Hell's Heart Read Online Free PDF Page A

passed cautiously through the steam, feeling no discomfort even though she wore gear that covered her from head to toe. “Feels odd wearing these outside a cavern,” Tharas said. Some of the best sport on her homeworld came from hunting tirato , which lived in caves dense with poisonous gases and dripping with acids that attacked the skin. Valandris’s people had crafted environmental suits that provided good protection and oxygen while affording ease of movement. The faceplates allowed for peripheral vision and helped with infrared sighting.
    That her helmet obscured her features from others was of little importance. Her companions knew who she was: Valandris, nicknamed for one of the predators back home she so admired, a nimble six-winged avian whose talons could shred a tree. Others thought it suited her, and so did she. Her parents, who hadn’t bothered naming her at all, didn’t get a vote.
    Not that her predicament was unusual. No one in her community had birth names. The older generation considered them a waste of breath. There was nothing to inherit, nothing to live up to. Names were a way to consider multiple things at once, to organize them, to rank them. That made little sense in a world where there was nothing to achieve; status was meaningless. Her people were the lichens on the back of existence, forever in the shade.
    Or if not forever, then close enough to it. Her mother had told her that things would change one day, only to add thathope would never be relevant for anyone she ever knew. It came across to Valandris as taunting and cruel.
    No, her only solace had been the hunt, the one place where it was possible to excel. The dumb beasts of the jungles and forests didn’t know who or what she was. They only knew her skills gave her power over them. Hunting became her speech, her anger’s voice. No one else would hear her complaints about her plight—but the galloping giants on the steppes had heard her footsteps, and had learned to flee from them. She was nothing to be trifled with. The creatures of the wild were the first beings to ever show her respect.
    And they were the only ones—until the newcomer arrived a year before.
    He had shown them respect, even when none was necessary. And while he had hidden his identity at first, through his words and deeds they had figured out who he was: the one their legends called the Fallen Lord. And that had changed everything .
    His inspiration and guidance had prompted her to leave home, traveling across the stars with her brothers and sisters in the warships he had provided. The surprise attack he had planned had worked perfectly, as had his trick for transporting her team through the Orion starship’s shields. And now, if his information was correct, her true quarry was just ahead.
    â€œHatchway,” she said, pointing. There were more of the green things scuttling around inside the doorway. None were likely to be their target. The king or queen seldom guarded the entry to the nest. Valandris led her companions by opening fire. More Orions died.
    A minute later all was silent—save for a plaintive voice calling from inside the hatchway. “ Peace! ”
    An odd word in any language, the universal translator in her helmet provided it to her. “Identify yourself,” she responded.
    â€œLeotis!”
    Leotis. The Orion she had been told about: the alpha of thepack. “We’re entering,” she announced. Without having to be told, her companions worked their way ahead to locations that offered angles that could cover her. Even a cowardly beast grew courageous when cornered in his den.
    Inside, she realized she’d overrated her foe. The office was as lavish as the rest of the ship was shabby. Whatever treasures Leotis and company stole were all here. Valandris could hear someone rattling behind a large desk, and she couldn’t figure out whether that person was cowering or preparing to