“I have considered my position and yours. I cannot be sure you are in rut, despite what Darax says. I have therefore determined the female can stay with you for a nova-month. If she will accept you in this time, if your rut is run, then you may keep her, should she wish to stay, and I will take no further action.” He leans forward again. “But if none of this is true, if she envenomates you, then you will feel my full wrath,” Dalox rasps. “And you and your crew will be banished from Vorostor.”
“Wait! No!” I call out, getting to my feet.
Dalox ignores me as he might ignore a buzzing fly.
“I hear there is a barren moon circling Hathatsor which might be suitable,” Driok says with a grin.
Dalox ignores him too, thankfully.
“This is my decision, Dante. What do you say?”
“I want a chance to prove myself to the female,” he says, still not averting his gaze.
The female?
“Then she will reside with you,” Dalox intones. “This session is closed.”
“Wait!” I call out again, but he’s already on his feet, his tail lashing behind him as he releases a stream of smoke, exiting without a backwards glance at me.
Instead, I have Dante beside me as the chamber empties.
“Are you going to take me to see more explosions?” I growl at him.
“Only if you want to.” He pants slightly, as if he’s been running a long way. “I know how much you like them.”
I blink at him for a moment. That is absolutely not what I rememberat all. I recall throwing myself on the ground in order to get away. But from the way Dante is looking at me, I don’t think he has a similar recollection.
“I know what Dalox has said, but I will not take you away if you don’t want to go,” Dante says.
“That might be the case, but you also heard him say if I don’t do this, he’ll banish you and your crew.”
“He did,” Dante says. “And it is a risk I’m willing to take.”
“But not me.” I exhort, raising my eyes to the ceiling, my heart pounding with the weight of Dalox’s decision. “The last thing I want is your crew being banished.” I glare at him. “I won’t have that on my conscience.”
“Then come with me.” Dante holds out a huge hand, the dark onyx tips of his claws just visible.
I walk past him, towards the exit to the chamber.
“I want to make this entirely clear,” I say over my shoulder. “I am doing what Dalox says because I want to keep the peace and not result in banishment for anyone. I am not doing this for you. Once the month is up, I’m leaving, no matter what.”
ROSALIE
Dante is my shadow as we go through the currently silent neutral sector until we reach the airlock into his. He presses a palm against a plate which is surrounded by scratches almost like a lock, and the airlock eye opens with a hiss.
An arm with a gun is shoved outwards at us.
“It’s me,” Dante says. “Dalox let me go.”
“Does that mean we can start the testing again?” The gun disappears and instead there is a cheerful Sarkarnii who looks younger than Dante dancing from foot to foot.
“We might need to leave it a while. He did threaten to banish us to a barren moon,” Dante says.
“That was Driok’s idea,” I point out.
The new Sarkarnii huffs out a great cloud of smoke. “I bet he would.”
“Go get the clan captains. We need to discuss the next pirate raid,” Dante says.
