Neverwylde (The Rim of the World Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

what the hell do all these other lights indicate? Especially these way down here near the bottom of the rock?”
                “We will discuss exploring those sites at our council meeting,” Kyber decided. “Our priority right now is to see to Verin’s interment.”
                “Since we don’t know if this platform can send more than one of us at a time, let’s begin with me and Cooter,” Fullgrath suggested and hefted his weapon. Stepping up on the dais, he held his gun at the ready. Cooter joined him, holding his beloved pulse rifle pointing outward.
                “Here we go!” Jules moved over to the slab and hit the white button. There was a low hum, but after several seconds nothing happened.
                Fullgrath muttered an expletive under his breath and stepped off the rock.
                Cooter vanished.
                Immediately, Fullgrath leaped back up onto the slab. A heartbeat later, he was gone.
                “Let us place Verin’s body there. When it arrives, they will remove it to allow the rest of us passage,” Kyber announced.
                The dead Seneecian was carefully laid on the rock and disappeared within seconds. One by one they all took a stance on the slab, until the only ones left were Jules, Kelen, and Kyber.
                “Go ahead.” Jules motioned for her to step up.
                “I just thought of something. Doesn’t one of us have to stay behind to work the return button?” she questioned.
                “Dox figured out how to set an auto return,” Jules assured her. “When we step back on the platform up at the temple, it’ll bring us right back here.”
                “Go, Kelen,” Kyber urged. “I will come after you.”
                She nodded and climbed up. The world went from opaque to pure white, and then she was struck by a blinding light. Throwing up an arm to shield her eyes, she felt a hand grab her other arm and pull her off the platform.
                “Careful,” Mellori cautioned her. “The floor is littered with small rocks. Watch your step so you don’t trip and fall.”
                Kelen glanced around at the monolithic figures rising a thousand meters overhead, and at the immense, carved vaulted ceiling. Another check around her allowed her to get her bearings. The ledge leading out into the openness of space would be outside and to the left of the small enclosure where the transport rock was located. The planet’s desert would be to the right.
                The others were gathered outside the three-sided room. Three-sided room. Kelen snickered. Everything the native inhabitants of this world did hinged on groups of three. The nonagon-shaped cluster of apartments. The fact that all of the symbols representing their language were presented in sets of three. Even the food was doled out three servings at a time, leaving them unable to have more until the machine cycled through.
                Soon after she joined the rest, Kyber and Jules followed. On Kyber’s silent signal, everyone walked to the end of the temple and out onto the ledge that extended over the gulf of space.
                The sun was behind them, hidden from sight, but casting the tall, imposing shadow of the temple over the rock. Kelen stared at the horizon past the seemingly impossible vista of outer space that lay beyond. She saw the way the sky above was a clear and perfect blue. Yet further down, it grew darker, until the stars presented themselves in bright, almost painful clarity beneath their feet.
                A sense of foreboding swept through her as the body was placed a meter away from the lip of the precipice. Kyber and the Seneecians made a semi-circle around their crew member, as Kelen and the other Terrans stood behind them.