Read Chronicles of the Invaders 1: Conquest for Free Online

have never before encountered a civilization so advanced. Biologically, culturally, socially, we have more in common with the humans than we have with any other conquered race. But Gradus and his kind are so convinced of their own superiority that every race but our own appears inconsequential to them. He has not even troubled himself to visit Earth. He sits in the palace of a dead king, spinning his plots as a spider spins its web, listening to the whisperings of witches.”
    Syl shivered at the memory of her father’s words. There it was, the mystery at the heart of the Illyri Empire, the secret power behind its great expansion.
    The witches.
    The Nairene Sisterhood.

CHAPTER SIX
    S yl had never encountered any members of the Nairene Sisterhood, but she had heard stories of their power. For centuries they had been an order of recluses, existing only to record and curate the history of the Illyri Empire. As the Empire began to expand, first exploring its own galaxy, and then moving farther into the universe, so too did the Sisterhood’s thirst for new knowledge grow. They were a storehouse of all that was known about the universe, passed on from generation to generation. It was considered a great honor for a family to have a daughter inducted into the Sisterhood, although Syl couldn’t see the appeal in being locked away for the rest of her life, forbidden to travel or explore, or even to leave the Marque, the labyrinthine city that was the Sisterhood’s lair. The Marque was situated on a moon of Illyr named Avila Minor, and no one landed on or left the moon without the permission of the Sisterhood.
    But then suddenly the nature of the Sisterhood had changed. Led by Ezil, the oldest of their order, they had emerged from the Marque, and some had even taken husbands. If it was considered an honor for a daughter to join the order, so too did ambitious men realize the advantage that might be gained from having the knowledge of the Sisterhood close at hand. Ezil decided which of the sisters should be permitted to marry, and to whom they should become betrothed, but she herself did not marry, and neither did the four other most senior sisters. Instead, they had made themselves indispensable as advisers, attaching themselves to the Diplomatic Corps. Soon, no decisions were made without consulting them.
    All this had occurred many years before Syl was born, and Ezil and the senior sisters, known as the First Five, had not been seen outside the Marque in decades. But the emergence of the Sisterhood had marked the beginning of what was now known as the Second Empire. It was the Sisterhood that had given the Empire the means to expand, for they had discovered the location of the wormholes. The universe teemed with them; they were gateways between galaxies, allowing the Illyri to travel vast distances with previously unimagined speed.
    Syl’s father had explained the nature of the wormholes to Syl when she was a small child. Holding a sheet of paper, he told her to imagine that it represented millions and millions of miles of space. At the far right side of the page he made a mark with his pen, and placed a similar mark on the far left.
    “Now,” he said, “imagine that this first dot is Illyr, and this second dot is Earth. How long would it take to travel from one to the other?”
    “Years,” the young Syl had replied. “A lifetime.”
    “Many, many lifetimes,” said her father. “But using the wormholes, we can cover the distance in an instant.”
    He gently folded the paper, aligning the marks, then pierced them with his pen.
    “That is what the wormholes do. They link distant points in the universe.”
    “But how do we know where they lead?” asked Syl.
    “We send drones to explore the systems in advance. Sometimes the Sisterhood tells us.”
    “And how does the Sisterhood know?” asked Syl, and her father had not answered her, because, as Syl had come to realize, he did not have an answer. If the Illyri loved