Her Mate and Master (Zandian Masters 6)

sp; He sighed. Duty first.

~.~

“My name is Lily. I’m Captain Rok’s mate.” The copper-haired human female led them to a tiny office with two cots. “This is our medical unit. Is anyone hurt?”

They all shook their heads.

“Hungry? No, you probably don’t eat. In need of crystal recharge?”

“Not yet,” Talia answered.

“All right. Clothing, then. Fitting the children will be tough, but I do have flight suits that should fit you two.” She pulled crisp white uniforms from a cabinet and handed a set to each of them. “My mother is handy with sewing. I’m sure she can convert some tunics into clothing for the little ones.”

Eslyn and the children stared at everything, as if in total culture shock. “I’d like to wash up first, if possible,” Eslyn suggested.

“Of course. We have a shower down this hall.” She led them to the washroom. “Here are some towels.”

Talia let Eslyn shower first and get the children cleaned up then took her turn. The water fell over her in a steady spray, but it did nothing to wash away her mounting panic about being there.

She felt like a prisoner—all choice removed from her. Veck this. She needed to get out of there. The sooner the better. Coming out of the shower, she bumped into two Stornigians. Short and stocky, with a set of vicious teeth, Stornigians weren’t beautiful, but, to her eyes, they were wonderfully familiar.

“Hello?” She spoke in Stornigian. “You’re from Stornig?”

They gave her identical wary glances. “So?”

“Any chance one of you could bring me there? To the Three Pits Tavern in Dumpler?”

She unwrapped the sacred crystal from the waterfall from Tomis’ shirt and held it out. “I’ll give you this.”

The closest one snatched it from her hand. “Deal. Let’s go.” He looked around surreptitiously, like someone might see them and stop their flight. “I’m Jaso. This is Jano.” They hustled her out of there, to the dock and into an old, rusted, and dented airship.

Before she had time to reconsider her decision, the ship had undocked, swooping out into the blackness. A communication from the pod blared over the loudspeakers. It sounded like Rok. “Where in the veck do you two think you’re going?”

“On an errand. We’ll be right back.”

“The veck you are! You can’t just take my ship on an errand whenever you want. What in the hell is going on?”

“Jaso wanted to get a drink at the Three Pits Tavern in Dumpler. Won’t take long.”

A long silence ensued. “Is Talia with you?”

“You guessed it. Don’t ask us. She wanted to go and had the crystal to pay for it.”

A string of curses ensued, most of which she’d never heard before, but apparently they didn’t require answering because Jano flicked off the comms unit while Rok was still midstream.

This was it. She was going back to Stornig. To kick the crap out of Thurn and demand payment for all the years she worked there as a supposed slave.

Then she could figure out whether to return to her species and join in their flight for survival and repopulation of Zandia.

The terrible twisting in her belly would probably go away soon. The heartache? That might, too, although she didn’t think so.

Tomis had been her one and only. She knew it without a shadow of a doubt. Too bad he didn’t concur.

~.~

Tomis roared and threw his fist into the wall, denting the metal. Then he repeated the action.

On the third time, Rok caught his arm. He turned, ready and willing to fight Rok, the messenger of the veck-all horrible news Talia had left for Stornig with Rok’s vecking foster brothers. He was ready to beat him to a bloody pulp for letting it happen, not just for being in the way, but the male threw his palms up in surrender.