Guardians of Paradise Read Online Free Page B

other man’s amazed gasp, and the three of them flew above the shattered glass roof of Elarn’s conservatory, barely losing any height.
     
    Then they were over the cliff, and a lifetime’s terror of falling kicked Taro in the guts for a brief moment, before the fear receded. It was as though the emotion belonged to someone else. He’d felt the same during the attack, when he’d watched impassively as Nual shot one of the intruders, then ambushed and skewered the gang-leader inside the house. As they began to drift down in front of the cliff-face, Taro wondered if being so chill when your arse was on the line was another part of the package, along with the blades, and the implants that stopped his body breaking under normal gravity - and allowed him and Nual to fly, not fall, if they happened to jump off a cliff.
     
    Light erupted above them with a loud bang. Taro looked up to see red-lit smoke billowing over the edge of the cliff and he dropped his head quickly as debris rained down on them. Jarek had gone rigid in their grasp and Taro could hear his harsh, rapid breaths even over the aftermath of the explosion and the pounding of the water below them.
     
    
     
    After a moment’s disorientation, Taro thought back
     
    
     
    Though Nual wasn’t turning on the compulsion, Taro knew better than to argue.
     
    The whoosh of the sea grew to a roar. Taro had looked over the cliff when they’d first arrived and he hadn’t seen anywhere safe to land, just dark waves smashing into the rock, throwing up plumes of white. Jarek had mentioned something about a shelf, though it was dark now and even Taro’s excellent night-vision couldn’t make out much more than white froth below. He soon saw that the foam wasn’t directly below them, and as they sank lower, he was able to separate the sound of the sea from the noise reflecting off the cliff. It looked like there was ten metres or so of dry land to play with.
     
    When they touched down and his boot landed in a pool of chilly water, he decided that ‘dry’ might have been a bit of an exaggeration. He let go of Jarek and stepped onto a drier spot. Nual pulled her cloak tight around herself, instantly disappearing into the darkness.
     
    Jarek, raising his voice to be heard above the sea, called out to her uncertainly, ‘What are you doing?’
     
    A moment later Taro sensed Nual springing back into the air. ‘She’s going to see who the men who attacked us were,’ he told the stranger.
     
    For the first time, Jarek looked at him. ‘I still don’t know who you are.’
     
    ‘Taro sanMalia,’ he said.
     
    Jarek continued to stare at him, and, as the adrenalin began to fade, Taro felt exposed in a way that went beyond being outside in the cold and dark. Finally Jarek said, ‘And what are you doing here?’
     
    Taro’s first instinct was to say he was with Nual, but she was gone for now, and if this was Elarn’s brother, he needed to know the truth. ‘We’re here because of your sister,’ he said.
     
    ‘What about her?’ asked Jarek, a little uncertainly.
     
    ‘I’m sorry: she’s dead.’
     
    ‘What?’
     
    ‘I—I tried to help her, give her a chance to get away—’
     
    ‘Away from what? How did she die?’
     
    ‘Away from the bastard who shot her. He’s dead too.’ A lot of people were dead now.
     
    ‘This wasn’t on Khathryn, was it?’
     
    ‘On . . . ? Oh, no. It were in Khesh City. On Vellern.’
     
    ‘Vellern? Of course. Shit - you two are Angels! Hence the flying. ’ Jarek snorted, a harsh laugh. ‘God, I might have known Nual would end up in that line of work.’
     
    ‘That’s right,’ said Taro, unable to keep the pride out of his voice, ‘we’re Angels.’ Jarek didn’t need to know that while Nual had been one of the most revered of the Khesh City assassins, Taro had had his implants for only a few weeks, and had yet to use