Page 39 of The Alien's Stolen Rebel

“Do you think me a fool? You killed my husband in personal combat.”

“And you can avenge him the same way. If you want to take his throne, that looks better than simply annihilating theStarshadow.”

She paused, considering about my offer, the wheels turning in her mind. It wasn’t a bad deal for her—she was bigger than me, with a tough hide and powerful muscles to match. If Astara had any skill in a fight, she’d be a deadly opponent.

But I’d faced many deadly foes in my time, and I was still standing. I felt confident I’d win this fight, too, and my confidence was a warning.

“Think about it,” Rachel said, stepping in. “If you win a personal fight, you keep your honor, your dignity, and you recover what we stole.Blow up this ship and you’ve nothing to show for the pursuit but a bill for the ammo you use.”

“I need nothing!” Astara’s roar was stunningly loud. “Especially not that void-cursed spaceship. It’s brought nothing but trouble into my life.”

For the first time, Mishoni reacted, wrinkling her nose as though she’d smelled something disgusting. Given how well she’d hidden her other feelings, whatever annoyed her had to be serious. Rachel and I exchanged glances.

“If you win, you can do what you want with theship,” I pointed out. “Keep it, sell it, give it away, even wreck it. Your choice.”

“Or I can destroy it right now, and you with it.”

Throughout this exchange, Mishoni’s expression darkened further, and she fidgeted with the gold-wire bracelet on her left wrist. I wondered how to take advantage of their difference of opinion to buy more time.

“Maybe you should consult with your companion before you decide to throw away a priceless cultural relic of her people?”

Astara’s laugh was hard-edged. “The throne only has space for a single queen. My co-wife is a welcome advisor, but the decisions are mine.”

“True as that may be,” Mishoni said, speaking with cold, calm precision, “I wouldadviseyou not to destroy an irreplaceable artifact of the Vehn Empire. It is far more useful to us intact.”

“I don’t care!”Astara’s voice boomed, fury overcoming her already shaky self-control. “They can give it to me, and the human bitch along with it, or they will die inside it. If you prefer to die with them, I can arrange it.”

Rachel paled at the outburst, and I braced myself for a charge. Foolish, since Astara was only a hologram image—but the fury radiating from her was more than enough to overcome mere facts.

Mishoni, despite being Astara’s target, merely rolled her eyes and stood, slowly and wearily.

“I had hoped our partnership would last longer thanthis,” she said. “But I should have known better than to think you’d listen.”

I stayed quiet. Our enemies fighting each other could only be a good thing, and I had no intention of getting in their way.

At my side, Rachel tensed. I looked down at her, saw her mouth ‘trust me’ silently, and let go of her shoulders.

One step forward, and the pair of pirates looked in her direction. Astara’s shouting stopped, Mishoni raised an immaculate eyebrow, and silence fell.

“This was your ship, wasn’t it?” Rachel spoke directly to Mishoni, her words tumbling out as fast as she followed her thought. “Your gift to Frax, your dowry.”

The Vehn nodded, the slow, approving nod of a teacher waiting for the rest of an answer. Astara glared down from the throne, baring her teeth in annoyance.

“You bought your way in,” Rachel continued, fingers moving rapidly as though she were finding the answers with her hands, not her mind. “And that means you wanted something. If you owned theStarshadow, then you’re, what, the granddaughter of the Last Emperor?”

Mishoni’s hard smile made her look ever more the predator. “Great-granddaughter.”

“And you were going to use Frax to build up a navy to retake your throne?”

“The old throne? Of course not.” Mishoni sounded a little disappointed by Rachel’s misstep. “The empireis dead, and those who still fight over it are maggots feasting on a corpse too big for them to understand.”

“Ah, right, you planned to carve out your own empire. Something more manageable. But Frax?”

“He was the only candidate able to pull so many factions together. Unfortunately, he got thiscleveridea about Mars under his skin, and I had to do something about that.”

Astara interrupted with a roar. “You?You are the one who set her free. My husband’s death is on your hands!”

“Oh, grow up.” Mishoni sounded neither frightened nor angry, just tired. “Mars was your idea, as much to cut me down as to help Frax. Your obsessive need to destroy your rivals got your husband killed, that and his inability to let go of a failing plan.I, on the other hand, can adjust to change.”

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