The bitch had opened a concealed panel to reveal the bed she’d slept in so Emma went around the room patting the wall until she found one that had … well, some sort of textiles that looked like it could be used to cover her.
It really looked more like togas.
Shaking her head, she pulled one out and struggled into it. It kept sticking to her, which made it difficult to situate, and when she finally got it on she had about a foot too much fabric around her feet, but it was wonderful to be mostly covered after so long. ‘Mostly’ because it was made a lot like a toga and that meant her arms and shoulders were bare.
After a search revealed nothing like a shirt, she held the gown up and headed over to the bed. It took some effort and she thought the whole damn thing would unravel, but she managed to tear a strip off the bottom so she could walk without falling on her face and then she took the strip she’d removed and tied it around her shoulders like a shawl for comfort.
Not beauty.
She was pretty sure she looked worse than she had when she went into the tank.
Which really sucked since she ran into Kadin as she headed out the door.
Literally.
She’d discovered the bitch had taken Nye while she was trying to bathe and that alarmed her so much she ran to the door to charge through it and slammed into Kadin, who was standing in the opening, and bounced back, landing on her ass.
Chapter Fourteen
Kadin made a grab for Emma and missed as she ricocheted off of him.
She slammed into the floor on her ass so hard she bounced twice before she stopped moving, looking up at him with her mouth open in shock and her face turning blood red.
Peripherally, Emma was aware of embarrassment over her clumsiness, and pain, and also gladness to see that Kadin didn’t seem to have come to harm, but her primary focus was on the baby and she bounded up almost before she’d skidded to a halt. “She took the baby!” she gasped.
Kadin tensed, frowning as he grabbed her shoulders and gave her a little shake. “Who? Who took him?”
“That … bitch …that stayed here last night. She suggested I needed a bath and then picked up the baby and left while I was bathing.”
Kadin looked like he was having trouble following, but after a moment some of the tension left him and a half smile twitched his lips. “Princess Valee?”
That jolted through Emma like a douse of cold water. “What?”
“Chief Amarl’s daughter, Princess Valee? She was sent to attend the young king.”
Confusion, fear, and dawning anger flooded through Emma. “She wassupposedto take him?” she asked blankly.
Kadin frowned and spoke to one of the men standing guard outside the room. After a rapid fire exchange in another language, he turned to her again. “She has taken him to the dining hall to break his fast. I will take you so that you can see there is no cause for alarm.”
That didn’t actually answer her question and it was a pressing one as far as she was concerned. Had the baby been, basically, taken from her already? Or had the bitch just taken advantage of the distraction?
Almost more disturbing was the fact that the baby hadn’t cried or in fact raised a fuss of any kind and he wasn’t keen on strangers.
Kadin seemed to notice that she was still distressed as he guided her along the corridor. “She is ….” He paused, apparently trying to figure out the relationship. “Cousin, I think. Her father, Chief Amarl, and Nye’s grandfather were brothers.”
Emma didn’t find that information particularly comforting, but some of her tension eased.
She hadn’t considered that he would have relatives—and she certainly should have. She frowned. “Sooo, Nye’s father was Hirachi? And his mother Satren?”
Kadin looked uncomfortable. “Nye is the product of genetic experimentation by the Sheloni. His mother was an Earth woman. One of his fathers was Hirachi and one was Satren.”
Emma halted in her tracks. “You aren’t serious?”
His lips flattened. “Deadly.”
Emma blinked at him. “How did …?” She broke off when the answer immediately presented itself. “His mother was taken by the Sheloni?”
The comment clearly surprised him, but she couldn’t tell if it was because she hadn’t pried into his background, because she wasn’t exactly stunned about the genetic experimentation, or because it seemed it had just occurred to her that it was the Sheloni kidnapping people all over everywhere. “Yes. As was my mother.”
Emma gaped at him, realizing abruptly that she’d noticed at once that he had traits of both races—just like Nye. She’d just assumed it was because the mother was one and the father of the other tribe or species. “It’s considered irresponsible and unethical to experiment with people like that—which is why it’s illegal on Earth. At least, in the U.S. I couldn’t say about some of the other countries experimenting with DNA.”
A jolt went through Kadin at that. “Your people experiment with … this sort of thing?”
Emma shrugged. “In a way we have for a very long time—to improve food crops. We just never considered it genetic manipulation and, of course, we didn’t really understand it or have the knowledge to mess around on an atomic level like we do now. But it’s restricted to plants and lower animals. They’ve cloned some animals and also added genetic code to alter some species—like, this scientist added spider DNA to these goats to produce super strong fibers that could be used to make super textiles.”
The dining hall was filled to bursting when they arrived. Emma hadn’t expected it. There hadn’t been anyone on the ship they’d left Earth in except her, the baby, and the three guys. Of course, she knew this ship had more. She’d seen the warriors, but she’d had no idea there would be so many!
She didn’t
