I met its horrified gaze and shifted the angle of the blade, charging forward with the intention of driving the sword in through his chest plate and out through his spine. I don’t know if this one was psi, or not, but he didn’t stick around.
No sooner had the sword tip touched the hardened armor covering his breast, than he was gone, the silver ripple of an emergency teleport tearing him out from under my attack.
“No!” My shriek of frustration joined Mack’s roar of denial as my momentum carried me forward and I skewered the king through the side.
As he fell, I remembered Stepyan’s request, sweeping my blade out of the falling king’s armor and reversing it in an arc that severed the ill-fated arach’s head. His death triggered a scattering of silver light as the remaining arach left the field, and I wondered what it meant.
If the king called the shots and gave the orders, what were the others going to do now he was gone? Did they have to impress the queen to avoid being slaughtered because they’d failed a would-be suitor? How did that work, anyway?
“For fuck’s sake, Cutter!” Mack roared across the battlefield at me, clearly unimpressed.
I wasn’t impressed either. There was nothing left to kill and energy was burning through my limbs like an out-of-control fire. I wanted... No, I needed...
“I got you, Cutter. There’s plenty to kill up here.” Rohan’s voice was unexpected, as was the sudden dissolution of the battlefield.
I spun, stumbling as the rough ground vanished, replaced by smooth decking. Rohan spoke again.
“Go get ‘em.”
“Get who?” Was a question that answered itself as I grounded myself and took note of my surroundings.
The little turd had teleported me back on board the Shady Marie and set me in the corridor leading to the command center. There were wolves everywhere, a whole squad outside the teleport center, and another heading away from me toward the elevator that would take them to places like the crew quarters and medical center.
Well, I couldn’t let that happen. I remembered what I’d seen in their complex on Rennet’s World, and charged. Mack was probably going to skin Rohan when we got the ship back, but he’d probably thank him, too.
“Don’t bet on it.” Mack sounded even more pissed than when I’d killed the arach king.
“Please, hurry,” Rohan begged. “I couldn’t reach him.”
Something in the kid’s tone said there was a lot he wasn’t telling us. Like how he was operating the teleport system when Tens had been in control only minutes before.
“He locked me in.” I caught guilt and mortification in the boy’s tone and began to understand what Tens might have done to keep his protégé free.
“You’re in the teleportation section?”
“I was... You were all I had time to grab. Mack was too far.”
“He was? But he’d been right on my heels when I’d gone under the ants.”
“You’re a good bit shorter than I am, girl.”
Oh, well that made sense.
“Ants weren’t nearly as accommodating when I tried to pass.”
As if that was my fault.
“It kinda was,” Mack informed me. “No critter likes a small whirlwind running under their vulnerable bits demanding passage before gutting the first opponent it meets in front of them. Gave them food for thought. I had to ask for permission to pass.”
“And I took you before he was clear of the battle.”
“Damned arach took a bit to put down.”
“Sorry, Mack,” Rohan apologized. “You got teleport capability, or do I need to try and jack the ’port system?”
“Just give me the coordinates. Damned wolf here thinks it’s funny we consider ourselves the only ones teleport capable.”
Given he’d needed us to get him to the battlefield, I found that somewhat perplexing. Rohan’s next words explained it.
“He does have allies in the system...and I don’t mean the Rennet’s World wolves.”
I remembered. There’d been several ships jump in, allies to the wolf captain. They’d taken the mercenaries. I paused. I hadn’t known wolf ships had teleport capabilities?
“These do,” Mack informed me, and I couldn’t help thinking that that was all kindsa wrong.
A sharp yap echoed down the corridor and I had no more time for conversation. I suppose it had been going to happen eventually. I hadn’t been able to stand still, shifting from one foot to the other with increasing rapidity as I’d listened to Mack and Rohan, the noise carrying down the corridor.
“Gotta go,” I told them.
“What?” Mack asked, just as Rohan said “Uh oh.”
I was already moving, hitting the floor and rolling as solids whistled through the space I’d been standing. More rounds followed me, blowing chunks out of the ducking as I rolled to one side. They followed me as my back hit the wall, and I raised my hands, keeping hold of the blade with my thumb and one finger.
No way was I going to let it drop with my face just below it.
The rounds chewed up the deck, but they stopped just short of my armor.
“You wreck another set of armor and you’re gonna be fighting naked for a good long while until I can replace it,” Mack warned.
“Screw you, Mack,” I muttered as a set of boots cautiously approached and a large brown-furred lupar stooped to take the blade from my hands.
The wolf cocked his head, a snarl rippling along his lips. I resisted the stim-fueled urge to snarl right back. Hell, I even managed to drop my eyes...if only to hide the fact I was going to rip this cur’s throat out with my bare hands if I could manage it.
He lifted the blades away, and straightened, backing up a step and making damned sure I could see the blaster in his hand.
“Up,” he ordered. “Slowly....”
“Slowly, Cutter,” Mack urged. “I’m coming.”
“Just don’t come through, here,” I told him, moving slowly into a crouch and preparing to stand.
“Too
