Ruler of Naught by Sherwood Smith, Dave Trowbridge Read Free Book Online Page B

have time later to laugh lots. Would you
like that?”
    Ivard nodded, a hopeful quirk to his brows. His eyes flicked
to the med console.
    He’s worried about Montrose finding out. Well, she
wasn’t about to tell the boy that bunnying was one thing Montrose was
guaranteed not to listen in on, and wouldn’t interfere in any case. But getting
Ivard out of the dispensary was the first step.
    “Not here. But once you’re healing up and are back in your
cabin...”
    Ivard blushed.
    Marim leaned gently against the bed, wary of the dog, and
smiled at him. “How much you remember what happened?”
    “Mandala,” Ivard whispered. “Didn’t just dream that? We
looted... big room, then the Krysarch found another room, radiation—”
    Marim touched his hand. “Forget that. Wasn’t it fun, being
the only Rifters, ever, to loot the Panarch’s palace—and get away with it?”
    “Greywing didn’t,” Ivard muttered, his smile vanishing.
    “She died quick and clean, in action,” Marim said. “Isn’t
that the best way to go?”
    Ivard nodded, but the gleam in his eyes gathered liquidly,
then tracked down either side of his face. Marim bit her lip, hoping that
Montrose was not watching Ivard’s vitals. What will cheer him?
    “So, what kind of loot did you get?”
    Ivard pointed with two fingers at the locker at the foot of
the bed. “Montrose... put my share there,” he breathed.
    “Lokri said you two got some for me.” Marim asked, smoothing
back his hair.
    Ivard began to nod, then winced as if that much movement
hurt. “Lots. Greywing put some of them back... ” Ivard’s eyes narrowed as he
mentioned his sister’s name. “I couldn’t run, see. So you can choose any of those
for your one to keep. The rest can go in the crew pile. I know what I want to
keep. Greywing picked it. Said it’s one of a kind.”
    “She had a good eye. She’d find something priceless,” Marim
murmured. Greywing was always a strange one—right to the end, I guess.
    “Her coin.” Ivard’s hand moved restlessly. “She took it,
said it had a greywing on it. I had it, I know I had it....” His fingers
tightened briefly into a fist. “Montrose said it isn’t with my things. I must
have dropped it.”
    “Coin?” Marim repeated, trying not to show too much interest.
“If it’s on the Telvarna , I’ll get it for you. But you have to tell me
what it looks like, so I don’t take someone else’s thing.”
    Gratitude smoothed his face. As he explained in halting
words, she was amazed. It was better than she’d thought. An artifact from
Lost Earth? Find the right collector, and we’d be able to buy and sell whole
planets.
    She bent forward and kissed Ivard’s cheek. “I’ll find that
coin,” she promised. “Now. Why don’t we look at the other things you got. You
can help me pick the one I’m keeping...”

THREE
SATANSCLAW: ARTHELION ORBIT
    Captain Pham Anderic ran a finger along the inlays in the
arm of his pod, glorying again in the command center of the ship that was now
his.
    In the main viewscreen Arthelion bulked huge beneath them,
with the jeweled chain of the Highdwellings arching far above as the ship
approached the terminator. Only a few of the monitor pods were active, for much
of the crew was enjoying liberty on one of the Syncs given over to them.
Anderic smirked as he imagined the reaction of Douloi Highdwellers to the
swaggering new aristocracy of the Thousand Suns: the Rifter allies of Eusabian
of Dol’jhar.
    But for him, every benefit the victory of the Avatar had
delivered was right here, a gift of the savage whim of the new ruler of the
Mandala.
    Anderic gently fingered the tender flesh around his
still-inflamed right eye, remembering the interview with the Avatar, under a
sky made bright by the destruction of the Node during the pursuit of the
fleeing Krysarch. “Take one of Y’Marmor’s eyes and give it to this one.” The aftermath had been even worse, when Barrodagh denied anesthesia to