Alien Arcana (Starship's Mage Book 4) Read Online Free Page A

through the rune-encrusted obsidian hallways, his pair of Secret Service agents trailing behind. He’d given the Array short enough notice that they clearly hadn’t informed all of their staff, and he felt guilty as the various functionaries and administrative staff either pressed themselves against walls or cleared out of the way.
    “Lieutenant Romanov,” he said softly, gesturing for the Combat Mage currently acting as his chief bodyguard to drop back and join him. “Remind me next time to warn them I apparently bring multitudes.”
    That got a glimpse of a smile out of the perpetually serious soldier.
    “I’m in contact with Array security,” Romanov murmured back. “We should be clear to the transmission chamber now.”
    The number of staff the Marines had to gently move aside dropped off as they progressed, until the final layer of the immense onion-like structure of obsidian walls and silver runes was completely clear except for a single redheaded Mage in a uniform-like robe.
    “I am Transceiver Elva Santiago,” she told him. “We have cleared the secondary receiving chamber as requested, though we do have a recorder running in case any side transmissions come in. Per Guild rules, of course, we will remove your transmission from the recording, and you may verify this yourself afterwards.”
    Damien smiled at the older woman.
    “Miss Santiago, I have studied the history of the Protectorate with a careful eye, and never have the Transceiver Mages broken their oaths of confidentiality,” he reminded her. “I appreciate your efforts, however. A review of the recording will not be necessary this time.”
    She inclined her head.
    “The chamber is prepared for you,” she told him.
     
    #
     
    “So, both Segal and I agree that a Rune Wright would be ideal,” Damien concluded after summarizing the incident at Andala. “Which means me, my liege. While I hesitate to call the murder unimportant, I’m not sure a Hand is needed for that investigation—but if a Rune Wright is needed anyway, I see no reason not to handle that as well.”
    “You are supposed to be on leave,” Desmond Michael Alexander the Third, Mage-King of Mars and Protector of Humanity, answered calmly. “That whole mess in Sherwood and Míngliàng was rather enough trouble. Are you sure you’re up to this?”
    Damien sighed. A lot of people had died when a mining rights conflict between those two systems had nearly been fanned into open war. While he was reasonably comfortable now that there hadn’t been much else he could do, the dead had joined many others in his nightmares.
    “It’s one murder in a base with barely a thousand people,” he pointed out. “It can only go so wrong—and we do need a Rune Wright. It’s almost a continuation of my vacation.”
    He couldn’t see Alexander. Despite almost two centuries now of research, the only thing an RTA could transmit or receive was the voice of a speaking Mage. Any kind of data transmission had proven impossible—including, in one more experimental thought, via replacement of a volunteer’s voice box with an implant.
    He could still hear his King’s sigh.
    “Only the men and women I pick as Hands would call a murder investigation a vacation,” he pointed out. “Which perhaps says more about what I normally ask of you than anything else. Your support is also on vacation. I assume you have a plan?”
    “I will be borrowing several investigators from the MIS and a squad of Marines from Mage-Captain Jakab,” Damien confirmed. “Mage-Admiral Segal is placing an armed courier at my disposal. It has the space for twenty passengers, exosuits for the Marines, and a combat shuttle. I checked.”
    Alexander laughed.
    “All you needed to tell me was that you had a plan, Damien,” he pointed out. “You didn’t get that golden chain because I don’t trust your skills, and you’ve proven those skills again and again. Go to Andala, my young friend. See what our eyes can see of what the