Schism: Part One of Triad Read Online Free PDF Page A

dream?
    Tahota was watching her face. “When someone ranks as highly as you’ve done, their admission is automatic.”
    “You mean/’mm?”
    “I’m authorized to bring you back when Althor and I return to Diesha.”
     
    Soz’s thoughts whirled. Everything she wanted was within her grasp, but it was happening too fast “My father will never say yes.”
    “We don’t normally accept a student without parental consent.” Tahota had that careful quality to her voice again. “However, these are extenuating circumstances. DMA will admit you without their permission if you decide to go mat route. We would prefer you had their blessing, but it won’t be required.”
    “Good gods, why?” Soz waved the sheet at Tahota. “Just forthisr “Yes.” Tahota’s gaze never wavered. “How familiar are you with the work of your brother, Imperator Skolia?”
    That caught Soz off guard. She found it hard to think of Skolia’s mighty Imperator as her brother. Half brother, actually. Kurj was her mother’s son from a previous marriage. A Jagemaut in his youth, he had risen in the J-Force until he reached its highest rank, Jagernaut Primary. From mere he ascended to command of the entire J-Force.
    Then he became Imperator.
    Kurj commanded ISC. All of it He was in charge of all four branches, the entire armed forces of Skolia. Soz knew the rumors, mat people called him a military dictator, that with the loyalty of ISC, he had more power even than die Assembly. Althor resembled him, but Kurj was more metallic, and even larger than Althor, his physique so massive that he had trouble visiting a heavy gravity world. It was why he rarely came to Lyshriol. Or so he claimed.
    Unlike most people, Soz had never feared Kurj. She liked his taciturn style, besides which, he appreciated her interest in me military. She never let him know how she felt, though. She remained on constant guard with him—for Kurj hated her father.
    Eldrinson Althor Valdoria, a folksinger from a primitive culture, was seventeen years younger than his stepson. Good genetics, modern medicine, and cell-repair nanomeds gave Roca an apparent age in her twenties, but she had a good half century on her husband. As far as Soz could tell, though, Kurj would have considered his stepfather the scum of the universe regardless of their ages. She didn’t understand why. For all that her father exasperated and annoyed her, he was also one of the finest people she knew. She loved him deeply and she had never doubted he felt the same about his children, no matter how much he struggled to understand them.
    Whatever the reason, Kurj’s antipathy toward her father remained strong. If she went to DMA this way, it would wreak havoc within her family. “If Kurj is offering this just to get at my father, I don’t want it.”
    Tahota pushed her hand over her head, pulling back hair that had escaped the roll at her neck. “I don’t claim to understand relationships in the Ruby Dynasty. But I can say this: Imperator Skolia has far more important concerns here than his personal life.”
    “Such as?”
    “He has no heirs.”
    Soz snorted. “I’m sure he does, somewhere.” Kurj’s penchant for beautiful women was well known.
    “No legitimate heirs,” Tahota amended.
    “He has to marry a Rhon psion.” It was why the Assembly hadn’t opposed Roca’s marriage to Eldrinson, despite his being otherwise completely inappropriate in their view. He was Rhon.
    Soz knew the drill. Empaths and telepaths, or psions, resulted from the Kyle complex of genetic mutations. The more Kyle genes a psion carried, the greater their abilities. The Rhon had them all. But the traits were recessive; both parents had to give them to their children. As Imperator, Kurj could dally with whomever he pleased, but he had to marry a Rhon woman. Unfortunately, the Rhon were rare almost to extinction; the only ones known were related to him. The Assembly had coerced the Rhon to intermarry once, forcing a union