“No,” I said, and then, “Do you?” As if I had any leverage over him. The words caught him by surprise, and he reared back,shockcaught in the glow of his features. Then he huffed a laugh and started shaking his head. He didn’t deign to answer my snapped question, just began hauling me down the hallway again.
I was pretty sure I heard him mutter under his breath, but his voice was deep and oddly layered. In his alien tongue, there was no making sense of his words. My translatorimplants didn’t have anything on him, just like they had nothing on the Krektar.
We were nearly at a split in the hallway when he jerked us to a stop. I could see only two dark paths leading away, blacker and darker in the distance. There was no sound, but something had caught my captor’s attention. He said something again, and for this, I did not need a translator to know he was cursing. If my captor was swearing, I was pretty sure that meant something really bad was about to happen. My mind began supplying me with all kinds of scenarios, but when I caught a foul scent, I knew. The Krektar were coming toward us, and red-and-black had smelled them before I had.
“This way, hurry,” he snapped at me, turning us to jog back the way we’d come. Then he pushed me to a hatch by the wall, which he wrenched open with a grunt. The light his body gave off was just enough to show me there was another ladder behind it. I didn’t want to climb into the black below and freeze my hands along the way, but I wanted to be caught by Krektar even less.
I clambered in awkwardly, nearly tripping headfirst because of the blankets wrapped around me. They crinkled noisily, and that made him hiss.“What! I’m going!” I snapped at him. “If you’re going to boss me around, the least you can do is tell me your name.”Seriously, my mouth was going to get me killed one day, maybe even today. What did his name matter when he was trying to avoid a bunch of Krektar? And the better question was, why did he care?
I slipped on the third rung of the ladder, my feet skidding off it in the soft, thin slippers. My palms opened up on the metal as I clung and then slipped down—not because the metal was rough, but because it was so cold. He cursed again when I landed with a thump on the floor and yelped in pain, a yelp I bit off quickly, but that didn’t seem to matter to Mister Grumpy Pants. He flung himself down the ladder after me with a hissed “Shut up!” that was all kinds of mean but probably very deserved.
Unlike me, he made that descent flawlessly, even when in a rush. The glide along the sides he performed was clearly a trained effort—the way soldiers were taught to do on ships. Boots along the sides, hands guiding himself down, and a silent landing. His tail whipped through the air behind him, then the sharp tip arrowed straight at me. “It’s Bi’Thor, human, and if you want to live, you’d better do as I say, quickly and quietly.”
I snapped my hand to my head in a mock salute. “Yes, sir.” He didn’t understand what the gesture meant, but he definitely knew I was mocking him. He growled at me, but he was gentle when he helped me to my feet, urging me down the dark hallway with the palm of his hand against the small of my back. “I’m Jolene,” I told him as we walked. I took care to whisper, but he still told me to shut up.
Fine, no small talk. I just hated mysteries, and this was starting to become one. Was this guy a good guy or a bad guy? Why would he hide me from his boss and the Krektar on the ship? Who was he? None of those questions were going to get answers if he didn’t let me ask them. When the scent of Krektar filled the hallway again, I thought it prudent to keep silent anyhow. There was no doubt in my mind that those guys were evil. I’d seen the sadistic pleasure they took in punishing anyone who disobeyed, or even those who took too long.
We were definitely headed toward the hold again; I recognized this hallway, I’d wandered through it at least three times by now. Thor was pulling me along by the arm and pushing me at the same time with his hand. When I tripped, he held me up, and we sailed through a doorway. The hold was almost in sight, and my body rebelled at the thought. He was still dead set on putting me in stasis. There was nothing in it for him, other than that it would keep me alive. Was he just protecting the cargo, or did he have a more altruistic motivation?
The scent of the Krektar was growing stronger, and light spilled from up ahead. My companion halted us abruptly, and the momentum made me stumble, nearly hitting the nearest wall headfirst. He swore again—a deep, low rumble—then looked over his shoulder. I had a feeling we were stuck between Krektar on either side. Funny how that had happened when I hadn’t run into a single soul for well over an hour before I met this guy. Then his gaze flicked to me, red, bright, and hardening rapidly. I did not like that look.
He altered his grip, his hand tightening around my arm, and when he began walking, it was a march—forcing me roughly along with him, all hints of empathy gone—not that there had been many to begin with. As if with his vanishing kindness the temperature had dropped, I started shaking from the cold, teeth chattering loudly, toes numb, and fingers aching.
Maybe the feeling of being abandoned by a possible ally, as flimsy as the possibility had seemed, had just made me lose some of the will to fight. I was a fighter, a bit of a rebel according to my conviction, but I knew when the odds were impossible. At that point, doing what I needed to survive was second nature, and sometimes that meant giving in, obeying, playing along. I knew that whatever this guy wanted, regardless of attitude, couldn’t be worse than what the Krektar would do.
It seemed inevitable we’d run into them now, and Thor had concluded the same. He pushed me into the cargo hold ahead of him, where three Krektar stood, light and smoke rising from crudely made torches they held aloft. Immediately, a flurry of rough, rapid words burst from the middle one, answered in clipped, firm tones by my captor. He was still pushing me deeper into the hold, skirting me around the Krektar. I had a feeling he still wanted to try to get me into a stasis pod, and by now, I was not nearly as opposed to that. The prospect of stinking, rough Krektar hands getting hold of me had that effect.
