Sword of Dreams (The Reforged Trilogy) Read Online Free Page A

fibersteel floor. He pulled an orange net down from hooks on the wall and tossed one end to Maeve. She flew up into the air, caught the corner and dropped it down over her side of the stack. As Maeve tied the net down to a row of magclamps on the floor, Gripper leaned against the crates.
    "Smoke, are you worried about the Nihilists?" he asked.
    "I have been thinking about it since I saw the Nihilist name on the news," she admitted. "I worry, yes, but I do not know if it is the same as your worry."
    "You don't think they're going to… come after us or anything?" he asked.
    Maeve shook her head slowly. "No, I do not believe so. The Cult of Nihil will have their own worries. They are far more sought-after criminals than we are, and they have their own goals. Even if he lives, I do not think that Gavriel will not concern himself with us."
    "Really?"
    "Only the gods know for certain."
    Gripper blinked his big, boyish brown eyes. "Thanks, Smoke. I guess."
    ________
     
    Duaal opened a radio channel to the landing field's tiny control center. "Blake, this is the Blue Phoenix. We're ready to take off on surface vector two eighty-eight."
    "I hear you, Blue Phoenix," came Blake's rusty-sounding voice. "I'm monitoring Control chatter. We should have a window open for you in about ten minutes."
    Duaal put his feet up on the controls in front of him and inspected his shoes. The leather was getting old. But when would there be money enough for replacements? Duaal silently cursed Maeve again for every one of her many, many crimes. Finally, he sat back and looked over at Tiberius.
    "Are you all right, captain?" he asked. "You've been on edge all day."
    Tiberius' joints creaked in audible protest as he dropped into the pilot's chair. "It's nothing for you to worry about, Duaal."
    "Can't you just talk to me a little? I'm bored and my head is still curling around the edges."
    "Go raid the medbay, then."
    "Come on!"
    There was a pause, and then Tiberius answered. "It's all of this."
    "All of what?"
    "Everything!" Tiberius shouted suddenly, startling Duaal.
    The boy jumped and cracked his head hard against the cockpit's low ceiling. He rubbed his scalp and checked for blood. "Ouch, captain."
    "I was a cop for forty-one years, not some plucked criminal," Tiberius said. "It shouldn't be like this – squatting on illegal fields, buying our supplies on the sly."
    "You only tried to do right," Duaal reminded him.
    "And for that, I'm hiding like a rat." Tiberius shook his head. "I don't want to live the rest of my life under a rock."
    Duaal searched for something to say, but could think of nothing. He sat back with a sigh and waited for Blake to tell them that they could finally fly away.

Chapter 2: Sipho
     
    "Without laws, there can be no crime. But without laws, we are all victims."
    - Gaius Varren, Prian police officer (192 PA)
     
    Cedon Barnes was a handsome man. He admired his fine, chiseled jaw and bright blue-green eyes. He really looked nothing at all like a criminal, he thought. Cedon straightened his stylish black tie and checked his pale hair in the darkened window. In the bright Sipho nightlight, the glass threw back a stark silver-and-black reflection of innocent perfection.
    He waited on the corner of Malone Street, just as his client had requested. Cedon leaned against a waist-high iron fence that wrapped around the cafe patio. It was the middle of the night and the chairs all sat upside-down atop of their tables, legs in the air like dogs playing dead. A few other drivers and midnight walkers strolled past, but not many. Cedon Barnes waited alone.
    The night was clear and warm. Still, was it not for the importance of his meeting, Cedon would have been back in his hotel room, in his warm bed and the warmer embrace of the woman he had left there. Both were well outside his price range, but Cedon was about to be a very rich man.
    His pay as a floor supervisor in the Narsus shipyards had been comfortable enough, but then an engineer