Shrouded: Heartstone Book One Read Online Free PDF Page B

see the huge crystal’s reaction. He couldn’t help it. Whether or not he coveted the throne, the awakening of the Heart, the potential of a perfect pairing, awed him. It awed all of the Shrouded—or it should. When Pelinol approached his bride, his steps taking him within range of the Heart’s power, the stone flared to life. The crystal facets flashed with hidden light. The stone glowed, brighter and stronger as the king reached his mate. The Heart recognized a bond of its making, and it blazed in honor of the pair. Lucha softened her stance, released her mock offense, and took Pelinol’s offered hand.
    Dolfan could only intellectualize what it meant, could only imagine what the king and his queen felt. Standing in the presence of the two, with the Heart in full light, he justified his curiosity wholeheartedly. The stab of jealousy, however, was something altogether different.

Chapter Four
    S he had to keep the wig on though Sam gave her a less offensive outfit and a lift to the rendezvous point. The hover cab bounced more than the cars Vashia was accustomed to, but she was thankful for the cover and for Samra’s company. It allowed her to keep from dwelling on the mistake she was about to make.
    She stared out the window while Sam talked. The cab bobbed ever closer to the Wraith spaceport, passing casino row and offering her a clear view of the governor’s estate elevated just enough above the capitol city to allow her father to watch from up high. Vashia caught sight of a patrol––three cars moving slowly enough to be looking for something––and had to grit her teeth against the urge to bolt. She reminded herself that Jarn couldn’t see through the cab’s walls, that he couldn’t sniff her out like some kind of bloodhound.
    But they were looking. She sat back against the seat and tried to imagine how she’d get past the port scanners. Security would snag her for sure long before she’d have to worry about marrying anybody.
    The buildings turned into warehouses, the huge corrugated hulks that housed cargo leaving and arriving on planet. Eclipsis had little to offer outside the gases and metals they stripped from its bowels, but it managed to do a fair trade in those. At least, it did enough to fund her father’s padded salary and make the hellhole a convenient place for anyone working in the shadier areas of legality to do business.
    Vashia watched the ID numbers change and thought about Samra’s flier. The gaseous giant, Shroud, had come up once or twice around her father’s table. None of his guests ever managed to agree on anything about the planet or its inhabitants. However, the popular theory for years suggested that the colonial Shrouded lived in hover cities, hidden in the thick clouds of their atmosphere and never touching or needing solid ground.
    A few of the more brazen traders refuted this. Long range scans eventually discovered the planet’s core and, over time, contact and minimal trade were established. But minimal was the key word. The Shrouded made it very clear that they weren’t interested in the outside. They maintained some contact, eventually opened the moon base to trade on a limited basis, but her father’s colleagues and, no doubt, her father as well believed that it was simply to keep the outside world’s curiosity at bay.
    Total mystery is irresistible. Eventually someone would have tried to find an answer. As it was, the galaxy had to meet the Shrouded on their terms. That drove people like her father absolutely nuts. Vashia grinned. Maybe she’d get along just fine on the mystery planet after all. Then again, maybe she stared smack in the face of just another form of slavery. Maybe she’d lost her freaking mind.
    She should stop the cab, tell Samra thanks but no thanks and head back to the estate. A voice in the back of her thoughts added: And back to Jarn.
    “That’s it.” Samra leaned forward and tapped the driver on the sleeve. “That’s the warehouse