Prince of Storms Read Free Page B

over, hag.”
    Stiffly, he lowered himself down, merging with her. As his form faded, his voice hovered for a moment in the cabin. “One by one…one by one.”



CHAPTER ONE

    Titus Quinn threatened the Tarig access to their homeland. His control of the Heart augured the end of Tarig reign. But their downfall began with their very birth. The lords were not alive in the normal sense, or so the sentients of the Entire came to believe. Minds that fused in the Heart—the Tarig congregate state—were not true individuals, were not even comprehensible. In the end, the Tarig fell because the Entire despised what the lords were more than what they could do.
    â€”from Annals of a Former Prince
    â€œT HE JINDA CEB ARE COMING HOME .” Cixi had been saying this for an arc of days, and still no one seemed to grasp the point, least of all Geng De.
    Next to Cixi, in the burrow of the undercity, Sen Ni stood, lovely and strong. The wavering light of the Nigh limned her silks with silver, gave her a glamour of power. Yet she deferred to the pudgy navitar.
    â€œYes, I’ve seen this,” Geng De said, as though that answered everything. I’ve seen this, I’ve seen that. Cixi was mightily weary of his seeing , though she’d only been with them for forty days. She would have forbidden him to utter it, except that she was no longer the high prefect, as it jolted her to recall.
    Sen Ni went to a small table, where she dipped a cloth in water. She dabbed Geng De’s flushed temples. The two of them were backlit by the floor-to-ceiling Nigh view port, creating a tableau of cloying devotion.
    â€œMaster Geng De,” Cixi said with what sweetness she could muster, a tone, she noted with chagrin, that she had once reserved for the Tarig, “theJinda ceb Horat can certainly restart the engine. We shall have need of the engine in due time.” There, that was the understatement of the age. A little sarcasm often moved a discussion along.
    â€œYour Brilliance,” Geng De began, using the odious title, “my hands are heavy with threads. The Jinda ceb is not yet one that comes to my hand. Patience. Patience.”
    â€œPerhaps if you reached a little further.”
    Sen Ni glanced up, flashing disapproval.
    The navitar put a quieting hand on Sen Ni’s arm. “They are not here yet. But the Tarig are.” He closed his eyes for a moment, and even while seated, leaned heavily on his cane.
    â€œThe Tarig are the ones that shut down Ahnenhoon,” Cixi answered. “The Tarig will soon be banished to the Heart. Why do they care what happens to our land? They are leaving.”
    â€œDo you say so?”
    â€œMy spies say so. Quinn will send them back to their swarm.” She might be deposed from the Magisterium, but some were still devoted to her.
    â€œLord Inweer is the strand,” Geng De said. “That is the one needing weaving. I pursue his traces.”
    Inweer, was it? But Quinn would certainly send home the last of the ruling Five. He didn’t need the Tarig to run the great mechanics and mysteries of the All. The Jinda ceb Horat were the Tarig’s equals. In their own interests, the Jinda ceb—when they finally arrived, which was imminent, their messages had implied—would run the industries of the Entire, whether the bright, the storm walls, or the mundane matters of trains and ships of the Nigh and cleaning of streets. How convenient for Quinn that the Jinda ceb had lived in accelerated time and had grown so wise. Perhaps in their wisdom they would quickly be rid of him. It was why Sen Ni must establish a bond with them and persuade the creatures to her side.
    Creatures. Cixi couldn’t bring herself to think of the Jinda ceb as quite…reputable. They were reported to have taken Chalin form, but they grew their clothes on their backs, like beku. And then there was the matter of their art , also grown on the their backs, if reports