Shadow Hunters Read Online Free PDF

through without a backward glance. A few seconds later, the button came to life, glowing green just as R. M. had said. He sighed. His head was still hurting.
    We will head for the underground chambers that Temlaa and Savassan discovered. There is great technology there. It will help me to complete my mission and keep my people safe.
    Jake asked excitedly, “The chambers? That underground city?” Zamara had given him only the briefest tantalizing glimpse of the vastness that comprised the hidden city of the xel’naga. Most of Temlaa’s memories concerned a few very specific places, one of which was a chamber in which the desiccated protoss bodies had been stored. He wanted to close his eyes and relive that memory, now that Zamara had informed him that was their destination, but he had a duty. Rosemary had entrusted him with her safety.
    I will watch over her. You may revisit the chambers if you wish.
    Jake nodded, trusting Zamara, and closed his eyes.
    There was the memory, first Temlaa’s, then Zamara’s, and now his: as pure and perfect as if it were actually unfolding before him rather than being recollected.
    In the center, hovering and slowly moving up and down as it had no doubt done for millennia, was the largest, most perfect crystal Jake had ever seen. It pulsated as it moved languidly, and Jake realized that this was the source of the heartbeat sound he and Savassan had been hearing for some time now. For a long moment he forgot his fear and simply gazed raptly at the object, seduced by its radiant beauty and perfection of form.
    In all the memories I hold,
Zamara said,
all the things I have beheld and touched and known—there is nothing like this crystal, Jacob. Nothing.
    He sensed her awe and shared it. He thought he caught a fleeting tinge of hope so intense that hemight even have called it “desperate.” Jake began to query Zamara, but at that moment the door irised opened and Hurricane Rosemary stormed in. He blinked, suddenly realizing that about twenty minutes had passed without his even being aware of it.
    “This is why you never jump without proper preparation,” she said as she removed her helmet. “We’d have had to replace quite a bit even without Ethan’s little tracking device.”
    “All right,” Jake said. “If we have to, we have to. But we need to do it quickly. I’ve been talking with Zamara, and she thinks we need to get to Aiur.”
    Shedding the rest of her suit and hanging it back up in the locker, Rosemary turned to him. “Aiur? Why?”
    “Remember those caverns beneath the surface I told you about?”
    “Yeah … some kind of underground city.” Rosemary’s anger was now directed at the damage the ship had taken rather than at Jake. She actually looked interested in his comments. “We’re going to get to see that place then?”
    “Looks like. Zamara thinks there’s some technology there that can help her. Help us.”
    Rosemary was regarding him thoughtfully. “You know, Professor, if there actually is ancient, advanced technology sitting quietly forgotten beneath the surface of Aiur … that really
could
help us.”
    “Rosemary—”
    “Jake, listen. We’re being hunted by the son of the
emperor,
for God’s sake. We had to fight our way to getwhere we are right this minute and we’ll have to keep fighting unless we do something about that. Look—I’ve cast my lot in with you. We’ve got to trust each other. I’m not going to rat you out, but this is a big net that’s been cast for us. We might be able to make a trade with Valerian: our lives for whatever technology we can give him.”
    Out of the question.
    I’m not telling her that, Zamara. She makes a good point.
    This is my people’s heritage we are discussing, Jacob. Our legacy. Protoss knowledge belongs to the protoss, not a terran emperor who will exploit it and use it for harm.
    You killed a lot of terrans for protoss knowledge. And now Rosemary and I are on the line for it too. If this gets