Heart Thief Read Online Free PDF

was gone!” D’Birch cried.
    â€œWhere was this?” Bucus appeared smug at her answers.
    â€œIn CityCenter Bazaar on Summer Solstice FairDay.”
    â€œYou wore an emerald necklace to the bazaar on FairDay?” D’Ash sounded incredulous.
    D’Birch looked down her aristocratic nose. “I had consulted with T’Ash to match the pattern for a bracelet.”
    T’Ash frowned.
    D’Ash, his wife, nudged his ankle. Ruis saw her do it under the table. The Council had not bothered with damask table-cloths for him.
    T’Ash muttered something.
    She kicked him.
    â€œThe clasp to the necklace was faulty,” T’Ash said, louder.
    Bucus glared at D’Birch, then at Ruis. “Still—”
    â€œNo proof,” said T’Oak. “The charge should be dismissed. Does anyone disagree?”
    â€œI am Captain of this Council, I run—” Bucus started.
    â€œYou are biased in this matter,” D’Grove interrupted. “Isn’t this man before us the legitimate FirstSon of your brother, the former T’Elder?”
    Bucus grumbled but didn’t deny the statement.
    â€œLet us dismiss the charge, then.” D’Grove waved her hand.
    A rivulet of sweat trickled down Ruis’s back. He blinked. He thought he’d been cool, calm, composed. He rarely lied to himself.
    But D’Birch lied about feeling him near her on the Summer Solstice FairDay. Not even the most powerfully Flaired sensed his nullness in passing, only after he lingered several moments. As long as he stayed a meter away from strong spells and moved within a quarter-septhour, he was unnoticeable. Even during the night, when he slept, his nullness couldn’t fill up the small apartments in the unspelled buildings where he lodged.
    He hadn’t stolen the ugly necklace, merely jostled D’Birch in the crowded square and caught the thing when it slithered down her silkeen gown. It had taken time to test the emeralds and find they were too poor to use as focal points for the lazer he’d been rebuilding. He’d planned to return them, but his arrest had prevented it. The gems were still hidden.
    â€œNext, the Captain’s Chalice, missing from the Colonist’s Museum.” Bucus glared up and down the table. “I have an affidavit from GuardsMan Winterberry, a man very familiar with this thie—person. He states that after the theft was reported, he used his Flair to scan the room and determined that a Null had stood in front of the glass display housing the Chalice. We only have one Null on Celta at this time, thank the Lord and Lady.”
    Ruis met his uncle’s loathing gaze. “I visited the Museum on Discovery Day as part of my personal Ritual, as did others in Druida.” He’d gone in the night, always preferring darkness. He’d stared at the cup and wished bitterly that he’d never been born on Celta, that his ancestors had not landed on the planet and bred for Flair. Ruis knew enough history to realize that on ancient Earth he wouldn’t have been a detested outcast.
    Beside the Captain’s Chalice was a brass plaque listing all the FirstFamilies’ lineages and Heirs. He, Ruis Elder, the first-born of his Family, had not been mentioned. His anger had ignited at the omission and hot sweat had coated his brow. Yet he would have left the Chalice alone except that he’d seen equations engraved in the gold that might help him in his quest to save the past. So he’d taken the Chalice, made wax molds of the equations, and returned the piece to the museum.
    â€œThat item, too, was recovered, was it not?” he asked in as calm a voice as possible.
    Bucus pushed his chair back with a sliding rasp and stood. “Why do we try this piece of filth?” His face reddened, his nostrils widened and pinched with heavy breaths. “He is a NULL. Anathema to all of us. Threatening to all of us. Of no use to anyone.