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Nix stepped forward with his hands raised defensively. He pulled down the hood of his cloak to show his face. Sestra stepped in front of Liam and crossed her arms, her expression defiant. There was a moment of tension before some of the patrons began lowering their weapons and returning to their conversations. Nix spoke to everyone in the room, “The outsiders are with me. They are no friends of the Ansarans.”
The tavern slowly returned to its raucous laughter and loud conversations and Nix led them to the bar. Liam could feel several pairs of eyes on him as he walked. His right hand remained close to his weapon in case someone decided they didn’t want to play nice. Nix stepped up to the bar and began speaking with the bartender. “We request an audience with him. We will not waste his time.”
The bartender, a muscular Dinari with dark scales that were charred black in some sections, nodded and stepped away from the bar. Liam came up beside Nix and asked, “What the hell are we doing here? Is this going to help us off this planet?”
Nix’s eyes darted between Liam and the others, his clawed hands fidgety. “Patience, we’re meeting an old friend who may be able to give us some answers.”
Ju-Long put his hands on his hips, stretching and popping his back. “This place is shady, but maybe we can get a good drink.”
Liam’s stomach growled audibly, making him rub his hand over his belly to calm it. Saturn let out a short laugh. “You too?”
The bartender returned, scratching one of the charred sections on his face and letting one of his scales fall to the stone floor. His dark yellow eyes moved between Liam, Saturn, and Ju-Long, observing their features curiously. He stood a whole head taller than Liam and looked like he’d been in one too many fights. He wasn’t someone with whom Liam would want to tussle.
“He’ll see you now,” the bartender said. “Down the stairs at the end of the bar.”
“Thanks Riken, those marks are looking better by the way,” Nix said.
The bartender shook his head and returned to cleaning glasses with a dirty piece of cloth. Nix led them to the end of the bar, where a set of earthen steps led down, curving into darkness. Before descending, Nix turned to Liam, his eyes serious, and said, “When we get down there, let me do the talking. He doesn’t take kindly to strangers.”
Nix didn’t wait for Liam to agree before starting down the stairs. He seemed more confident than he was in the spire, despite his occasional ticks. It was as though he was more at home the seedier the setting they encountered. At the bottom of the stairs, Nix pushed through another wood door and led them into a room with a large stone table and curious etchings adorning every inch of its grey surface. Most of the room was taken up by the table and the three large orbs that hung from the ceiling by unseen threads.
At the opposite end of the table sat a fat Dinari with lightly tanned scales and a thick neck. He had vacant eyes that rolled back as he bit into a slab of dark meat with his many pointed teeth. The large Dinari didn’t acknowledge them as they came in. Instead, he finished the last bites of his meal and picked his teeth with a single clawed finger. Juice from the moist piece of meat seeped out of the corner of his mouth and down his neck. It didn’t seem to bother him at all. The fat Dinari wore pants and a cloak that were adorned with colorful jewels, in sharp contrast to the other Dinari whose garments were quite plain.
When he was finished with his meal, he gestured to the long benches on either side of the table. “Nix, it’s been a long time. Sit. Tell me why you bring outsiders into my place of business. Are you trying to scare off all of my customers?”
Nix slid into the seat closest to the gorged Dinari. Sestra took the seat next to him while Liam and the crew went around the other side and sat opposite them. Nix put his hands on the stone table in front of him and let a brief smile cross his face. “Zega, this is Liam Kidd, Saturn Vera, and Ju-Long Ma. They were attacked by the Kraven Throng in their system and have found their way here.”
Zega appeared intrigued. “Found their way how?”
“A wormhole. Liam estimates they traveled ten thousand light years.”
Zega grew silent. He examined Liam and his crew with a mixture of curiosity and revulsion. “They are squishy, like our meat.”
Saturn spoke up first, “I assure you, we are not food.”
“It speaks! A pity, I prefer my food not speak.”
“This wormhole,” Nix said changing the subject. “What do you know of it?”
“The wormhole,” Zega repeated, drifting off into wonder. “It is true, then.”
“You’ve heard of it before?” Liam asked.
