CalledtoPower Read Online Free Page B

anything to ask of me?”
    She blinked at him for a moment and answered from her heart. “Don’t ask for me and my dad anymore. I want to stay with my mom and so does he.”
    He quivered and burst into laughter. “An honest child. Never lose that, Syrella. It is a great and wonderful thing.”
    “How can you lose honesty?”
    “Ah, that is a very good question. I don’t know. Do you want to know anything else?”
    Syrella stood up, balancing on the arm of the big chair that the emperor was seated in. “What is this?”
    She touched the spike sticking out behind the man’s head, and her finger felt the poke a moment before her father shouted and the emperor pulled her away. A tiny drop of blood was on her finger, and she frowned, putting her digit in her mouth. “Ow.”
    The chair that the emperor sat on started to glow with a pretty pink colour. “Well, look at that.”
    She looked around for her daddy, but the guards who stood by the base of the throne were holding him. “Why are they holding my daddy?”
    The emperor smiled, “Because he wanted to hold you. Go to him, Syrella, and know that you will always be welcome on Vexa.”
    She ran to her father, and he held her close, his tears dampened her hair. She knew one thing at that moment—she and her daddy would never have to return to Vexa.
    “Duchess, we are on final approach. Are you ready?” Agoth was near her, his hair was neatly braided in minute strands, and those strands were bound together with a leather band. His deep chestnut skin was a contrast to his bright yellow eyes.
    “I am ready. Well, as ready as one can be when facing mind-numbing boredom.” She smiled brightly.
    “It seems that you are already prepared for this. What can we look forward to?” Agoth seemed eager.
    “Well, we will exit this shuttle, and the Vexar imperial guard should surround us. They will form a block and walk us to the throne room. Oh, that reminds me. I need to change into my formal gown for the thorn ceremony.” She got to her feet. “I will be right back.”
    Her luggage was strapped tightly in the back, so she flipped through the three boxes until she located the silver silk gown. Syrella gathered the fabric up and walked into the lav. Changing from semi-formal gown into ball gown in a lav in a shuttle was not an activity for the weak hearted, but by the time she felt the tug of Vexa’s gravity, she was dressed in a strapless gown of silver.
    She carefully folded the purple gown and tucked it into her luggage before standing next to the seats holding her guards.
    Agoth looked at her. “Have a seat, Duchess. We are entering the Vexar atmosphere.”
    She smiled and shook her head, reaching above her for the straps used by fliers who couldn’t manage the seat backs. “Not in this gown I won’t. I am fairly sure that if I crease this gown before I sit on the throne, C’dallia will sense it and Vexa will be under l’nal attack.”
    Perinio smirked, his deep blue skin reflecting stars and his bald skull gleaming in the refracted light coming through the window. The tattoos that swirled across his skin were almost invisible until the light struck them just the right way. “You have a l’nal seamstress?”
    “She is a master weaver and teaches her art on Thoola. When her last husband…died…she needed a place to call her own. Her daughters are settled with broods of their own, so she wanted to teach the young of other species.”
    Agoth took over the controls when Dorium turned to look at her. “Well, her efforts are truly lovely.”
    She wanted to say the same, wanted to tell him that her gaze could wander over the shining green of his skin, the black of his hair and the deep brown of his eyes over and over again. The tight bodysuit that the Citadel had provided him and the others were unrelieved black with crimson piping. It made her smile—crimson was her family colour.
    “Thank you, Dorium. I will pass your praise on to her.” She glanced down at the