Terran Times Second Wave # 10 - Liberty Read Online Free PDF

what the day had in store.
     

 
     
     
Chapter Five
     
     
    Protocol demanded that she stand three steps down from the duke at all times. She managed to stand at attention for three hours before she had her first revelation .
    She swayed as the images began to flow fast and heavy. A skimmer crash in the high mountains. She waited as the image played out. The skimmer was damaged in the mountains, and then, it would crash into the palace.
    She came out of her vision and looked for Shoklek. He was watching her and came over when she beckoned. “North tower, clear it, there is a skimmer out of control and coming in hard.”
    He nodded and his fingers slid over the nodules on his staff. “They are clearing it now; how long do we have?”
    She looked outside and measured time. “Seven minutes.”
    “We will do what we can.”
    She nodded and fought the urge to run out onto one of the balconies. She had given the warning, and now, it was up to them to heed it.
    Libby stood and mentally counted to four hundred and twenty.
    Shoklek informed the duke as to what was going on, and they waited. It was strange to be simply watching and waiting, but there was nothing to be done for the folk in the skimmer. Two out of three were already dead.
    The third may or may not live. It all depended on how quickly the medical teams could get to the crash.
    The palace quivered when the skimmer hit it.
    The courtiers screamed, but Rajon got to his feet and beckoned her to follow. They moved with Shoklek through the back hallways of the palace until they reached the tower where the survivor was being pulled from the wreckage and the garden that housed dozens of tables and benches, all conveniently empty.
    Libby paused and kept her hands folded together so that she didn’t touch anyone accidentally.
    The duke looked at her, his red eyes intense in their black lids.
    “It appears that my Death Seer is worth her keep.” The duke smiled.
    Shoklek took over the removal and identification of the dead while Libby stood next to Rajon and watched the chaos turn into order.
    When it was all over, she shivered and swayed slightly. It always happened when the event was over. She felt her prediction taking place and the deaths when it was over. It felt like someone running their fingers down her spine to her tailbone.
    The duke caught her and placed a hand on the small of her back to steady her.
    She was still disoriented when he walked her back to the audience chamber.
    He sat on his throne and kept her at his side with a hand around her waist.
    “My Death Seer has saved one hundred and ninety-three lives. She foresaw the skimmer with the dead and dying and warned us that it was arriving. The Countess Liraka’s party has been saved, and it is all due to this particular new addition to the court.”
    Polite applause broke out.
    Libby blushed and kept her head up, staring past the curious gazes and toward the back of the room. A pair of hate-filled eyes glared at her, and she focused on the woman in the back of the crowd.
    The woman was elegant and barely dressed but wearing haute couture at the same time. She was looking at Liberty like she had stolen something and was flaunting it.
    Libby stiffened and her change in posture got Rajon’s attention. He followed the direction of her gaze, and she turned to see his cold expression.
    She looked back at the hostile woman at the edge of the crowd and the elegant female flinched as if struck.
    Libby caught the reverberation between the two and tried to step away from the duke. His fingers tightened and kept her at his side.
    “Don’t move, Liberty. This is where I want you, and this is where you shall stand.”
    She looked into his eyes and noted the steel in his gaze. He was making a statement.
    She stood with her head high and shoulders back while he conducted the business of the day, arranging trades, allowing travel visas and the like. If you wanted to move around on or off Miexhar, you had to ask