“Yeah,” Rattigan said. “And if Horn Tusk gets a second bowl, I want one too!”
Rattigan looked remarkably like a rat with his pinched features, quivering nose, and long tail.
As Maisie turned to Rattigan, I kept my peripheries focused firmly on Horn Tusk. He checked over his shoulders and pulled one of those black poisonous creatures from an inside pocket. He dropped it in the stew pot.
“Off with you, now!” Maisie said, shepherding the lumbering hulk out of her kitchen. “You might be an agent of war, but not in my kitchen!”
Horn Tusk raised his hooves in surrender. “My bad.”
“You ladle what remains of the stew in a bowl for the captain,” Maisie said.
I did as she asked, and was surprised when the black creature Horn Tusk dropped inside appeared not to be there. I knew it could adapt to its surroundings, but this was ridiculous. Maybe it’d fallen out?
I waited as Maisie added some bread on a small dish. She raised her elbows to take the tray.
I pulled it back. “I’ll take it.”
“All right,” Maisie said. “When you get back, I could use a spare pair of hands.”
I hustled out of the canteen. The crew’s eyes followed me as I went. All eyes on me… except for Horn Tusk’s. His were firmly on the bowl of stew.
I moved down the hallways, passing a pair of crew members headed for the canteen. They turned to watch me leave. I felt like a piece of meat in this place. Given the choice between no men taking any notice of me, and suddenly being the center of attention of all these aliens, I preferred to remain anonymous.
I swore I would never complain about my hot friends getting all the attention ever again. It was more trouble than it was worth.
A long hallway stretched away from me. I glanced over my shoulders and hustled into the room I’d been given. It was cramped—even smaller than my room back home—with a single bed and a rickety desk. I was only there for three days. It didn’t matter how comfortable it was.
I placed the tray of stew on my desk before bending down and retrieving a second tray from under my bed. I removed the lid. Steam billowed from it. I’d placed a large candle underneath to keep it warm and it appeared to have done the trick.
And, most importantly, there was no poisonous black creature cloaked inside it. I placed the poisoned soup under my bed and shouldered my door open. I backed out and continued to the captain’s quarters.
I didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until I knocked on the door. When he didn’t answer, I tried again. I put my ear to it and heard him snoring inside.
I shoved the door open with my boot and placed the tray on his large desk.
The captain didn’t hear me enter. He was still fast asleep, tossing and turning, blankets already drenched with sweat.
“Mom…” he groaned. “Mom… No… Don’t leave me… Please…”
He repeated the mantra over and over again. He was having a nightmare—a bad one by the sound of it.
I poked him. “Hey.”
He didn’t wake. I tried again.
“Hey!” I hissed.
His foot snapped out as he kicked at open air.
I grabbed him by his undershirt and shook him.
He howled and pulled his other arm around, bringing a razor-sharp blade within an inch of my neck. He moved so fast, it was over in the time I could blink.
He opened his eyes and found me crouching over him. Then he glanced at the blade and retracted it. “Sorry. Force of habit.”
What sort of habit was it when you had to look out for attackers while you were sleeping?
He leaned back, his head still heavy and groggy. He sniffed.
“Is that Maisie’s stew?” he said.
“The one and only,” I said. “With help from a talented vegetable chopper.”
Nighteko clapped his hands and sat up like a little kid on his birthday.
Even with his sickness, he was incredibly handsome. At least, by human standards. Maybe he was a complete troll to his own species. His eyes were hooded, giving them a smoky appearance, as if he was always looking at you with a beast’s intentions in mind. His body was big, bulky, and muscular. He had some kind of tribal tattoo up one arm and across his chest, visible through the gap in his sagging bedshirt.
He dug into the stew hungrily, slurping, and smacking his lips. He dipped the bread in the soup and sucked on the crumbs. He looked sad to leave the crusts to one side. He ate like a man on the brink of starvation.
Once the bowl was empty, he leaned back and looked up at me. “I’m always hungry when I wake. You must think Titans are terrible beasts.”
“I don’t think anything of your species,” I said. “I don’t know anything about them.”
“Few people do these days. There aren’t many of us left. For example, there’s a ceremony my people perform that helps make them stronger, virtually overnight.”
“Well, if there’s any way I can help, you just let me know,” I said.
“We call it the bond,” he said.
“The bond?” I said. “As in James Bond?”
He frowned at me. “I do not know who this James Bond is. Among my people, it’s a spiritual as well as a physical coming together of two souls merging into one.”
“Okay…” I said, sensing where this conversation was heading.
“The warrior joins with his female to prepare him for his journey into the jungle to bring back food,” he said.
“You’re talking about sex, aren’t you?” I said.
“A crude translation, but yes. To stand the best chance of making a good recovery, I should perform this joining ceremony.”
“With me. That’s what you’re building up to, isn’t it? You’re saying we should have sex so you’ll fight better at the Challenge.”
He smiled. “That’s right.”
“This is amazing,” I said, shaking my head. “I travel halfway around the galaxy and
