The Moon's Shadow Read Online Free PDF Page A

she wouldn’t reveal his identity. If ESComm learned that Eube had another Ruby prince, they would take him for interrogation. She couldn’t allow that—because no matter how much it cost, she intended to own Kelric Valdoria.
     
    Corbal Xir wasted no time taking Jai to the capital planet of Eube. They arrived only a few days after they met on Delos. Jai’s great-great-grandfather, Eube Qox, had named this world Eube’s Glory. Eube had redesigned its solar system to please himself: he terraformed Glory to fit his taste, destroyed several planets he didn’t like, and removed an asteroid belt that annoyed him. It gave Jai a window into his progenitor’s mind, offering whole new insights into the word “megalomania.”
    Over a century and a half ago, Eube had comissioned the construction of a mansion for his sister Ilina on her marriage to a Lord Xir. Corbal was Ilina’s son. Jai found it hard to absorb that his cousin had been born 132 years ago. It made Jai acutely aware he was only seventeen, terminally young and inexperienced.
    Corbal had brought him here to the Xir mansion after their arrival on Glory. It relieved Jai; he didn’t want to see the Qox palace yet. His palace. His mother’s forces had left it in ruins. She had come for his father, but both of them had died trying to escape. Jai wasn’t ready to face so many reminders of what he had lost.
    He went out onto a balcony and rested his hands on the rail, a bar of platinum engraved with abstract tessellations. This rail alone was worth more than everything his family had owned in their exile. He would have traded a thousand such bars to have back that simple life.
    A spectacular landscape spread out below this high mountainside that served as home for the Xir mansion. In the distance, across a valley, the Jaizire Mountains sheered into the sky, shrouded in mist. Primordial forest tangled on their slopes and carpeted the lowlands. Jai inhaled the cold, thin air, adjusting to its strange scent.
    “A striking view,” a voice said.
    Startled, Jai looked around. Corbal had joined him, elegant and imposing in his dark clothes.
    “Indeed,” Jai said. Corbal often used the word, though it meant nothing as far as Jai could tell. Right now, it was conveniently vague.
    His cousin motioned at the valley. “This is my land. You own the Jaizire Mountains and everything beyond them.”
    Jai stared at him. He owned that landscape? Surely he had misheard.
    “You will need to visit the palace now and then,” Corbal continued as if his new sentence was a perfectly logical continuation of the last. “Make appearances to your staff.”
    Corbal’s conversation disoriented Jai; his cousin talked in circles, twists, and turns. Nor could he sense Corbal’s mind that well. Aristos didn’t project their emotions as strongly as psions, and Jai had fortified his mental barriers so much that he had trouble now picking up more than bits and pieces from anyone.
    He spoke with caution. “I will need more than brief appearances to do my job.”
    “Perhaps.”
    Jai waited, hoping for clarification, but Corbal said no more. Jai had wearied of trying to untangle Corbal’s speech. So he looked out at his mountains.
    “You haven’t asked about your providers,” Corbal said.
    Jai felt as if Corbal had kicked him in the gut. “I have no providers.” The idea made him sick.
    “Of course you do. You inherited everything your father owned, billions of taskmakers and dozens of providers.”
    Jai swung around to him, staring. Billions? He couldn’t imagine it. Nor would he ever believe his father had kept providers. It was impossible.
    Corbal was studying his face. “You own several hundred worlds, including everything and everyone on them.”
    The idea revolted Jai. Knowing any remark he made would come out inadvisably hostile, he said nothing.
    “Perhaps you would like a provider this evening?” Corbal asked pleasantly. “I would be happy to offer you your choice of