I slept, if that’s what you can call it, terribly. Hardly able to close my eyes and with every single noise jerking me awake. It was like being back in the car again, only not as cold and distinctly more comfortable.
“Yes,” I respond. “That would be good.”
He gives me one of his devastating smiles. Having spent most of the night awake, attempting to process my feelings about my new situation, and not wanting to bother my friends, I came to the conclusion I have to roll with it for a while. Dante isn’t going to do anything stupid again, after the trouble it caused him and no matter how much chaos he is. I have to concentrate on getting to know a new sector and surviving whilst surrounded by Sarkarnii.
Half a dozen Sarkarnii warriors come rushing towards us as Dante walks alongside me in the direction of what I presume is the dining hall.
“Boss!” they call out until they spot me and suddenly the warrior stampede takes a turn down another corridor.
I stare after them, not entirely sure what is happening.
“I told them last night not to approach you or I’d tear their wings off,” Dante says happily in answer to my eyes on stalks. “Then we went to deal with the pirates which have been bothering one of the other planets we sell star fuel to.”
I give him a brief side eye, surprised he left me alone, but I suppose if I was in some quarters which are only accessible by him and me, he probably could take the risk.
“Oh,” I say.
Dante scratches at the scales on his side which look a little papery, unlike the more glossy ones on his abdomen, which I do my level best to avert my eyes away and back to his face.
“We dealt with them and gained more for our hoards,” he adds with a grin.
“Oh,” I repeat, not entirely sure there’s much of a response to any of this. “And you did all of this last night?”
“We don’t keep set nova hours,” Dante says airily as the buzz in the air grows louder the further down the corridor we go. “When things need to be done, they need to be done.”
Which is probably a philosophy I can get on board with, even if it is from the Lord of Misrule himself.
Finally, we turn the corner into the dining hall, and the only word I can use to describe it ismayhem.
It is packed. There are at least two Sarkarnii fully shifted and taking up a lot of room. Warriors are on the tables, sat on the benches and on the floor being squashed by the shifted ones. Some are eating, some are drinking goblets of ale wine, there’s a brawl going on in one corner, and from the brief glimpse I get, the kitchen is entirely overwhelmed.
“We’re going to get food?” I look up at Dante. “Here?”
“My female will be fed,” he growls, but also seems surprised at the words.
Before I can say anything else, Dante strides into the fray and, mindful of what he said yesterday, I follow him. Sarkarniipart like a wave in front of him. One thing is pretty clear from my less than twenty-four hours on his ship—his crew are much, much younger than the other warlords’ warriors. Their scales are brighter, and they have these little glitters, like Dante, which dance over their skin.
Although exactly what is considered old…or young, in Sarkarnii terms is relative. They all have pretty impressive regenerative powers, which means they age at a different rate compared to humans. But from what I’m seeing here, these Sarkarnii are not like the others.
Another one of Dante’s warriors shifts, and his tail swipes across the floor, sending Sarkarnii scattering. I see it coming, and I jump to avoid being knocked over myself, but I catch my foot and go sprawling, all the air knocked out of me as I hit the ground.
For a moment, I see stars as my head lightly taps the ground. My ears fills with the rushing of blood which accompanies such an impressive pratfall. I half expect an explosion of laughter from the Sarkarnii.
Instead there is only silence.
Or rather silence broken with a series of squeaks as if something is being pulled over a rubber floor. I push myself up on my hands and see Dante, fully shifted, with another warrior clamped between his jaws.
“Dante!” I call out., my voice high and cracking.
With a deep-throated huff, he turns in my direction as I brush myself down. He opens his mouth, and the warrior falls out onto the floor in a heap.
I think I see an eye flicker, so he isn’t dead. Dante half shifts back to his usual form, although his tail and wings remain as he closes the distance between us in virtually a single stride.
“Heartsfire,” he growls, wrapping an enormous arm around me, his other hand going for my head.
It’s then I feel the hot trickle of liquid down the side of my face, lifting my hand to touch it and finding it coming away red.
The instant I see it, my vision goes completely black.
