The interior of the ship glowed with the lights on the various panels inset into the walls. Soft beeps interspersed with crackling static. A broken coms system, perhaps? I wondered who they might be trying to contact.
I nearly cried with relief when I found N’kal in the front of the ship, which to my unskilled eye looked like a cockpit. He lay bound on the floor behind two seats that faced the large windshield, a smear of black Xalanite blood on the floor beneath him. Had they hurt him? I tucked my gun in the waistband of my leggings and rushed to N’kal’s side. He was in chains, but the mechanism on the lock looked similar to a basic Earth lock. I scanned the room for anything I could use to pick the lock and free him.
“N’kal, it is me. Timber. Do not move. I am looking for a way to get you out of here.”
“Timber? You are speaking Xalanite?”
He sounded weak. Groggy. There didn’t look to be enough blood for that. What else did they do to him?
“Yes. The nanites worked. Now hold still.”
I found a sharp sliver of metal near the back of the ship and brought it back to him. Luckily for us, I’d learned lockpicking at an early age, and this lock was indeed Earth in origin. In a few seconds, a small click indicated my success. I got the chains off of him, and he groaned as he pushed himself to his knees.
“Where are you hurt?”I asked as I helped him up. It was too dim on the ship to see more than a few cuts in his scales, but I suspected he had some internal damage as well. The Xalanite guards at the lake had died from blunt impact wounds, so I wagered N’kal had similar injuries.
He answered in Xalanite.“My ribs hurt, and my head. My throat is damaged. I believe other than that, I am largely okay.”
I didn’t like the look of the cut in his cheek, or the crisscross of slices in his chest. All were shallow, but they didn’t seem to be closing properly like a cut normally would once scabbed over. Was that a result of the way Xalanite bodies healed, or something else? I seemed to remember his injury from the fall into the Dumpster bleeding longer than necessary, too, though our doctors had been able to close it easily enough. HopefullyMoya’aShil or one of the AARO docs could stitch him up.
“I need you to get out of here. Director Hall is distracting them, but I cannot help her until you are safe.”
N’kal frowned.“My place is at your side. If you fight, I fight.”
Great. He wanted to be chivalrous. I sighed and scanned the interior of the ship one more time and found a long blade on a short stick, like some weird alien mix of a sword and a spear. I didn’t know how effective the weapon would be, but it gave him more reach than the scarred man had with the knife he held, and any advantage was a good one.
“Here. Be careful. If you hurt, I hurt.”
He gave me a grim nod and followed me down the ramp.
Back in the barn, Director Hall stood about five yards from the two Xalanites. I hadn’t heard her weapon discharge while we were inside, so it looked like they were still at a stalemate. Why hadn’t she moved on them yet?
N’kal crept up behind me and whispered in my ear. I nearly dropped my damn gun when he spoke.
“Voor is Lliaa’s son. My older brother.”
Chapter 31
N’kal
Timber stumbled at my words, and I put my hand out to steady her.
“So, the file was redacted because your father is his father?”she whispered.
I nodded.“Yes. He is the rightful heir to Xalan.”
Her lips pressed into a thin line.“A problem for another day. He has killed three Xalanites. We need to apprehend him before he kills more.”
While I didn’t disagree, I knew the political implications were far-reaching. If Xalanite officials became aware of Voor’s presence, it would cause even more upheaval in an already tenuous system.
Xalanites did not discount inheritance based on marital status. Though Voor was a bastard in the truest sense of the word, his claim to the throne was valid. More valid than my own claim, though I didn’t concern myself with that. What did I care about who was on the throne? I planned to stay on Earth withTimber. All that I cared about was ending this, so I could live out my days with her.
Unfortunately, Voor stood in the way of that goal. I knew Timber would not rest until she brought him to justice, or what justice meant on Earth. In my experience, justice on Xalan came swifter than on Earth. Here, Voor would stand trial, a spectacle that could take years or even decades to come to anything resembling an end. The humans in Timber’s government didn’t even have adequate legislation in place for Xalanite visitors to Earth, let alone one who came illegally, as Voor and I did. Add in his standing as my older brother, and the case could be tied up in red tape indefinitely.
Of course, it would all be moot if we did not stop him.
While Timber and I crouched in the shadow of the ship, Director Hall continued her diversionary tactics. She stood in the darkened barn with her flashlight and gun aimed at the villainous pair, reciting the charges against Voor. Voor kept himself between the director and his mother, shielding Lliaa with his body. Had the situation been different, I would have admired him for his bravery. The two Xalanites had brought this upon themselves, though, so I felt no sympathy, no admiration. A brave man would not have murdered General Ty’shal in cold blood by ambushing him, and the woman he was willing to sacrifice himself for was even more vile than he.
Her revelation that my father had sired Voor was shocking, but even more unbelievable was the knowledge that Voor’s scarring was not a result of combat.
