"Kathy Tyers - Firebird 1 - Firebird" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tyers Kathy)

mechanic in the SystemsтАж

She smiled fondly at Corey. Still staring through the chink, his face was lit dimly by the fugitive light.
Black-haired and freckled, he was small for sixteen, but he still stood taller than Firebird. His silver-gray
tabard gleamed faintly at the edge of the light: the uniform of Sander Hill Academy, the most exclusive in
Sae Angelo City.

Together as always, they had extended their lunch break to try for a glimpse of this session.

тАЬMy turn,тАЭ she whispered.

She looked enviously on the Federates. Soon, she promised herself, she and Corey would be flying the
stars too, one way or another. With a shiver of glee, she envisioned herself in a shining deepspace slip
ship, first activating the slip-shields that would turn its component molecules and everything aboard
sideways to real space, and then the drive that would push it through the light barrier into slip-stateтАж

The Federate guard in midnight blue turned abruptly to look straight at her, and she froze in horror. She
had made no sound, she was certain of it! Yet he knew she crouched there, spying. She watched in
fascinated terror as he stepped back from the formation to touch the arm of a red-jacketed Electoral
Policeman. As he whispered in the RedjacketтАЩs ear, she caught a sparkle of gold at the edge of his right
shoulder.

She flung herself away from the wall. тАЬCorey, they saw us! You get out the underway, and IтАЩll go back
through the palace!тАЭ

Corey dashed for a cellar hatch as Firebird squeezed hastily back through the narrows, determined to
evade the Redjackets. SheтАЩd done it before. Leaving widely spaced tracks in centuries of dust, she ran to
the passageтАЩs end and scaled a wall of irregular stones. Panting as she pulled herself up onto a wooden
crawlway, she groped for the loose board and incautiously flung it aside to peer down into the
public-zone maintenance closet.

It was too bright down there. The hall door stood open, and Firebird found herself looking down into the
hostile eyes of a massive black-haired man in red: the Captain of the Electoral Police, Kelling Friel.

It was too late to hide. He had seen her.

тАЬCome down here, Lady Firebird.тАЭ

She lowered herself through the impromptu trapdoor and then stood a moment, collecting her breath and
straightening the tabard on her shoulders. She tried to put dignity in her expression: the Electoral Police
held special authority over the Wastling class, and she had learned years ago that they responded only to
regality.

тАЬCaptain.тАЭ She nodded a solemn greeting.

тАЬMy Lady.тАЭ He swept an elegant but muscular hand into the passway, and reluctantly she stepped out
beside him. She felt no guilt for spying, only regret at having been caught.

The palace had become so still that she heard the soft jingling of his decorative swordтАЩs harness as he
marched her through the ChamberтАЩs huge, gold-covered wooden doors. A second Redjacket fell into