Black Bead: Book One of the Black Bead Chronicles Read Free Page A

front of him and waited for a response.
    “What?” the harassed sounding voice of the Hayrald, the First Prime, snapped out of the speaker.
    “Sent Tam out to fill out his Pack. You’ll never guess who he brought back.” Phillius said brightly.  
    “By the Goddess, Phil, I do not have time for games,” Hayrald growled. “Tell me why I should care?”
    “He came back with Megan and Cheobawn.”
    There was a long silence. Cheobawn held her breath.
    “I’ll get back to you,” Cheobawn’s Da said tensely and the com went dead. Cheobawn bit her lower lip. This surely could not be good. She fully expected Hayrald to come storming through the door in the next few minutes.
    Phillius looked at Tam and shook his head.
    “You are one hard-headed boy, Tam Waterwall. Can you never go at life along the easy road?” Phillius asked not unkindly.
    “Easy is boring, Father,” Tam said, his bravado not entirely convincing to Cheobawn’s ears. “Nobody ever became great by taking the easy road.”
    “Yeah, but they managed to stay alive. Do you have a death wish? Hayrald will skin you personally if anything happens to her.”
    Tam frowned. He set his gaze on a spot on the wall behind the older man’s left shoulder and drew himself up to his full height.
    “I know what I am doing, sir,” he said stubbornly.
    “No,” Phillius said firmly, “I don’t think you do, but you surely are about to find out.”
    Tam did not choose to argue further. He fell into a stony silence.
    “Phillius, you there?” Hayrald’s voice crackled over the comlink. “Take me off speaker and put in an earbud.”
    Phillius touched the screen, opened the top drawer of his desk and rummaged around for a few moments. His search yielded results of a dubious nature. Phillius brushed the crumbs off a rather crushed looking earbud and shoved it into his ear.
    “Go ahead,” he said and then listened for a moment. The children watched his face as it went through a rapid series of emotions and then settled on no emotion at all. Cheobawn recognized that look. She had grown up sitting at Mora’s knee, watching the men of the village accept the decrees handed down from the chair of the First Mother. Here it was, on Phillius’s face, the look of someone swallowing their dismay like bitter medicine.
    Hayrald had not come for her, to drag her back to school. That meant only one thing. Hayrald had talked to her Truemother. She recognized the nuances in Phillius’s manner. Mora’s instructions had not been well received. Cheobawn prepared herself for the worst.
    “Yes, sir,” Phillius said finally. He took the earbud out, tossed it back where it came from and slammed the drawer shut with a little more force than was necessary. Then he started keying in information on his screen as he rattled off instructions.
    “Alright. I am putting your names down under provisional Pack. You can change your status if and when you decide to go permanent, but I highly recommend you stay temporary for at least a year. No sense rushing into anything until you get a little bit older and your heads get screwed on a little tighter. Four man team, Tam is the alpha male. Megan, the alpha female. Who you got earmarked for beta male?” When there was no response, Phillius paused and stared at the children, waiting.
    “We’re a five man Pack,” Tam corrected.
    “No,” Phillius said patiently, “you are a four plus one. She,” he pointed at Cheobawn, “is six years old and cannot be put on a roster for two more years. She also comes with her own set of rules. Under-agers are not allowed more than two clicks from the dome. If you encounter hostiles, you will not engage. Got that? No engagement. Period. Retreat and return to Home Dome. Is that understood?”
    Tam ground his teeth together and glowered at no one in particular.
    “What’s that? I didn’t hear you.” Phillius said loudly.
    “Ye’sir,” the boys chorused together without much
    enthusiasm.
    “Now, who is