Cajole (The Adventures of a Xeno-Archaeologist Book 4) by Jenny Schwartz

Author:Jenny Schwartz [Schwartz, Jenny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

After an early morning walk in the warm, drizzling rain with Aria and Bailey, while Liam ran a longer loop, passing them coming and going, Nora tamed her frizzing hair and pulled on yet another boring business outfit, a houndstooth jacket over a black skirt. She wanted to avoid sending any signals that she was less professional and committed than anyone else in the vaults.

An admiral turned up for the next stage in her testing.

She recognized Ian Quispe, Liam’s bête noire.

Dr. Pilar Mayberry saw her surprise. “He’s an adept wielder,” she said under her breath, eyes on her comms unit. Over days of testing, some lines of formality and distance had been erased. “Rude buzzard, though.”

“I noticed.”

The woman smirked. “I’d bet he’s not stronger than you.”

“Is he part of my test?”

“Dr. Chulainn will outline what’s required of you.”

Nora wrinkled her nose. Then rubbed the tip of it. That was the problem with raising a child. Sometimes their habits rubbed off on you, rather than them benefiting from your mature example.

Aria wrinkled her nose when an answer displeased her.

Francis entered the lab briskly.

Everyone straightened, and Molly separated from where she’d been in conference with Dr. Chulainn, one of his assistants, and another Royal Guard.

Quispe strode forward to wring Francis’s hand, and demonstrate that he was of first importance.

Second son of a duke, Nora recalled. She smiled guardedly at Francis and shook hands when he greeted her after escaping Quispe and Dr. Chulainn.

Or rather, the two men trailed in Francis’s wake, while his bodyguard watched from three steps away.

Nora thought she understood.

Quispe was the obvious back-up if she took control of the burr from Francis. However, Quispe wasn’t as strong as Francis, so someone, whose identity she wasn’t to know, lurked out of sight as the true back-up.

She’d ask Jonah later who it was.

Quispe had probably volunteered out of curiosity and ambition.

Dr. Chulainn interrupted Nora’s response to Francis’s polite inquiry as to her health. “I’m sure she’s well. Today, Mrs. Kimani, you’ll reach for a burr. We will be using a depleted burr so your ignorance can’t cause trouble.”

While Francis frowned at Dr. Chulainn’s rudeness, Nora barely noticed it. What mattered was that for the first time she’d be permitted to reach out to a burr.

Having to sit passively and merely sense the burrs had been mildly engaging at first, and then, fascinating once she’d perceived them outside herself rather than as a physical tingle in her body. But ultimately, it was boring. Being able to reach for one, to actively engage with it, was what she’d been working toward.

“A prudent precaution.” She could be as pretentious as any academic, if she tried.

Well, no, she’d never hit Dr. Chulainn’s heights of vulgar superiority, but she could pretend to be a tiny bit snobby.

Pilar smiled as she ushered Nora into the testing lab.

After a couple of minutes of Pilar and her colleague getting settled, a burr was abruptly unshielded somewhere deeper in the vaults.

The ragged, flaring power of it scratched against Nora’s senses. Which senses she couldn’t quite tell.

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