Leenz has proven it can be done. Saib still thought he was the boss fella, the old fascist. We must trust her.
She nearly wiped us out once and now she tries to complete the task.
Lindsay had never thought it would be easy to change their minds as easily as she could change their bodies.
Do it. Please, just do it.
The two bezeri floated motionless in the shallows for a few minutes. Then the dome of Saib’s mantle broke the surface of the water just as the first bezeri had beached themselves to get a better look at the Dry Above. They were stepping into space, just as Shan did, but for the opposite reason. They were taking the biggest risk of all to survive.
Come on. It’s scary, I know. Lindsay beckoned yellow. Come on. Trust me.
Saib lashed three tentacles forward like an angler casting a line and dug the tips into the beach. He hauled himself clear of the water and began crying in green-lit pain and panic.
Bezeri could survive out of water for a brief period. But Saib and Keet had all the time in the world now.
All they had to do was accept change. C’naatat could do the rest. It went with the new territory.
“Leeenzzz…” Saib said, breathing air for the first time.
Clever boy, said Lindsay, fluent in light. Clever boy.
Acknowledgments
My grateful thanks go to Charlie Allery, Bryan Boult, Debbie Button, Suzanne Byrne, Karen Miller, Dawn Woodring, Dr. Ian Tregillis, and Chris “TK” Evans, for critical reading; to my editor, Diana Gill, and my agent, Russ Galen, for keeping me in line; and to Greg Bridges, for dazzling visual inspiration.
About the Author
KAREN TRAVISS is a former defense correspondent and TV and newspaper journalist. She’s worked in public relations for the police and local government and has served in the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service and the Territorial Army. The USA Today bestselling author of City of Pearl, Crossing the Line, and The World Before; Star Wars Republic Commando: Hard Contact and Triple Zero; and Star Wars Legacy of the Future: Bloodlust, she lives in Wilshire, England.
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Resounding praise for the novels of
KAREN TRAVISS
“Satisfyingly complex….[Traviss] at times evokes the earlier moral fables of Le Guin…at other times the revisionist critique of expanding human empires…and at times the union of romance with SF that we see in the work of Catherine Asaro or Lois McMaster Bujold…. The fact that Traviss manages to keep these sometimes conflicting modes in balance, mostly through her strong sense of character, suggests that she’s a writer worth watching.”
Locus
“A fascinating cast of characters involved in a richly complex situation…. Her people are convincingly real…. Traviss has created a vivid assortment of alien races, each with distinctive characteristics and agendas…. She brings a rare combination of insight and experience that will greatly contribute to our field.”
James Alan Gardner, author of Expendable
“Stellar.”
Jack McDevitt, author of Deepsix
“Traviss takes what could have been a rote collection of characters (marines, cops, religious extremists) and slowly adds depth, complexity, and color.”
BookPage
“In Shan Frankland, Karen Traviss has created a tough, interesting, believable character.”
Gregory Frost, author of Fitcher’s Brides
Books of The Wess’har Wars by
Karen Traviss
MATRIARCH
THE WORLD BEFORE
CROSSING THE LINE
CITY OF PEARL
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the 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.
MATRIARCH. Copyright © 2006 by Karen Traviss. 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.
Microsoft Reader October 2006 ISBN 0-06-124675-1
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Karen Traviss, Matriarch
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