“Is he going to make it?”she whispered, her mouth so close to my ear her breath tickled the hairs inside.I turned my head, my horns scraping the dirt as I took in the injured male.He’d lost weight he couldn’t afford while we’d been starved, and even Jessa’s gifted ration bars had barely brought him back from the edge.There was a rattle in his breathing and a shallowness that told me he had broken ribs and his tentacles barely moved anymore.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.“He was on the edge before they cuffed us together.Flinging him around the arena did more damage.”
A small hand curled on my chest and I turned back to look down at her.
“If he dies, know you did what you could,” I told her.
Jessa pressed her cheek against me and sighed.
“I kind of hate him,” she admitted.“But I feel bad, too.”
“He’ll have the chance to redeem himself if he makes it to camp, past that it's up to him.”Gigi and Uriish had broken free of their syto ways, Gigi more so than the captain.But I knew that sytos could be more than enemies.
It was Jiith’s responsibility to prove himself or fail in that respect.
I kissed her soft hair and pulled her body on top of mine.
“Sleep, Jessa.We’re safe for now, and we have far to travel in the morning.”
Her body was a boneless blanket within minutes and I closed my eyes, determined to savor every second of having her so close.
18 Jessa
The percer was deadin the morning.
It had crept closer while we slept.It’s hulking carcass mere feet away when I opened my eyes.I squawked in fear when I saw its skeletal head so close.Its bony jaw hung open, dried blood smeared on its face, eyes open and milky.
Tovis jolted awake, sitting up and dragging me with him before I could tell him we weren’t under attack.
“It’s okay,” I said, clinging to his shoulders as he clambered to his feet, dragging poor Jiith up before he was fully conscious.The syto hung from the cuffs for a second before he, too, spotted the percer and scrambled up.
“It’s dead,” he said blankly, swaying on his feet.“It got so close.”
Tovis finally set me down, and the three of us inspected the corpse.It had clearly dragged itself the last few yards, a blood trail and a shallow furrow in the dry dirt telling a sad story of an injured animal struggling in its last moments.
Flies had already discovered the gaping wounds in its side where Tovis had gored it, and they crawled over the yellow hide.
