“That probably won’t happen, but the Raas doesn’t want to put you at risk.” He waved for me to follow him. “Come on.”
I scanned the room, spotted the yellow puff that was Furb, and ran to scoop him up. He yipped in protest, his soft fur fluffing up and his spiky tail twitching, but I patted him on the head. “Don’t worry, buddy. It’s going to be okay.”
“You’re bringing that?” Baru eyed the Gerwyn as if it might explode.
I clutched Furb closer. “Of course, I am.”
Baru shrugged, clearly thinking my attachment to the creature was strange. “You have nothing else?”
I shook my head, not bothering to glance behind me again. Once we’d left the room and walked down the corridor a little way, I stopped. “What about the Raas? Will he be coming with me?”
Baru barely cut his eyes to me. “The Raas stays with the ship.”
“Even if the ship is going to be destroyed?”
“Especially then. No Raas would abandon his warriors to die alone.”
My gut clenched. I’d never have imagined that I could feel so sick at the thought of a Vandar warlord dying with his ship, especially one who’d taken me captive, but things had changed. He wasn’t just a battle-hardened raider who loomed dark and terrifying in my dreams. He was a tortured soul who was loyal, brave, and on occasions, tender. And he was mine.
“I’m not leaving without the Raas.”
Baru spun on his heel to face me, the horns buried in his curly hair flushing pink. “What?”
I stood my ground. “You heard me. If the Raas is staying, then so am I.”
Baru muttered something about never being made a raider and being put out an airlock as he grabbed the tip of his tail and worked it between his hands. “You were quiet and scared. Everyone said so. That’s why they gave you to me. You were supposed to be easy.”
I had been quiet and scared when I’d arrived. Maybe it was being with the Raas, or maybe it was something in the air on the Vandar warbird, but I didn’t feel like the timid creature who’d fainted that first day. That version of me seemed far away and foreign.
“The Raas will kill me if anything happens to you,” Baru mumbled, more to himself than to me. “I’m in charge of getting you to safety. If I fail…” He made a squeaking noise, his horns now flaming red.
The last thing I wanted to do was get the apprentice in trouble after he’d been so nice to me, and he seemed genuinely petrified about what would happen to him if he failed. I didn’t want to tell him that if I blew up with the ship, he would too, so he shouldn’t worry about it. That seemed unusually harsh. The ship trembled with another hit, and a siren wailed overhead.
“Listen.” I put a hand on his arm. “I’ll go with you, but I need to see the Raas first.”
He frowned. “He’s busy on the command deck. I can’t take you there.”
“We could go back to his quarters.”
He huffed out a resigned breath. “Fine, I will take you to the command deck, but I’m telling you this isn’t a good idea. You’ve never seen the Raas when he’s in full battle mode.”
My stomach flipped nervously, but I steeled myself. “I can handle the Raas.”
Baru muttered darkly under his breath, and I wondered if I was making a big mistake. Saying I could handle the Raas was a pretty big exaggeration. I hadn’t known him for long, and even though he’d shown me other sides of him, the Neebix apprentice was right. I hadn’t seen him in all situations, and I didn’t know what he was like when he was focused on battle and being the Raas.
I shook off my doubts as Baru led me up through the ship, raiders thundering by us as the ship continued to take weapons fire. They barely gave me a sideways glance as they pounded down iron stairs and yelled Vandar war chants. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as the war cries echoed through the cavernous warbird, the booming voices rattling my bones.
I would feel better once I saw Vassim, I told myself. If I could just talk to him, the fear clawing its way up my throat would vanish. Despite the obvious fact that the ship was under attack, I’d never seen a warrior as fierce as Raas Vassim, and I had faith that he could defeat anything.
Baru stopped at the top of a long staircase, and I leaned against one of the rails to catch my breath. There was nothing easy about traversing the inside of a Vandar warbird.
“The command deck is through here,” he said, inclining his head toward massive steel double doors, “but it’s probably going to be chaotic, so we need to slip in the back and wait until the Raas can be interrupted.”
My pulse fluttered, both nervous at what lay beyond the doors and thrilled to see the Raas again. “Understood.”
Baru stepped forward and the doors slid open. I had no idea if they moved silently or not because the command deck bustled with noise and activity. Like the rest of the Vandar ship, the light was low and iron beams were exposed overhead. Bare-chested raiders in battle kilts stood at dark standing consoles as a siren continued to wail. Machines beeped and warriors called out to each other over the buzz of static in the background. Stretching across the entire width of the far wall was a screen that showed the battle taking place, hulking gray vessels firing red toward us.
Baru tugged me forward and over to one side of the door. No one noticed our arrival, certainly not Raas Vassim who stood on a raised platform with his first officer. My heart raced at
