Schism: The Battle for Darracia (Book 1) by Michael Phillip Cash Read Free Book Online Page B

she would act this way if the queen were present.
    V ’sair turned to stare out the panoramic windows that ran along the red rock walls. Lights shimmered in the distance; ships zipped through the air; and the ever present Petrion guards, riding inky-colored stalliuses, pranced through the night sky.
    Despair overwhelmed him . “I am not even Darracian,” he muttered to himself. “Not Darracian, not Planta, not Quyroo. A freak,” he whispered under his breath.
    Tulani moved closer, feeling his despair, sorry she had appeared defiant. Sometimes she couldn’t help herself. “Your Highness?” She touched his shoulder, and a current sparked between them.
    He spun suddenly, surprise on his face. Coloring, he turned back to the window , ignoring her. His whole body was tense, and he felt threatened by the strange feeling coursing through his body when he looked at her. His lungs were robbed of breath, and he averted his eyes so she wouldn’t catch them roaming her lithe frame.
    She stood silently beside him, drinking in his presence, hoping she had calmed the raging tornado she sensed in him.
    She had a light scent that teased the prince ’s nose. He let his breathing return to normal, and when he felt ready to speak, he asked her softly, “Why? Why did she take you here?” Tulani represented all that he was, an outsider, an outcast never to be accepted.
    “ I’m sorry…What?”
    “ Why did my mother take you from the Desa?”
    “ Who knows? I only know she took me when I was young and has trained me to fulfill her every need. You may not want to hear this, but I do know what she is thinking all—well, most—of the time,” she finished with a gentle smile.
    V’sair looked at her for the first time really, trying to disengage this new, unwanted attraction. She was pretty; he noticed she wore her makeup similar to his mother. Her long lashes coated with dark resin fluttered seductively over her star shaped eyes. She had outlined her lids with the darkened umber of the forest and her pale lips were glazed with the same orange gloss as his mother. She clearly was not Darracian but of the conquered Quyroos, the treetop people. She was tall but delicate, perfectly formed, with the delineated muscles of her species.
    “ Do you miss your family?” he asked her.
    The girl shrugged. “I hardly know them. The queen sends me home every quarter moon to reacquaint myself, but they are angry.”
    “ Why?”
    “ I cannot be mated with one of my tribe. I have lost my chance. There was a dispute many years ago. My grandmother took control of the family, and it has brought more shame to my father. My parents have lost their fortune. They are aging and have no one to defend them. They have become Bottom Dwellers.”
    V ’sair nodded, understanding this was not a good thing. Bottom Dwellers roamed the planet’s surface, banished from the treetops, where most of the food could be found. Instead they foraged on the forest floor, eating what refuse they could find. They were the lowest life-forms on the planet. They didn’t fit in, and this was a feeling with which he was familiar. He looked at the girl and asked, “Does my mother know this?”
    “ You mother knows everything. It’s whether she cares or not that matters.”
    “ Then does she care?” he asked carefully.
    “ She sends me home with supplies. She allows my family to make Glacien ointment.”
    “ From the Deep Fells?”
    The girl smiled, her small feral teeth bright in her face. “If she chooses to believe that.”
    “ Do…do you like it here?”
    Tulani looked up at the soaring ceilings. Her words were trapped in her throat, held captive until the right moment. How could she explain what she felt? He had her heart; must he rip apart her soul as well? “‘Like’ is subjective,” she told him simply. Living here was torture, knowing he would be taken from her when a political marriage would have to be made. Yet staying near and waiting for a chance like