“Ellis, you’ll be in so much trouble,” Inara said.
“Only if we get caught.”
“I can’t ask you to do this.”
“You’re not asking, I’m volunteering,” I said. “I want to help save your sister, Inara. Let me.”
For once, I wasn’t lying. I couldn’t save my own sister, but I sure as hell could save Inara’s.
“Ellis, are you sure?” Inara said.
“Yes,” I said. “Meet me at the docking bay in a few hours and we’ll leave. But you know that you’ll have to go into hiding with Wendy, right? You’ll go to prison for breaking your work contract with the Draax.”
“I know,” Inara said. “I don’t care. Wendy is the only thing that matters.”
“Then let’s get the fuck off this planet and save her life.”
* * *
Galan
“Galan?”
I lowered my sword and bowed to Laos before turning around. A Draax whose name I didn’t know was standing in the doorway of the training room.
“What is it?” I sheathed my sword.
“Melu needs to speak with you immediately,” the Draax said.
“Keep training,” I said to the recruits who had all stopped their swordplay to stare at the Draax. “I will return shortly.”
I glanced at Krey who sheathed his own sword and followed me out of the training room. We made our way quickly to the docking bay without speaking. The bay was dead silent, the Draax who worked there had gathered in small groups and were studying Melu without speaking. Melu was pacing back and forth near the landing pad, one hand clenched into a fist, the other holding a wrinkled piece of paper. We drew closer and Krey dodged to the right when Melu’s tail almost whipped him across the face.
“Melu, what is it?” I said.
He turned, the scowl on his face making his anger more than clear. “You said I could trust her, Galan. You swore she would behave.”
My stomach clenched. “What did Ellis do?”
“What did she do?” Melu snarled at me. “Your little pet thief stole my fucking ship!”
I staggered back as Krey grunted in surprise beside me. I stared blankly at Melu as Krey said, “She could not have stolen a ship, Melu.”
“She did!” he roared.
“She has a tracking chip in her,” I said. “If she leaves the castle, my vertex -”
“This tracking chip?” Melu threw the chip at me. It bounced off my chest and I caught it before it could fall to the floor. I stared at the blood-stained chip, my guts churning as Melu waved a piece of paper at me. “She left you a note.”
I took the paper from him, reading the three words with a numb type of shock.
I’m sorry, Galan.
“Where did you find the tracking chip and the note?” Krey said.
“In the spot where my fucking ship should have been,” Melu said.
“We don’t know it was her,” I said. “Someone could have taken the chip from her arm and -”
“Have you gone mad?” Melu said. “Or are you just so horny for the little thief that you have lost all of your common sense?”
Krey shoved Melu back. “Watch your tongue, Melu. Galan is the head of the King’s Guard and you will show him the respect he deserves.”
Melu glared at him, his chest heaving, and Krey stared coolly at him before placing one hand on the handle of his sword. “Do you wish to settle this with swords?”
“Krey, enough.” I put my hand on his arm. “Do not -”
“Galan!”
Krono. I blew out my breath before turning. “What is it, Teo?”
“Quill wants to see you.”
I glanced at Melu. “You told the king already?”
“Of course I told the king!” Melu snapped. “She stole a ship, Galan.”
“Come, Galan,” Teo said. “You as well, Melu.”
The three of us followed Teo to the council room. Quill sat at the end of the table and my stomach dropped when I didn’t see Sabrina. My hope that our queen would convince our king to show mercy on Ellis died.
“My king.” Melu bowed as did Krey and I.
Teo sat in his seat next to Quill and Quill pointed to the other chairs. “Sit down, all of you.”
There was a knock on the door and Luka stuck his head into the room. “Teo? May I speak with you?”
“Later, Luka,” Teo said.
“It is urgent,” Luka said.
“Go, Teo,” Quill said.
Teo heaved himself to his feet and left the room, closing the door behind him.
Quill studied me silently for a moment. “Has Melu told you what she did?”
“Yes,” I said.
“I told you not to trust her,” Quill said.
“She must have had a good reason,” I said. “We need to use the ship’s tracking chip to go after her. She cannot fly a Draax ship and the chances that she has crashed are high, my king. She could be injured or -”
“She removed the ship’s tracking,” Melu said. “And she can fly a vroha.”
“How do you know that?” I said.
“Uzel told me she has been practicing with the flight simulator,” Melu said. “She pretended to play with the pink haired human’s child to gain access to the simulator.”
I rubbed at my forehead. “It is very different using a simulator and flying an actual ship.”
“Not that different,” Krey said.
I glanced at him and he shrugged. “It is not. Sorry, Galan. She just needed to get it out of our atmosphere and then she could have programmed the ship to fly to Earth.”
“Krono,” Melu said. “I knew we should not have trusted her. I knew the minute she had the chance, that she would try and escape.”
“She must have had a reason,” I repeated.
“What I want to know,” Krey said, “is how she knew there was a temporary peace treaty until this evening between Emira and Cillade. Very few Draax knew and the humans certainly did not.”
Melu glared at me. “Did you tell her, Galan?”
“No,” I said.
