“I’m the mining expert hired to set up the projects.” Shoval’s chest puffed with pride, his purple face looking darker than normal.
“So you just think you can get away with this? Almost destroying their ship because you got faulty equipment? Stealing? Lying? Manipulating three worlds?” Jana asked.
“Laws here are not the same as the ones on your world, little girl,” Shoval snapped. “Don’t forget, you’re the alien here.”
Phares lunged for his parental.
Olmed held him back. “There are laws. Kantenan laws, Alliance laws, and Guild laws. This will not go unanswered.”
“What are the six of you going to do?” Tellis asked. “This is a clan ship in orbit. You have no basis for any of your laws here. Clan law rules here.”
“You’re right, it does,” Arik said. Where he and Hornse had come from, Erzo didn’t know, but when Arik came out and grabbed Tellis from behind, securing him and squeezing so Tellis dropped the weapon in his hand.
Hornse had grabbed Shoval, but the Xian was almost too strong for Hornse, and started fighting against the older male. He slammed him in face, making blood spray all over Hornse’s face.
Hornse spat curses and struck Shoval. The two threw a few punches at each other.
More Charro emerged, blasters at the ready, and Breal in the lead, with Carvassa next to her.
“Enough,” Breal said, blaster in hand, aimed at Shoval. “I will shoot you, Xian.”
“A girl?”
Breal didn’t hesitate, and she shot Shoval in the knee.
Shoval cried out and dropped. “You crazy female!”
“That was intentional,” Breal said. This time, she aimed for his head. “Give me a reason I shouldn’t kill you right now.”
“I didn’t do anything to you,” Shoval replied.
“That’s my father. You made him bleed. I made you bleed. Clan law.” Breal glanced at Polly. “May I?” She held out her hand for the bat.
“Uh, sure?” Polly held out the bat.
Breal took it, swung it around, and the clank of contact between Shoval’s head and the bat echoed in the corridor. Shoval went down like a stone.
“Thanks. It’s got a nice weight to it,” she said, and handed it back.
“Welcome, I always liked having a bat,” Polly replied.
“May have to get me one.” Breal smiled, then turned to Tellis. “Now, for you, Tellis. I am not a prize, and you do not get to just step in and mate with me.”
“By the contract, Kovat and Dona must be unite from a child of each clan—” Tellis spat. “If he’s not here then you have to mate with me.”
“A child of Kovat, yes, it must be,” Hornse finally said, his voice nasal and frail sounding. “But it won’t be you.”
Breal glanced at her father. “Father?”
“I was wrong to bind you to Erzo so young. I wanted you to have the desire and love that I had with your mother. I thought, in the best way, that a friendship as strong as you and Erzo’s, would grow to more, and I did not want you to lose that opportunity,” Hornse said. “I was wrong. If there is another of Clan Kovat that you would rather?—”
“Carvassa,” Breal said. “She is my one, Father.”
Hornse nodded. “Then so be it. I agree to the binding.” He glanced at Arik. “Do you feel that it fulfills the contract? As Carvassa is of Clan Kovat?”
Arik nodded. “I concur. As leader of Kovat. I sanction this mating, and agree, the contract is fulfilled.”
Erzo started to clap, and so did Polly. In a moment, everyone was clapping in the hallway.
