Gus caught her breath.
Touch down.
Just in time, as his companion seemed to sense something.
Gus ducked back out of sight and plastered herself against the wall.Her heart pounded, adrenaline flooding her body as a weird ringing filled her ears.
Had the Tuann seen her?Was she even now stalking in Gus’s direction?
Gus held perfectly still, trying not to faint from all the adrenalin rioting through her veins.
Every moment that slid by sawed against Gus’s nerves.She felt exposed.On edge.A feeling that didn’t go away even when the woman gave a long, weary sigh.“How did it come to this?Working with the enemies of our forebears?Our vows twisted?Chains by which to be enslaved?”
The honeycomb was conspicuously silent.If she was expecting an answer, the Tuann wasn’t going to find it here.
Gus counted to one hundred in her head, waiting until long after the other woman was gone before stepping out from her hiding spot.
When no one jumped out at her, she relaxed slightly.
Of all the things she’d overheard in the last few minutes, the only thing that really concerned her was the news that the Osiri were sending a representative here.
Gus was betting a general, but it could be someone even higher up.
Either was bad news for her.
“That doesn’t give me much of a window,” Gus whispered.
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that her sister was enroute after all.If Gus was lucky, Kira and the general would be so preoccupied trying to kill each other that no one would notice her sneaking about.
Gus kept to an easy pace as she tailed her prey.She wasn’t in a rush, wanting her quarry to stay ignorant to the fact that he was being followed.
The seeds glowed in her mind’s eye like miniature beacons.As long as he had them on him, she could follow him across star systems.
It was a nifty little ability she’d discovered quite by accident a few years ago when a group of youths had done willful damage to her garden on deck five.Gus treasured her gardens, a fact Titan was very much aware of now, but back then, not everyone had gotten the memo.This particular garden had housed the product of an experiment.To see how feasible it was to pollinate certain species of Tuann flowers with human ones.She’d been successful, crossing a Tuannvilaitiwith a species of rose.
The resulting creation had been a feat of genius.A singular existence in a universe full of unique things.Its beauty eclipsed only by its rarity.
Never in her wildest dreams did Gus expect someone on Titan to possess enough knowledge about botany—and the rare plant black market—to become a danger to her resulting creation.She’d been shocked when she stopped by only to find the bed dug up androsa vilaiti(the name she created for this new species) gone.Unfortunately for the would-be thieves, she’d usedkion that particular specimen and so could track it all the way across Titan.
Gus had never been quite sure why.As far as she knew, her siblings had shown no signs of being able to do the same with objects or people touched by their soul’s breath.It was just that things touched with herkiremained part of her mental map.If she concentrated, she could sense each individual spark of life.Even when separated by vast distances.
It was a handy skill, made all the more so by the fact that most Tuann had trouble detecting herkiunless she used it in large quantities.
Something squelched underfoot, making her forget about the glowing brand in her mind for a moment.
Gus backed up to see what she’d stepped in.She crouched to get a better look.After a moment of observation, she reached down to touch the substance and grimaced at the tacky, sticky sensation.“What is that?”
The substance clung to her fingers like a viscous oil.Or really thick honey.
“So gross,” Gus said in the midst of wiping it on her pants when a sound from her left made her freeze in mid motion.
Spotting a dark shape out of the corner of her eye, she slowly turned her head and nearly fell on her ass when she got a good look at what was waiting for her.
“Mother corn cockle!”
A Tsavitee war drone.A class one from the look of it.She could tell by the lack of horns.
Often considered more dangerous than a class two due to their higher level of intelligence, the war drone was humongous when compared to her shorter than average height, looming over her by a good two or three feet at least.Like the class two, the class one was considered digitigrade, meaning it walked on its toes rather than its heels like other species, including humans.This allowed for greater speed and quieter movement, making the alien surprisingly adept at stealth despite its large size.
