The Bastard Prince (Blue Moon Rising Book 3) by Blair Bancroft

Author:Blair Bancroft [Bancroft, Blair]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kone Enterprises
Published: 2017-09-07T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

It was nearly sunset before Kass could tear herself away from list-making, calls, and interviews played out over an inner cacophony of staggering thoughts. Thoughts that did not quiet as she walked through the cool of the woods to the g’zebo. She could only hope Tal’s recruitment chores were going better than her own. Surely finding engineers, comp techs, and grease monkeys was easier than finding potential diplomats!

She’d paused once during the day to call Tal, asking if anyone had remembered that Astarte would need to be fitted with extra bunks, extra sanifacs, extra provisions. Tal had barked something profane, growled a no, and said he’d take care of it. They should have thought of diplomats earlier too. But she and Tal had been so certain of their ability to handle any situation that might arise. After all, she had been born and raised to rule; Tal had been born to command. And since the rebellion, they’d had to face countless crises, some involving friends as well as foes. In the back of her mind Kass recalled she had once had a vague idea of asking Torvik Vaden for one of his aides as an advisor on diplomatic protocol. Ha! So much for that idea.

They did, however, have Alala. The Hercs weren’t going to turn away a ship bringing an honored warrior home. But believe they were about to be invaded by the Regs? Take their battlefleet out of hibernation? Kass groaned.

And Alala had left them in no doubt Hercs thought people with psychic skills an abomination.

Instead of warm and welcoming, the g’zebo bench seemed hard, unyielding. Clearly, she’d spent too many hours in the comfortably upholstered chair behind her desk. No, what she was feeling was defeat, looming large, a great black shadow waiting to pounce. In spite of Tal’s carefully thought-out plans, there was no way to win against the Empire. They’d thought to hang on until the Psyclids recovered from the mass effort it took to gain their freedom, then add the Hercs to the rebel roster. But truth was, they were a mere drop of water trying to put out a massive conflagration. Disaster was piling on disaster. Things looked bad.

Ridó.

Startled, Kass looked up to see K’kadi standing at the foot of the steps.

Disappear.

Kass frowned. “Sorry, K’kadi. I don’t understand.”

Build ridó. He waggled his fingers in a classic maybe-yes, maybe-no. Or disappear Hercula.

“Lovely thoughts,” Kass snapped, “but how? It’s taking forever to build a ridó big enough for Psyclid. And Hercula is almost twice the size.”

He shrugged. Disappear. Can do. I . . . think. Again, he waggled his fingers.

“K’kadi, that’s impossible. You’d kill yourself trying.”

Not that stupid.

She almost snapped, Yes, you are. But that was the old K’kadi, the heedless boy. And he was right. K’kadi the man might be able to pull it off. But that was no protection against a Reg battlegroup in the skies. All they had to do was aim at Hercula’s coordinates. An invisibility cloak was not a ridó. Rockets and lasers would go straight through.

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