The Mandate of Heaven by Mike Smith

Author:Mike Smith [Smith, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance, Science Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Amazon: B01H0MCBS4
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-06-24T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Today we celebrated harvest festival. An annual celebration to give thanks for a successful harvest, which predates time. I have little to give thanks for and certainly nothing to celebrate—I didn’t attend.

—From the journal of Lord Alexander Greystone,

Arcturus, Sirius System

The first inkling Alex had that something was wrong, was when Jessica tripped and fell. Since first laying eyes on her, weak was not the first word that came to mind. Beautiful, definitely, followed closely by pain-in-the-ass.

Weak? Not so much.

Still as he reached down, taking her hand to help her rise, he was suddenly taken aback by her pale demeanour, trembling limbs and listless expression.

“Are you feeling okay?” he asked, realising how absurd the question sounded, even to his own ears. She was highborn, eldest daughter of a High-Lord. She had an immune system that would decimate the plague, a respiratory system that barely needed air and a skeletal system dense enough to bounce bullets. Anything strong enough to cause her more than a mild discomfort, probably would have already wiped out the entire planet’s populace.

“I’m fine,” she insisted, brushing away his hand, standing unaided. “It’s nothing that a few hours of sleep won’t cure.”

Alex could well understand that, having travelled a little over eight light years and back again, in twelve hours, it brought a whole new meaning to the term jet lag. “I’ll accompany you,” he replied brashly, concern for her wellbeing clouding his better judgement. Not that he seemed to have much good judgement when it came to her anyway.

“You’ll do what?” she demanded, turning to face him. “You’ll do no such thing. I’m perfectly capable of finding my own bed and sleeping unaccompanied for a couple of hours.”

A thousand comebacks leapt to the forefront of his mind, but by then she’d already turned her back on him and taken a couple of paces, in the direction of her bed, he could only assume. He assumed that was her intended destination, as the steps taken were completely in the wrong direction. He was therefore close at hand to catch her, when moments later she fainted dead away.

Stubborn, he thought, holding her tightly. Definitely stubborn.

*****

His concern for her had escalated to the point of near panic, when several hours later she had still failed to wake. By then her temperature had risen to an alarming level, fortunately her heart was still beating strongly, too strongly perhaps, as it was currently beating somewhere above one-hundred and fifty beats per minute. Alex could only assume that this wasn’t normal, even for a highborn lady. Add to this cold sweats, dilated pupils and spasms that only seemed to be getting worse and Alex was beside himself with worry.

He desperately tried to recollect everything that he’d ever read about illnesses affecting the High-Lords and Ladies, yet what he’d read about such afflictions amounted to pretty much nil, for as far as he knew none such existed. However, he had read a vast literature on sicknesses, symptoms and their treatments, enough to fill a small library in fact.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.