Cypher (The Dragon's Bidding Book 2) Read Online Free

left
remained noticeably vacant. The woman who’d held that post had been caught
trying to abscond with a sizable portion of the office’s budget, and if she
watched today’s proceedings at all, it was from a high security detention cell.
    An assemblage of
appointed or elected representatives from every star system, world,
protectorate, and orbital habitat in the Empire sat behind the dais, here to
pledge their allegiance to the new Emperor. In the gallery at the rear of the
hall, packed shoulder to shoulder, were the glitterati —aristos, businesspeople,
and entertainers who had bought or bribed their way into the decade’s most
prestigious political function.
    Fitz commed Wolf.
“Tritico’s not here.”
    He scanned the room for
several seconds before replying. “Jan’s here. Somewhere. I’m bloody sure of that.
He may not be ready to make his move yet, but he’s patient. And sneaky. He
reminds me of a marquat , a nasty, poisonous lizard that hides in
Rainbow’s sugarcane fields.”
    “Afraid of a little
reptile?”
    “No, but I don’t like
getting bit on the butt.”
    They followed Ari out
onto the main floor, which glittered with a mosaic star map of the Empire. A
cloud of camera-droids descended on them, buzzing on their repulsor fields. One
focused in on Fitz, so close she saw the reflection of her cracked visor in its
lens. It flitted around her and Wolf as if assessing the damage on their armor,
then sailed away to join its companions clustered around Ari. Apparently
battered SpecOps agents were not as newsworthy as a new Emperor.
    The party halted at the
foot of the dais. Maks Kiernan’s smile broadened, and Fitz noticed him mouth
the words, You did good, Kiddo . Unconsciously, her spine straightened;
she raised her chin. A warm flush of pride spread through her body.
    The chamberlain banged
his staff against the floor, his voice a velvet basso profondo . “Who
comes before this Assembly to lay claim to the Dragon Throne?”
    Fitz, Wolf, and the
Praetorian escort dropped to one knee, heads bowed. The hall’s acoustics and
the camera-droids carried Ari’s voice to every corner of the gallery, and to all
the people of the planet and beyond. The words were formal, the phraseology as
old as the Empire.
    “I am Arianne Katerina
Deva-Lorza Ransahov, and I lay claim to the Dragon Throne and demand an Oath of
Fealty from all members of this chamber. Are there any to gainsay me?”
    The hall remained
silent.
    “Do you accept me as
your liege-lord?”
    The crowd surged to
their feet, shouting their approval, the hall vibrating with their chants of Ari,
Ari, Ari .
    Ari Ransahov stepped up
to take her seat beneath the Dragon’s jaws, and her place in history.
    Along with Wolf, Fitz
rose and turned to stand at parade rest facing the throng, hands locked behind
her back. Savoring the moment, she was surprised to find tears welling up. Over
the past few weeks her mission had seemed impossible at times, but she’d clung
to the dream of finding a hero to save her empire. And she’d succeeded. Along
with Wolf’s help, of course. She felt her lips curve into a smile.
    The time had come to
move on to her new mission: keeping a head-strong ruler safe and on the right
track to rebuilding a crippled government. She blinked the moisture from her
eyes and scanned the audience, looking for any threat, any anomaly.
    She found one.
    At the railing of the
highest balcony, a man stood motionless, watching, with arms folded across his
chest. Amid a crowd that cheered and waved scraps of purple cloth to honor
their new Emperor, that stillness marked him as a threat. She zoomed in on his
face, found him studying the tableau on the dais. He smiled, directly at her,
it seemed, and the malice in his gaze prickled across her skin.
    “Wolf,” she called on
her comm, but before he could answer, Janos Tritico turned and faded into the
crowd.

CHAPTER TWO
     
    Running silent on her repulsors,
the Elizabeth Angstrom II eased westward