Crown Of Fire Read Free Page B

his options for Netaia," said Adiyn, "is to lure out General Caldwell, preferably in bereavement shock, since he will be there anyway. Modabah requests your assistance."
    Terza raised one eyebrow. Bereavement left Sentinels mentally and physically incapacitated, easily seized or dispatched in the following days, because they bonded with their mates at the deepest level of consciousness. But—
    Lure him out? she demanded. A man almost legendary for his ethics? He wouldn't want illicit power or pleasures.
    Adiyn's little eyes focused over Terza's shoulder, toward the ceiling and those eerie light threads. She'd heard that he used them to read the future. "Your primary role will be as messenger, regarding the new Caldwell offspring."
    She avoided scoffing, because Adiyn would sense it. Sir, Caldwell knows we could make him a hundred offspring. A thousand. If we really want to trap him, we should offer him a full case of embrytubes —
    Adiyn raised a gray eyebrow. "Don't display your ignorance," he said tightly.
    Terza crossed her ankles. She compressed her lips.
    "Sentinels," Adiyn explained, "carry their own young. Apparently, breeding like animals fulfills some kind of psychological need in them." He waved one hand in front of his face. "Caldwell couldn't ignore an embryo that was carried by a woman, particularly a woman highly placed among his enemies. He would try to get her into custody."
    Carried by a woman? Custody? "I beg your pardon." Terza spoke aloud this time, dispersing an outer cloud of epsilon static. Normally, she used it to shield her emotions.
    "No, we wouldn't let you be kidnapped. We want this offspring for further research and breeding, to say nothing of your own value to your people."
    An insubstantial iron band tightened around Terza's chest. He still hadn't explained carried. "Sir, you can't mean—"
    "If you are unwilling, your father will gladly set you aside and choose another."
    The iron band tightened further, and she struggled for her next breath. In colony parlance, "set aside" meant the cold-stasis crypts. There was no escape from that frozen prison, except to a short life as an experimental subject. Modabah wouldn't hesitate to stase one rebellious gene tech, even if she was his own offspring, any more than he would hesitate to order another Federate city destroyed.
    Respectfully, sir, she sent, grasping at the first argument that occurred to her, and I am not saying I am unwilling... but if we arrive on Netaia, and circumstances change, the Eldest might not even decide to lure Caldwell out that way. He always has half a dozen options. That would waste... my effort.... She could barely imagine the embarrassment, not to mention the discomfort, the blood and pain—
    Adiyn clasped his hands again. "Then call it part of your education, Terza. Your contribution to our pending expansion."
     
     
    Chapter 1
    TO STRIKE BACK
tema
    theme
     
    "And then this is the Codex simulation," said Occupation Governor Danton. "The Electorate sent it down yesterday, demanding that we act."
    Firebird pushed long auburn hair back from her face as she leaned forward. Governor Danton's wood-paneled office had two broad, darkened windows and an antique desk, designed to set Netaia's Federate conquerors on equal footing with a snooty nobility. She sat in a comfortable brownbuck chair across from the governor.
    Above the media block on his desk appeared an image she would've known from any approach vector: Citangelo, the heart of royal Netaia and its two buffer systems. Between the broad sideways Y formed by the Etlason and Tiggaree Rivers, Sander Hill wore a broad green ring of noble estates, while south of the Y, the central city thrust up ancient towers and shining new constructs. The Hall of Charity stood like a gold-banded cube at the junction of two long green swathes.
    Out of midair, a fiery projectile plummeted.
    Danton had just shown them an actual recording of the Sunton disaster on Thyrica. Firebird could