Rebel's Quest Read Free Page B

powerful woman on Onotharat?”
    “This isn’t like you,” Valax added, his voice a fraction softer, but with the same absent look in his eyes that he’d had ever since Andreia was young.
    “I got invited to her dinner with the Commercial Lobby, didn’t I?” Andreia said, tired of her parents’ criticism, their disdain for her when they were alone. At least they weren’t glorifying her brother, yet.
    “I never saw Trax almost drop the ball as you did this morning.” Le’Tinia grabbed her briefcase so forcefully she nearly jerked the handle off.
    “Me? I did what I had to. Has it dawned on you that the chairman is probably here because of what my illustrious brother did, or hadn’t that thought crossed your mind? He was the fool that allowed the SC spies to get away with sensitive documents and was killed in the process.”
    Suddenly furious and sick of their attitude, she swiveled and glared at them. “I’ve always done everything you’ve asked of me—personally, politically, and patriotically. You can’t fault me for anything! I succeeded in keeping the chairman, whom I didn’t know was going to be here, by the way, from firing you and killing the inhabitants of this world. Not a bad day’s work, I might add, and not only that, she’s pleased enough to ask me to dinner.”
    “You don’t need to bring up Trax’s unfortunate accident.”
    “I didn’t, the chairman did.” Andreia stared incredulously at her mother. “Really, Mother, only you would call the idiotic idea of going toe-to-toe with a Protector of the Realm an accident.” She gestured dismissively. “You forget, Mother, it was just another of his foolish acts. He had only himself to blame, and you know it.”
    “Don’t address your mother this way…” Her father seemed to have awakened and now towered over Andreia, who was shorter than most Onotharians. “Your brother made a heroic, if ill-advised, decision, and his death broke your mother’s heart.”
    “I don’t want to fight,” Andreia sighed, well acquainted with how her parents could rant on and on if she didn’t back off. “I have things to do before dinner.”
    “Your old friend will be there, won’t she?”
    Thank you, Mother. So nice of you to remind me. “Yes, I assume so. She is the president of the Commercial Lobby, after all, and the dinner is being held at her house.” It was hard not to sound contemptuous.
    “I insist that you take your bodyguards.” Le’Tinia suddenly became a concerned parent. “After all, some seventy-five percent of the members of the Lobby are Gantharians. You’re popular with most of them, despite things, but after the latest raids against the resistance, you just never know. The word’s out and it’s bound to affect the general opinion of our cause. The guards must keep you safe.”
    Andreia agreed with her mother for once. A brewing hatred had flared again after the Onotharian military and their Clandestine Service had so brutally attacked the rebels. “Yes, Mother. I will.”
    As Andreia said good-by, she no longer thought about her own physical safety, but focused on the unnerving fact that she was about to be in the same room with her once again. She had successfully avoided being on the same premises as Roshan O’Landha for the last few years, but had known that sooner or later they were bound to meet face to face.
    Andreia just wished that it didn’t have to happen like this, on Roshan’s turf. You’re right, Mother. She hates me, and I don’t feel safe at all.

Chapter Two

    Roshan looked out the window of the living room, the one room used only for entertaining, and saw the hovercraft arrive in her courtyard. She watched with detachment as the three long, sleek black vehicles settled down outside the front door. Her housing staff would greet the guests and guide them to the impressive room where she would be courteous, with just the right amount of formality expected from a Gantharian when dealing with her