Read Online Heir To The Nova (Book 3) by T. Michael Ford - Free Book Online

watching us with obvious delight and adoration.
    “Whew, I haven’t laughed like that in too long,” I panted. “Hello, Ryliss. I’m happy to see you, too.” The young scholar shifted uneasily in her dark robes, her nose twitching. She grabbed hold of it and still managed a low dignified bow.
    “You honor me, my Queen.”
    I smiled in a, hopefully, reassuring manner and motioned for her to join us on the bed.
    “While I am very happy to see you girls, this was very reckless of you. It’s not safe to be around me, and you could all get into a lot of trouble.”
    Lin took my hand and a serious look came over her freckled face. “We’re not here on a whim, Maya; and we’re about to get into a lot more trouble than just this. We’ve come to break you out of this prison.”
    “What?”
    “At least temporarily,” she amended. “Belrothe is waiting outside and she says that it is urgent that she speak to you alone. She wouldn’t tell us any more than that, but you must come.”
    “And how exactly do you plan on getting me out past all the guards?”
    Lin grinned crookedly, the lights from the glow orbs in the room shining off her eyes. “Why, the same way we got in, of course! We’re giving you a lesson in walking on the wild side. We found a spell in the old archives that works great. Ryliss insisted that we try it out on her first before we came to you, and as you can see, it works fine.”
    “But her nose is still twitching uncontrollably!” I protested, examining the embarrassed scholar.
    “A minor side effect. We’re pretty sure it will go away eventually. Come on, we have to go.”
    “But...”
    “No buts! Look, Bel said if you resisted, we should sweeten the pot by telling you that you will regret it the rest of your life if you don’t come with us!”
    “Ok, ok, I’ll come,” I said, caught up in their enthusiasm. “Bel now, is it?”
    “Yeah, she’s actually pretty nice once you get to know her. I have to keep reminding myself that she’s older than dirt though,” Lin smirked.
    Julia moved over in front of me. She took both my hands and looked up into my face with her big blue eyes, whispering, “Maya, now close your eyes. When you open them again, the world will look a lot different, so stay calm and please don’t freak out. Trust in me, trust me.”
    “I trust you, sister.” I breathed slowly, willing myself to relax. Losing myself in those blue eyes, suddenly my vision swam oddly.
    Yikes! What happened to my eyesight? It was so blurry in here I couldn’t see a thing. Maybe some shadows. Hawk! Instinctively, I dived sideways and my whiskers came into contact with other whiskers. I was not alone. My nose told me it was another like me and there were more of us here. Wait! Bacon! I smell bacon! I plowed forward toward the smell and bumped into someone.
    “Maya, slow down, girl; you are disoriented,” Winya said in a calm voice. “The girls are around you on all sides as an escort. Follow them and they will take you outside.”
    “Outside would be good. Ouch! Someone just stepped on my tail…now where’s that bacon?”
    Scaling the wall was just like the gecko climb my armor lets me do, so that wasn’t too bad. I had to really squeeze my whiskers through the grate to get my head to fit, and I didn’t like that at all. Once inside the pipe, there were so many interesting smells to think about that I just sat there overwhelmed for a time. Finally, I again felt whiskers intertwining with mine and another like me faced me.
    “Maya…food…this way.” And I smelled (?) a mental image of a succulent barrel of fish heads and potato peels just waiting for me outside. Oh, so yummy! My mouth was watering–I would definitely follow this female anywhere.
    Coaxed on by my companions, I started to run. Well, they ran; I hopped a lot, tripping over my feet and getting tangled up in the process. For what seemed like miles, we scampered through drains and open sewers; me just following