Broken shards of chitin were pulled out of the wound, and then Tisker did what he could to repair the exposed tissue. They didn’t dare give Scrimshaw anesthetic, for fear of it being as incompatible as the local food was. Best they could do was stop the leak. Tisker washed the blood off his hands when he was finished, scrubbing the blue residue from under his nails.
“I have no idea if that will do more harm than good,” he said, drying his hands on a cotton towel. He shrugged.
Scrimshaw uttered weak protests during the suturing but now was quiet. Xe had a sluggish pulse which they could only measure on the exposed tissue. They’d have to wait and see.
Talis ran her hands through her hair and habitually pulled on her prayerlocks. Sophie mechanically mirrored the pious gesture, and Talis closed her eyes. She hadn’t told them yet. There was too much to do, and she needed them as sharp as they could be.
She felt sick, holding back that secret. Tried to convince herself that a small delay wouldn’t hurt. Silus Cutter had been dead for nearly a year.
“We’ll just have to do this on our own,” Tisker said, voice flat. “What do you remember about the ship?”
Sophie bit her lip. Looked to Talis. “What about Dug?”
“When did they take him? How long’s he been gone?”
“A few hours. It all happened this morning.”
“He’ll be safe for now,” Talis said, desperately hoping it was true. She rubbed her arm. She’d applied Zeela’s salve to the brand and it helped with the pain, but the skin still felt tight and she couldn’t stop touching it, tracing the raised skin where Onaya Bone’s sigil marked her. “We need to do this before the aliens stop focusing on their jailed shipmates and start paying more attention to us.”
Sophie nodded at her. “Okay, where do we start?”
“Scrimshaw was going to draw us a map,” Talis said. She patted xist face again, to no effect. “Without that, I’ve got no idea. The ring could be anywhere.”
“You want to search the ship?” Tisker’s opinion of that idea was clearly indicated by his raised eyebrow.
Talis took a short, steadying breath and squared her shoulders.
“I want to blow up the ship,” she said. “Then search the rubble.”
Chapter 28
The metal ramp touched down, and they waited in silence. After a moment, four Yu’Nyun stepped out. They were dressed in unadorned loincloths and armbands. Lackeys, Talis thought, and hoped that meant her absence from the exchange would not raise alarm.
The aliens paused for a moment, then made their way, a shining plastic coffer rolling between them, down to the docks where Sophie waited.
“Keep them busy,” Talis had told Sophie. All the girl’s enthusiasm for the aliens had left her.
Sophie was armed with paperwork documenting the contract. Between the formality of greetings and introductions, forms to sign, crate contents to verify, and language barriers to cross, Talis figured they had maybe twenty minutes at best. More if Sophie could convince them to let her count the money. It was highly inadvisable to do that right there on the docks where anyone could watch, with the ship empty except for a dying alien in their med bay. The full strength of the mob had not returned, but there were plenty of curious onlookers who gravitated to the scene when the aliens emerged from their ship. Talis didn’t care. She just wanted to keep the aliens on the docks for as long as possible.
She and Tisker watched, crouched beneath the aliens’ own access, as the clutch of birdlike toes pittered on the metal above their heads and the casters on the bottom of the crate made a smooth purr against the ramp. The group reached the ground, and the sound changed to an abrasive rumble on the uneven, sandy surface of the docks.
When the aliens had passed with some distance to spare, Talis nodded. She ducked out from under their hiding spot and vaulted onto the ramp. Tisker followed her up through the open hatch. The leather-soled boots they wore made a soft hush of their footfalls until they passed the bare metal entry chamber of the ship. Once beyond the inner hatch, the thin layer of flat-pile material made their steps completely silent. The quiet hum of the ship’s systems enveloped them as they left the daylight behind. She allowed a moment for their eyes to adjust to the overly bright illumination, and then pushed forward.
They rounded the curve of a corridor and came up behind a Yu’Nyun crew member. By xist simple adornment, no one important. Tisker flicked a blade from its holder with the barest sound. Loud enough that the alien’s head turned, but not before Tisker slipped it between the joins where neck met shoulders. A small sound, barely a gasp, escaped his victim and then Tisker caught the body as it fell forward.
Talis found and opened a small storage compartment with a touch on a wall panel, and Tisker tucked the alien inside, removing his knife only after the body was clear of the hallway. The door closed with a soft hum, slowly enough that Talis could see the blue blood drip and begin to absorb into the carpet.
The latch engaged again with a muted click.
They waited a moment, but there was no sound of alarm, no approaching footfalls from either end of the corridor. Talis nodded to Tisker, and they continued.
Moving silently, as systematically as they could without a map, they took every chance to pass through doors along the interior bulkheads. Their aim was to get into the belly of the ship. Sophie’s best guess put the engine room on a lower deck, balancing the weight of the round vessel. Scrimshaw didn’t wake to confirm the theory before they needed to act.
There was an alien or two posted on each deck, and Talis and Tisker took turns killing them as quietly as possible. Despite the death that had
