Valley of Fires: A Conquered Earth Novel (The Conquered Earth Series) Read Online Free Page B

their red, blue, and green three-optic eyes staring into her. Behind them were two Mantises, staring at her in the same way.
    Mira sighed. Sometimes they were more like Max than killer alien invaders.
    “Yes?” she asked out loud, with impatience.
    We tried to contain.
    That word again, “contain.” Mira stared back at the wreckage of the walker and the smoking debris and an idea of what had happened here formed. A dozen or more feet away, the argument and the standoff continued.
    “It wasn’t them,” Mira announced, looking back at the group. No one seemed to hear her, they were too busy yelling. “It wasn’t them!”
    The accusations stopped. Everyone turned to her.
    “It wasn’t who ?” Christian asked. “The Helix or the Assembly?”
    “Either.” She held up one of the blackened coins. “It was your Dynamo, it exploded.”
    “Artifact combinations don’t explode,” another Wind Trader engineer stated.
    Mira shrugged. “This one did. And this walker,” she motioned to the wrecked body of the machine, “absorbed the explosion. It must have sensed the combination was about to overload and—”
    “Used its shield,” Christian replied, thinking it through. Assembly Brutes were the only walkers Mira had seen with energy shields for defense. “Explains why the ground’s charred in an almost perfect circle.”
    Mira stood up. Where there had been two Hunters around her, now there were six, with two Brutes behind them. The Assembly always tried to get as close to her as they could, and it could be annoying. The machines moved apart as she walked through them, and Mira could see the distrustful looks from the kids ahead of her. Could she blame them? The Assembly, the great invaders of the planet, following her around like lost puppies?
    “I think you owe them an apology, Dasha,” a new voice said. Two other Helix were moving toward the discontent, and Mira knew them well. One was Dane, tall and handsome, with wavy hair and lithe muscles and the easy, assured gait that all Helix seemed to share. The other was Avril, the current leader of the White Helix, though that wasn’t going to last much longer.
    The eyes of every White Helix dropped instantly in apprehension. Only the girl, Dasha, kept hers raised. “Apologize … to them ?” She meant the Assembly.
    “Dishonored yourself, haven’t you?” Avril asked back as she and Dane pushed into the crowd. “You’ve raised your masks when there was no call, and you have accused an ally of treachery.”
    “They’re not my allies,” the girl retorted. The other Helix seemed nervous. “And you are not my Doyen.”
    Avril touched all three of the glowing rings on her middle fingers. Her body flashed in hot, white light. Her movements were lightning quick as she struck outward, and two rapid punches sent Dasha crashing to the ground, staring up in pain and shock.
    Avril glared down at her. “You’re right. I’m not your Doyen. I am Shuhan . And you will respect my words.”
    “Gideon was my—”
    “Avril’s achievements grant her the title of Shuhan now,” Dane cut her off. “And you will obey her as I do, if only because you took the same oaths. What is the second Keystone?”
    Dasha said nothing, just glared.
    “What is the second Keystone ?” Dane repeated.
    “Honor above all.” The girl’s voice was a whisper. The other Helix in the yard echoed the statement out loud.
    “Apologize,” Avril spoke again. “For your hostility and your insults.”
    Guardian. Mira flinched at the projections. It is unnecessary.
    She looked at Ambassador, its triangular eye boring into hers, and raised a hand, signaling it to do nothing.
    Dasha lay there a few moments more … then stood up and looked to Christian. “I apologize for my actions.” And with that, she pushed through the crowd, back toward the White Helix camp.
    “Dasha!” Avril shouted after her.
    “I will not apologize to them !” the girl yelled as she stormed off.
    Avril sighed,