Excerpt:

Kay'li wrinkled her nose against the smell of mucos crammed into a mesh wire cage. She wondered if the sicklysweet stink was what her father called the smell of fear. If she was crowded in a cage in a dirty corner of a laboratory, she knew she would be afraid. And angry.

She sat in the shadowy storage room at the back of the laboratory building, full of dismantled equipment, refuse and captive mucos. The door into the laboratory sat ajar, letting a hand's width of bluish light into the storage room. Kay'li hid under a tarpaulindraped table. She heard people moving around, but couldn't decide how close they were to the door.

A muco screamed in the next room. The mucos in the cage shrieked and tumbled in a frenzy, biting and struggling, tearing at each other.

Kay'li scrambled to the gap in the door. She wished she had the knife Droban gave her for her birthday. Her fists clenched as she watched.

A muco lay on an equipment cart, held flat by three thick straps. It screamed twice more, weaker with each cry. Two men in lab coats stood at either end of the cart, in profile. One held an injection gun over the muco's head. They looked bored.

Captain Jaklyn had explained the process. A needle injected a receptor crystal into the brain. The crystal expanded, growing organic crystal tendrils through the brain without destroying tissue or interfering with its functions, when implanted properly. According to the Estal'es'cai's scientist, the men controlling the mucos weren't doing it properly. The animals would eventually die of brain damage.

Kay'li closed her eyes and consciously slowed her breathing. She had to think clearly and logically. It hurt, but she knew she could not save that particular muco.

She couldn’t stop the scientists and she would be caught.

But she could help the other mu-cos.

Author BIO: I grew up reading and loving "impossible" things in my stories; my earliest memories are of "The Cat in the Hat," and fairy tales. I remember discovering Mowgli when I was in third or fourth grade (wolves are VERY big in many of my stories even now) and the Blue Fairy Book not long after, and devouring mythology around the same time. I tried to stage a play in 4th grade based on the story of Atalanta, and fell in love with Odysseus when I read The Odyssey in 7th grade. (My novel, The Dark One, came out from LTDBooks in November 2001 and is Penelope's side of the story.)

Most of my books begin with "what if" or "why couldn't" or "this would be neat if ..." I remember rewriting Star Trek episodes in my head, and then going on from there. In tenth grade, my daydreaming got so bad I wrote it down to get it out of my head so I could study for final exams. And that was the beginning.

True Caderi is my fourth sale, my first here at Awe-Struck, and belongs in the Commonwealth "universe." I have quite a few books planned in the Commonwealth, and I hope you enjoy this one and come back for more!

Awe-Struck says: The titles Awe-Struck has written for Awe-Struck thus far are True Caderi, Azuli Eyes, Scout's Pride, By Fire and Stars, Chorillan, and Silver Azuli.

Michelle welcomes visitors to her website at http://www.MLevigne.com/.