“And what do you offer me in exchange?”
“What do you want?” Summer asked sharply. Despite the bug eyes and the buzzing language Summer was starting to feel like she was standing on a used car lot in Alexandria instead of an alien world.
The xenari turned her big bug eyes on Summer. “Perhaps I do not want for anything, human.”
“Yes, you do.” She hated buying cars and had learned the hard way about getting screwed over. “Or you wouldn’t still be talking to us. You’d have thrown us right out into the street.”
Ezzari stared at her then suddenly started making a weird chirping sound.
It took Summer a moment to realize the xenari was laughing.
“These humans are delightful!” she said. “Even if they are primitives.”
Summer’s eyes narrowed. What I wouldn’t give for a can of Raid . . .
“Ezzari,” Ke’lar prompted, no doubt noticing how Summer’s nostrils had flared. “The ship?”
“Yes, yes.” The xenari waved an appendage. “What will you give in exchange for such an . . . expensive . . . favor?”
Ke’lar indicated the jewels Summer wore and named a sum that made Ezzari’s appendages flutter a bit.
But she sure recovered fast. “I am not saying I do not appreciate the merit of your offer but . . .” She looked around her dismal quarters. “It is hardly enough to make me comfortable.”
Summer gritted her teeth. “And just what would it take to make you ‘comfortable’?”
The xenari turned her huge black eyes on Summer. “The location of your world is a valuable and much desired commodity, human. Yes,” she buzzed. “The sale of that information to a few select g’hir would make me very wealthy indeed . . .”
The breath exploded out of Summer’s chest. “Absolutely fucking not!”
Ezzari gave her as haughty a look as an insectoid could. “If you wish my help—”
“Ezzari—” Ke’lar began but Summer broke in.
“Come on,” she urged, grabbing his arm. “Let’s go talk to that other guy again. It’s pretty far but at least he’s willing to be reasonable.”
Ke’lar’s gaze searched hers for an instant. “I am sorry to have made you walk such a distance,” he rumbled, catching on. “I have dealt with this honored xenari before.” He sighed. “But if it is your wish, we will return to the other ship master and accept his offer instead.”
Ezzari was startled. “Other—?”
Summer opened the door and paused at the threshold to give the xenari an arch look. “Hey, sorry, obviously Ke’lar really would rather work with you but . . .” She lifted one shoulder and pulled her hood up.
“It is regrettable,” Ke’lar agreed. “I think highly of you, Ezzari, and knowing your present difficulties I wished those funds to be yours.”
“A moment please!” The xenari scrambled to follow after them into the courtyard. “Ke’lar—my friend! I did not mean that we could not negotiate . . .”
Twenty
Summer held her breath as Ke’lar transmitted the xenari’s codes, wondering if Ezzari had managed to screw them over after all. Vast, terrifying g’hir warships patrolled the space around their homeworld to protect against any Zerar attack but they would just as easily stop a g’hir fugitive and the human woman he’d taken from her clan.
After an agonizingly long moment the Hironian station sent the signal allowing them to pass through the battleships that orbited this world. Ke’lar piloted the ship past them, only the slight tremble in his fingers betraying his anxiety.
“Well done, my Summer,” Ke’lar said approvingly as soon as they were clear.
“You’re the one flying the ship,” she pointed out.
“I meant with Ezzari.” He gave a huffing chuckle. “I have never witnessed such maneuvering.”
“The only reason I got away with it at all is because she’d never seen a human before,” Summer said dryly. “Anyone else would see right off I was lying through my teeth.”
The xenari ship was not at all like a g’hir ship. All delicate controls and fine shapes, this ship was far better suited to slender insectoid digits, not broad powerful warrior hands.
But Ke’lar was handling the ship beautifully.
“The chairs are pretty comfortable,” Summer commented, settling back into the co-pilot’s seat.
“The padding protects their exoskeletons during space travel.”
“Well, it’s pretty nice under a human butt too.” Summer glanced back at the main part of the ship. “Do you think there’s anything we can eat onboard? I’m starving.”
“I requested the ship be stocked with g’hir foodstuffs,” he assured gently. “You will not starve, little one.”
So freaking literal. Just like—
She swallowed hard.
Just like Emma.
Summer undid the safety straps of her chair and stood. “I’m going to see what’s back there.”