Page 68 of Taken to Lemora
Raingar bites his teeth together and closes his eyes tight. He plants both hands back on the wall beside my face brutally, but when he touches me again, this time my shoulders, his grip is soft. He gently pulls me onto my feet, making sure to keep my entire body beneath the cage of his. Shielding me, like a clan chief would do for his miriga.
“Raingar, I love y…”
“Is he contained?” Raingar barks over his shoulder. He doesn’t hear me and my cheeks burn hot. This is clearly not the time for bold pronouncements of love.
“Ontte,” comes the Meero response from a pirate Idoknow. Rhorkanterannu. Everyone knows the pirate Rhorkanterannu of Kor.
He owns the trading port. He commands the pirates. And he’s here. I never thought the pirates would assist the Lemoran with anything. And what’s even wilder? The Eshmiri! They’re known to lie, cheat, and steal and never out of chivalry. I wonder what Raingar offered them in kintarr and a flash of new guilt ruins me.
“Ontte, my ass,” comes a female voice. I recognize this one, too. She was the voice on the other side of the screeching that my captor was listening to so intently.
I strain around Raingar to get a glimpse of her and, when I do, I’m floored. Meanwhile, she doesn’t look half so stunned as I am. Instead, she dismisses me with her bright white gaze just as quickly as it settles on my face.
She dismisses me even though she has the same dark brown skin I do and none of the red. Her hair is a shock of white curls that frame her face and her eyes…her eyes swirl with color, but only fleetingly, before that color dies and returns to a blank white slate.Stunning. Fascinating. I can’t decide if the female terrifies me or if I find her terrifyingly beautiful. In either case, she’s fortunate that Igmora and Tyto never got their hands on her. They’d have pulled the fire right out of her and there’s no doubt that she’s an open flame.
She lifts a weapon — some kind of blaster — and points it across the tiny chamber. I follow the motion and my gaze locks on the male who took me from my home. He has his arms locked in a type of manacle that I’ve never seen before. Radiating blue energy pulses and zaps. It looks like a live wire, like it should be causing him physical pain as it encircles each of his wrists and links them together.
Similar shackles hold his feet apart and nail them to the floor. But he just stands there without an ounce ofanythingat all concerning him. He just stands there like this is already over and he’s won. Or like…he doesn’t even care if he loses.
Andstillevery weapon in this tiny chamber is trained on him.
“Jerrock is contained,” Rhorkanterannu says.
But something gives me the impression that I should believe the female, rather, when she laughs, “Right. Yeah right…” I wonder, distracted, if she’s a hybrid…if she could be human? Her skin is just like mine. But then, maybe not? She didn’t look at me like she recognized me among her same species. Maybe, I’m just looking for humans everywhere now.
“I want his head,” Raingar seethes, turning so that his back is to me. He keeps his arms spread to either side, like the male Rhorkanterannu called Jerrock still might be able to get through all of the others to find me.
The Eshmiri reavers all start speaking at once. Short, squat creatures with thick, muscular chests, they wear rags, leathers, and hides draped all over their ruddy brown forms and speak in a way that sounds like high-pitched giggling.
The white haired female joins them and I’m shocked because she speaks Eshmiri like an Eshmiri.She’s one of them. “Eshmiri are only male,” I whisper.
Raingar chokes out a bitter laugh, “All except Ashmara. But don’t let that fool you. She’s one hundred percent reaver. More psychotic than the rest combined.”
“Well, you can’t have it.” The female — Ashmara — swivels her blaster around to point it at Raingar. Tana and Reyna flash blasters of their own and the Eshmiri all start trilling. “We had a deal, Raingar. First Tyto’s kintarr andthenheads will roll. Any head you want.” She shoves her blaster into the leather on her belt and holds up both hands.
She brings something to her mouth and chases whatever it was with a swig from a hard leather flask hanging on her belt.
The chains on the opposite side of the tight,hotchamber, sing. A horrible smell fills the space and it comes from the sizzle around his wrists.Burning flesh. But then Jerrock settles just as quickly.
But not quickly enough.
“Awww,” Ashmara croons in a cloyingly sweet voice that I don’t like at all. It makes her sound monstrous.Heartless.“Are you worried about me, Jerry Berry?” Jerry Berry? I’d bet my red stripes that isnotthe bounty hunter’s preferred moniker.
He doesn’t reply. He just stares straight forward at nothing.
A moment of silence. Nobody moves. All in all, the situation starts to feel rather unnecessary. Tana breaks the mounting tension and the quiet, “So…what now?”
“Now,” Rhorkanterannu says slowly, “we need our new friend here to tell us where the rendezvous point is with Tyto.” He whips out a lightning stick and spears the male’s stomach without warning.
Jerrock twitches, but doesn’t even buckle. Ashmara, the psycho, laughs, “Rhorky baby — is it alright if I call you that?”
“Centare.”
“Rhorky baby,” she says, not really listening as she picks her way forward around the crowded Eshmiri to reach Rhorkanterannu’s side. I notice as she walks that she’s swaying slightly even though the ship isn’t in motion. “Jer bear has been getting used to torture for longer than you’ve been marauding. Pain is his best friend. You’re not going to get through to him like that.”
Rhorkanterannu sighs, as if exasperated. He pivots towards Ashmara behind him, but doesn’t let Jerrock out of his sight. “Then, what do you suggest?”
She sticks her tongue out of the side of her mouth and squints. Her eyes slit, but I still make out the bright flare of blue that swims across her eyeballs fleetingly before it vanishes. “We could tickle him.” She shrugs one shoulder.
