Page 64 of Taken to Lemora
“Yeffa. I’m so sorry, Raingar. I don’t know how the ship broke free of our shields. All I know is that three dead Rekkaru and the Egama are all that this assassin left behind.” She sniffles and my heart breaks. Those were beings of Lemora. They wereoursand, like Essmira, like Gorman, this bastard stole them from us.
“Those are shieldsyousold us, Rhorkanterannu,” I seethe. “How did he get through them?”
Ashmara speaks first. “Shields are nothing to him. He’s trained to disable any and all of them, but he…did he…” She clears her throat. “What about the Egama that were with him on his ship? How did he leave them?”
I seethe, “With their tongues cut out.”
“He tortured them badly. I’m not sure for how long, or if they’ll ever recover. Neither mentally nor physically,” Merquin adds.
“Shrov,” Ashmara says, sounding painfully sincere. “He’s a killer. He’s been hunting me for rotations. I know what it’s like to go toe-to-toe with him. I…” She clears her throat and when she speaks again, the tenderness I thought I’d heard is all rotten off like the moldy skin of some fruit. Only saccharine, dead flesh remains. “Anywho. Sounds like ayouproblem, and not one that I can help you with…”
Rhorkanterannu’s voice cuts in strong and deep. “I need you to drop your shields, Ashmara.”
“Oh my stars, you almost got me there. I almost thought I heard you suggest that I drop my shields? Hah hahah hahhhh!” She laughs in this horrible, theatrical way that makes me cringe.
Even Rhorkanterannu’s stoic silver mask slips when he winces. “Ashmara!” He barks a bite that stings…
…but she doesn’t back down. “Centare! You listen to me, you ugly thug. You think I’ve managed to avoid the Killer of Sky by walking around with a target strung around my neck? That’s called a noose, in case you were wondering sweet little Rhorky bear, and that’s how Eshmiri reavers get strung up. Nuh uh, pirate. No shroving way.”
The pirate Rhorkanterannu bears down on the arms of his huge metallic seat with his upper two hands. The two lower hands remain out of the picture, even has he starts to lift out of his seat, like he wants nothing more than to come through the screen and throttle the female, whoever she may be.
Ashmara. An Eshmiri reaver. Which makes no sense because reavers are only male. A female Eshmiri reaver should be exceptional, but I don’t pay attention to these things and have never heard of her. There are billions of creatures in the known Quadrants and a billion more in the unknown ones.
And all I care about is one right now.
I blurt, “Drop your shields. Once we recover Essmira and gut this bounty hunter, we’ll go to the rendezvous point with Tyto. He has fourteen tuns of kintarr in his possession and I guarantee that’s what he’ll use to pay your hunter with. If you help us now, it’s yours.”
“Half is yours,” Rhorkanterannu amends, as if this were always part of the plan and not something I’ve suggested spur of the moment. The bloody pirate.
Ashmara makes a loud squawking sound. “You bloody pirate.”
“You good-for-nothing reaver. Do we have a deal? We don’t have time to waste. He could be to Tyto already and this deal only works if you drop your shields now.”
Another pause. This one tears through me like paper. In the background, I hear bottles clinking and then the sound of the female releasing a loud belch. “Ughh. Fine. If he guts me, don’t say I didn’t die a hero.”
Her audio cuts out, leaving me facing Rhorkanterannu once more. It feels like we’re alone as Merquin and Reyna and Tana all make plans to grab the battleship and pick each of us up from our keeps directly — an act that, in my life span, has never been done.
“Are you happy with this plan, clan chief?”
My shoulders tense by my ears. The ringing in my horns is silent. “Yeffa. So long as I get Essmira back.” I pause. “And so long as I get to kill someone.”
He smirks, “Good. Then bring weapons. A lot of them.”
“Why are you helping us, pirate?” I squeeze my fists tight, watching him…waiting for the deception to become clear because pirates are always deceiving.
He grins to show all of his pearlescent teeth. “Like you, I happen to have a soft spot for humans.” He slowly stands and starts to turn away from me and just before the holo screen cuts out, I see a shocking thing:
Trapped against his chest, sleeping like the dead, the pirate king Rhorkanterannu was holding a baby.
And that infant had brown skin that looked just as soft as Essmira’s, even though it had four arms.
That baby was half-Niahhorru.
And the other half? That was human.
16
Essmira
