“Ah,” Gus said lamely.
This was awkward.
“Who are you?What are you doing here?”a human demanded.
He tossed the child to one of his cohorts as he scanned Gus from head to toe, deciding she wasn’t much of a threat a second later.
Gus understood why he’d come to that conclusion.Unlike most of her siblings, she was on the smaller side.Only about five foot five.Average for a human but short for a Tuann, she knew she didn’t look like much.Slender.Willowy even.With limbs that looked like they would snap in a harsh gust of wind.Her hair was a rich brown that her former master had likened to dirt when she was young.Gus was always of the mind that it more closely resembled fertile earth.But to most, dirt was still dirt.
Her eyes were probably the most memorable thing about her.The pale green of a dewy morning.
Those eyes were why the masters had made her their little pet.And likely why she survived those early years before she proved her talent with toxins.Both in the creating and surviving contact with them.
“What’s the matter?Cat got your tongue?”the human taunted.
His companions snickered when he looked back at them.
Gus’s attention drifted toward the child.
He was young.Only about eight or nine years old.His eyes filled with resistance and calculation as he eyed his captors.
In a small way, he reminded her of some of the forty-three.So rebellious even with the odds stacked heavily against him.
Of course, they’d been better at hiding their feelings.They’d had to be.Their masters had enjoyed punishing insubordination.Something as simple as an unguarded look was enough to get you sent to the punishment chamber.
The boy’s bravado melted away as his gaze landed on the unconscious Caius.His lower lip trembled as an expression like that of someone witnessing the death of all their hopes settled on his features.
Gus’s hands clenched around the pot of orchids, her heart hurting for some odd reason.
“My nephew,” the human said, seeing where Gus’s attention had landed.
What a bald-faced lie.
They may have dressed the boy in a cheap, standard-issue station jumpsuit, but that couldn’t hide what he was.
A Tuann.
Like Caius.
Like Gus herself.
“Come on!We don’t have time for this,” one of the men holding the child complained.“We’re already late.”
The first man sighed, pretending at resignation as he advanced on Gus.“It’s your bad luck to run into us today.”
His bare forearm brushed against the orchid’s leaves as he reached for Gus.
“Oh dear,” she said, letting him grab her.“That was decidedly unwise.”
The man’s leer changed to that of a grimace.Every muscle in his body tensing as he started seizing.
“Ricardo?”one of his companions called.
Confusion appeared on their faces as Ricardo remained frozen in place.Unable to move except for the tiny, involuntary twitches his limbs were making.
“I’m afraid he can’t answer you,” Gus explained, examining the man’s expression with interest.
She’d known the orchid was one of the top ten most toxic plants currently known, but she’d never seen it in action as it was also one of the rarest.
