Fated Blades
- Автор: Эндрюс Илона
- Серия: Kinsmen #3
- Год: 2021
- Язык: английский
- Год: Montlake
- ISBN: 9781662500435
- Жанр: Любовно-фантастические романы
Электронная книга - «Fated Blades». Краткое содержание книги:
At first glance, the planet Rada seems like a lush paradise. But the ruling families, all boasting genetically enhanced abilities, are in constant competition for power―and none more so than the Adlers and the Baenas. For generations, the powerful families have pushed and pulled each other in a dance for dominance.
Until a catastrophic betrayal from within changes everything.
Now, deadly, disciplined, and solitary leaders Ramona Adler and Matias Baena must put aside their enmity and work together in secret to prevent sinister forces from exploiting universe-altering technology. Expecting to suffer through their uneasy alliance, Ramona and Matias instead discover that they understand each other as no one in their families can―and that their combined skills may eclipse the risks of their forbidden alliance.
As the two warriors risk their lives to save their families, they must decide whether to resist or embrace the passion simmering between them. For now, the dance between their families continues―but just one misstep could spell the end of them both. (less)
He shook his head again.
“To summarize,” she said, “your father-in-law is deep in the SFR’s pocket. The Vandals arrived to the system two and a half months ago, and a group of them requested asylum under the Political Prosecution Act. He arranged for their diplomatic warship permit, and he likely pulled some strings to expedite their asylum applications. Their IDs pass inspection because they’re real, and according to Immigration, there are at least forty of them in Dahlia, all coded as humanitarian refugees. The warship dropped them off, left the system for two months, and now returned, supposedly to negotiate another refugee drop-off, but most likely to pick up the so-called refugees after they obtain our tech and murder the Davenports. It’s not a buying expedition, it’s a mini-invasion, and your senator father-in-law is in this up to his eyeballs.”
Matias smiled. He actually smiled. It softened his harsh face and lit up his eyes. The effect was shocking. She had to fight herself to keep from staring.
“It sounds bad when you put it like that,” he said.
“There is no good way to put it.”
Matias rose. “Have you ever seen Senator Drewery’s summer home?”
“I haven’t had the pleasure.”
“I’ve been neglecting my son-in-law duties. I’m overdue for a visit. Join me?”
“I thought you’d never ask.” She got up. “Before we go, do you want to warn the Davenports?”
She said it lightly, almost as an afterthought, and if he said no, she would walk away from him right there. The Davenports were competitors, that was true, and if they were eliminated, both of their families would gladly pounce on their orphaned territory and resources. But that was kinsmen business. All of them grew up under the same sky in the same province, they enjoyed the same food, carried on the same traditions, and laughed at the same jokes. Friend or enemy, they were part of Dahlia. The Vandals were outsiders.
Some things just weren’t done.
“I already forwarded everything we’ve learned to Haider,” he said. “I’ll call him when we’re on our way.”
She let out a quiet breath and opened the door for him.
The verdant gardens slid below the aerial, splashed with flowers in every color under the sun. Ramona sighed quietly. If she could open the window—an impossibility in an aerial—the wind would smell of summer: sun-warmed leaves, rich soil, and the layered aroma of flowers.
When she was a child, every summer as soon as school was out, the family would make the pilgrimage to the Adler summer home. Watching the gardens glide below meant the start of the holidays. Two months of swimming in a lake and splashing in the family pool, of climbing trees and eating fruit off the branch, of hikes in the orchards and berry fields that could almost pass for a scary ancient forest if one squinted just right. Long lazy days of reading in a hammock and long happy evenings watching the purple fireflies glow in the warm darkness as adults cooked food over open flames and sneaking off at midnight to catch star flowers when they opened to greet the two moons.
Back then time stood still during summer. Now it was just another season filled with deadlines. They were a week into it, and she’d barely noticed.
“Is something the matter?” Matias asked.
For a man, he was remarkably observant. Or perhaps he seemed so because Gabriel had been so completely disinterested.
“I miss my childhood,” she said.
“Summerhouse in the gardens by a lake? Evenings chasing purple fireflies and waiting for the two moons to rise so the star flowers would bloom and release the gala swarms? Climbing a tree to eat the orange cherries?”
She blinked. “I hadn’t realized the Baenas’ data gathering was so extensive.”
“No, I just described my own childhood.”
“You waited for the moons to rise so you could see the star flowers?”
“No, but my sister did, and she dragged me with her. Every time.”
It made sense. Most families either kept summerhouses if they could afford them, rented them if they couldn’t, or chose to raise their children in the provinces. Most children chased the fireflies and ate their weight in orange cherries and raspberries during summer.
Matias smiled. “She didn’t have to drag me very hard. I liked the flowers too.”
“I miss it. Back then, I thought that when I grew up, it would be always summer. I would do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted . . .”
He chuckled. It sounded bitter. “How long?”
“Since I spent a summer in the province? Four years.”
He held out his hand, showing her five fingers.
“Why do we do this to ourselves?” she wondered.
“Family. And the glamour of being kinsmen.” His words dripped sarcasm.
“So much glamour. Sometimes I am so glamorous I forget to take a shower for three days and sleep in my office.”
“Sleep? What is this luxury? Sleep is all about relaxation. Soft bed, warm covers. I haven’t slept since last month.”
She looked at him, not sure if he was joking. Today was the seventh. Technically, with the right boosters, it was possible.
“I don’t sleep. I pass out, and before that I lie awake making mental checklists, until my brain shuts down and the alarm goes off four hours later.”
“Thank the universe you got some sleep, because for a second there, I had second thoughts about you flying . . .”
He took his hands off the controls. The aerial dipped forward.
“Matias!”
He grinned and pulled the vehicle back up.
“If you’re too tired, I can take over,” she offered.
“I could fly this thing in my sleep.”
Sure, you could. “Bad choice of words.”
“It was on purpose.”
Ramona shook her head and accessed the dashboard display in front of her, pulling in the feed from the satellite. They were about ten minutes out from the senator’s villa. She called it up on the screen. A sprawling three-story mansion in the extravagant style of Third Wave, the final mass arrival of the settlers, it was built with pink marble and accented with Cellordion quartz trim that shone with bright crimson when it caught the sunlight.
What an enormous house.
The bottom floor was a massive cube with rounded edges, twenty meters tall and one hundred meters wide, with walls featuring towering arched windows. A smaller rounded cube—the top two floors—sat on top of that huge base, in the center. The space around those two floors was taken up by a beautifully landscaped park. Several curved paths meandered through the greenery and wound their way to the south corner of the structure, where a double staircase sliced through the first floor, leading down to a semicircular pool as big as a small lake. It looked like someone had taken a knife to an oversize three-tier cake and hacked off one of the bottom corners, and the liquid filling had leaked out of it in a round puddle.
Not a single sharp angle to be seen. Everything was cambers and arches, and the dark-red roof was a sinuous curve crowned by a cupola. Everything glittered with red quartz.
“Shiny,” she summarized.
“It’s meant to reassure voters of his traditional values.”
“It looks like rose wine cake. How big is it?”
“Almost twelve thousand square meters.”
The average home in New Delphi ran about two hundred square meters. “I didn’t realize politicians were paid that well.”
“Honest ones aren’t,” Matias said. “This is a monument to all of the bribes he took.”
Wow.
It wasn’t just the cost of the house. It was also the upkeep. Even if Drewery automated just about everything, the energy cost of cleaning and maintaining all that had to be staggering.