Read Online Shrouded: Heartstone Book One by Frances Pauli - Free Book Online

as they broke free of Eclipsis. The coordinator sprang to his feet so fast he nearly tripped over them. His nerves had gone a long way to relax her. No legitimate slaver had that sort of conscience. He twitched and flitted from harness to harness, getting everyone free and apologizing all over again.
    “That guy’s freaking me out.” Murrel found her voice again.
    “Me too, but he doesn’t strike me as a slave trader.”
    “Yeah.” Murrel’s voice quavered. “He doesn’t seem like any that I’ve met either.”
    They unhooked and stood along with the twelve prostitutes. Their coordinator opened the inner bay doors and waved them forward as a group—no restraints, no lines.
    “Maybe we really are going to Shroud,” Vashia mused. The idea sent an electric flash through her nerves. What was it like? She’d never even listened to the stories at her father’s table. Now, she wished she had. So far, the only impression she had of her new home was that nobody knew anything about it.
    “Of course we are.” Murrel asserted, sounding like she tried to convince herself more than Vashia. “They bring in bride candidates all the time, you know. They don’t have any women of their own at all.”
    “Really?” Vashia stopped for a second and stared at the girl. She hadn’t sensed any bravado in that statement. “Are you sure?”
    “Yeah. They only have male children, and their genes are completely dominant. It’s why they need us.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “My father —” there she went again—“was actually at Moon Base 14. He knew all about the Shrouded.”
    “I didn’t think anyone knew about them.” She watched Murrel flush and shake her head. She was younger than Vashia, and stood a good head shorter, but she pulled herself up to her full height and stuck out her chin.
    “My father did. That’s why I signed up. He told me all about them.”
    The bay had emptied. The coordinator cleared his throat to get their attention. They joined the rest of the candidates in the ship’s main hall, and followed the group along the row of oval doors while their host assigned them temporary quarters. Each room, it seemed, would house up to three women. Vashia followed along, but her mind whirled and digested what Murrel claimed. If she knew anything even partially factual about the Shrouded, Vashia didn’t want to let that opportunity slip away.
    They’d lingered, and thus were the last two assigned a room. Murrel wandered over the threshold and disappeared behind the open door. The coordinator waved her in, smiling for the first time since he’d taken charge of the group. Apparently, he felt they’d passed any need for anxiety. She didn’t share his faith, but when he shut the door behind her, she didn’t hear it lock. She waited for his steps to ring away and then tried the handle. Open. Weird .
    She scanned the hallway to either side, met a few faces peeking from other doors, other girls who shared her suspicious nature. They didn’t return her smile, but she suspected they shared her relief. Whatever their backgrounds, they’d all ended up in the same mess.
    Their compartment held three bunks. Two stacked against one wall, and a third mounted on the opposite over the top of a small set of drawers. A slim person could just wriggle through the space between. Not exactly expansive quarters, but a room of their own at least. Murrel lounged on the lower bunk. She lay on her side and watched Vashia with huge, green eyes and a composed expression. The bunk over the desk would offer the best angle for conversation.
    Vashia squeezed into the gap and hauled herself up. She lay on her stomach and rested her chin on her palms. She’d never had a roommate, had never shared her space with another soul. Something told her Murrel hadn’t either.
    “So,” Vashia began, “what else do you know about Shroud?”
    They had a long journey ahead. She intended to pick every fact, myth or rumor, from the other girl’s