"Three thousand quandoes."
He did not haggle, but counted out the amount and handed it to her. She
slipped the bills into a thigh sheath-purse, told him her hut number
and stood up to leave. "I will meet you there in an hour," she said.
* * * * *
Her hut was as good a place to wait for her as any. After buying a
bottle of native whiskey at the bar, Blake went out into the Dubhe 4
night and made his way through the labyrinthine alleys of the native
sector. In common with all chocoletto huts, Eldoria's was uncared for
on the outside, and gave a false impression of poverty. He expected to
find the usual hanger-on waiting in the anteroom, and looked forward to
booting him out into the alley. Instead he found a young girl--
A human girl.
He paused in the doorway. The girl was sitting cross-legged on a small
mat, a book open on her lap. Xenophon's _Anabasis_. Her hair made him
think of the copper-colored sunrises of Norma 9 and her eyes reminded
him of the blue tarns of Fornax 6. "Come in," she said.
After closing the door, he sat down opposite her on the guest mat.
Behind her, a gaudy arras hid the hut's other room. "You are here to
wait for Eldoria?" she asked.