Page 30 of Taken to Heimo
I quickly shift to put space between us. I try to hold my breath so I don’t smell him when I answer, “I found it among the Antikythera Council documents.”
“Verax.”
“It’s clearly a trade of some kind, but what I can’t figure out is why the human Council would have this. It’s written in Meero.”
“You speak Meero?”
“A little.” Actually, quite well.
“Then you’ll know that it’s not all Meero. This word here,” he says, reaching over my shoulder to tap the paper spread out on the desk. His claw taps the wordoud. He hisses under his breath, “This is Drakesh.”
I gasp and look up at him and suddenly the unanswered questions that linger between us are relegated to this urgency. I remember. Oud.
“That’s what the male who attacked me called Miari and Raku’s baby. It is aderogatoryterm then?”
“So foul not even I would say it. I have only heard it said three times in my life used to describe beings that are not Drakesh, or are an impure mix of species. Once by my female sire, once by Vendra,” I wince.Vendra, that was his name. Not his title, his name.“And once by Bo’Raku.”
“Oh God,” I belt out, taking the lord’s name in vain. “Oh.” I lift my hand to my forehead and with my free hand, fan my face. “Mm-mm. This can’t be. This can’t…”
“Verax,” he barks. He looks down at me and his fingers curl around the back of my seat. He looks like he wants to grab me, but shows restraint. “What is this? What do you see?”
“I…” I have a suspicion. A terrible one.
I lick my lips and quickly reach for the drawer where more water packets can be found. I fumble with the latch and Krisxox molds his hand over mine, positioning himself directly behind me to do so. My fingers tremble and I heat as he presses my hand in the right pattern and the drawer slides open. He plucks a packet from the silver interior, rips it open with his teeth and hands it to me.
“Thank you, Krisxox,” I whisper.
He is so close, bowed over me like he is. The long strands of his tangled white hair tickle my shoulder when he moves. He looks like…he’s going to…No!
I quickly drain the water, set the packet down and heave, “Mathilda must have been engaged in a trade with Bo’Raku and the Niahhorru.”
Krisxox stares up at the screen, gaze reading over the Meero again and again.
“But the trade couldn’t have gone through.”
“Verax,” he says.
“The kits, they didn’t survive. If that is what is meant byoudhere, then it would have been a trade for a hybrid baby.”
“He could have gotten a lot for one, if he was intending to trade with the Niahhorru. I don’t think they were a part of this bargain. He is writing in Meero only to cover his tracks. But this.” His claw taps on my parchment again.Oud.“This is a mistake. He couldn’t think of one other word to describe the babies.”
Babies. It’s the first time he’s ever acknowledged that that’s what they are, regardless of whether they’re human, Voraxian or both.
“You think this was a failed trade between Mathilda and Bo’Raku then.”
Krisxox nods. “You?”
“Hexa, I do.”
“She will need to be punished.”
Ice spears me in the gut and it’s strange, because as the sickening feeling arrives, I get the sense that he feels it. He crumples slightly, wincing as if in pain.
“That is all you ever think about, isn’t it? Ways to punish humans?”
The unmistakable shudder of the engines interrupt whatever he might have said next. As soon as we steady our descent, I fold up my parchment, tuck it into the pocket of my abaya, then quickly check my hair.
It will be the first time any on the colony have seen it.
