Earthly Crown Read Online Free

“No. I could run faster than the people chasing me, that time. The time I came closest to death, there was neither room nor opportunity to run. Did the Company deliberately choose this play as their final performance?”
    “What do you mean?” Gwyn and Anahita retreated into the wings, and the audience broke off their applause and burst into a stream of talk and movement. A few young men had rushed down to the stage, to try to bully or plead their way into the back, to court Anahita and Quinn and Oriana—and herself, of course—and a few to court Hyacinth. In his box, Charles Soerensen was entertaining visitors, as if he had the knack of turning any space into a sort of political Green Room. Conversation flowed over and around Diana and Marco, broken into snippets and phrases and abrupt scenes.
    “—there just aren’t many actors who can make the change from the vids to the theater successfully, though I’ll admit you’re right about Gwyn Jones. He was superb. But take their Zenocrate. Just a little overdone all around. I suppose they took her on for the publicity—”
    “—did you see Charles Soerensen? No, there, you fool. You didn’t know he’d be at the performance tonight? It was all over the net—”
    “—and Rico was in a rare fury, too, when he discovered the two of them kissing backstage. Imagine, he’d been boasting for the last year that he’d bed her, but nothing came of it. And then it turns out that his sister has been sleeping with her all along.”
    Diana laughed, and then clapped a hand over her mouth, stifling it. Marco raised one eyebrow and shifted his shoulder so that the two young men—dressed in the gaudy gold-threaded robes that were the most recent fashion at the universities—could not see her past his body.
    “It’s all right,” she murmured. “They won’t recognize me without my stage makeup.”
    “—and what do you suppose Soerensen is up to now, eh? He got the Chapalii merchant house, and what a coup that was, too. Just like laughing in the faces of those damned chameleons. And now he’s going off to that primitive world—what is it? Rhui, yes, that’s it. Something’s going on, I tell you. A man like Soerensen has deep plans. I’d wager my own children that we’ll see some kind of action soon against the Empire.”
    “Is it true?” asked Diana, watching Marco as he tracked this last speaker with his gaze out the balcony exit.
    “Is what true?”
    “That Soerensen’s sister is alive, and on Rhui.”
    His attention snapped back to her. “Where did you hear that?”
    “Oh, we all know it. In the Company. Even after the Protocol Office made the official announcement of her death, Soerensen never confirmed it or denied it. And he never adopted a new heir. Isn’t that his right, by Chapalii law? And anyway, why else would Soerensen let us travel to Rhui? He took so much trouble to restrict the planet from all outside contact to begin with. And why would he come along with us? Really, you must give us some credit for intelligence.”
    “Infinite credit, fair one. It sits beside your infinite beauty.”
    “Can beauty be infinite?”
    “Only in Keats. What else have you heard?”
    “About the sister? Nothing. About Rhui—well, we’re going to a city called Jeds, first. Soerensen styles himself Prince there, so we’ll be under his protection. Not that any of the natives will know where we’re really from. After some time there, then there’s a chance we’ll be going out into the bush, into the really primitive areas. Owen says that we might be traveling with nomads. Doesn’t that sound romantic?”
    Marco looked amused. “You aren’t scared, going off like this to be thrown in among savages? With no modern weaponry to protect yourself?”
    “Certainly not. This is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done. I’ve never had a moment’s danger in my life. I auditioned for the Company because I loved the risks Owen and Ginny were taking with theater,