Parallel by Anthony Vicino Read Free Book Online Page B

exist. The darkness became absolute.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FIFTEEN
    Ryol
     
    A mix of panic and confusion coalesced in a potent mixture beneath Ryol’s calm exterior. Despite this, she maintained control, refusing to allow her emotions to surface. Hari and Gerald wore similar expressions of fear. She would not compound their anxieties with her own.
    Blood trickled from Hari’s ear, but Aurora assured Ryol that the wound would not be fatal.
    Gerald appeared physically unharmed, but his vital signs were dangerously erratic. She dedicated a portion of her attention to monitoring his biofeedback in case his situation worsened.
    Ryol glowered at the three Graesians filling the room with their unsettling buzzing and clicking speech. As a species the Graesians never stopped growing over the course of their short lives. In their culture, size related directly to power. Because of this, she immediately recognized the enormous features of Tzalear, the Graesian High Lord.
    Ryol oversaw the recruitment of the Graesians into the Alliance. She remembered the young world poised on the brink of calamity, where it would have been torn apart if not for the Lenoreans’ intervention. The Madam Leader had taken a great risk accepting them into the Alliance. To repay that act of kindness with violence against an inferior race defied Ryol’s comprehension.
    “What is the meaning of this, Tzalear?” Ryol asked.
    “Retribution.” The Graesian twisted his head unnaturally to the side so that Ryol saw a thousand reflections of herself in the creature’s compound eye.
    “My people wished for nothing but peace with your kind. We welcomed you into the Alliance despite your…” Ryol collected herself and forced down the anger creeping into her voice. “Despite your nature.”
    “Our nature is one of self-preservation, a commonality shared by all intelligent life,” Tzalear said in a high-pitched buzz that set Ryol’s teeth on edge. “Do not pretend you have come here seeking anything less.”
    Ryol could not understand how he’d determined the purpose of her visit, but it filled her with a dread blacker than the Graesian’s carapace.
    “No harm will come to this people by our hand,” Ryol said, gesturing towards Hari with an open hand. “Through the spirit of cooperation and mutual benefit, we hope both our worlds might prosper.”
    “Your words fall flat, Princess.” Twin incisors on either side of Tzalear’s face clacked together as if relishing a joke. Somehow he knew Ryol was the Madam Leader’s daughter, but he did not understand the Lenorean hierarchy if he thought her to be next in line for ascension. “You seek peace with these people, yes? But you will not settle for anything less than their servitude. If they refuse, you will destroy them and take what you need. It is the way of the strong, and the Lenoreans are very strong.”
    “We would do no such thing. We follow the Mandate.”
    “Rules you wrote and which now you break.”
    “Lies.”
    “Your Leader has broken the peace.” Iridescent wings fluttered behind Tzalear, lifting him inches off the ground and adding to the ambient noise filling the room.
    “Excuse me,” Hari said, holding a hand in the air. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but would somebody explain what’s happening?”
    Tzalear stared at the human without comprehension. A thickly muscled tail, with broad spikes narrowing to a needle’s point, flicked over the alien’s shoulder. Light glinted off the razor-sharp edge of a stinger, larger than Hari’s head, on the end of the corded tail.
    Hari held his hands up with palms out. “Never mind.”
    While Hari spoke Ryol reorganized her thoughts and found her connection to Aurora, and therefore Lenora, had been severed. She had never experienced such a separation. The absence of Aurora was like a barb buried in the back of her mind. It ached as she tried pushing through whatever suppressed her