Summer was careful to keep her face hidden, looking out from under the hood to see, clutching the garment to her from the inside so no one would see that she was far too fair to be g’hir.
The city had an air of hopelessness to it and seemed too empty for a metropolis this size. It was clean, much better maintained that any city on Earth, but the warriors here were narrowed-eyed men, some of them clearly drunk, and Ke’lar sped her past more than one brawl.
It was a tense trip to the city’s center. It was full night and the streets well-lit but Ke’lar wasn’t kidding about her drawing attention. Even cloaked, her face covered, she drew the interest of every passing male. It wasn’t her attractiveness—hell, what could they see of her under the voluminous cloak?—it was that she seemed to be the only woman around.
Certainly she didn’t spot any others—accompanied by a half-score of warriors or not.
A few of the warriors were bold enough to step in her path but even those few were warned off by the viciousness of Ke’lar snarls, his bared fangs and ready weapon. She bit the inside of her cheek at every encounter, frightened she would give herself away as human and double their interest in her.
And I was just going to show up here alone with a pack of jewels! Ke’lar was right, I wouldn’t have made it ten feet without one of these guys trying to capture me.
She was trembling by the time they reached their destination, a building near the center of the city, set back from the empty street and fronted by a very neglected front yard. The houses beside it seemed to be abandoned and the whole area rundown and forlorn.
Ke’lar stood before the security panel and thankfully whoever was in the house recognized him because the gate opened.
“That was pretty awful,” she said as soon as they were safely inside. There was no one about to hear her just then but she kept her hood up and her voice low.
Ke’lar threw a narrowed look back the way they’d come. “Not nearly as bad as I expected. We were fortunate.”
“Who is this guy anyway?” Summer asked worriedly as they reached the door. “Is he really going to give you a ship?”
“She,” he corrected.
The door opened and Summer gasped and reared back, away from the large insectoid creature standing there.
Ke’lar caught her, frowning at her. “This is Ezzari, the ship owner I told you about.”
Summer turned toward the creature that regarded her with enormous multifaceted eyes. She wore an elaborately beaded dress over her dark gray exoskeleton and seemed to be looking back at Summer in equal astonishment.
“A human!” she exclaimed—or rather buzzed.
Summer blinked. This creature wasn’t speaking English any more than Ke’lar was but Summer could understand the buzzing as words.
“You did not say you had a human!” Ezzari continued, looking her up and down. “I have never seen one.”
“May we come inside?” Ke’lar asked, throwing a look over his shoulder. “No one must see her.”
“Of course!” she buzzed. “Forgive me!”
She stepped back to allow them entrance and only Ke’lar’s pressure on her back got Summer’s feet moving. Ezzari shut the door behind them, content, it seemed, to stand just inside and stare at her.
“Is that your natural coloring?” the creature asked.
“Yeah,” Summer stammered. With platinum hair she got that question a lot. “It’s all mine.”
The creature tilted her head. “Then all humans are this pale?”
“I thought you were—No, not all of us. But what—what are—”
“She is a xenari,” Ke’lar said with a puzzled how-could-you-not-know-that look.
“Oh,” Summer said faintly. “I didn’t—I mean I thought there were only humans and g’hir . . . and the Zerar. I didn’t realize there were other intelligent species too.”
“The xenari are allies of the g’hir,” Ke’lar assured. “They have been great help in defending us against the Zerar’s incursions. They are an honorable people and great friends to ours.”
“Thank you.” Ezzari inclined her large head but her buzz sounded amused. “But I do not think you have come to my home when the Sisters are so high in the sky with a disguised human in tow to pay homage to my species.”
“I have come to ask a favor,” Ke’lar admitted.
The xenari glanced at Summer. “If you have a human consort your clan would provide all you could wish and more.” Her head tilted. “So I am thinking that she is not yours, Erah warrior.”
“She is mine,” he said, his fangs showing.
“Then what do you need of me?” Ezzari asked. “If you already possess what the males of your species all clamor for?”
“I need a ship. A xenari ship. Tonight.”
“Since you cannot make use of any g’hir vessel?” The xenari regarded him with curious eyes. “An expensive favor since you will need xenari exit codes to leave orbit. So you need the ship and my help to disguise you as a xenari vessel leaving the system?”
Ke’lar’s jaw twitched. “Yes.”