide
that for us, youngling."
    Obrelt Himself, informed in private of the
outcome of the tests, was frankly appalled.
    "Pilot? Are they certain?"
    "Not only certain, but--enthusiastic," Chane
replied. "The Master Pilot allows me to know that our Ren Zel is
more than a step out of the common way, in her experience of
pilot-candidates."
    "Pilot," the Delm moaned and went over to the
table to pour himself a second glass of wine. "Obrelt has never
bred a pilot."
    Chane pointed out, dryly, that it appeared
they had, in this instance, bred what might be trained into a very
fine pilot, indeed. To the eventual increase of the Clan.
    That caught Obrelt's ear,
as she had known it would, and he brightened briefly, then moved a
hand in negation. "All very well to say the eventual increase! In the near while,
have you any notion how much it costs to train a pilot?"
    As it happened, Chane did, having taken care
to possess herself of information she knew would lie near to
Obrelt's concern.
    "Twenty-four cantra, over the