Sword of Dreams (The Reforged Trilogy) Read Free Page A

Gripper's arm a tug. He blinked his huge eyes, shook his head and then followed as the Ixthian hurried over to Tiberius, Duaal and Maeve.
    "Did you see that stuff about the Nihilists?" Gripper asked as soon as he neared, falling in beside the fairy. She had to jog to keep up with the longer stride of the taller alien.
    "The Alliance church has outlawed their religion." Maeve raised her voice to make herself heard over the cacophony of echoes ringing back from the city's distant ceiling.
    "Yeah! And the CWA is putting a bounty on them, too," Gripper said.
    Maeve had not heard about that. She wanted to ask after the details, but Tiberius slapped his fist into his palm.
    "That's business for bounty hunters," he said, and then looked at Xia. "Not us! Did Armon have any work for us?"
    "No," the Ixthian answered with a shake of her head. Axis' recycled air stirred her short white hair.
    "Nothing?" Duaal asked.
    "Salvage has been pretty thin and he's got nothing else to move."
    "Bloody hell!" Tiberius growled.
    Xia held up her hand to forestall further outburst. "I did manage to find us some work. Armon didn't have anything, but I checked my messages on the mainstream and there was one from an old college friend. I thought you might be interested."
    "A job?" Tiberius asked, still bristling but curious now.
    "Yes. Carrying passengers and some small cargo out to Prianus."
    If Xia expected a smile, she was disappointed. Tiberius scowled.
    Duaal sighed theatrically. "Prianus? What in the name of God could they want all the way out there?"
    "Xen didn't say," Xia said.
    They reached a huge silver column of lifts. The metal was stenciled with a huge, flaking number 4. Duaal bumped his hip against a glowing call button.
    Tiberius looked skeptical. "What does this hawk of yours do, exactly? I'm not flying anything illegal or dangerous out to Prianus."
    "Xen's a doctor of archeogenetics," Xia told him. "He's head of the department at Vostra Nor University. I don't think he so much as experimented with chems when we were in college. Not outside the laboratory, anyway. But he didn't leave any details in the message. If you want to know more, we'll need to fly out to his office on Tynerion."
    "Go out there on speculation?" Duaal asked skeptically.
    "Tynerion isn't that far away from Axis. We probably would have gone further to pick up anything for Armon. No one can afford to keep anything on Axis. CWAAF keeps too close an eye on this planet."
    That was not the detail that Tiberius had latched onto. "A professor? The Blue Phoenix is a cargo bird, not some fancy science vessel!" he protested.
    The lift on their right chimed and the light flashed from orange to blue as the doors slid open. A stout Lyran business woman pressed herself against the back wall as the group filed into the lift canister and her bristling tail curled against the back of her legs. Gripper delicately pressed the close button with one huge claw.
    "Please stand clear of the doors," instructed a politely sexless computerized voice. "Please stand clear of the doors."
    No one spoke as the elevator seal hissed shut and slipped into smooth motion, falling down deeper into Axis. On Level Five, it stopped and the Lyran squeezed out, avoiding the eyes of the strangers who had shared her ride. When she was gone, Duaal jabbed the door controls again.
    "I don't know how picky we can be about work," he said. The mage gave Maeve an accusatory look. "Since she spent all of her money on that damned bounty, we don't have anything to fall back on. We've got to work, Tiberius."
    "Hey, it was her money!" Gripper cried. "Smoke never asked for any of yours!"
    "It was a lot of money, and she blew it all on that stupid bounty just to get herself killed! Where's all that color now? In the pockets of the Gharib police, right when we sure could use it!"
    "My money bought your salvation on Stray, too," Maeve reminded Duaal. She narrowed her gray eyes at him. "Your infantile temper and weak spells did