Shades of Gray Read Online Free PDF Page A

Shaidan said very quietly.
    “Yes, we do. There’s nothing shameful about your heritage. Doctor Zayshul is a brave female—she’s saved my life several times, and at great risk to herself. Be proud of what as well as who you are. I am.”
    “Are you?” Shaidan searched his father’s face, his voice as troubled as his expression.
    “Of course I am! When I think of how you fought against the Directorate programming and had the courage to Link to me when I had died . . . It was a shock when I first found out about you, but no more than it was for you, I’m sure,” he said, leaning forward to touch the tip of his tongue to his son’s nose in an intimate, loving gesture. “You are my son, I love you, and you belong with me and your family.”
    He watched the tension drop away from Shaidan as the cub relaxed, finally, against him.
    “I wasn’t brave at all. I was so scared of losing you, that’s why I did what Vartra told me to do.”
    “True bravery is being scared and doing it anyway,” he said. “And I’m sorry, but it’s going to be a bit longer before we can leave here and go home. Do you know about the new Emperor on the Prime world?”
    “It’s all they’re talking and thinking about now.”
    “Not all Valtegans are like the Primes. There are those called the M’zullians, who look like Kezule but are extremely aggressive and warlike. The new Emperor is from their world, and Kezule and I have to lead his people, with help from the Sholan Brotherhood that my crew and I belong to, to retake the throne for the rightful Emperor, Prince Zsurtul. Don’t worry too much,” he said quickly, feeling Shaidan stiffen again. “It won’t be a long mission, and you’ll be in no danger. You’ll stay here with Doctor Zayshul and the General’s daughter.”
    “What if something happens to you?”
    “It won’t.”
    “You don’t know that.”
    “No, I don’t, but it’s my job, Shaidan. It’s what we all do in the Brotherhood. Banner and I have to go to a briefing, so M’kou will be coming for you shortly. If it goes on too late, Jayza will collect you from the nursery and wait here with you until I return.”
    “Have we time for a game of squares first?”
    He checked his wrist comm. “Just about. Go fetch the pieces.”
    They’d almost finished when M’kou, chief among Kezule’s many laboratory bred sons and daughters, arrived to take Shaidan down to join the other children.
     
    M’kou picked his moment carefully, waiting until he and Shaidan were alone in the elevator before asking the question that had puzzled him for days.
    “Shaidan, the day after your father was shot, when you and I were alone in the medic’s room, what happened?”
    Startled, the cub looked up at him. “Excuse me?”
    “I saw something . . . a dark shape, like a shadow, pick you up.”
    Shaidan looked down at the floor. “I was scared for my father,” he mumbled. “I don’t remember.”
    “Something, or someone, picked you up, I’m sure of it. You even spoke to it,” M’kou insisted gently.
    “I don’t remember.” The words were more distinct this time.
    “There must be something you remember,” said M’kou persuasively.
    The cub looked up again. “I felt my father dying. I followed his mind and helped him come back, all right? It scared me a lot, and I don’t want to remember it.” The childish voice cracked, betraying that fear only too audibly. “You’ll have to ask my father about the Sholan—he knows him.”
    M’kou was instantly contrite, reaching out to put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Shaidan. You can understand I had problems believing what I’d seen,” he said as the elevator drew to a halt.
    “I don’t know what you saw. My mind was Linked with my father’s,” said Shaidan stubbornly.
    As the door began to open, the cub wriggled out from under his grasp, darted through the gap, and ran on ahead of him to the nursery.
    M’kou followed more slowly, wondering if