The new voice came from behind me, a female speaking English. Who else was on the ship?
“I am not so foolish, Mother. I know what he is trying to do.” Voor shoved the knife in its sheath at his hip. His sudden change to English startled me. I’d not yet heard him speak anything other than Xalanite. “I was merely entertaining myself. Playing with my kill, as adizkamight.”
The female scoffed. “You waste your time talking to him. Leave him and come with me. We have work to do.”
Timber’s gut had been right: a female Xalanite mastermind was behind it all. I burned with the desire to know more, to know the motivation behind her plot, but she and Voor left me on thefloor of the cockpit. The door slid shut behind them, and I was alone.
The blood on my cheek dried and hardened as I lay there, unable to move more than a fewtritzin any direction. Voor had bound me so well that even breathing proved difficult.
Voor’s mother revealing herself provided new insight into Voor’s actions. She was clearly in charge, and judging by the fact that I was still alive, she must have more plans for me. I doubted I’d last forever, though, and the instant I became more trouble than I was worth—or I’d met my purpose—I would die at Voor’s hand. I had no doubts about this. I had a time limit, an expiration date of sorts, and if I didn’t get back to Timber, the proverbial sand in the hourglass would run out.
It had been foolish of me to think I could outsmart Voor. The only saving grace to my plan had been that it kept Timber safe. I shuddered at the thought of what might have happened if she had joined me in the lake like she wanted.
Hours dragged by with no sign of the two enemy Xalanites. Before long, my bladder screamed to be emptied, causing jolting pain in my abdomen every time I moved. This, in addition to my other pains, made for an agonizing wait for … for what? What were they planning for me? Death for certain, but what before that?
My answer came when the woman returned alone. She sauntered into my line of sight, wearing a white human gown tailored to her five teats, and I gasped with shock when I saw her.
Lliaa.
Timber’s gut, right again. I wagered the child with the redacted birth record was Voor. He looked the right age, though I couldn’t yet figure why his file had so much black. What were my people trying to hide?
So many questions, and I doubted I’d find the answers before they killed me.
Lliaa knelt gracefully next to me, her movements practiced and meticulous. Somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered what caste she’d been in on Xalan. Courtesan, perhaps. It fit with her smooth grace and poise. She tilted her head as she reached out to stroke my cut cheek, her shiny black hair tumbling down her shoulder in neat waves.
“Strange that events turned out this way,” she murmured. I jerked back when her long, delicate fingers brushed the cut. The slightest touch sent fresh needles of pain lancing through my skin, another effect of theshriz.
“I always wondered what Jiinal’s second son would look like,” she said. “You are handsomer in person. Human television is not kind to our people. So unflattering.”
I scoffed at her mistake. “I am not the second son, foolish woman. My younger brother, Fri’in, is Jiinal’s second son.”
She straightened with a smirk, clucking her tongue. “Is that what King Jiinal told you?”
My eyes widened as realization sank in, and she cackled with maniacal laughter.
Chapter 30
Timber
Director Hall’s SUV raced down the interstate as I hung on for dear life. I’d been in car chases before, and this wasn’t even my first time being in love with the victim I was rushing to save. Memories of the night I sped to catch up with Rick came flooding back. I hadn’t been fast enough that night.
Xalanite soldiers orbiting the planet had picked up the scarred man’s ship on their sensors and tracked it back to an old, abandoned farmstead a dozen miles outside of the intake center grounds. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I wondered what the scarred man was up to. It made no sense for him to stay on Earth when he had a ship capable of interstellar flight. There had to be a reason for it, though I couldn’t think of one. If it had been me, I would have gone to the farthest inhabitable planet as fast as possible. Staying on Earth, and just miles away from a whole slew of government agents, was suicide.
But maybe the scarred Xalanitewassuicidal … in which case time was even more of the essence. A suicidal perp had nothing to lose.
I, on the other hand, felt like I was about to lose everything.
“We’ll get to them,” Director Hall said through gritted teeth. “I haven’t lost a Xalanite on my watch yet.”
I bit my tongue to keep from mentioning General Ty’shal.
As if she read my mind, she groaned and smacked her forehead. “Damnit! I forgot. Sorry. I guess that doesn’t exactly instill confidence.”
Not trusting myself to answer politely, I opted to look out the window at the trees whipping by. We were going at a decent clip—flying through traffic at about a hundred and ten miles per hour—but I still worried it wasn’t fast enough. Why didn’t we have one of the orbiting Xalanite ships take us there? It would have been quicker.
“… go around back while I take the front. Sound good?”
I stopped my tree-gazing to give the director a blank stare. “Huh?”
