Dynasty of Evil Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Stand up straight.”
    Serra couldn’t help but smile. Over the past seven years, Lucia had become like the mother she’d never had—assuming her mother had served as a sniper with the fabled Gloom Walkers during the Sith Wars.
    Lucia finished adjusting the veil and stepped back to give her charge one final inspection.
    “Stunning, as always,” she pronounced.
    Escorted by her bodyguard, Serra made her way through the palace to the throne room, where the king was waiting for them.
    As they marched down the castle halls, Lucia fell into her customary position, one step behind and to the left of the princess. Because most people were right-handed, being on Serra’s left side gave her the best chance to interpose her own body between a blade or blaster fired by a would-be assassin approaching from head-on. Not that there was much chance of anyone attempting anything here in the walls of the Royal Manse, but Lucia was always ready and willing to give her life for the sake of her charge.
    With the collapse of the Brotherhood of Darkness two decades ago, Lucia—like many of her comrades who had served in the Sith armies—had become a prisoner of war. For six months she had been incarcerated on awork planet, welding and repairing ships until the Senate granted a universal pardon to all those who had served in the rank and file of the Brotherhood’s armies.
    Over the next thirteen years Lucia had worked as a hired bodyguard, a freelance mercenary, and finally a bounty hunter. That was how she had first met Serra … and how she had earned the long, angry scar that ran from her navel all the way up to her rib cage.
    She had been tracking down Salto Zendar, one of four Meerian brothers who had come up with the shortsighted plan to kidnap a high-ranking Muun official from the InterGalactic Banking Clan head office and hold him for ransom. The miserably ill-fated venture had resulted in two of the brothers being killed by security forces when they tried to break into the IBC offices on Muunilinst. A third was captured alive while the fourth—Salto—managed to escape despite being critically wounded by security forces.
    The reward put out for his capture by the IBC was big enough to attract bounty hunters from as far away as the Mid Rim, and Lucia had been no exception. Using contacts from her days in the Gloom Walkers, she tracked Salto to a hospital on the nearby world of Bandomeer where he was being treated for his wounds.
    However, when Lucia tried to take him into custody, a young human working at the hospital as a healer had stepped between her and her quarry. Despite the arsenal of weapons on Lucia’s back, the tall, dark-haired woman had refused to back down, claiming she wouldn’t let the patient be moved while he was still in critical condition.
    The healer had shown no fear, even when Lucia had drawn her blaster and ordered her to step aside. She had simply shook her head and held her ground.
    It might have ended right there; Lucia wasn’t willing to shoot an innocent woman just to collect the price onSalto’s head. Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only bounty hunter at the hospital that day: Salto had been as bad at covering his tracks as he was at kidnapping.
    While she and Serra were locked in their confrontation, a Twi’lek had burst into the room, blasters drawn. Lucia turned just in time to get shot point-blank in the stomach, her weapon falling from her hand as she slumped to the floor.
    When Serra tried to stop the Twi’lek from taking Salto, he had slammed the butt of his pistol against the side of her skull, knocking her aside then yanking Salto out of bed and dragging the moaning prisoner away.
    Ignoring the hole in her gut, Lucia crawled after them. She saw the Twi’lek get halfway down the hall before he was shot in the back by another bounty hunter looking to claim the reward. And then she blacked out.
    Official reports put the number of bounty hunters at the hospital that day at somewhere