“Get into the pod, quick,” Thor hissed at me from the corner of his mouth. “I know you can work the controls,” he added, and he shoved me toward the open pod that had been pulled to the front of the room. So theyhadfound the one I’d tried to hide, or maybe they’d pulled out one that wasn’t in use—possibly from someone who’d died in the chaos outside during the dragon attack. A stampede like that? Someone had probably gotten crushed.
I fumbled with stiff fingers at the controls, trying to figure out if I could set it to open again in a short while. I had a feeling Thor would know if I tried, unlike the Krektar last time. He was distracted, though, talking to the Krektar, and it sounded like an argument. Harsh words that were growing progressively louder while he shoved me closer to the pod at intervals, rushing me. From the sounds of it, things weren’t turning out the way my captor wanted—or was it protector, at this point?
The pod hissed as it opened, and I swung my leg up to climb into it. My stomach turned with a jolt of nausea at the thought of going under—at the effects it would have on my body. A third stint in such a short period? That was definitely against recommended guidelines. I was unbalanced, half in, half out, when everything abruptly turned on its head. Torches flickered as they were tossed about; someone screamed in a shocked, high-pitched whine.
Then, a body bumped into me with force, and I tumbled over the side of the stasis pod. Head spinning from being knocked around, I struggled to my feet and took stock of the situation. The Krektar were fighting—brawling, really—with fists and crude spears. Thor was in the middle of it, and at first I thought that meant he was their target. Then, I saw the other. He was hard to spot, his scales camouflaging him in an eerie way against the dark metal hold. A native of the planet, a naga. How had he gotten in here? Hope surged, if he’d gotten in, I could get out. Was he part of a rescue party sent by Nala?
I ducked behind the next pod, then used the chaos to make a dash for the hold’s door. At the last moment, someone grabbed a fold of my blanket and yanked me back. I screamed, the fabric going tight around my throat and blocking my airway. Struggling for air, I clawed at the blanket, trying to free myself. The fabric tore, but not fast enough. It was already dark, with torchlights flickering and dancing along the walls, casting strange, long shadows. Now stars blinked across my graying vision as oxygen became scarcer and scarcer.
As suddenly as it had happened, it stopped. The pressure on my throat let up, and I managed to draw in one long, deep breath. Then I received a hard shove in my back, and I went tumbling forward, straight into Thor’s arms. He caught me, hauled me up, but he didn’t let me catch my bearings. His red eyes glowed, and every sharp, jagged line in his black skin radiated with light, far brighter than I’d seen so far. “Go with him, then. This is your only chance.” And he shoved me, sending me like a projectile across the hold. I did not appreciate this, not one bit.
Everything around me still spun, still crazily unclear, a true chaos. My lungs were still struggling for air, and dark and light clashed in a confusing manner. I hadn’t even seen him; my eyes had struggled to pick him out against the wall in the chaos of the fight. I thought I’d collide with hard metal or sharp Krektar bodies, but I was caught in gentle arms.
Everything juststopped.No more crazy seesawing, no dancing stars, or flickering lights. I was pressed against a warm body that smelled absolutely divine—spice, the outdoors, something male and musky and far too enticing to be noticing in the middle of a fight. Light shimmered at me from the corner of my eyes, not the red kind like Thor, but something warm and golden.
From behind me, a deep, layered voice shouted, “Go! Get out of here!” And then, it was as if the chaos resumed. I wasin motion, but I wasn’t moving. Those warm arms snatched me off my feet, my face smushed into fur and scales, and my stomach swooped with vertigo. We left the hold to the sound of shouts and pounding boots. I thought there’d be darkness once the torches were abandoned, but that golden glow still surrounded me—not that I could see much, with my face practically entirely pressed into a fur-clad chest.
I had to be in the arms of the native of this planet who had somehow invaded the hold. I really hoped that meant safety, the way it had for Nala, but I seriously doubted I was going to be that lucky. If he had a way out of this ship, I’d take it, that was much better than what I’d been up to so far. Surely I could convince him to help me find where Nala was, and then it was just one step further to convinceherfriends to rescue the rest of the people in that hold.
Chapter 5
Khawla
The sound of raised voices shouting in a foreign language was what drew me back to the strange room with the metal boxes. I’d already checked the place, and the red-and-black sky creature had doubled back on it twice as I followed him around the dark, frozen wreck. I had a better sense of what he looked and acted like, and concluded that he was a creature of stealth in his own way: silent footsteps, intense gaze, and a single-minded focus, like that of a hunter on the prowl.
The other sky creatures were the ones my hunters had spoken of—the smelly ones who shot Vakarsa by the dozen, careless in the way they killed. They had come to the room with the boxes and were confronting the red-and-black hunter. It was not quite clear to me whether they were friend or foe, though they faced off as if they were foes. I would have been more than happy to simply observe, draw my conclusions, and then leave. After all, I could now answer thequestion of the red lightning haunting the woods around the skyship. Then I saw her.
A human female wrapped in silver and haloed by gold stood by one of the boxes, having been pushed into it by the red-and-black one. Everything about the situation screamed danger to her. She was their prisoner, their captive, and from the looks of it, this was why the two sky-creatures were at odds. I had no doubt that the smelly ones, from their greedy, evil looks, wanted something from that female she was not going to be willing to give.
This was not my mission. I should not interfere, and if the Queen heard that I had interceded on behalf of a human, banishment would be swift and merciless. The smartest thing to do would be to back away and leave, to consider this mission over. Itwasover, but I could not make my coils move back, even though the hidden exit was close by. Forward was much easier, and once I’d made that choice, I became all instinct, all hunter.
