Shattered Sun (The Sentinel Trilogy Book 3) Read Online Free

to south. The valley floors between the ranges were sand and bare rock, but gray-green vegetation capped the mountains. One of the valleys had a large, celestial blue lake that seemed to glow. No visible outlet—it must be briny and sterile. Still, the lake looked like the best target, and he guided the skimmer toward it, thinking to land by its shore and wait for instructions.
    No sooner had he made his decision than someone else took control of the skimmer. The ship turned north, the pulse engine flared, and the altitude stabilized at 20,000 feet. He raced north at three thousand miles per hour, and left the desert behind to find himself over a shallow, brackish-looking sea. The sea gave way to plains covered by tall, waving grass even as the ship began to slow and descend.
    He was only going a few hundred miles an hour by now, and came over the top of a vast herd of giant grazing beasts, twenty meters tall. The wind blew from the south, and the herd was migrating north, making it look like the giant animals were swimming through waves of a green, living ocean. A collective bellow rose into the air as he passed, tens of thousands of animals all trumpeting their alarm, and the sound was enough to penetrate his ship and rise above the wailing wind that buffeted his canopy. It looked like there was a storm to the north, dark, roiling clouds that ate up the blue sky ahead of him.
    The herd vanished, then the grasslands. One moment it was a green, waving sea stretching from horizon to horizon, and the next, a churning mud pit. Machinery the size of buildings chewed up the ground and spat it into huge mounds. Other machinery belched plumes of smoke—this was the origin of the so-called storm he’d noted earlier. Buildings, factories, barracks—all had a temporary, ramshackle appearance, and most of the work appeared to be mechanized, although he saw figures moving about on the ground and in the air.
    Mose Dryz’s heart was thumping in his chest by the time the ship finally came down, spewing up dust as it landed on the edge of one of the excavations. He thrust a hand into one of his hip packs and fumbled out a glass sugar vial, desperate to relieve the terror. His fingers were plucking out the stopper before he remembered. He’d already taken sugar, and must carefully control his dose, or he would be lost. It took all of his self-control to return the sugar to his hip pack.
    He popped the canopy and took a tentative breath. The air was cold and dry, and carried the bitter tang of burning oil and other chemicals that scratched his throat and lungs. He coughed and spat, then coughed some more. When he looked up, a giant bird stood a few meters away, staring.
    The drab feathers on its breast were falling out, and there was something old and tattered in its appearance. Another bird circled overhead before landing nearby. Two more came striding up, and several others winged down from the sky. Soon, nearly two dozen of the giant birds stood in a half-circle in front of him, with the skimmer at his back. All drones.
    The first bird squawked, which set off the others, who cawed, shrieked, and clucked. One took a nip at its neighbor, and this brought retaliation. Soon, the birds were tearing at each other’s feathers and pecking at eyeballs.
    A scream sounded above them, and a larger bird swooped down. No drab feathers on this one, but scarlet, emerald, and azure, gleaming in the sun. The smaller birds scattered. One got airborne, only to be caught in the big one’s talons. She threw the drone to the ground and tore with beak and talons. The smaller bird didn’t resist, only sat limply as it was ripped to pieces. The others were long gone by the time the grisly business was done.
    The brightly colored one squawked. Words sounded in Mose Dryz’s head.
    So a Hroom can lie after all.  
    “Yes, with your words. The poison you put in my head.”
    The bird tilted its head back and jeered her response.
    The Hroom know all about