“You are very brave.”
And very stupid.
He didn’t say that, but Gus heard it all the same.
“I’m about to be very dead if you don’t get your ass in gear.”
They all would be.
Caius’s gaze drifted back to the trees.“I recognize these.They’re Tuann.”
“Are they?”Gus asked, playing dumb.
Caius’s gentle tone wasn’t fooling her.This man was considering whether to kill her or not.
That was gratitude for you.Save a life.Get dead for your trouble.
“How did you get them?”Caius inquired in that oh so reasonable tone.
“She’s a wanderer,” Anandra volunteered, missing, or ignoring, the building tension.
Gus stared Caius down, not looking away as she held her breath.
After a moment, he smiled, the look in his eyes deepening with an awareness that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.“Not quite.”
“Can we discuss what I am or am not once we get out of here?There isn’t much time,” Gus said.
Caius held out an arm in a silent demand for help.“By all means.”
Gus eyed him warily, not fooled.With the essence he’d received from the choko tree, he should be in good enough shape to get up on his own.
Caius’s lips curved upward as he caught the refusal on her face.“I thought you were in a hurry.”
That didn’t mean she’d be complicit in her own slaughter.
A husky laugh left Caius at whatever he saw on her face.“So cautious,jani.”
Gus’s eyes narrowed.Translated, that word meant little goddess.An oddly sentimental term of endearment, given what he’d been contemplating a few seconds ago.
“Reminds me of another woman I know,” he purred.
Gus bristled.He meant Kira.
Seeing Gus wasn’t going to help, Anandra was eager to step forward, fitting himself under Caius’s arm.The boy struggled, attempting to lift the much heavier man and failing.
“Thank you,azala,” Caius said,
So, the commander had a gentle side.How disturbing.
Caius climbed to his feet, careful to let Anandra think he was helping.
“Hurry,” Gus urged.
Caius pushed Anandra away gently, indicating he’d move under his own power from here on out.
Gus’s thoughts turned to planning their escape route.If they could get to her workroom, they could take one of the maintenance tunnels to a different section.There was a hatch hidden under her fridge so that she could escape quickly and quietly with no one the wiser.
A second explosion rocked the forest around them, coming from the direction of the night garden.
