Skrew quickly lifted one of his feet and kicked pebbles in my direction. He gestured with a nod into the courtyard, where people were becoming curious about our conversation. Whatever was happening between Yaltu and myself, I had to decide how it would end. Either I’d let her go, bring her with me, or break her neck here on the spot. The third option was far down on the list.
“Come with me to Brazud,” she blurted out. “Some of my kin have been taken as slaves. They are being held at the stockyards. They will be sold as slaves or as food. Please help me rescue them. You are a good man. You believe as I do. Slavery is an evil that consumes and breeds everlasting hatred and war. Please, you must help.”
A tear trickled down her cheeks as she gazed pleadingly at me. This lizard-girl was a nuanced creature. She was fighting her own crusade, it seemed, and I’d been caught up in it.
I found her request impossible to decline. I was heading to the city regardless. It wouldn’t be out of my way, and forming a temporary alliance with a knowledgeable and well-connected figure like Yaltu would have obvious advantages.
“I’m going there anyway,” I quickly explained as I watched the gathering crowd. “If you help me search for my missing friends, I’ll help you rescue yours. Agreed?”
“I agree,” she said. “There is another matter.”
“Yes?” I asked.
“I was not entirely truthful with you about Pedaloth. At least, I did not tell the whole truth.”
“Which is?”
“Pedaloth was taken. She returned but she was different. Unlike her beautiful form before, she was mostly machine. My people were divided about what to do with her. Some wanted to slay Pedaloth. They said she suffered and that killing her was right. Others said it was murder. Then, she left. She must have been so lonely before you. . .” She sniffed, and her expression became determined. “I believe the same will happen to my kin in Brazud. We must not let that happen.”
“We’ll find your friends and free them from captivity.”
Chapter Eighteen
“Thank you,” Yaltu said after I promised to help her. She bowed her head a little, and scales glistened in patches along her skin.
“It’s no problem,” I answered.
There was a mission to complete. I had troops to find, and she had kin to rescue. And Skrew was bouncing on his feet like he needed to piss.
“Let’s go,” I said. “Let’s rescue your kin and my friends, okay?”
The three of us walked from behind the stall, almost tripping over a short alien in an organic carapace. Two of its four arms touched the ground, and it turned around to stare up at us with unblinking compound eyes.
“Watch it, flesh-bag,” the buggy alien said in a buzzing squeal. “I’ll pull your arms off and shove them up your asshole!”
Yaltu gasped. I assumed it was because of the insult or the threat, but then the little creature spoke again.
“You look like a familiar face,” the critter spat. “Just like the bounty picture for Yaltu.”
I kept my eye on the little alien as Yaltu quickly covered her head and face with her hood.
“No, I’m not,” she stammered. “I don’t know who she is.”
“You can try to hide it all you like,” the bug-like alien cackled. “But your fear has given you away. The High Lord wishes to collect your head. And we will collect the bounty. He wants to remove your head himself. So, you’ll be coming with us.”
I maneuvered myself in front of my new ally, using one hand to gently push her behind me. “We?” I asked. “I don’t see any ‘we’. All I see is one little bug who’s about to get itself squashed if it doesn’t buzz off right now.”
“Yeah,” Skrew added, “the bug should buzz and go! Or Skrew and Jacob squash it flat.”
The bazaar filled with the sound of humming wings as a swarm of aliens appeared from stalls, storage boxes, and the sides of buildings around us. I swung around to count them as they fixed themselves onto every nearby horizontal surface.
The people in the street began to dive for cover while nearby merchants pulled down awnings, ducked behind their stalls, or threw merchandise into the corrugated-metal cocoons they used as storefronts.
I finished my rough count of the hostiles in front of me. There had to be at least 40 of them, maybe more. They were tiny things, but their numbers meant they could probably smother us.
“Yes,” the alien said, “we.”
I should have known there was a catch with Yaltu’s arrangement. She was a wanted person, and if the bug had its way, it would drag her kicking and screaming to whoever the High Lord was. I’d made an ally in Yaltu, so I couldn’t let them take her either. I didn’t know why they wanted her, but I had some ideas, and they all had to do with her non-support of slavery. I was beginning to have a problem with the local authority figures, but I would have to squash my frustrations for now.
I looked down at the little winged alien standing defiantly in front of me. “Very well, then. Just be warned: killing insects is my speciality.”
I kicked the creature hard, sending it crashing into another standing behind it. My aim stayed on course as the pair of insectoids crashed into two more standing behind them.
Three hard impacts to my back told me three of the aliens had climbed on top of me. They barely weighed 40 pounds. I smashed some of them into paste against a nearby storage crate. I wasn’t sure what they thought they were going to do but—
Another six or seven bugs latched on to me. I ignored them for the moment and punched another pair. My fist made a crunching sound when it connected, and they flew through the air before crashing into a stall. When I reached
