“They never left, Hal.”
The voice that called from the wings was soft and sultry and familiar. Athena sauntered onto the stage, looking unflustered as she sized up the situation, smiling indulgently at the man she’d called Hal and cocking a perfectly arched brow at us.
“What do you mean…?” Hal asked, then he gasped and slapped a hand over his mouth. “They aren’t the escaped convicts, are they?”
“We aren’t convicts,” Skye said as she fussed with her hair.
Athena walked to the stage manager and draped an arm languidly over his shoulders. “You know the Empire, Hal. When can you ever trust anything they say?”
He mumbled something that sounded like a tacit agreement.
“Remember when they closed us down for performing a play about freedom?”
Red stained his cheeks. “That was outrageous. There was nothing obscene about that play.”
“Of course there wasn’t. Just like there’s no truth to most of the things they claim. They’re trying to turn us against each other so we forget who the real enemy is. It’s what those in power always do. Get the people to fight for scraps while they rob us blind and tell us that art is the problem.”
“Soulless brutes,” Hal hissed.
“We hate the Zagrath as much as you do,” I said, once I sensed that the man was on our side. “Our only crime is not being one of them.”
“Then join the club.” Hal threw one arm wide. “This entire theatre is run by people chafing under the thumb of the Empire.”
“Athena said you welcome like-minded individuals looking for safe harbor,” Skye said, her tone firm. “That’s what we are.”
Hal shifted his gaze from Skye to me, his gaze dropping to my tail. “Oh my. I don’t think we’ve had one of your kind here before.”
“He’s Vandar,” purred Athena. “His people fight the Zagrath in space.”
Hal’s eyes widened. “You live in space?”
I remembered little of my life in space, but I knew that I lived on a Vandar warbird, which was part of a horde of warbirds. What my life had been on board, I couldn’t tell him, but that didn’t matter. “I did until the Zagrath took me.”
“And me,” Skye said. “I was part of a rebel group on my planet until the Zagrath used me as bait.”
Hal sucked in a breath. “That’s awful. You poor thing.”
“They brought us here so our people couldn’t find us,” she continued, “but they’re also trying to get the Vandar to come here looking for us.”
The man’s gaze went to me, and he blinked as rapidly as his foot had been tapping. “More of your kind? Here?”
Athena chuckled, the sound low and husky. “As fascinating as the Vandar are, we don’t want that to happen.”
“It would mean a battle,” I told him, and watched the glint in his eyes dim. “With much collateral damage.”
“We’re trying to get off your planet so we can get word to our people about the trap,” Skye said, stepping close to Hal and taking his hands in hers. “We’d be so grateful if we could take sanctuary in your theatre until it’s safe for us to sneak out.”
The man hesitated for only a heartbeat before giving a definitive nod. “Of course.” He glanced at Athena. “They’re welcome to stay as long as they need to. No one in this theater company likes the Zagrath.”
Athena crinkled her nose. “No one, and we’re quite the band of miscreants. Most of us have been in trouble with the Empire at some time or another. That’s one reason we all ended up together, I suppose.”
Hal smiled at her. “I guess we are a bunch of misfits who’ve found our place and our family here.”
“Talented misfits,” Athena corrected.
“Very talented,” Hal said quickly. “And you, my dear, are our shining star.”
Athena pretended to be embarrassed by the compliment, but her cheeks did not flush. “Now that it’s settled and we have the most important person in the theatre on board,” she fluttered her lashes at the stage manager whose cheeks flamed, “I should probably get you two back to your hiding spot.”
