The Light-year Lion (The Last Queen of Qorlec, #4) / The Last Queen of Qorlec (ePub)

The Princess of Qorlec is back again and finally ready to take the battle to the Zon Regime in earnest, with the help of the Black Hand rebels, a snarky robot, and her inseperable sickick, Varzo. But when it's revealed that the princess is pregnant with the enemy's child, she is abandoned by her people, and the love of her life marries another. Can Quinn beat the odds, even when her heart is breaking?

-
Thalcu smiled. "When I met her, I'd convinced myself it was a cold and uncaring universe, that people were awful because we'd made it that way. Then there was Quinn, who always went out of her way to help people, who always tried to do what was right at any cost, and who never asked for anything in return. She was the gentlest, kindest person I've ever known. She was so selfless in spite of the world and what it had done to her. To kill her was a crime against all that is good, not just because I love her, but because I do believe she might have been the last pure soul in the universe."

--
"It's notta joke," Varzo said. "Quinn really killed some people with a pen. Six, I think. Or was it seven?"

"It was seven," Quinn confirmed, grinning at the tavalin's horrified shock.

Varzo glanced sideways at Quinn's gory pen. "Why're you hanging on to that gross thing anyway?"

"Yes, you probably just dropped six diseases on my counter," Aridis scolded.

"I dunno," Quinn said, lifting the pen to examine it. "It's sort of handy, isn't it? Kinda like a dagger but smaller. Easier to carry around. No one ever sees it coming either." She laughed softly. "Maybe I should train the Black Hand to fight with ballpoint pens."

--
"I've got tree sap in case it falls apart," Aridis said, thoughtful eyes fixed on the crib. "It has the texture and smell of diarrhea but will hold the pieces together well enough."

Quinn laughed flatly.

Aridis blinked. "What?"

"With anyone else I'd assume they were joking, but you were completely serious, weren't you?"

--
"What, you can't worship Xaxa at home?"

Aridis dropped her eyes. "No. Some believe that to know the true blessing of the goddess star, one must walk in her light. We worship her because we came from her - or rather, that's what the doctrine states."

". . . What do you believe?" Quinn wondered.

Aridis Verto's pale blue eyes darkened. "I believe the universe is just as it appears: a cold dark place." She looked at Quinn. "And you have my sympathies that you must be its only light."