"Why would they do that?"
"I was supposed to be a pleasure slave."
The patterns along his body flare. "They truly have no honor, then."
"No, I don't think they do."
"Then they will get no mercy."
I think Thivoll will like this one.
They share a penchant for violence, though Thivoll still doesn't seem to have caught on yet to how bloodthirsty he is and Kuret has no qualms.
It seems like as good a time as any to ask him if he wants to help us. "Would you join us? We would be stronger together."
"You seem like you have honor."
"Well, yes, but maybe not like you think of it. I need to find other women like me and protect them."
He sits forward, his eyes pinning me with new intensity.
"Where?"
"We don't know. Well, except for one. Maybe two. We met another person—Szhe'ka, he looks like a very large bird man, except they cut off his wings–who is going to protect the one he saw. There are six more out there."
"They would be found faster if I look where you do not."
I let out a long breath, the ever-present tightness in my chest loosening just that little more now that I have more help.
"That's true, but we are also safer together. This will be a risk for you."
I wish I had said the same to Szhe'ka. It leaves a sick taste in my mouth to think of the poor male.
"Danger is where the most honor is found."
I smile, and he smiles back.
Just like I did with Szhe'ka, I ask my suit to free my hair and then pull it forward to where he can see it.
His patterns flicker as he looks down the length of it. "Beautiful."
"Thank you. I hate it . . . but that doesn't matter. Each of us has different colored long hair like this. It isn't normal for us, so if you find them outside of a cryogenic chamber, they might have cut it off. I mean . . . they might be in a silver container or maybe already out of it. It would be best if they stay in it and you carry them back to where we can protect them."
My face burns from my ineffectual rambling. "Does that make sense?"
"Yes."
I open my mouth to tell him about the other changes they made, like the arousal and the metamorphosis, but then I remember that long once-over he gave me. Some instinct tells me that the information would make him more likely to open the chamber.
I vacillate for a long moment, not liking the idea of withholding information from a woman by extension, but it feels right.
"I will start looking," he tells me with a wide smile.
He starts rapidly reattaching his leather breastplate.
His eagerness lets me know I made the right choice. I just have to hope he shows restraint so I can give whoever he finds more choices than I had. So they can come home safe and unchanged.
A nagging voice points out that all I have is a dingy cave and I haven't even gotten Silver into it. My throat feels tight and my lips tingle.
