The Kindred Warrior's Captive Bride

“Never mind, girl. Just get dressed.”

Then he left her sitting on the bed and went to plot a course.

Thirteen

Need walked down the moss-carpeted, vine-draped corridor and made his way to The Dark Star’s bridge. It was one of the few places in the ship not completely overrun with vines and flowers and greenery because they would have interfered with the delicate navigation and flight equipment. Besides, the mass of overgrown bracken in the middle of the room, there were no plants at all.

Of course that bracken, happened to be the captain of The Dark Star.

Captain Glo’ll was sitting in the command seat in the center of the room, staring at some star charts on the viewscreen. His glowing gold eyes looked out from the tangle of vines and branches that made up his face and he acknowledged Need’s presence by growing a single purple leaf at the end of one twig-like finger—of which he had seventeen on each hand.

“Captain,” Need said, nodding at him. He studied the Cytovian carefully, looking for signs as to Glo’ll’s mood. The vines and branches that made up his body were covered in reasonably green foliage at the moment, which was generally a good sign. It was when he lost his leaves and went bare—or worse, started sprouting thorns—that you had to be careful of him.

“First Mate Needrix.” The Captain nodded back, genially enough. “Come to plot our course?”

“Of course, Captain.” Need cleared his throat. “I understand we’re going to the Goddess’s Cloak galaxy.” Also called the “Milky Way” for some reason, by the residents of Earth—a green-blue planet located there that the Kindred were guarding. It was convenient that it also happened to be the galaxy Genu Six was situated in.

“We are.” Glo’ll nodded, his eyes glowing a bit brighter, Need thought. “And I understand we have another crew member aboard,” he added, a few of his leaves beginning to turn brown and curl up around the edges. “Though it seems to me, I should have been informed of that fact, seeing as how I own this ship and also am her captain,” he added sternly.

Uh-oh. Need watched the browning leaves with concern, though he kept his face emotionless. Clearly Drung had gotten there before him and had already complained to Captain Glo’ll about Lan’ara.

“We do have another person aboard,” he said, as casually as he could. “I was just about to tell you, but I guess Drung already tattled on me.”

Glo’ll frowned and a few leaves turned completely brown and fell off.

“He did come and tell me that you had bought a female and, as he put it, ‘smuggled’ her aboard.”

“Smuggled?” Need barked a short laugh. “If bringing her in through the front hatch where anyone could see her is smuggling then I guess we can all start conducting our business in a more straightforward way. Next time we have a shipment of Gypsom weed, let’s just leave it right out in the open in the main cargo hold when the local authorities come to search the ship.”

“Point taken.” Glo’ll sprouted a few new leaves to take the place of the brown ones that had fallen. “You’ve never acted in an underhanded way before, Needrix, which is one reason you’re my First Mate. Some say there is no honor among thieves but I believe I have to be able to trust my men.”

“Thank you, Captain.” Need nodded. “Drung is just angry because he was bidding on the girl too, at the slave auction, and I outbid him.”

“Yes indeed. Drung informed me that you spent forty thousand credits on the girl. Can that be right?”

A halo of tiny white and yellow buds sprouted around the top of the Cytovian’s head like a crown. Need knew they denoted curiosity and he could understand why. Forty thousand was ten times what most slave girls would fetch, even distractingly pretty ones like Lan’ara.

“I did,” he said, keeping his face calm and disinterested.

“But why? Drung said something about her being special—that he needed her to grow an heir for him.” Glo’ll made a shooing motion with one hand. “It’s so inefficient the way you meat-creatures have to have another of your kind in order to procreate. If I wanted a child, I would simply sprout one from my own branches.”

“Well, I don’t want a child,” Need said shortly. “The girl’s an investment.”

“An investment?” The flower crown bloomed and Glo’ll leaned forward, his eyes glowing even brighter with curiosity.

“Exactly,” Need nodded. “She was stolen from an exclusive private school in the Trell’wick system, right before she was about to be shipped off to a Galactic Senator on Genu Six. Word is that he’ll pay twice what I did to get her back.”

Of course, he didn’t know if that was true or not, but it sounded good and Captain Glo’ll appeared to be suitably impressed—if the necklace of purple leaves and flowers he had sprouted around his neck was anything to go by.