The Carnelian Fox by Kay MacLeod

Author:Kay MacLeod [MacLeod, Kay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-11-08T16:00:00+00:00

“She’s beautiful,” Lucy said as soon as she laid eyes on my new Gem. “Well done, Sam.”

‘I like her.’ It would take some time to get used to having a voice in my head.

“Rica likes you too,” I said. “So, can’t you tell her yourself?”

“Are you talking to her?” Lucy set down her backpack and put her clothes into the inadequate drawers next to her bed. I never bothered - we’d be moving on soon, anyway.

“Yeah, she’s psychic, how cool is that?”

“She can only communicate with you though; they aren’t allowed into other people’s heads. Something about that intellectual property law.” Lucy waved it off as if it was okay to spread out the contents of everyone’s mind for all to see.

“She can talk to other Gems if they let her, like my guys. Or do an infiltration in battle to throw opponents off,” I corrected.

“Superb, I’m pleased for you. I’m more focussed on what I should add to my own team though. I still only have four Gems, but Dancer is coming along with her training. At least some good came out of that awful trip to the forest.” Lucy sighed and sat on the corner of the bed, gripping her necklace. “I need a win here, that will bring my credits up enough to buy another Gem. Not a thoroughbred one, but there are so many things I can’t even enter until I put together a full team.”

“You’ll get there,” I said, joining her on her side of the room. “It’s a long path for both of us but every step is a step closer, right?”

“I suppose so.” I’d never seen Lucy this down. You had to be in a sucky place to be jealous of my progress. I felt bad for the girl, I really did. But her funk was getting me down, and I was already screwed up enough after the whole scrap with the delusional mob earlier.

“It’s late, I’m going down to get some dinner. Are you coming?”

“No, I’ll stay and do a few drills with them. Make sure they’re ready for tomorrow.”

I admired the will on her, the way she kept at her training even when she was low. Not enough to skip a meal for it though.

I got halfway down the hall and bumped into Eli locking up a room.

“You hungry?” I asked.

“I don’t need to ask if you are,” he replied, pocketing the key card. Why did they use such old-fashioned tech when in most places you could swipe your eBand?

“Aww, you know me so well already.” I wasn’t even miffed. “I have a healthy appetite because I run around the countryside fighting giant monsters and angry mobs all the time.”

“Let’s get something better than vendor crap on a plastic plate, huh?” He leant against the wall and fiddled with a hoodie string, wrapping it round his finger.

“If you mean pizza, then yes. Yes please.”

A smile flickered on his lips and he pushed off from the wall. “Okay, you’re going to love it.

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.