his choice. She had been working ever since to soften the harsh lines and she smiled as she fluffed a pink cushion, the same color as the moss in the caves.
“Isabel?” Baralt’s familiar voice called from the bottom of the stairs, and she answered him eagerly, already anxious to see her mate even though he’d only been gone for the morning.
“How does it look?” she asked when he appeared in the doorway.
“Beautiful.” But he was looking at her rather than the room.
“I meant the furniture.”
“I’m sure it is very nice.” He advanced on her, his eyes burning with that familiar heat. “But I’m far more interested in you. I missed you.”
“You weren’t gone that long,” she teased before he picked her up and kissed her breathless. “I missed you too,” she admitted when he finally raised his head.
“Where’s Zemma?” he asked.
“Where do you think?” Since they’d moved to town, Zemma and Strax had been inseparable. Izzie had been shocked to realize that Strax was a huge bull-like alien with a startling resemblance to a minotaur, but he was quiet and polite and obviously deeply in love with Zemma.
Baralt frowned. “I’m still not sure I approve.”
“You can hardly object to a non-Hothian mate when you have one.”
“It’s not that. I’m just not sure that he is worthy of her.”
“Would you think anyone was worthy?”
He shrugged a shoulder but didn’t respond, and she hastily changed the subject. “How was the meeting?”
“Dull. Why do so many people like to hear themselves speak?”
He had been meeting with various trade groups to discuss prospects for trade other than sothiti, but so far nothing had seemed promising.
“Maybe we can find something more interesting to do…”
“Exactly what I had in mind.” He lifted her into his arms, but instead of taking her into the bedroom as she expected, he carried her to the front door, pausing only to wrap her in her cloak before stepping out into the cold.
“Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.” He carried her around the outside of the house to where an odd-looking cart was waiting, hitched to a sarlag. Curved sides curled up to create a cup shape, and the whole thing was perched on two long runners. Baralt lifted her in, and she discovered that the interior was filled with warm, soft sarlag wool.
“What is this? A sleigh?” she asked as he joined her.
“We call it a hantsu. Our ancestors used these for traveling. I thought you might enjoy a ride.”
“That sounds like a wonderful idea.”
He picked up a set of reins attached to the sarlag’s horns, and they took off. Since their house was located on the edge of town, they were quickly out on the open plain. She laughed as the sarlag raced ahead, the light vehicle not hindering its speed.
“I would never have thought about a sleigh ride, but this is an ice planet. It makes sense.” A memory suddenly surfaced. When she had been an undergrad, a friend had persuaded her to join her family at their cabin in the mountains for the Christmas holiday. The small town where it was located had been filled with visitors, all of them excited to try the various winter activities.
“Do you use skis?” she asked thoughtfully.
“Skis?”
“Long strips of wood you fasten to your feet to go down a hill. Or across country.”
“We don’t have wood. But we do something similar with the rib bones of a marlax.”
“What about skates? Smaller…bones you would put on your feet to glide over ice.”
“Yes, we have those.”
“I know you have confined offworlders to Port Eyeja, but have you ever considered opening up a little more of the planet to tourism?”
“Tourism?”
“On Earth, people like to take vacations to different climates. To have different experiences and try new things. Like skiing or skating or sleigh rides.”
“You would want to open the planet to these people?”
“Only a little bit of it. If you set up a resort for people to visit, you would still be controlling where they went, but it would have a different atmosphere. It could be very exclusive—and expensive—or you could create something more family oriented.” The more she thought about the idea, the more she liked it.
He looked thoughtful. “I’m not sure that our people are suited to that type of work.”
She had a sudden vision of Njkall with his claws at the neck of a rude guest, and she giggled.
“Perhaps not. But some of them might be. And you could always hire people. If you make this a destination—a place people want