Read Geared Up for Free Online

desperate face, she looked at Niad. “How is my daughter?”
    Niad smiled. “Happy. Loved.”
    “What is your name, granddaughter?” Niada gripped both of her hands in her own.
    “Guardian Wyfirth.”
    “I can find out. It will not take me any time at all.” Niada scowled.
    “Then do so. I am on duty.”
    Niada screwed up her lined face. “She wouldn’t even give you her name?”
    Niad had to answer that accusation. “She couldn’t. The magistrate wouldn’t seal the contract between my parents. I am counted as an arranged breeding, but Mom stayed with us.”
    Niada paled. “When was this?”
    There wasn’t any harm in the details. “The nineteenth of Mrohar, twenty-seven twenty-two. Tem County Court.”
    “I need to... Please excuse me. Can you see yourself out?”
    Niad inclined her head. “Of course, Madam Skarrow.”
    She left her grandmother in the office and returned to the back deck.
    Membon smiled when she returned. “I am surprised that my grandmother allowed you inside. She has an aversion to mechanical talents.”
    Well, that explained why they were meeting on the deck. She wasn’t good enough to go inside.
    Tauron looked embarrassed, but the Skarrows stood with their heads high.
    “If we are done for the day, I won’t take up any more of your time.”
    She reached to collect her Citadel suit.
    Mrvon frowned. “We would like to examine the suit in detail.”
    Niad smiled tightly. “It currently is all that stands between me and catastrophic injury, so when you have something to replace it with, I will be happy to let you play with it for a few days.”
    He blinked and frowned. “But I wish to examine its composition.”
    “You can. When I have something to replace it with, you can do as you like but not until then.”
    Tauron was looking at the family he had worked with, and he appeared to be in shock.
    She took the suit, folded it up and stuffed it back into the bag. “Tauron, I believe we have concluded our visit here. The Skarrows have all that they need. What they do with it is their business.”
    The textile specialists looked insulted, but a voice from inside came to them, and it was no-nonsense. “Mrvon, give her whatever she needs. Make her safe.”
    Madame Skarrow was standing in the doorway, her eyes red, but her spine straight. “Thank you for allowing us to serve, Guardians.”
    Tauron nodded and Niad paused, but she followed him after a moment’s hesitation. She had done far more today than she had planned.
     

Chapter Six
     
     
    “What did Madame Skarrow want to speak with you about?” Tauron’s voice was a low rumble in her ear.
    She debated what to tell him. “I reminded her of someone she once knew. She just wanted to show me the design floor.”
    “If you say so.”
    She smiled.
    “You two have very similar names, and you have features that echo hers. Is there something I should know?”
    “Since I don’t even know your name, I think not.” She kept her lips tight.
    “Remik. Remik Tauron.”
    “Niad Wyfirth, daughter of Mlina Skarrow.”
    “Skarrow, like the Skarrows that we just visited?”
    “The same. My mother was disowned and blocked from contracting with my father. They had to make do with what didn’t require a magistrate.”
    “So, that is why your grandfather and cousin didn’t recognize you.”
    “How often do you recognize someone you have never met?”
    “Fair point.”
    They were nearly to the base when they got a distress call.
    A tremor in the neighbouring province had caused a state of emergency. All Guardians on the continent were being called in.
    Tauron changed their direction and asked her a truly important question. “Can you get into your suit while we fly?”
    She reached for her suit. “I am willing to find out. Keep your eyes open and on the sky. I don’t want to ditch in a farmer’s field.”
    He laughed. “I’ll be good.”
    “Do you have a suit with you?” She loosely tied her Citadel suit around her neck and