Nobody was paying attention to him. And Cade said the job wouldn’t begin until dusk, after the treaty had been re-signed.
So Karr simply took a step backwards, away from the Dohrsaran royals. Then another step, sliding out of Rohtt’s peripherals, until no one could see him. A few more steps had him standing behind the next closest pillar.He followed it upwards with his gaze, where it disappeared beyond the billowing clouds.
Karr sat with his back against the pillar, pressing close to the thick, flowering vines.
He couldn’t smell them behind the S2 visor, but he imagined it was luxurious. Beautiful.
And from here, he could truly watch the Dohrsarans without distraction. It was his favorite part of coming to any planet… sitting back, silent and unseen, to watch life unfold in an entirely different way.
The Dohrsarans were all humanoid beings, walking on two legs. Their creatures resembled many that Karr had seen on other planets, enormous war horses in armor, sleek muscular cats double the size of Beta Earth tigers, and fearsome wyverns that screeched and tore apart animal legs from their pen. The clawed tips of their wings shone in the sunlight, sparkling like blades.
The Dohrsarans themselves were a uniquely beautiful blend of people, human in their appearance. It was only subtle differences that set them apart. Some had eyes so dark they had no pupils. There was a glorious mix of all races, as on Beta. Some even had skin that was translucent, as if made of cellophane. Some had wildly bright hair, while others were covered in scales or fur.
The mash-up of kingdoms was unique, with warriors in three different shades of armor, all hefting sleekly designed swords or spears from their respective territories, the steel in natural shades of gold or black or deep cerulean. Karr peered deeper down the sweeping green valley, the lush grass full of tents that held merchants selling plump blue fruits and enormous spiked vegetables. Other groups, on the outskirts, drank black oil from intricately designed clay mugs.They danced and laughed and had the merry look of musicians and artists, dressed in colorful garb and playing instruments strung together with vines or carved from animal horns.
Karr grinned as he watched them, imagining the way he’d sketch their smiles, how he’d douse the background in blue, as if they were all emerging from the sea.
They were a group Karr would have imagined himself drawn towards, in another life. If he had another name.Another family.
The Garden of the Goddess and its visitors all wove together to make a wondrous nebula of cultures and styles.
It reminded him, in some ways, of Beta Earth.
But where Beta was shiny and new—a technological masterpiece that felt plucked from the pages of a fantastical storybook—Dohrsar felt strangely like home, despite the fact that it was a faraway land. He would have wanted to find a quiet corner here, sit down with his tablet and sketch for a while, if he were planning on staying.
If what Cade said was true, Geisinger believed this planet, this place, held the key to curing the Reaper’s Disease. There were so many planets out there across the galaxy, he’d never be able to visit them all in a thousand lifetimes. And none of them had yet to offer the cure to what had ravaged the—
“You.”
Karr turned and found himself face to face with a young woman.
She looked like she’d marched right out of the pages of an old western novel that he’d once borrowed from Jameson. She wore leather shorts, a torn and dirtied tunic, and a long leather duster coat that waved in the wind,stitches piecing together one of the sleeves. A shimmering blue-and-black sword hung at her hip, and her body was covered in wicked scars.
A soldier.
Thiswas a soldier.
She wasn’t alone. A tall man followed in her wake, a duster billowing behind him, a wide-brimmed leather hat concealing his features from view. By his posture alone, Karr could tell the Dohrsaran could split him in two if he wished it.
“You,” she said again.
The girl’s words filtered into his ears, clear as day thanks to his translator chip inside his S2 helmet.
“Me?” Karr asked, and he felt like an idiot the moment the word left his lips. But what was he to say? Her eyes burned with intensity, her voice harsh and demanding.
“Your ship. It’s been here before.” She placed her hand on the pommel of her sword, curling her scarred fingers around it. Karr had no doubt she could remove it in an instant, dismember him limb from limb.
He cleared his throat, unsure of what to say. “I haven’t…” His words trailed off as his brows narrowed. Her stance tensed even further. “We haven’t been here before.”
He looked into the distance, where Cade was still speaking to the three royals, none the wiser that he’d slipped away. Perhaps it had been a bad idea.
Karr had executed, quite flawlessly,plentyof bad ideas before.
“Ten years ago,” she said. Her voice was rushed, breathless. As if she’d been waiting on this moment for a long time, or was worried time itself would run out.“You came. And you took something that was not yours to take.”
“I’m not the captain,” Karr said. “I’m just one of the—”
She held up a hand.
