Phoenix Ascendant - eARC Read Online Free Page A

staring steadily into the huge, gray eyes, waited until they focused on him. “You all right?”
    She closed her eyes and then nodded slowly. At that point, the recognition of the name she’d screamed hit him. “Wait. Rion? Your brother? But…he died in front of you, didn’t he?”
    “Yes…yes, of course. You’re right.” She cast an agonized, confused glance at the tube as Lady Shae slid a floating cradle under it. “But…but that looks like him. I mean, it really looks like him.”
    “You’re looking through a not-perfectly-clear window at some guy floating in whatever-that-stuff-is that Wieran filled these tubes with,” Poplock pointed out. “Your eyes might be tricking you. Shae’s got that one; let’s finish this work up. We’re not opening any of these things yet, so there’s nothing more to do with that mystery anyway until we’re done here. Right?”
    Kyri tore her attention away from the receding, mysterious tube with a visible effort, then gave a rather forced-looking smile. “Of course, you’re right. As usual.”
    The two of them worked in silence for a few minutes. Tobimar couldn’t help but think about the bizarre event. What could that mean? Kyri’s got really good senses, and if anyone would know her brother, it should be her. What if that is Rion?
    “Could be another trap,” the little Toad muttered in his ear, making him twitch.
    “What? Are you reading minds now, Poplock?” he murmured back.
    “Not hard to guess what you’re thinking about. Probably what she’s thinking about too.”
    “I suppose. Yes, it could be a trap. But for what purpose?”
    “That’s the murky part, yeah. It’s not an illusion in that oversized jar, I can tell you that; if her eyes weren’t just confused, then whoever’s in there must look awfully like her brother.”
    “But looking like him would be pretty useless.”
    “Very useless,” Kyri’s voice spoke from behind them, making them both jump. “Sorry to startle you.”
    “We were trying not to…”
    “I know. But it isn’t as though I’m not thinking the same things.” She shook her head as they started maneuvering yet another sealed tube up and out. “I watched Rion die . An impostor won’t fool me for a second.”
    Poplock made a face. “Don’t be so hopping sure. We couldn’t even tell that Miri and Shae were demons until they dropped the masks. We’re dealing with great demons and gods—they can fog even Myrionar’s sight, and you know it.”
    Tobimar could see Kyri try to come up with a countering argument and fail. “An Eternal Servant maybe?” he suggested. “Like the Unity Guard?”
    The Phoenix Justiciar shook her head. “Possible, I suppose, but it makes no sense. Why put one of those artificial things in a suspension tube? They don’t age on their own and I can’t think they’ll be better off soaking in liquid than operating. And what good would such a thing be without the original alive anyway?”
    “I don’t have answers there,” Tobimar admitted. “But I’ll tell you what: once we’ve got every tube out of here, that one will be the first to be opened. We know the tubes are stable, so the Guards will be okay as long as they’re out of here, and your tube constitutes a mystery that we really want to solve.”
    Kyri smiled gratefully at him. “Thank you, Tobimar. You know it would eat at me if I had to keep waiting.”
    “Well, assuming that Shae or Miri or Hiriista don’t come up with some really convincing argument that we should keep waiting, I’ll go along with that idea,” Poplock said. “But remember that this is their country and…Oh, drought .”
    “What?” Tobimar suddenly became aware of a faint hissing noise in the background. He whirled, seeking its source, and found it; a grayish line shimmering from the far wall. Water. The wall has finally sprung a leak.
    Kyri ignited in golden flame. “ Move it, everyone! I know we’re exhausted, but the wall holding back Enneisolaten is