Cover art by Luis Royo

Book 1 of The Trade Pact Universe

Personal note: This was my first novel, both in terms of the first piece of fiction I ever finished and the first I sold. It started as just one of many stories I was playing with as a hobby, never thinking to see copies in the hands of readers, certainly never planning to send it out to a publisher. I'm very happy I did, but I do confess my first thought after the fateful phone call was "Oh no! What have I done!?" because by then, I knew I could do better. I harboured dark suspicions readers would take one look and say "She thinks she can write?" Fortunately, my editor had the confidence I lacked and readers kindly took a chance on an unknown. I'm proud to be able to say this book has been a bestseller, was recommended by Locus, made Editor's Choice for the Science Fiction Book Club, spawned a series, started my partnership with the talented Luis Royo, and has been reprinted several times. It was also responsible for my nomination for the John Campbell Award for Best New Writer of 1999. I expected none of this -- and I still pinch myself every time I look at it. Who knew? But I'll always have a special place in my heart for the first story of Sira and Morgan.
 
Excerpt from A Thousand Words for Stranger, by Julie E. Czerneda
© 1997 Julie E. Czerneda and DAW Books Inc.
Used with permission. ISBN 0-88677-769-0

The door swung wide, bumping my knees and startling me to alertness. Eye-stabbing light flooded the room. "Where is she?" demanded a voice I did remember -- too well.

A Tuli skidded to the floor at my feet, beams from the globe cradled in its hands racing crazily over the walls and ceiling. It had been shoved by another entering behind with the haste of the pursued.

Roraqk. His snout twisted over his shoulder -- angling downward so those yellow eyes, reflecting cold white disks of light, could pin me in place. The frills along his head were flattened and gray. I cringed, curling myself into a ball, and showed my teeth in as effective a snarl as a primate could manage.

The reptile holstered his pistol, hooking one hand in his belt. His other hand, streaked with some shiny green liquid, he held pressed over a wound high on his concave chest. "s-Switch the bar to her wrisssts-ss," he ordered the cowering Tuli. "Put this-ss on her." "This-ss" was a heavy black cloak, its edges suspiciously charred. I didn't like to think of how it came to be in the pirate's possession.

The Tuil panted, its trio of eyes wide and focused elsewhere as it obeyed Roraqk's command. Its stained fur smelled rank, sour with fear. Port Authority, I decided, stretching my legs as soon as they were freed. A rush of optimism gave me new strength which I kept hidden, letting the creature pull me to my feet.

Roraqk took no chances. He reached for the bar across my wrists, winding a thin glossy thread from his belt around the bar to link us together. The Tuli moaned to itself -- the first vocalization I'd heard from its kind. Its eyes were closed. Both of us knew what to expect next, yet I flinched when the pirate fired his pistol and the Tuli shriveled into a smoking darkness. The globe fell and smashed, extinguishing all light in the room.

I couldn't move -- too afraid of what I might touch. A warning jerk on the thread broke my paralysis. It drew me after the pirate into the hall, and I stumbled trying to keep up with his impatient steps. Roraqk had no intention of waiting for whatever was about to happen here.

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