Zega made a face like he had a bad taste in his mouth, his cheeks puffing out in anger. Nix shook his head subtly, his face bearing an expression of warning. Nix turned to the fat Dinari and said “Zega, any information you have could be helpful to us.”
“I may know something, but my knowledge will require one favor.”
“I don’t like where this is going,” Ju-Long said.
Zega laughed at Ju-Long’s remark. “I like this one, he catches on quick.”
“What favor do you ask?” Nix asked.
Zega smiled wide, each of his yellow pointed teeth showing proudly. He let out a throaty laugh once again. “You are lucky, Nix. Our goals align.”
Nix’s jaw clenched tight. Their Dinari guide knew something that he wasn’t telling Liam and the crew but he was keeping that information closely guarded. Liam looked Zega up and down. He was far more affluent than the other Dinari he’d seen. He could have been a mob boss, maybe no better than the cronies at Vesta Corporation. However, from experience, Liam knew sometimes he had to deal with the devil he knew to accomplish lofty goals.
Zega continued, his voice growing darker by the word, “This wormhole you speak of; I have heard whispers of the Ansarans devising a machine that can create this anomaly. The machine would not be small, though if my information is correct, a key component of it is.”
“The Ansarans have that power?” Liam interrupted.
Zega’s mouth contorted and he turned toward Nix, speaking directly to him. “Go to Garuda’s moon to the Disciples of Re. There you will find your answers.”
“The Disciples of Re?” Nix asked. “What would that cult know?”
“My sources say they came upon a Gift of Re, the God of the Sun. This gift is said to bridge the farthest reaches of the galaxy.”
The room was silent while Nix processed this new information. Ragnar had flatly denied to Liam that the Ansarans knew anything about the wormhole. Though, if the Ansarans really did create a device capable of producing a singularity, they would surely lie about it to an outsider, as they’d called him.
“Is your source reliable?” Nix asked.
Zega laughed from his belly. “Of course they’re reliable, Nix, if they weren’t they would be dead.”
Liam could feel the sweat seeping through the back of his grey jumpsuit. Zega was sounding more and more like a crime boss, and not the kind Liam liked to work for. His tone as he spoke of death was too casual. There was no paying him back or performing extra favors if a job went south. Zega was not the kind of person he wanted to owe.
“What favor do you ask?” Nix asked.
“I will provide you with my fastest ship. She can make the journey to the moon in a matter of hours.”
“What favor?”
Zega’s eyes traveled down the row from Liam to Saturn, and finally landed on Ju-Long. He looked him up and down with a petulant grin. Zega pointed a clawed finger at Ju-Long and said, “He will be a formidable contender.”
“Contender for what?” Ju-Long asked.
Nix replied first, his head shaking as he spoke. “The Dinari hold a series of fights every year. Zega would ask that you fight for his sector. Sector Seven.”
“What exactly does that entail?” Liam probed.
“Each of the sectors in Garuda Colony, twenty-four in all, put forth two fighters. The fighters wear gloves that deliver sma
ll shocks to the opponent, who fight one-on-one until there is a winner. It can be a brutal sport, with the last man standing reigning over the sectors until the following year. It’s a fiat title, but a lot of notoriety comes from it. Zega’s fighters represent Sector Seven. This year’s fights aren’t starting for a couple of months.”
Liam remembered the bartender upstairs. His scales had been burned to a crisp all over his face and body. Without scales for protection, he wondered how Ju-Long would fare in such a contest. Liam eyed Ju-Long, who sat stolid. He said, “I’ll leave this to you, Ju-Long. You don’t have to agree. I’m sure we can come to another arrangement if need be.”
“No,” Zega said. “No other arrangements. One of you will fight. I have already provided you the favor of information, so choose, outsider.”
“It’s okay, Liam. I can handle it.”
“You’re going to get yourself killed,” Saturn said.
“Enough,” Ju-Long replied. “I’ve been waiting for a good fight. I accept.”
Zega’s smile creaked even wider, his puffy cheeks curling up toward his sinister eyes. His thin tongue licked at his horrible yellowed teeth. The cantankerous Dinari clasped his hands together, still wet with the juice from his meal. Zega’s dark voice slipped out into his dining room, deeper than before. “It will be a fight to remember.”
The Corsair Uprising #1: The Azure Key Page 19