Page 69 of Voidwalker
“Antal. You’re playing this game several steps behind. Verne opened negotiations months ago. Asked for my cooperation.”
“And you gave it?”
“She made a compelling case.”
“Todisplaceme?” Antal’s tail flicked fiercer.
“Why not? One fewer neighbor, Verne in my debt. An easy trade.”
They squared off, two predators perched on the balls of clawed feet. Eyes bright.
Tyvo laughed.
“Oyzen yzri. You have your father’s scowl downperfectly.” Tyvo circled a claw at Antal’s chiseled face. “Even that scrunch between your eyes. Marvelous. There’s just one problem, yelz daeyari.”
He moved before Antal could flinch, a firm grasp of his opponent’s antler.
“You haven’t gottheseto back it up,” Tyvo said.
He skirted Antal’s swat, snatching the tip of his thrashing tail.
“And this?” Tyvo scoffed. “Gives you away.”
Fi hung at the edge of the clearing, cursing herself for allying with the only daeyari on the Plane who apparently had no friends. Antal didn’t snap at the insult, tension confined to ramrod posture and that flicking tail. Certainly, he must feelsomethingat this betrayal.
Which made Fi wonder why he was so good at hiding it.
“Go home, Antal,” Tyvo said, and Fi’s entire concept of “condescending” shifted as she heard it off a centuries-old tongue. “He’ll be glad to have you back. A few decades taking air on another Plane?” Another fang-sharp grin. “Maybe he can finally make something useful out of you.”
At last, Antal’s stone face fissured. He pressed closer to Tyvo with a snarl.
“And who will Verne make her next case to, when she comes overyourborder?”
“You think so?” Tyvo chuckled like crunching bone. “Verne chooses her fights carefully, prefers stepping on things smaller than her. I suppose that’s what made you an attractive mark.”
“And while you plotted treachery, did Verne share the rest of her scheme? She brought a derived daeyari to do her bidding.”
Tyvo’s grin faltered.
“She commands the creature,” Antal furthered. “Like a pet on a leash.”
Tyvo considered the news with narrowed eyes, a flicked tail. “Can she control it?”
“What does that matter? It’s improper.”
“Improper? Verne is thedefinitionof proper. So she’s indulged one… transgression. The rest of this, she’s played by every etiquette. Even letting you live.” Tyvo’s voice dropped to a growl. “Iwouldn’t have.”
Antal backed toward Fi.
She agreed: time to call this a failed plan and get out before the very crusty daeyari got very fed up with their intrusion. Her gloved fingers brushed the hilt of her energy sword, warm from body heat beneath her coat.
Tyvo’s molten eyes snapped to her.
Static pricked Fi’s tongue. Too fast to react as the daeyari appeared beside her, one icy hand locked around her wrist, blocking her from grabbing her sword. A claw tipped her chin. She froze as the point pinned soft flesh, curses boiling her tongue.
“But who’s this?” Tyvo purred.
Nope. Fuck him and everything about—
