King's Test Read Online Free PDF Page B

personal log as heroes. Your families will be
compensated. I will see to it personally."
    "Thank you,
my lord."
    That was
standard procedure. The men all knew it. But the engineer's strained
face relaxed. He must have been thinking of a wife somewhere,
children. This eased his burden. He could go to his men, too, and
have something to tell them , . . besides the fact that they were
going to end in a ball of fire.
    A tear slid down
Maigrey's cheek. It was stupid to cry. She'd seen men die. They were
dying now on Defiant. John Dixter. Maybe Dion. . . . She
should try to escape, try to help them, but she stood here crying
like a child. She wiped the tear away, but another came after it, and
another.
    "Stop
sniveling! Sagan snapped, adding beneath his breath, "You were a
Guardian once! Try to act like it!"
    I was a Guardian
once, Maigrey thought. I was twenty once. I was going to live forever
. . . or so I imagined. Now I'm forty-one and my body aches. I'm sick
of watching good men die. I'm sick of the fighting. Let the damn ship
blow up. Let it all end right here, right now. There are worse ways
to go than in a ball of fire. For one brief moment, we'll shine as
brightly as the stars.
    "...
evacuate all personnel except those absolutely necessary to the
ship's function. Fly off all planes, including those that are damaged
if they're at all spaceworthy. A bounty to any pilot who brings in a
damaged plane. And I want to make a course change. Cease lire. Bring Phoenix in nearer the Corasian—
    "Nearer, my
lord?" Aks stared, "Cease fire?'
    Oh, get with it,
Admiral! Maigrey silently advised him. A child of six could figure
out this strategy. She wiped the back of her hand across her eyes.
The Warlord checked an irritated sigh, patiently explained his plan
to his admiral.
    Aks protested.
"But, my lord, that's far too dangerous! You should leave now. I
have your shuttle standing by—"
    "Tell Giesk
to send some of the wounded in my shuttle. I'll fly my plane out. The
lady will accompany me."
    Maigrey was
shivering. The bridge was icy cold. All systems not absolutely
essential to the sustaining of life had been either shut down or
moderated That, apparently, included heat.
    I have to get
away from here, away from him! she prodded herself.
    Why bother? she
answered herself dully, despairingly. He'll only find you again. Your
minds are too closely linked.
    Hes become like
death. There's noplace to run, noplace to hide.
    Death is the one place, she reminded herself, sighing. But that is forbidden
me.
    I am a Guardian.
My life is pledged to my king. As long as Dion lives . . .
    As long as he
lives. What good am I to him now? What good am I to anybody? She had
heard Aks repeating Captain Williams's report to the Warlord. She had
heard the mercenaries were trapped, fighting for their lives. John
Dixter, who came into this war for love of her.
    The tears began
to come in earnest now. she couldn't stop crying. Sagan would be
furious. Let him.
    ". . .
Snaga Ohme," Admiral Aks was saying to the Warlord in a low
voice. "He insists on speaking to you."
    Maigrey gulped,
caught Sagan's swift, penetrating glance, and changed her startled
reaction to a hiccup. Her tears ceased with a suddenness that made
her eyes sting and burn. Snaga Ohme. The Adonian weapons
dealer, the genius who had been in secret contact with Derek Sagan.
John Dixter had stumbled across the information, and now, Maigrey
guessed, Dixter was paying for his knowledge with his life.
    Her proclivity
to burst into tears paid off for her now; gave her an excuse to keep
her face hidden. The mind-link between herself and the Warlord was
now broken. Sagan erected mental barriers the moment the Adonian's
name had been mentioned. And the Warlord, angered at her giving way
to her weakness, was paying scant attention to her. Maigrey let her
body sag down into a nearby chair, slumped on the console, hid her
face in her arms, and strained to hear the almost inaudible
conversation.
    "I