Hive III Read Online Free PDF

never have subjected myself to Master Lund’s horrendous contraption if another option had been available. The transformation into Zeedom was more shockingly painful than even I was prepared for. Every cell in my body was ripped apart and fused back together, into something that’s barely human. Any doubt of that requires only the smallest glimpse in a mirror to be believed. I’m not human anymore but, then again, in many ways, I never was.
    In this new and exalted state, with powers beyond my comprehension, the pettiness of men like Plak and the old world are all far behind me.
    Zees don’t cry or conspire when they’r e passed over for promotion. A nearly imperceptible order no sooner forms in my mind than some measure of it is being eagerly carried out. That’s when Azina comes to mind. For a while, after the transformation, I’d been distinctly aware of her and the unique threat she posed, which was why I’d reached my hand across the gulfs of space, in that special way only Zees can, and plucked at her stings like a master puppeteer. So, when all sense of her suddenly vanished, there could only be a single explanation. She was dead.
    Not that the thought bothers me. The key to taking control of the ten territories begins with the Queen , locked beneath the capital, not with a lowly mercenary.
    Krall, my nearly eight foot tall Zee general, approaches from out of the gloom, lowering himself onto one knee. The truth is, Krall’s little more than a Hive leader, with a particularly strong signal. He doesn’t speak, but he doesn’t need to. Speech between Zees isn’t burdened by anything as crass and barbaric as words. At once, bundles of Zee code begin unravelling before my mind’s eye. Krall’s asking about the humans we’re holding and what we’re going to do with them. I know exactly what he’s getting at. He’s talking about the brave men and women who were trying to defend this sorry excuse for a village from the hordes. But there comes a time when an army has grown large enough. “Feed the villagers to the Zees,” I say. “We won’t need them. Not where we’re going.”

-11-
     
    Azina
     
    My eyes peel open and it takes a minute to drink in my surroundings. Above me is a wall of earth-toned threads, arranged in neat rows. It’s a mechanism of some sort and it takes another second before I realize its purpose. I’m in a textile factory, where they make tunics – not that there are any customers left to buy them. Slowly, Sneak comes into focus. She’s bent over me, like an old mother hen, and I try and shoo her away, but she won’t have any of it. My clothes are folded in a neat pile on a chair next to me. Sneak has made a bed out of tunics. I glance down at my naked body and shudder. I’m still tightly muscled, except the skin around those muscles is dark and as coarse as tree bark. White bandages cover my abdomen, wrist and collarbone, where that Keeper prick riddled me with bullets. No sooner does the thought register than I spot the guard with the broken nose. Sneak must have heard me call out for mercy as she turned his comrades into mounds of useless flesh.
    He had tried to save a stranger, eve n after Bron bent his nose at an odd angle. Not a common quality, for sure.
    Sneak’s signing slowly, like I was shot in the head and turned into some kinda halfwit.
    “I’m fine,” I say, and mean it, in spite of the skeptical look on her face.
    “I was sure you were a gonner,” she signs, and I couldn’t agree more.
    “That makes two of us. How long was I out for?”
    “A few hours.” But this time it’s the Keeper guard who answers instead of Sneak.
    “His name is Klaus,” she signs with perhaps a little too much enthusiasm. “He went and found bandages for you. Can we keep him?”
    I laugh and sign back. “He isn’t a puppy, Sneak. You know how I feel about sightseers and tourists. ”
    Sneak nods and her eyes drop to the bandages covering my stomach.
    “I’ll think about