Sword of the Gods: The Chosen One by Anna Erishkigal Read Free Book Online Page A

murmur went through
Parliament.  This was no secret, but it was one that no public official had
ever dared voice in an open public forum. 
    “YOUR race is dying!”
a feisty young Spiderid lord shot back.  “Our race is doing just fine!  Tell
Shay'tan to take his trade deal and shove it up his scaly tail!” 
    Parliament twittered. 
Such forthrightness was a political blunder, but the novice delegate voiced a
sentiment many of them secretly shared.
    “Yes.”  Lucifer stared
into the Spiderid's compound eyes as he brought both hands to his heart.  “ My race is dying.  My race, that protected your race, until it evolved
enough to join this Alliance … is dying." 
    Lucifer drew his hand
into a fist. 
    "My race, who
kicked Shay’tan off of your planet, when he tried to annex it and you
came running to us for help, is dying!  And now, after millennia of
constant warfare has reduced our numbers so low that we now have more
pieces of equipment than hybrids in existence to man that equipment, my
race, is coming to your race, to beg for help so we don't go extinct!”
    Lucifer slammed his
fist down upon the podium, his blue eyes flashing in fury.  The young delegate
squirmed in his seat.  Other delegates glared at the young lord, distancing
themselves from the young upstart.  He waited for the murmur to subside before
he resumed his speech.
    “It is good that the Spiderid species is thriving.”  Lucifer gave the mouthy Spiderid
delegate a smile that didn't reach his eyes, so pale and blue they glittered an
eerie platinum.  “It means the hybrid races didn't sacrifice their lives in
vain.” 
    He stared up at the
delegates perched around the great coliseum like vultures, species which had
benefitted from the protection provided by his species and their three
sister-races of half-human, half-animal hybrids descended from the same human
root stock.  Angelics, Merfolk, Centauri and Leonids … the backbone of the
Alliance military. 
    Parliament was so vast
and huge, with so many divergent interests, that it was a wonder anything got
done here.  For hundreds of years Lucifer had brokered deals between the
factions that threatened to splinter this Alliance into thousands of squabbling
nation-states and yoked their energies together to keep their common enemy,
Shay'tan, at bay.  But if they adopted this trade deal, that unifying force
might disappear.  Without the threat of war, could the citizens set aside their
differences long enough to take a good, hard look at what they were doing to
the species that defended them? 
    "Out of all the
species in this Alliance," Lucifer said.  "Only one group has been
systematically denied the benefits of full membership that every other sentient species enjoys."  He paused.  "Hybrids." 
    He curled forward one
beautiful white wing, the wing which meant he could never have a voice as
anything other than the Emperor's mouthpiece because that wing had not evolved
naturally.  "In the beginning, hybrids were excluded because people feared
what would happen if we abused the genetic enhancements grafted onto our DNA
and attempted to seize power."
    There was a grumble
amongst the ancient races that had been in existence longer than there had been
an Alliance.  Too many well-funded business interests were vested in
maintaining what was essentially a slave army.  Lucifer was too savvy to fight
a losing battle.  He had narrowed the issue to a single battle he could win. 
The trade agreement.
    "I'm not saying that, at the time, these fears were not without basis," Lucifer
neatly side-stepped the issue.  "In the time of the ancient Cherubim such
a thing happened with the Oni, and 74,000 years ago Shay'tan's Nephilim
rebelled and tried to seize control of the galaxy for themselves.  We are not
here today to debate the costs and benefits of elevating hybrids to full
membership status.  No!  That is an issue for another day."
    He held out his hand
as though offering