Slave Empire III - The Shrike by T C Southwell Read Free Book Online Page A

her religious
importance to so many people, they’ll be delighted that we
did.”
    Tarke gritted
his teeth, biting back hot words. Getting into a slanging match
would achieve nothing, but he knew he had lost the round, and
changed tactics. “You can’t set a telepath on her. You must not. If
you care about her at all, don’t try to delve into her mind.”
    “Why not?”
    “She was hurt
on the Crystal Ship. The Envoy did some terrible things inside her
head. If you try to pry into her mind, you could push her over the
edge. You could kill her.”
    Tallyn’s brows
rose in patent disbelief. “That’s a good story. I saw her after she
returned from the Crystal Ship, and she was perfectly normal, apart
from being an empath.”
    “She’s not
anymore. Listen to me, damn you. The Ship healed her before she
left it, but when she was exposed to your uncaring society and took
drugs to numb her empathy, she undid a lot of that. She won’t
survive a telepath’s probe. She’ll try to fight him, which will be
extremely dangerous for her.”
    “Even if I
believed you, which I don’t,” Tallyn said, “I’m not in a position
to bargain with you. The Council has decided to take this
opportunity, and lying about her mental health won’t save you. Next
you’ll expect me to believe she hasn’t seen your face.”
    Tarke sat back,
staring at Tallyn’s mocking image. He had not been in such a
dangerous predicament before, and found his lack of options
frustrating. This was the situation he had always dreaded. All his
people who had been captured had killed themselves before they
could be interrogated, even though none of them had seen his face,
and their names were inscribed on a wall of remembrance on Ironia.
Their deaths had grieved him, but their sacrifice had made him even
more determined to save others who suffered as they had.
    The decoys who
had been executed in his place would also have killed themselves
before a telepath probed them. The Atlanteans had not bothered,
since they had believed they had captured him. The fact that they
had been ex-slaves had surprised the Atlanteans, and for those few
hours before the execution, everyone had known the Shrike had once
been a slave. The executions had always been rushed through to
avoid reprisals or rescue attempts, since the Shrike’s empire had
the potential to destroy Atlan’s if it chose. As soon as Tarke had
been safe, he had informed the Atlanteans of their mistake, but
they had executed the prisoner anyway, since receiving assurances
that they had imprisoned the wrong masked man from another masked
man did not convince them that the one they had captured was, in
fact, the wrong one. It all got extremely confusing, and
frustrating for the Atlanteans, he was sure.
    Afterwards,
when they had realised that they had been duped, it had made
perfect sense to his rivals, and the Atlanteans, that he would
sacrifice a slave in his place. There was no way for the Atlanteans
to know whether their prisoner’s collar was active or not, and most
abused slaves were suicidal, so their willingness to die in his
stead had not raised suspicions, either. Now his secrets were in
danger of being revealed, and common sense dictated that Rayne must
die like all the others.
    For the sake of
the Empire, the millions of slaves he would save and tonnes of
drugs he would destroy. Rayne’s death would keep him safe, as so
many had done before, but he could not allow it.
    Tarke dragged
himself from his thoughts, aware that he had been silent for
several moments, and Tallyn looked a little impatient. Tarke said,
“If you guarantee that she hasn’t been probed and send her back to
her ship unharmed, I’ll give myself up.”
    Tallyn’s brows
shot up. “You expect me to believe that? You’re just going to hand
yourself over, to save a human girl?”
    “She’s my
wife.”
    “She’s no use
to you when you’re dead.”
    “I wouldn’t
expect you to understand, but that’s the deal. Are you