Lucian: Dark God's Homecoming Read Online Free PDF

nice, new, experimental ship, you simply lacked for a decent roadmap.”
    Evelyn attempted to question me further, but, despite any personal feelings on my part, I studiously ignored her. After a brief while, she gave up and returned to the others.
    An uneventful few hours followed, during which Kim cast occasional unsavory glances my way. Eventually the three humans slept, and I sat there in the near-darkness with my mood grown black as my prison and my soul.
    I do not know how much time I spent in bleak introspection before being roused back into attentiveness by the flaring of a portal opening. This time I stood, determined to face Baranak down—but it was not our glorious golden god of battle who passed through. Alaria instead emerged from the flaming circle and stood before us, now wearing diaphanous robes, backlit and glowing, leaving her curvaceous silhouette an interplay of shadow and fire.
    “Lucian,” she whispered, “whether you are guilty or innocent of these crimes, we both know you will receive no fair hearing from Baranak. He is convinced of your guilt and means to see you consumed by the Fountain immediately.”
    “He made that abundantly clear, yes.”
    “You deserve the opportunity to prove yourself.”
    She gestured toward the blazing portal, and the freedom beyond.
    I blinked.
    “You mean…”
    “Go!” She waved again at the glowing exit. “Find your evidence. Find the murderer. But do it quickly!”
    I looked at the portal, then back at her. It didn’t quite add up. I hesitated.
    At that moment the human captain pushed past me, the other two in tow.
    “If you’re not going, we are,” she said.
    I scoffed.
    “Going where? You have no idea what horrors await you out there.”
    “It can’t be any worse than staying here, at that guy’s mercy.”
    “You don’t even know where ‘here’ is,” I replied.
    The captain moved very close, gazing up at me. Her eyes sparkled, there in the dungeon of my City.
    “You know the way back to Earth,” she whispered. “Or at least to the Outer Worlds. Take us home.”
    “I thought you were not going to make any further demands upon me.”
    “I take it back,” she said quickly. “Just this one thing.”
    I shook my head.
    “That path is not safe for any of us.”
    She looked past me at the glare of the open portal.
    “Then at least show us the way.” Her voice was now louder, and very firm. “We’ll go by ourselves.”
    I snorted.
    “Indeed?”
    Rising to my feet, I made my decision and started past her.
    “Without a guide you would scarcely get a mile from the city,” I said.
    “What do we have to lose?”
    “You have no idea,” I repeated quietly.
    “Lucian,” Alaria hissed, “you must come now!”
    “We need your help,” Evelyn said. “Please.”
    For a long while afterward I attempted to rationalize my decision in any number of ways, including the possibility that three humans might make excellent decoys. Certainly, in the case of Cassidy and Kim, I honestly believed this to be true, and felt no guilt over the thought. With the advantage of hindsight, however, I have to admit it was probably the look in Evelyn’s eyes that motivated me to do what I did.
    For long seconds, as Alaria urged me to depart, I stared back at the human woman. Finally I told her, much to my own surprise, “Very well. I will do what I can. Come on.”
    We rushed over the rainbow, then, the portal snapping shut behind us on that long, cold darkness.
     

 
    CHAPTER TWO
     
    Bright, sunless sky like a slap in the face as the dungeon’s depths gave way instantly to the perpetual midday of the Golden Realm. No single point of illumination there in our own private cosmos, just a constant noontime of bluer-than-blue sky and shimmering radiance all about. Not, I reflected, the optimum conditions for a jailbreak.
    Across the main square of the Golden City we raced. Now I understood why the streets were deserted and, at least for the moment, I will admit I