Read Online The Song of the Jubilee (The Phantom of the Earth Book 1) by Raeden Zen - Free Book Online Page A

body. Swiftly and violently, the Janzer swung it across Solstice’s shoulders. Her blood pulsed from the severed artery. Her head thudded to the ground near Connor’s feet. He looked down at her face, then at her flailing body as it collapsed. This wasn’t part of the artwork, and Connor was only a baby when Solstice had saved him. But Hans had seen this imagery before, in Connor’s nightmares and sometimes even in his own.
    Tears streamed down Connor’s cheeks. He screamed. Hans felt his brother’s terror as if it were his own. His eyes burned, and his heart thundered in his chest. Connor threw the sphere at the green bioluminescent wall where a fine stream cascaded, cooling the normally hot stone. Slick with water, the sphere bounced off and rolled between his legs, beneath the bed, along the carpet. Connor breathed hard. I hate this place, and I hate the Janzers, he thought, and I hate the peak season, and I hate Lady Isabelle, and I hate the chancellor’s precepts—
    Hans cut his connection to his brother. He wiped the corners of his eyes with his thumb and forefinger and twisted three of the wine bottles, pushed his foot down on a stone, and sent a coded message into the ZPF. The combination activated the entrance, and it slid open, sounding like a rock grinder. Hans entered, slowly. His little brother had the pride of a Selendia. Hans would not puncture it now, with so much at stake. He noticed the artistic sphere on the ground. He picked it up.
    “Looks like you dropped something.” Hans held out the sphere.
    Connor nodded mournfully, took it, and slipped it into the side pocket on his fisherman’s bodysuit, worn at his joints from heavy use. “Where’s Murray?” he asked. Their developer always traveled with them to the Block on mornings during the peak season.
    “Murray isn’t coming with us today,” Hans said.
    “Is Zorian coming?” Connor’s face looked sweaty, and his bodysuit’s collar looked wet.
    Hans felt perspiration forming on his own chest and back, for although Arturo built a coolant waterfall into Connor’s secret room, it didn’t benefit from the work of the commonwealth’s professional terraforming engineers. “No, Zorian’s not coming.” Hans dropped to one knee.
    Connor frowned. “Where are they?”
    Hans reached his hand out. Connor grabbed it and held it. “Little brother, I promised you I would protect you from the commonwealth’s agents—”
    “Have I done something wrong?” Connor dropped his brother’s hand, and said quickly, before Hans could answer, “I swear, I’ve traveled only in Piscator!”
    Hans smiled. As a child and early in his adolescence, Connor was never permitted to leave their foster father’s unit, lest he be noticed by Janzers, Piscatorians out for the bounty on the unregistered, or Marstone. Like so many of the unregistered raised beyond Hydra Hollow or Blackeye Cavern, Connor was forced to wait until he could at least pass for an adult transhuman prior to moving about Beimeni. That day had arrived about a year ago, and Murray inserted a mesh and a neurochip in Connor’s brain with the aid of a black-market medical bot, imparting the basic telepathic abilities necessary for travel and to operate as a fisherman on the Block. Since then, Connor had been living on the Piscatorian transports when he wasn’t working. Hans didn’t doubt his brother might’ve ventured out beyond Piscator. He understood Connor’s desire to explore, to be free, was only natural. In a sense, it was what they all fought for.
    “You’ve done nothing wrong,” Hans assured him. He stood. “All will be clear soon.” He handed Connor a canteen. “Drink this, all of it, don’t leave one drop inside.”
    “What is it?” Connor wanted to know. He waved the canteen’s lip near his nose, sniffing, then took a sip and gagged. “Gross. It tastes like a jellyfish dipped in submarine oil!”
    “Breathe in through your mouth, then down it. Trust me, it’s not so bad