Shrouded: Heartstone Book One by Frances Pauli Read Free Book Online Page B

what I paid you for.” Jarn watched for any sign of hesitancy. He saw her flinch against her conscience and knew she’d obeyed. He felt the first shiver of success and let his smile stretch. “You’ve done it?”
    “Yes,” she practically snarled.
    “And?” If he didn’t need the answer and some proof, he’d have killed her straight away.
    “She took it.”
    Jarn waited. He held back his ire and kept silent. She’d spill eventually; her guilt was thick enough to smell. She’d have to talk to be rid of it.
    “I dropped her at the spot.” She reached below the bar and pulled out a dingy cloth. “She went in and she didn’t come out.”
    “How long did you wait?”
    “Till the deed was done.” Samra wiped at her counter and stared at the blur of her own reflection. “She signed right up, just like you said.”
    Jarn held back his elation. Now was not the time to gloat. Not yet. He had a long road ahead before the celebration could begin. “You have the proof?”
    “You said there’d be more credits after it was done.”
    “Of course.” He smiled. It would be a pleasure to have her killed. Later. Right now he wanted to be absolutely certain. “The amount we agreed on. Transferred immediately.”
    Samra bent down and rustled under the bar again. This time she brought out a thin, filmy sheet of paper. “Secretary printed me a copy.” She shoved it across to him as if it would turn on her and eat her soul, as if it already hadn’t.
    He read the contract twice, almost not believing. The child had signed away her life, just like that. Kovath would be thrilled. He drummed absently and read the paper again. The next step would be harder, but there would actually be a next step now.
    Samra cleared her throat and snapped his head up. “Yes?”
    “The credits, Jarn.”
    “Of course.” He waited for her to produce a palm scanner and key in the transaction before offering his hand. She could take the money. She could take whatever she wanted. Vashia had trusted the wrong person. Samra had made the same mistake. She eyed the screen and waited for the approval message, waited for the credits to really be hers.
    Jarn wanted to laugh. He wanted to tell her to spend them quickly…very quickly. But warning the woman would take away half of the fun.

    I n the crevices and craters of the core, the Shrouded built roads, inlaid magnetic byways that never shifted and never had to be tracked. Dolfan flew over these, between the market domes, past the rows of Shrouded houses and up through the weavers’ mills and the gem setter sheds to the very edge of the core surface.
    Here he paused at a platform just below the Shroud itself to check in with security and don the necessary protection from the planet’s natural atmosphere. He wriggled into his filter, pulled the mask fully over his head and checked visibility. He tapped the side of the face-mask and the readings flared at his peripheral—Gauss normal, no variance.
    He punched a release beside his thigh and the bike’s drone popped from its casing. The ball hovered next to the vehicle. Dolfan snatched it from the air and set his preferences into the system. He punched in the parameters and released the device. It sped straight up the canyon wall and waited for him at the rim, the red light flashing a steady beacon.
    The bike’s engines revved again. Dolfan followed the drone guide up out of the canyon’s protection and into the Shroud. They passed the ring of emitters that kept the air below the surface breathable and disappeared into the thick gasses, into a wall of yellow and dusky pink. The drone flashed ahead, faint but visible. It would follow the planet’s natural road now, the magnetized highways in the core’s stone surface. A receptor inside the orb would gather readings from the waypoints and relay any variance to the bike’s rider in time to change course or, in the event of a serious storm, to ditch safely.
    Dolfan steered the bike, his eyes