Daughters of Lyra: Heart of an Assassin Read Online Free PDF Page B

Her
mother’s voice jolted her out of her reverie and she stepped into
the room with her two attendants.

    The doors
closed.

    “ Whatever
brings you here?” Her mother sat back down on the royal blue and
silver couch, spreading her long cream satin gown across
it.

    Natalia could see past the
smile plastered on her mother’s face. She was always sad when her
father went away. The worry lines between her mother’s fine black
eyebrows made Natalia sigh. She went over to her mother and wrapped
her arms around her shoulders as she sat down beside
her.

    Her mother’s smile
faltered.

    “ He’ll be back
soon,” Natalia said with a real smile, hoping to brighten up her
mother. “It’s only an escort mission within the Lyra system this
time and if he encounters any trouble, he’ll survive. He’s too
stubborn to die on the battlefield.”

    Her mother laughed. “You
are right but it still doesn’t stop me from worrying about him.
Balt’s stubbornness is the reason I worry so much.”

    Natalia understood that.
Her father wasn’t likely to turn tail and run if he encountered any
resistance. He would fight to the end for Lyra.

    She took hold of her
mother’s hand and squeezed it as she tried to think of a way to
broach the subject that she had come here to raise. It was
difficult now that she knew her mother was worried about her
father. She didn’t want to increase that worry by suggesting that
she was going to go to the festival.

    Natalia looked at her two
attendants where they waited by the door. They nodded.

    Perhaps they were right.
Her plan might actually go better now that her mother was worried
and she was sure that nothing would happen to them down in the
city. They would only be there a few short hours and if things went
to plan, they wouldn’t be alone. They would have the best
protection in the galaxy.

    “ Mother… I am
going to go into the city today.” Her heart fluttered and she could
barely meet her mother’s gaze.

    Her mother’s emerald eyes
were wide, fear shining in them. “But the festival is in full swing
and there are reports of potential unrest amongst some of the
purist factions.”

    For a moment, Natalia’s
heart faltered and she almost said that she would stay in the
palace. Ixion had spoken of danger in the city but Natalia hadn’t
realised that it was so bad. The purist factions hated Lyra and
wanted revenge for what it had done to the Terran species. Years
ago, the Earth system had been caught in the war between Lyra and
Vega. It had been decimated and the Terran people scattered across
the galaxy, orphans in space. Her father had met her mother, the
last Terran princess, by accident when she was a slave and they had
fallen in love. Her mother had united her people again and it had
been so peaceful on Lyra Five, their new home world, that Natalia
had thought the Terran people’s hatred of Lyra had been healed and
its sin forgiven.

    Clearly it
hadn’t.

    Natalia looked at the
door. Was she willing to take the risk in order to see the festival
and Ixion? As a Lyran princess, she would be a prime target for the
purist factions. Her death would trigger the war that they wanted.
That war would be a massacre. Her father wouldn’t
hesitate.

    She swallowed the dry
sticky lump in her throat and clenched her fists. She would be safe
in the city. Nothing would happen to her.

    “ Is the
military on alert?” Natalia said, her voice trembling the tiniest
amount.

    Her mother nodded. “They
are posted in town and the palace is also on alert.”

    Was that why her mother
had been speaking to Ixion? The royal assassins would be used if
there was an attack on the palace.

    “ Would you stop
me if I tried to go?” She needed to know. Her mother hadn’t
disapproved of her desire to go to the festival. If she was against
it, she would have said as much rather than just pointing out the
potential danger.

    Her mother shook her head,
the beautiful black ringlets that tumbled from the