Empress Game: The Empress Game Trilogy Book 1 by Rhonda Mason Read Free Book Online

them watch the swamp for signs of Dolan’s men while she concentrated on Corinth.
    “Are you doing all right?”
    ::I’m fine, Kay.:: Corinth’s foot sank deep into the soft earth as he spoke, wrenching him to a stop. He made no sound of exasperation, simply pried his foot free and took another step. He looked tired already. The earlier nightmare had robbed him of sleep, and he’d had similar nights this week. He hadn’t been eating enough lately and the trek was tough even for someone in healthy, athletic shape.
    “Do you need me to carry you?” she asked Corinth. Malkor turned his head at her words. He looked a question at her as if asking if she needed help. Kayla waved him on.
    ::I’ll be all right for a bit more. I’ve never been out here at this hour, it’s spooky.
Speak
with me?::
    Corinth’s presence approached the edge of her mind, brushing against her shields lightly, the way a feline might barely touch its nose to her hand when first scenting her. Kayla ordered her thoughts, directing them into neat mental compartments and sectioning them off. The practice was still second nature to her despite barely using it since they’d left Wyrd Space.
    She took a deep breath and struggled against her deepest will to lower the mental shields protecting her mind. Though she loved Corinth and had been his
ro’haar
for the last five years, she still found it tough to open herself up to him. He rushed inside her head, too quickly. It caused an instant ache between her eyes.
    ::Sorry, I didn’t mean it.::
    I know you didn’t
, she thought, knowing he could hear her active thoughts. She pushed the pain to a corner of her mind and blocked it there, away from his reach. Little extra room remained. Corinth coiled himself inside her mind, filling her head near to bursting.
    ::Do you trust these people?::
    How to answer that? She couldn’t exactly lie to him, but she could hide some facts by burying them behind inner shields.
    I can’t say I know them well enough to trust them. I do think they’re telling the truth about wanting me to fight in the Empress Game.
    ::Because they know you’re a princess?:: His voice held a mix of horror that they might have been discovered and pride.
    Only because they’ve seen me fight. I’m supposed to impersonate someone else, I think. They don’t know who we are and we need to keep it that way.
    ::Where are we going?::
    Falanar.
    ::But— The military. Dolan. The IDC. You said they might be searching for us.::
    We’ll have to be extra careful
. She kept the knowledge that the
kin’shaa
Dolan was after them locked tightly away. Hopefully they would elude Dolan altogether and never have to worry about him again.
    ::Why did you agree to help them? We don’t need them, we’re doing fine on our own.::
    We are not doing fine. You need psi training that I can’t give you. The sooner I get you to Ilmena or another Wyrd World the better. I know you hate this life.
I
hate this life.
The isolation ate away at her. Once she had had friends. Family. People in her life.
And I hate fighting in the Blood Pit.
Gods, how she hated it. Hated herself and what she had become.
It would have taken me at least another year to earn enough credits to buy passage back to Wyrd Space.
Finding a pilot willing to fly into Wyrd territory against violation of Universal Occupation Laws would require an exorbitant amount of credits.
    I made a deal with Malkor. I fight in the Empress Game and he takes us wherever we want to go afterward, no questions asked.
    ::And you trust this imperial to keep his end of the bargain?::
    That was the question, now, wasn’t it?
    Corinth stumbled again, falling to his knees in the watery channel. His shin connected with something hard and the pain shot straight through Kayla.
    Enough of this, Corinth. You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone. You are an Ordochian prince, and you have skills that go beyond the physical. Come here.
Without waiting for him to comply she bent