I could almost feel my skin darkening. I hadn’t told Ellis, but she had overheard my conversation with Quill last night, I knew she did. After our walk in the garden, Quill had invited me back to his personal quarters. I’d spent the rest of the evening with him and Sabrina and their young ones. When I’d returned to my apartment, Ellis was gone. I’d wanted to go to her, but I made the decision to give her space. At the time, I believed she was questioning what Quill had said about me not trusting her and I planned on reassuring her tonight that she had nothing to worry about.
“Then how in Krono’s name did she find out,” Melu said.
“I spoke with Galan about the peace treaty last night in his apartment,” Quill said. “The thief was in his bedroom and no doubt, heard us speak of it.”
My tail thumped against the chair and I looked away from Quill as Krey said, “My king, Galan would not sleep with the thief. He knows to do so would be foolish and unwise.”
Quill sighed. “Neither you nor Galan have ever been able to lie for shit, Krey.”
I winched. Quill rarely used Earth’s curse words unless he was really angry.
“Galan is not -”
“Krey, stop,” I said before lifting my gaze to Quill. “Yes, she was in my room, my king.”
“Krono, have you gone mad?” Melu said. “What were you thinking, Galan? You should never have -”
Teo opened the door and stepped back into the room. “My king, we have another issue.”
“What is it?”
“There is another human missing.”
“For Krono’s sake,” Quill said. “Who?”
“Her name is Inara.”
Melu’s face went a pale green and his entire body shuddered. “What did you say?”
“Inara is missing. We believe the thief took her.”
“She kidnapped Inara?” Melu’s throat worked as his face went from the pale green to the dark g
reen of the beluca tree. He turned to me. “I will kill the little thief if she hurts Inara.”
Krey rested his hand on Melu’s arm. “Melu, calm down. Ellis may be a thief, but she would not hurt Inara. They are friends.”
“I will kill her,” Melu repeated, his gaze never leaving mine. “Do you hear me, Galan?”
“I hear you,” I said. “But go anywhere near Ellis and the last thing you see will be my sword as it cuts off your head.”
Melu bared his teeth at me. “You think you can beat me, you puny froden? I will slice off your limbs and bathe in your -”
“Enough!” Quill said. “Melu, hold your tongue.”
Melu shut his mouth with a snap, his body tense like overstrung wire, and his jaw twitching as he ground his teeth together.
“Inara and Ellis are friends,” I said. “If Inara is with her, it is not because Ellis forced her to go. She would have gone of her own free will. I am sure of it.”
“Just like you were sure that the thief would not steal my ship?” Melu said.
“Melu,” Quill said. “Enough. I know you are upset and worried about your female, but now is not the time.”
“Inara is not my female,” Melu snarled.
Quill raised one eyebrow at him and Melu bowed his head. “Forgive my tone, my king.”
“When did they leave?” Quill said.
“We are not certain. The ship was gone when the docking bay opened at seven,” Melu said.
“Did you return to the thief after you left my quarters last night?” Quill asked me.
I shook my head no.
Quill glanced at his vertex. “It is just after seven. If we assume they left when keo rose, then they have been gone only a couple of hours. It will take them -”
He stopped when there was a knock on the door. “Come in.”
Bitta stepped into the room and bowed. “My king, forgive the interruption.”
“What is it, Bitta?” Quill said.
“The Emirans have contacted us. They have one of our ships and, apparently, two of our humans.”
Chapter Eighteen
Ellis
“This is so bad, Ellis.”
“It’s fine.” I popped up out of the floor hatch of the ship. “Hand me that screwdriver.”
Inara handed it to me before peering into the belly of the ship. “I thought this ship was repaired.”
“I thought so too.” I unscrewed the access panel to the flux overflow. “I’m gonna kill Uzel the next time I see him.”
Not that I would ever see him again. Either I’d get the ship fixed and we’d haul ass to Earth or we’d simply float around in space until the war started up again and we were blown to smithereens by the Emirans or the Cillades.
“Can you fix it?” Inara said.
“Yeah.”
“Can you?”
“Maybe.”
“Oh shit,” Inara said.
“I can fix it, don’t worry. I just need to -”
The ship was jerked forward and I went with it, slamming my head into an overhead pipe so hard that bright flashing stars immediately crossed my vision. A little lightheaded, I staggered my way up the short ladder and heaved myself onto the floor of the ship.
Inara was sprawled out on the floor and she sat up. “You’re bleeding!”
I touched my scalp just above my right temple, wincing a little. My fingers came away bloody and I closed the hatch before locking it. “It’s okay.”
“It’s bleeding a lot.” Inara opened up her small suitcase and grabbed a t-shirt before using it to stem the flow of blood. “You might have a concussion.”
“It’s a head injury, they bleed a lot,” I said.
“We should have brought some juice with us,” Inara said.
Yeah, we should have. I should have stolen a bunch of juice. Hell, just the amount of juice I had in my fridge in my apartment would have set me up for life on Earth. I could have lived on some beach and never had another care in the world.
So, why didn’t you take the juice?
Because it was bad enough betraying and lying to Galan, I couldn’t steal from him too.
Yeah, well your sudden case of conscience is gonna make us starve.
