Read Online Under Cover of Darkness by Julie E. Czerneda - Free Book Online

brush his hair aside, “and neither am I.”
    â€œWhat . . .” he began, but Kyri quickly put a finger on his lips to silence him.
    â€œIllusion, Commander, and an example of our power combined.” She put her hands behind his shoulder and guided him into a sitting position. “I am the only member of the Coven physically present on this station.” His gaze snapped to Kobe’s prone form, and he tried to struggle to his feet.
    â€œNo, wait,” Kyri said as she held his shoulder. “She’s only sleeping.” Velk turned back to her, confusion once more taking root in his eyes. She chuckled.
    â€œI’d like you to meet someone.” She held out her left hand before the loop in her blouse and Eperr scurried into her palm.
    â€œA hamster?” the Legionnaire asked, nonplussed.
    â€œHiya!” Eperr greeted them both with a little wave.
    â€œA . . . talking hamster?”
    â€œHey!” protested Eperr as Kyri chuckled.
    â€œA NLYX,” Kyri offered, “Neurologic Linkage Experiment. An engineered symbiote and the secret of the Coven’s power. We are never a single person, but always two. And more. The linkage, along with the ability to cast illusion and plumb memories, means the Coven can act as one. More than enough for the Senate to sentence us to death.”
    â€œIt’s not a hamster?”
    Kyri smiled and shook her head. “No. But that is neither here nor there. You wanted an alliance and you shall have it.”
    He stared in disbelief. “You had to torture us to do that?”
    â€œNot torture . . . test,” Kyri said flatly. “A trip through a mental gauntlet to gauge your true self. Although we may seem young to you, we are not so silly as to trust even an enemy of an enemy by their word alone. We wanted to take your measure, and now we have it. Your actions speak louder than all the rhetoric of the Senate.”
    She reached out and took the commander’s right arm, clasping his wrist.
    â€œYou have made your pact with the shadows and gained friends and spies across the human sphere, as well as instantaneous ship-to-ship communication once you add a Coven member to each ship’s company. The Senate has called us outlaws and pirates, but mankind has never seen corsairs such as we shall be. Together we’ll turn their treachery back on them and take back the inner worlds.”
    â€œPirates?” exclaimed Eperr as he scampered up onto their rapidly warming clasp. “I can do pirates! I saw a vid once.” He stood up on his haunches and brandished a tiny fist. “Arr!”
    Author, heavy truck engineer, and model airplane designer Darwin A. Garrison lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with his wife, three children, and various pets. Notable among the nonhuman inhabitants is a hamster, Butter Cup, who steadfastly refuses to utter a single word. She does, however, twitch her nose in a most knowing manner.
    Darwin began writing during high school after he started receiving books from the Science Fiction Book Club. He published one story in a college journal before giving up writing in favor of completing his engineering education.
    After many years in industry, Darwin again took up the word processor in 2002 out of desperation to do something that made sense. Although originally started as a creative outlet, the response from local friends encouraged him to show his stories to a wider venue via the web. The responses from a variety of readers there encouraged him to focus on learning the tools of the SF/F trade in earnest.
    Any success he experiences is entirely due to the patient efforts and support of his friends and mentors in the writing community. As for those worthies, you know who you are, so consider yourselves hugged.

FALLING LIKE THE GENTLE RAIN
    Nick Pollotta
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    UST AS THE OLD church clock started to chime midnight, the moon was suddenly blanketed by thick clouds and there came the sound of