Song of Scarabaeus (35 page)

Authors: Sara Creasy

“No sign of the
Laoch
,” Cat reported via the shipwide comm. “Listen to this: Caterina Carmel. My new nameâlike it? Sounds like a movie star.”

The
Hoi
jumped into nodespace and the stars evaporated.
Finn's hands tightened on the railing as the view shifted abruptly to become a churning avalanche of glowing colorless ribbons.

After a while, Edie said, “Is the universe still bewildering you?”

In the viewport reflection, she saw Finn smile. “Some things are starting to make sense.”

What made sense to Edie was the chance, at last, to choose her future. To throw off the Crib's chains, to undermine its stranglehold using the very thing it had helped her create: the song of Scarabaeus.

What made sense was the knowledge that it wasn't only the leash that compelled Finn to stay with her. He'd chosen her instead of freedom, staking his life on her getting through the next few days.

He rubbed at the back of his neck in that unconscious gesture that was so familiar and unsettling, signifying their bond. It was, perhaps, a ridiculous time to be admiring the flex of his muscles sliding under olive-brown skin, but that's what she did. If she was about to die, there wasn't much else she'd rather be looking at.

She shivered and curled up on her side. Closed her eyes to the universe.

“Finn?”

“Edie.”

“Don't let me out of your sight.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to my agent, Kristin Nelson, for working with me on improving the manuscript; to Diana Gill and everyone else at Eos Books involved in the book's production; to Olga Lorenzo at RMIT, Melbourne, for her enthusiastic encouragement; to David Bardos, Liz Burrage, Jenny Creasy, Laurie McLean, and Keith Stevenson, for commenting on early drafts; to my wonderful critique group partners Alison Hentges, Suzanne Moore, and Cindy Somerville, for their invaluable input; and to MCP, with love, for making it all worthwhile.

Credits

Cover art by Christian McGrath

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

SONG OF SCARABAEUS
. Copyright Â© 2010 by Sara Creasy. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition Â© March 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-199136-3

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