For the first time, Gis looked angry. “It wasn’t my plan. I’d never come up with something so inelegant.”
“Inelegant? Inelegant!” Amina spat out. She let out a string of cuss words that Myrum’s INT was only able to translate about half of. Without warning she went after Gis. Myrum was barely able to grab her, and he had to drop his knife to do it.
“Amina, he stopped the attack and sent the men away,” Myrum reminded her. “We need to let him speak.”
“After I rip off a few of his fingers, he can explain everything,” she snarled. It seemed when Amina’s temper was roused she didn’t calm down quickly.
“When I found out,” Gis continued, backing up a little and keeping his eyes on Amina, “I rushed here. I’m sorry I wasn’t quick enough to prevent this, but I’m relieved to find you both unharmed.”
Amina scoffed. “Your words aren’t making this any better, Gis. We were ready to save you. I was going to stand up with Desur and encourage you to come with us. You repay us like this? You and your group don't deserve any of our goodwill.”
She tried to advance on Gis again, but Myrum stopped her. She didn’t fight him for release, but she kept talking. “Do you know what the long-term fail rate on sleep pods is? I wouldn’t trust them for more than a quick trip, and you were going to send Myrum all the way back to the Talin Empire in one? He had around a forty percent chance of dying. Dying! Don’t tell me the plan was to leave him unharmed when you were going to put him in a situation where there was a high likelihood of death!”
If Amina wasn’t already enraged for him, he probably wouldn’t be able to control his own temper. The thought of being drugged and shoved in a sleep pod made him want to rip the hallway apart.
“It wasn’t my plan,” Gis said, grabbing the back of his neck and tugging hard on his mane. “I didn’t approve, and I thought we’d be discussing it more. They moved forward without my consent. I can make this right. Give me the chance to make this right.”
Amina made a growling sound and lunged again. This time she put more force into it, and Myrum wasn’t prepared. He almost lost his grip, but by pulling her hard against his body, he was able to keep her from going after Gis.
Surprisingly, the moment she was enclosed in his arms, she calmed down.
“Damn, you smell good,” she murmured and turned her head slightly to rub her face against his chest plates.
“Please let me escort you back to your room,” Gis said. “When you’re in your room, I can clean this up and figure out how to make reparations. If you are going to dissuade the Cores from accepting Talin help, then finishing your mission is imperative. Please, Myrum, you must speak to Planetary Expansionist Lorse. If the Talin Empire continues to interfere, the Annexers will lose and shaded souls will never have peace again.”
Myrum would much rather get everyone back onSteadyand leave, but that wasn’t an option because he didn’t want to alert the station authorities about what had happened here.
Still, he didn’t feel safe. What to do?
This was another reason Holian picked the wrong person; he wasn’t good with complicated situations.
Suddenly it was all too much. The feeling of helplessness was nearly overwhelming and the walls around him started to close in on him.
“Hey, don’t do that!” Amina’s words were followed by her turning in his arms and reaching up to cup his cheeks with her hands. “Myrum, I’m here. Ruby’s here. We need you to stay with us.”
He forced himself to focus on her.
Ruby? Her saying the lizard’s name made him remember the little creature was still with him. With frantic fingers he searched the scarf still wrapped around his neck. Pulling it off, he foundher sheltering in the section that had been in the front, clutching the fabric tightly enough to make holes with her tiny little talons.
She turned around, jumped from his hands to Amina’s head, and hissed at Gis. Once she’d given her opinion, she burrowed into the loose bun of blue hair barely holding together on top of Amina's head.
“Aww, hey there, Ruby,” Amina said, reaching up to give the lizard a little pat through her hair. “Sorry for the chaos, but everything is fine now.”
No, it wasn’t fine. They needed to go someplace safe.
Grabbing Amina up in his arms, he walked past Gis. He was walking blindly, hoping he’d recognize a safe place when he found it.
The Ossiso rushed to keep up while talking as they moved, but Myrum didn’t hear anything he had to say. Getting Amina and Ruby to a secure location was all he could focus on.
“You’re lucky I kinda like this,” Amina grumbled, hugging him around the neck. “Otherwise I’d be really annoyed.”
He exited the ship and stopped. He didn’t know where to go. Gis was right there, still talking, but he couldn’t make sense of it.
Then Amina touched his face again. “Go left,” she murmured. “Follow Gis. He’s going to lead us to our rooms.” She pressed on his cheek until bonding oil seeped out of his scent glands. The shock of pleasure helped calm him.
“Yes, I’ll follow Gis,” he whispered.
Unspoken was the fact that he would do just about anything to have her touch his face or touch him anywhere.
