Return - Book III of the Five Worlds Trilogy Read Online Free PDF

hollow, cold whiff of smell as he opened and closed his mouth to breathe.
    He drew yet closer; and now Tabrel could stare into the glassy crystals of his quartz eyes; there were tiny etched lines, radial spokes of his faux retinas, and behind that two dark, black pools holding nothing.
    “I wish to understand …” Cornelian said languidly; and now one of his forearms rose, the silverblue-metaled, impossibly long fingers turning and opening, one fingertip edging toward her.
    The fingertip broke the containment field, leaving a sound like steam and hissing blue light around it; the finger sought to touch Tabrel’s face.-Tabrel reached from beneath her piles of bedclothes and grasped the insect’s talon, bending it back.
    With a gasp, the High Leader drew the finger back through the containment field, at the same time backing away in self-defense.
    He stood regarding the bent digit for a moment; when he tried to move it, there was the soft grind of broken machinery.
    “I must see the Machine Master,” he said distractedly. “And then a bath …”
    He looked curiously at Tabrel for a moment, then turned and moved to the doorway; he paused there and adjusted the control on the wall.
    The containment field around Tabrel instantly contracted, forcing her with a gasp to lie down on her side, as if quietly asleep.
    The High Leader regarded her silently.
    “We have a bargain,” he finally hissed.
     

Chapter 6
     
    “Y ou’re the one who’s watched me for the past month?” Visid said incredulously.
    Benel Kran nodded without looking at her. He was busy using his good eye to scan the sky outside the recreation-hall-turned-lab for signs of further plasma soldier incursions. Still without looking at Visid he pointed upward with an index finger.
    “I saw all that stuff on the roof.”
    Visid snorted. “It’s not any better-looking than this other pile of garbage.” With a toe, she nudged at the boxy equipment Benel had been wearing when he showed up to rescue her.
    “That ‘pile of garbage’ saved your life,” Benel answered, briefly turning to give her a level stare. When he saw that she had bent down and was poking into an opened panel, he shouted, “Hey!”
    “Ingenious,” Visid muttered, ignoring him. “But sloppy as hell.”
    “What would you know about it?” Benel scoffed.
    “Plenty,” Visid answered, yanking out a tiny breadboard and holding it up to the light to examine. “All of this, for instance, should be the size of a pinhead.”
    Splitting his attention between the girl and the sky, Benel’s good eye caught a flash of movement outside, just as the compound’s alarm went off: a moment later there was a shimmer outside the lab and a light soldier appeared, full-dimensional.
    Rushing from the window, Benel Kran tore the breadboard from Visid’s hand and slid it back into the box it came from, closing the panel Visid had opened.
    “You—” Visid began.
    “Be quiet and help me with this thing!” Benel cried urgently. With a groan of pain, he hoisted the unwieldy contraption halfway up onto his back; it immediately began to slide off.
    “Help me!” he whispered urgently, eying the door. While Visid supported the apparatus on Benel’s back, he fumbled with the hose and funnel that protruded from it, aiming it awkwardly at the door. “Better test it,” Visid said.
    “Nonsense!”
    “I would.”
    Groaning, Benel blundered at the clumsy switch, finally activating it.
    Nothing happened.
    “Heavens!” Benel said; but Visid only laughed, flipped the panel she had previously opened up again, pulled the tiny breadboard out, and reversed its position, sliding it back in.
    “Now you’re okay,” she said calmly.
    “Heavens!” Benel cried, as the door burst open, revealing a light soldier, a figure of light, confronting them.
    “I wish Jean Sneaden were here to help me!” Benel Kran shouted, activating the trigger.
    The light soldier evaporated, just as Visid, in shock, removed her support