Probably. But to be honest, starving to death didn’t seem that big of a deal. Not if it meant I wouldn’t have to face a lifetime alone without Galan.
I swallowed down the bile that was rising in my throat. I had made my choice and I needed to live with it. I was being all mushy and stupid for nothing anyway. The second the war ended I would never see Galan again. Leaving with Inara meant that at least I wouldn’t die in prison.
No, you’ll die on the street.
The ship jerked again, sending both Inara and I flying forward. We staggered to our feet and Inara followed me to the cockpit, sinking into the co-pilot seat with a soft gasp as she stared out the window. “What is that?”
“A ship,” I said.
The ship in question was massive and fast approaching. Or rather, we were fast approaching it.
I swallowed hard as our ship was pulled forward with another teeth-rattling jolt.
“Why does the ship keep doing that?” Inara clung to the arms of her chair.
“I think that ship,” I pointed to the enormous ship, “is using a tractor beam to pull us in.”
“Do you think it’s the Emirans or the Cillades?” Inara said.
“I have no idea.”
“What do we do?” Inara said as the other ship grew closer. “Should we hide?”
“Our ship is so small that they’ll find us in no time,” I said. “How are you at hand-to-hand combat?”
“Not funny,” Inara said as the alien ship’s cargo hold opened and we were pulled inside. The massive doors closed behind us with a skull rattling thud. After a few minutes, a door large enough for a havoc cruiser to go through slid open in front of us and a half dozen aliens stepped into the cargo hold.
“Emirans,” Inara said.
“How do you know?” I studied the blood red aliens in front of us. They were over eight feet tall with reptile skin. Their bald skulls gleamed in the light and their yellow eyes had green coloured pupils. Their limbs were long and skinny, and their drab brown robes hung on their skeletal frames.
They had three long digits on each hand topped with blunt yellow nails and it was utterly impossible to tell if they were male or female.
“I took the alien species elective course in high school,” Inara said. “I remembered the Emirans because they look so…”
“Weird?” I said.
“Yeah. Plus, they can spontaneously change their gender if needed.”
“You’re kidding me?”
“Nope.”
“Do they, uh, have a good relationship with the Draax?” I said.
“They do. I think.”
“You think or you know?” I said.
Inara gripped my hand as the aliens approached the ship. “Is the ship door locked?”
“We can’t stay in here forever,” I said. “If I don’t open the cargo door, they’ll just force it open eventually.”
I took a deep breath and pushed the button to open the cargo hold. “C’mon, let’s go introduce ourselves.”
Holding hands, Inara and I walked to the cargo hold. The door slid open and we stepped into the hold. Inara was gripping my hand so tightly, I’d lost all feeling in it, but I didn’t object as we stared silently at the aliens gathered in the hold.
“Hi,” I said. “I’m Ellis and this is Inara. Nice to meet you.”
The aliens stared at each other before one stepped forward. It spoke, and Inara and I glanced at each other.
“You hear gibberish, yeah?” I said.
Inara nodded.
I stared at the alien and shook my head before shrugging. “We don’t understand. Sorry.”
“They won’t understand you either,” Inara said.
“Yeah, I know. But what else -”
“Where are your Draax mates,
human females?” The alien was suddenly perfectly understandable.
“Hey! You speak English,” I said to the alien. “Cool. I’m Ellis and this is Inara. Um, what’s your name?”
If it had any eyebrows, it would have been raising them at me. Instead, in a dear God, why is she such an idiot, tone, it said, “I have switched to speaking Draax so that you may understand me. The human language is too primitive to bother learning.”
“Right,” I said. “So, uh, it’s super nice to meet you.” I took a deep breath and stepped forward, holding out my hand.
The alien skittered back from my hand, and the other ones made low gasps of disgust. One of them produced a glass bottle from its robe and sprayed the air with some type of medicinal smelling liquid.
I stepped back toward Inara as the alien said. “Please do not touch us, humans. We have no idea where you have been. You are probably riddled with bugs.”
“Okay,” I said. “That seems like a bit of an overreaction, but we’ll move past that. Our ship has broken down. I don’t suppose you have any spare Draax ship parts lying around?”
“Where are your Draax mates?” The alien said.
“We don’t have mates,” Inara said.
“They are lying.” A second alien stepped forward. “The Draax take the human females for mates and nothing more.”
“Yeah, well, times change, buddy,” I said.
“What do we do with them, Gwandole?” the second alien said.
Gwandole tapped his middle digit against his chest. “We will bring them onto our ship.”
The gasps of horror from the others was almost comical.
“Gwandole, no!” The second Emiran said. “Who knows what infections and disease they carry. Do you want the whole ship infected?”
“We’re not infected with anything,” I said. “Geez, relax, would you?”
Gwandole looked us over, his red scaly skin wrinkling with disgust. “We will place them in a secure room while we wait for the Draax to arrive, and thoroughly disinfect the area when they are gone.”
“Oh, hey, no need to get the Draax involved,” I said. “If you could just loan me some parts for our ship or maybe even have one of your guys drop us off on Earth, we’d really appreciate it.”
Rebel (The Draax Series Book 3) Page 25
