Page 63 of Taken to Lemora
His finger goes to his ear, likely activating the token — an advanced piece of Niahhorru technology enabling long-range communication, among other things — that all pirates wear. He nods to no one even as he speaks to me, “It looks like he’s held her contract for some time…Over eighty solars.”
“Her contract? HER CONTRACT! He’s sent to…to…tokillher?” I stammer and I’m grateful for Tana then who comes to grab my elbow and keep me upright when all I want in that moment is to collapse into a hole deep in the bowels of Lemora and die there.
“Centare,” he answers in Meero. “It’s a bounty. He’s set to deliver her.”
“But eighty solars? Eighty solars! That’s even before I encountered her in Quadrant One…”
Rhorkanterannu laughs and it’s a dark, delirious sound. Like drums pounding out of time with one another, or bells, but the kind played in nightmares rather than dreams. “You are assuming that the bounty had something to do with you, my Lemoran friend. Your hybrid was coveted long before she ever met you. At least, that’s how it would seem.”
“By who?”
“Can you get us a name, Rhorkanterannu?” Merquin says breathily. “If we know who holds the contract, we can intercept her upon delivery.”
Rhorkanterannu smiles. “Centare, you can’t. He’s too clever for that. But I can tell you who holds the contract. Tyto, of Igmora and Tyto? I know you all are familiar with him. But what you may be less familiar with is that Tyto is a wanted male in Quadrant Two. He killed Igmora in cold blood in front of a dozen witnesses. He hides here on Kor, though I suppose it isn’t hiding, is it? He’s just waiting now for his bounty to show up.”
I need to break something. Need to hurt somethingbadly. The instinct to wage war makes my rough skin prickle. The male I gave fourteen tuns of kintarr to never had any intention of releasing her. The bastard could have saved me a lot of trouble by letting me know, then.
Then I could have done what I will inevitably do to him now that I’m already eighty solars too late. I’ll ram my horns straight through his chest and, while he chokes on his own blood, I’ll snap his cock off like a twig.
“But,” Rhorkanterannu sighs, “you’re in luck. I happen to know that this bounty hunter has a weakness. Only one. A target that’s been on his list for twelve rotations, but who’s managed to evade him all this time. It’s too big a prize for him to pass up. We can use her as bait and lure him in and then, when the moment is right, we’ll strike. I’ll connect her to this communication.”
Before I can ask any more questions, a voice fires into the chamber, loud and female and fully hostile. “Rhorkanterannu, don’t you even shroving think of asking me for another shroving favor…” Though she speaks in Meero, her voice is slurred. She sounds drunk. “I chased Herannathon halfway across the shroving Quadrants for you…”
“And yet, Ashmara, you came back empty handed.” He shakes his head, voice docile in a way I’ve never heard, like he shares some affection for this female. Or for everyone. What happened to the hardened warlord I knew? “How pitiful that you call yourself a reaver…”
“Next time I see you, I’m gonna shove a comet up your ass so big, you’ll shit space dust for rotations.”
Rhorkanterannu laughs. He ohringlaughswhile Essmira is missing, trapped in the hands of a mindless drone, a beast cobbled together by all the Skys’ most terrible parts.Their greatest assassin. Their prized bounty hunter. He did that to Gorman’s face. He cut out those Egamas’ tongues. What is he doing to her?
I breathe a little deeper knowing that this isn’t how a bounty hunter works. He needs her alive and in good condition to make his sale. Tyto has fourteen tuns of kintarr to barter with, atleast.The Sky will want this to go through. They won’t risk this faceless killer hurting her.
“Glad to see all that muuim hasn’t totally dulled your wit.” Muuim. An addictive substance. Is the solution to all of our problems a female addict? I want to reach through the screen and tear the tines in Rhorkanterannu’s spine out with my horns, snapping each one off at the base individually, just to hear him scream.
Meanwhile, the faceless female called Ashmara quips, “What are you talking about? Where else do you think I get my charming personality?”
“ENOUGH! Can she help us with the bounty hunter or not?” I seethe.
“Bounty hunter?” She answers before her voice catches. When she exhales, her voice is shaky. “Don’t tell me. A certainSkybounty hunter is wreaking havoc on one of your operations?” She laughs darkly. “Which one of y’all’s been blessed by Jerrock?”
Jerrock. That’s the name of the male who took my life.
That’s the name of the male who will die by my hand.
“Raingar of Lemora and I are joined in this. It would seem that, for once, our troubles are one in the same.”
“Who’d have thunk it? Filthy pirates working together with you sweet Lemoran cuties.” Cuties? Cuties! “Sigh. It gives me shroving goosebumps. Makes my heart hurt and all, but if that’s all you’ve got, Tintin and I have a preexisting engagement on Evernor with some gladiators…”
“We found Herannathon,” Rhorkanterannu barks, “and right now, I need to send him to you.”
“What the shrov are you talking about? You found Herannathon? You want to send him to me? What the shrov am I gonna do with a four armed idiot on my ship? Tintin and I don’t have enough space as it is.”
“Herannathon made contact after he lost track of the Egama ship. Looks like the Egama weren’t the only ones on it. One of your friends was on there, too.”
Ashmara is quiet. So quiet, I wonder if she’s still there. “Did Jerrock have the human female Herannathon is after?”
“Our sensors caught a human presence when the ship was still outside of our atmosphere, but when the ship docked, the only creatures that disembarked were two Egama. And now, the ship’s gone,” Bebette says, voice pitched as a whisper. Meanwhile, I’m outright shocked.
“It’s gone?”
