“Because there’s one of you and a lot of them, and they have better technology than your spears and knives,” I said frankly. “If you do that every couple of nights, it’ll freak them out and you’ll be able to kill the last few at once.”
I tried not to think about Squire, the one Caterri who had been nice to me. Was it really right to kill him with the rest? But I couldn’t think about that, not now. That was for later Dana.
“Fine, I’ll check on the human,” the Caterri I called B grumbled loudly from by the fire. I turned to look at N’Ashtar, whose eyes had narrowed again. He looked seconds away from grabbing the Caterri and slitting his throat, which would do nothing but get all of us in trouble. Inwardly, I sighed. Still, I couldn’t risk bringing any attention to him. I made a shooing motion and crawled back in my bedroll, pretending I’d been asleep.
Bad move, because I was greeted with a harsh nudge of their weird buggy legs that was not exactly a kick, but a close cousin. “Are you still alive?” B asked.
“Yes,” I retorted, irritated for a whole bunch of reasons now. “I don’t recommend kicking me. Your leader wouldn’t appreciate his new toy broken, would he?”
B leaned forward, the edges of his long hair tickling my skin in a movement more creepy than anything else. “If you are dying as you claim to be, he does not care what state you are in.”
I gulped, because in that case, I was damned if I did, damned if I didn’t. I tried to casually glance around, hoping N’Ashtar was far enough away he hadn’t heard that. The last thing I needed was him to snap and attack them anyway, because I was pretty sure they would either flee to Kohta as quickly as they could, or decide I wasn’t worth the trouble and kill me on the spot, female or no.
“Yet we do not know if she can be saved.” Squire’s calm, quiet voice came out of nowhere.
“You speak out of turn,” B snarled at him. The irritation he was exuding seemed to transfer to the other Caterri. “We can do what we wish to do.”
“Yet you know he would not wish this.” Squire spoke steadily, although when I looked closer, his hands were shaking. “Askorth wishes to speak to you.”
The name (or what I assumed was a name) sounded like someone was gargling mouthwash, but I assumed it meant one of the other Caterri. “I am busy—”
“Askorth was not asking.”
I had no idea how Squire managed to not even flinch, no matter how nasty B got. Then B stormed away, leaving Squire standing there next to me. It was quiet for too long, Squire studying the area around me. Thankfully, when I looked for him, N’Ashtar had disappeared and there didn’t seem to be any signs of his disappearance.
Squire stepped closer, crouching down in front of me, even as all of his attention seemed to be focused on the others. “It seems to be a strange alien custom, talking to yourself,” he said.
I stiffened, because shit, if he’d heard me, had any of the others?
“You might wish to be quieter next time.” Squire held my eyes for a second and then stood, heading back towards the fire and leaving me alone with my thoughts. Jerk. Was he just paying more attention than the others, or had the others heard me? They could definitely understand me, so if they had overheard us, I was screwed. Yet, besides the change in watch, no one seemed to pay much attention to me over by the floaty machine. Strange.
I let out a slow breath, lying back down and closing my eyes, ignoring the hint of cramps. I couldn’t change what had happened. All I could do was put my faith in N’Ashtar, and do my best to sabotage things from my side.
My lips curled into a ghost of a smile. The Caterri would regret ever kidnapping me.
7
N’Ashtar
I sat on my sleep sack, staring at the faint embers that formed what I allowed of a fire. It was cold even for a N’Akron, but I could not risk a true fire without the chance of being discovered. Even now, I was close but to too far away for my liking. I could still see the camp, but I couldn’t see Dana, couldn’t monitor her safety. It was safest that way, but I hated it.
I did wish I had someone to share the burden with, someone who understood the mystery of human females. O’Rrin would have understood. He had Hetta and had successfully wooed her somehow, but he was back in N’Akkar since she was newly pregnant. Between that and her recent kidnapping, he wasn’t going to let her out of his sight any time soon.
The thought of my deceased brother sent regret and rage rippling through me. As the oldest of two males, I was the heir, and Yrrix had simply been an afterthought. He had been kept around, of course, but only as someone to replace me if something had happened. We N’Akron were bound by honor, and it was not a chiefly thing to do to leave your people to fight while languishing in the back and not risking yourself. No, if we fought, I was in the middle of it.
Yrrix, angry over the rules and how our father had treated him, had stolen Hetta under O’Rrin’s nose and fled with her to Kohta, the Caterri capital, to present her as a tribute and a sacrifice for a small Caterri squad we had taken out a few menlin back. Although it had been Hetta ordering us around that time, it had been easy to see that Dana was right behind her. They banded together, the small human females. It made sense, given they had no proper male protectors.
The honorable thing would have been to face the Caterri head-on, but Dana had indicated she
