Burning Stone by Viola Grace Read Free Book Online Page A

crafted before I had even heard of you, and I have learned from my upbringing that letting someone choose what you do and who you do it with is a dangerous thing.”
    He blinked and sat back. She now understood the reason for the narrow backs on the chairs. They allowed him to lean back and still keep his wings free.
    “Tell me about Resicor.”
    She told him about growing up on a world where her own genes made her a criminal and being caught would be a life sentence in a prison or—she now knew—a timeless existence in a stasis pod. That had not been disclosed to the general public, nor had the export of talents. She told him what she could about the government and the rising of Resicor and her bonding with Trala.
    “What about your family?”
    She chuckled. “This conversation requires tea and possibly cookies.”
    She got to her feet and led the way across the rough deck plates.
    “Are you barefoot?”
    “Yes. Are you going to say something about it?” She waited for a response as she continued her way to the galley.
    He was silent for a moment before carefully pronouncing, “No.”
    Leyhara fought a snicker. “And so the discussions begin.”
    She glanced over her shoulder and Bohr was grinning at her. She threw him a wink and went to the machines and summoned a pot of tea and some sweet crackers.
    With everything set out on a tray, she carried it over to the table. “You know that you will have to tell me your story as well.”
    “I do know it, but your history is more recent.”
    She shrugged and settled, pouring tea and setting the crackers between them. “Well, what do you wish to know?”
    “Do you have parents? Siblings?”
    “My mother and father are still alive, as is my great uncle. My parents have no talent, but my uncle was a minor telekinetic. He was one of the sleepers. He had been taken and put into storage for the Raiders’ use at a future date. I have no siblings.”
    “How did you manage to hide your talent? You do pack a lot of power.”
    She laughed. “It wasn’t this strong until I worked my mental muscles. Halwis-Iskan took me out daily for practice.”
    Leyhara sighed and said, “As for hiding my talent, my parents kept us moving. They were geologists, and they chose to do all of their research in volcanic regions. No one could spot my talent because it looked like everything else.”
    “Did no one think it was odd?”
    She shrugged. “No one questioned it. Everyone was afraid to question anything. That is the problem with living under totalitarian rule. You can’t control the people who know how to keep themselves in the public eye for carefully chosen events. I had to attend dozens of university charity events and fundraisers, as well as award banquets. My talent made my brain slippery. It was unusual but not something that I could be arrested for.
    “When Trala-Resicor sent the message across the world that talents would no longer be persecuted and that our world needed our help, I went with others to stop some of the landing craft. I melted their landing gear and turned the ground around them molten until more talents arrived and asked to attack those in the ship. There was a lot of rage, tears and relief that day.”
    He shivered. “I can imagine. In my world, we were dying out. The shifter Drai. Sure, the men were still being born with wings, but they could not take their more majestic form. That form was what shaped our world, defended our people and the genes that the women were to hand down to their sons had deactivated with years of mixing and remixing the gene pool.”
    “Is that why you went to sleep?”
    He nodded. “Yes, with others, we all scattered across the stars, guided by instinct to sleep under the surface of unoccupied worlds and wait until our mates came to us. We are a patient people but that broke my nerve. I came to you.”
    She chuckled. “How did you hide your wings for so long?”
    Bohr lifted his hand and a small crest was in it. She would