Bride Games: (Alien's Bride) Read Online Free PDF Page B

managed to claw her fingers onto the level above and then swing up her other elbow.   The robot whizzed out of a door hidden beside the boulders.   An extendable arm reached for her ankle and missed.   She could feel the gush of air it made as it lunged for her.
    The members of the audience rose to their feet.   Lenora heard a few shocked hollers, but blocked them out.   On this tier there didn’t seem to be anything she could use to boost her up.
    “Well!” Danfet said while dabbing his brow.   “I suppose I better get on with the rules before she gets up here.”
    There was a smattering of laughter around her.   She noticed that the robots on the lower tiers had retreated back into their doors.   The chirping alarm for her current tier went off.
    “This game is simple enough.   In fact I think you’ve figured it out already!   First you must reach the top before the robots catch you.”
    A robot rolled out of a hidden sliding door several feet from her.   She dropped back down to the level below her and stood balanced on the rim of the boulder.   A few in the crowd made stunned noises at her unusual tactic.  
    “Lenora.   Look up here, my dear,” Danfet said.
    She scowled but looked up once the robot rolled out of the way.   Two Dornovonians were rolling out a life-sized black metal statue of a female Dak-Hiliah.   Danfet caressed its cheek.
    “To win you must touch the statue of Tian-Za, our ruling goddess through the personage of the druid in the holiest—“
    Lenora stopped listening.   The robot was rolling back and forth over a short span above her.   Movement caught her eye on the far end of the tier.   A chain with links large enough to be footholds had just been tossed over.   Lenora wet her lips.   Now she knew how she could get up to the third tier, but she still had to get past the damned robot.   The boulders beneath her were too heavy to turn into a weapon.   She looked at the audience on either side of her.   Their seating areas were too far to leap to.   Then the robots feet caught her eye.          
    The model hunting her didn’t look much different from her clunky guards.   They all rolled on eight ball casters that could move them in any direction.   Lenora fixed on the mirrored silver ball in the corner.
    “I should mention that these games are timed, my dear,” Danfet said.
    His voice jarred her.   “Shut up!” she said in the Dak-Hiliah language.
    “Good gods!   Looks like Lord Lysanter will have his hands full with this one!”
    The audience laughed.
    “I shall leave you to it, my dear.   May the odds be…really good for you…and so fourth.”
    She heard his exiting footfalls.
    Lenora took off her shirt and whipped it up around the robot’s caster.   She hopped up to catch the hem and then clenched both ends in her fists and yanked.  
    The robot didn’t budge.   Her hope of tipping it over was dashed, but then she realized it was no longer pacing.   She could see its casters trembling as it struggled to roll.
    He’s stuck!
    Lenora climbed down from the boulder.   She used her legs to push it to the end of the tier closest to the chain and out of the robot’s reach.   Her leg muscles ached, and sweat dripped down the middle of her back to soak her bra.   The boulder tipped over before she got it in place.   She forced herself to stand it back up without taking a break.   Her calf cramped when she climbed up.   It took two tries to get back onto the third tier.   She heard a loud snap and suddenly the robot was moving for her again.   She scaled the wall before her, taking the footholds two at a time.   The robot extended its pinchers for her only a half-second too late.  
    Once on the fourth tier she felt like collapsing.   She could hear cheering and the thudding of scepters.   Some of her enemies were rooting for her?   It’s a distraction.   Stay focused!   The alarm started its rhythmic chirps again.
    There wasn’t