Page 139 (1/2)

Kai looked again and let out an excited whoop Half the screen had cleared

He opened a comm

"How did you do that?" said Torin

"I don’t know," he said, typing in a hasty e, "but you’d be surprised how often that works"

A bout of laughter pulled his attention back to the audience A group of Lunars had formed a circle around one of the servants who had been locked inside with the, but with jerky, uncoh her eyes were shut and her expression isted in an atteine herself elsewhere The look made Kai’s heart shrivel in his chest

Soirl He wondered if she had ever gone an entire day without so forced upon her li his companion on a shoulder "Let raceful than that"

"She needs a partner, doesn’t she?" soet one of those Earthens up here and have ourselves a bit of puppet theater while ait"

"Hey--how about that sweet young girl fro? Remember her from the trial? Where is she?"

Kai heard a whi on the floor between ts of chairs, clutching each other in an atteaze away and clipped the port back to his belt "That’s enough," he said, stalking toward the group "Release the servant at once!"

"Ah, it looks as though the pretty ereeted Kai sounded cruel, but to his relief, no one took control of his body, even as he put an arainst his side She stopped dancing at once and slu your king," he said, enunciating each word He was glad that he still wore the spindly Lunar crown, even though king consort was not a title that carried h "You don’t seem to comprehend the situation We are all prisoners in this room, each and every one of us That also er toward the back wall "Once Levana realizes she’s overpowered--and she is--she will retreat And where do you think she’s going to coaze on those closest to hie

"She didn’t lock us in here for our protection, or because she wanted us to go on having a big party She’s keeping us here as her reserves Once her guards fall, you are going to be her next line of defense She will use your bodies as shields She will turn you into weapons She will sacrifice every person in this roo as she survives Don’t you get it? She doesn’t care about you All she cares about is having more bodies at her disposal when she needs theli an impact, but he continued, "We don’t have to sit here and wait for her to coet out of this rooet down to the royal port where we’ll be safe and where Levana won’t be able to use us to fight her battles"

A ue "Oh, poor pathetic Earthen king, talking to us as if we are powerless little children ill bow to him just because he wears a crown We are not allies, Your Grace, nor would we ever stoop to consider ourselves equals with your kind Our queenyou her husband and crowning you our king, but in truth, you and your co the spaces between our toes"

The roohter The man who had spoken sestions of all sorts of other vile things the Earthens were not worthy of

"Fine," Kai growled, his tone icy "Allowhis portscreen, he pulled up a holographic e filled up the space within the great hall, the s Kai adjusted the ood view of Arte it Then he lit up the space fleet that he had ordered to take up position in neutral space earlier that day--sixty ships that had reacted swiftly to his co their way toward Luna’s capital