The Legacy of Lehr by Katherine Kurtz Read Free Book Online

dense blue fur, neck ruffs on the males, and tufted ears and tails. They’re chiefly nocturnal, sometimes arboreal, definitely carnivorous—and they can be as vicious as a Furudite rockspitter when cornered. Lehr was never able to capture one alive.”
    â€œBut wasn’t Lehr’s expedition during the second discovery and mapping of the planet, Doctor?” asked a lean, intense-looking older man who had missed being introduced by arriving late at table. “If I remember my history correctly, the first expedition found a sparse native population of humanoids who revered the cats as messengers of a moon goddess—the changeable eyes and such, you understand. Unfortunately, the native population vanished during the years of isolation after the Cruaxi Sweep. Diseases brought by Earthers, I believe.”
    Mather turned speculative hazel eyes on the man. “You seem to know a great deal about B-Gem’s history, Mister—”
    â€œIt’s Doctor Torrell.” The man’s sneering arrogance—just in the way he picked up a glass and languidly twirled the stem between thumb and forefinger—almost brought Mather out of his chair. “It’s Doctor Vander Torrell. And I prefer the older name for the planet in question: Il Nuadi, the Light of the Shining Ones. It has a splendid ring, doesn’t it?”
    â€œIndeed,” Mather murmured, raising his own glass to drink, rather than letting himself get angry enough to show his contempt for the man.
    At last he had a face to connect to the name. Vander Torrell was one of the most professionally renowned and personally disliked historian-archaeologists currently working with alien cultures. The Imperial computers had recommended Torrell above almost all others when putting together the B-Gem expedition, and Wallis had sent several increasingly pleading space-grams to secure his services.
    But Torrell had not been interested, even for the exorbitant fee offered by the Imperial government, and eventually had turned down an invitation, only just short of a command, from Prince Cedric himself. “Other pressing obligations,” the final refusal had read.
    Other pressing obligations, indeed , Mather thought, as he let a steward refill his glass. Though he had no way to check just now, he had an overwhelming suspicion that Torrell’s “pressing obligation” was nothing more urgent than a desire to go on the Valkyrie ’s speed-sprint—a pleasant enough prospect if one liked that sort of thing, Mather had to admit, and undoubtedly made the sweeter for Torrell by the statuesque blonde blowing kisses adoringly across the table at her benefactor—but there was such a thing as duty. Mather found himself taking perverse satisfaction in knowing that the Valkyrie would break no records this trip, thereby depriving Torrell of at least part of his pleasure.
    He felt his wife’s foot move slightly against his own even as he became aware of the almost empathic link they sometimes shared, and he sensed her concurrence in his opinion of the man. He was very tempted to follow through on the avenue that Torrell himself had opened and to expose the man for the hypocrite he really was, but before he or Wallis could act, Shannon put down her glass and leaned forward, handsome and animated in her stark dress whites.
    â€œI’ve read several of your books, Doctor Torrell,” she said, deftly turning the conversation to his benefit. “I especially enjoyed your work on the lost civilization of Wezen I. Are you planning any additional research in that area?”
    Torrell inclined his head in as gracious a manner as he was likely to manage, but it soon became obvious that he did not want to talk about Wezen I.
    â€œThank you, Doctor Shannon, you’re very kind, but Il Nuadi holds my true interest at this time. If only I had known that the Valkyrie would stop there, I might have rearranged my schedule to manage