Ruler of Naught Read Online Free PDF Page B

his amusement, which (he
admitted to himself) was a shallow cover for an unexpected grief. Who was going
to admire Lokri’s lounging pose, his elegant insouciance? Young Greywing was
dead. Nobody is ever going to find you as interesting as the admirer you
despised for her ugly looks , Montrose thought.
    Jaim sat a little apart, forearms on his knees, head bent. He
looked up. “How’s the boy?”
    Montrose didn’t speak until everyone turned his way. “Ivard
is stable. The burn wouldn’t worry me ordinarily, but the Kelly ribbon... that
is something new.”
    “Kelly ribbon?” Jaim asked.
    Jaim and Marim had been working in the engine room during the
raid on Arthelion’s Palace Minor. Montrose regarded them as he considered his
words. How characteristic their reactions: tall, somber-faced Jaim concerned.
Small Marim unconcerned, arms crossed, one foot jiggling. Lokri sardonic.
    Montrose said, “When we reached the antechamber to the Ivory
Hall, we discovered that the actual hall was closed off. The Dol’jharians
apparently took out the government with a dirty nuke. I don’t know if this is
connected or coincidence, but a ribbon from a Kelly had somehow gotten outside
the doors.”
    “A ribbon?” Marim repeated. “Those ribbons are like hair on
the Kelly, aren’t they?”
    “No, they’re living tissue. Able to survive on their own for
quite some time. They play a part in memory and sexual reproduction.”
    Marim wrinkled her nose. “Sex with a Kelly. Ick.”
    Montrose ignored the interjection. “When Ivard bent to get
at some piece of art, it attached itself somehow to his arm. It melded with his
flesh. I will run a test, but I suspect it has integrated down to the cellular
level.”
    Vi’ya spoke for the first time. “Was the ribbon
radioactive?” The captain looked tense, her black eyes narrowed as if her head
ached. At least the brain burners were hibernating in their sub-zero degree
cabin. Montrose was grateful for that.
    Montrose shook his head. “No reason to expect even Kelly to
be different from other living flesh. If it’s dangerously radioactive, it dies.
The ribbon is still alive.”
    Marim sighed dramatically. “What I want to know is, what’s
our share of the take?” Her small stature, the buttercup yellow cloud of hair,
her fluting voice all contributed to make her seem much younger than she was.
At first glance, anyone would take her for Ivard’s age, but she was nearly old
enough to have birthed him.
    Vi’ya said, “Some of those artifacts are so rare that it
would have taken finesse to negotiate sales even before Dol’jhar interfered. A
few of them we may as well regard as impossible to sell, like the coin that
Greywing took, and Ivard now has.”
    Marim’s eyelids flashed up, then she affected indifference.
“Why should this Eusabian care?” she protested. “That blunge-sucker just
conquered himself more planets than he can ever visit, much less loot.”
    “For the same reason he attacked the Panarchy in the first
place,” Vi’ya said. “Part of Dol’jharian revenge custom is possessing his
enemy’s home. He will want everything in the Mandalic palace restored exactly
as it was.” Her accent betrayed itself when she referred to her hated planet of
origin, which gave her words a subtle but sinister twist.
    She turned to Jaim. “When we reach Dis, you’ll collect
everyone’s loot. Since Reth Silverknife is our best negotiator, I will send you
and her ahead to Rifthaven. You will take the Sunflame, and your first attempt
will be with lesser known artifacts, things that have been copied in like
materials.” She rapped her knuckles gently against a bulkhead. “We will follow
in Telvarna .”
    Nobody argued. Not even Lokri. They all sensed that the
captain had something on her mind besides their loot.
    Sure enough, Vi’ya said, “From now on, I want everyone
wearing their boswells.”
    Marim sat upright. “On Telvarna ?” She tossed her
curls. “Why? All you have to