StarShadow

by CJ CADE

  Arek greeted the other woman with raised brows. "Reva... does your father—and mine—know you're here?"

  The young woman blushed to the roots of her strawberry blonde hair. "Well, they do now."

  "What are you doing on a military mission?"

  Mia watched their interchange warily. Arek obviously knew this Reva well enough to scold her. Was she the reason he'd suddenly turned icy toward Mia? Oh, goddess, had he been cheating on her with Mia?

  When T'Van slid his arm around the woman and smiled proudly, Mia nearly swooned with relief. "Reva is now my wife-to-be."

  Arek looked surprised, but not displeased. He congratulated the happy couple.

  "She's also our quartermaster," T'Van went on. "And a good one, too. Wait till you taste her cooking—damn sight better than mine."

  "Or any of ours," said L'Nola, a lean blonde with freckles. "I'm real glad she's here."

  "So, what will you have to drink? We have ale, water or malberry juice."

  "Better make it ale," Arek said. "We've had a rough day."

  The Aurelians laughed.

  "Were the pussies mean to you, Commander?" one of the warriors asked, as Reva handed out chilled ales.

  "The only wildlife we had besides rockrats, and you had to go and annihilate them," said another.

  "Next he'll be after those little birds that sing in the trees," T'Van chimed in. "The ones you like so much, Reva mine. Better not feed him until he swears to leave them alone."

  She laughed, then shoved him away. "Ask our guests to sit, and I'll get drinks."

  As if he'd just remembered she was there, Arek gestured Mia to one of the camp chairs, then ignored her again.

  "This is what I have to put up with after routing those fur-covered menaces?" he said to his friends. " I'm already sorry you found us."

  "I'm not," Mia assured them with a glowing smile. "I thought I was hallucinating, but I've never been so glad to see anyone. But how in the universe did you all come to be here?"

  "The real question is, why weren't you here sooner?" Arek demanded of T'Van. "You were scheduled to land two weeks ago."

  T'Van winced, and Reva moved to stand at his shoulder, looking nervous but determined. "That was my fault. I sort of...hitched a ride through the jump device, and wound up traveling with T'Van."

  He shook his head, reaching up to put his hand over hers. "Reva, for the hundredth time, that was not your fault. There was something wrong with that quarking jump device. Anyway, we both landed somewhere far, far from here." He grinned crookedly. "Had to hitch a ride with a friend. We'll tell you that story sometime."

  "As to why they are here," Arek said. "They're here to do what they did—keep us alive."

  She looked from face to face, wonderingly. "You mean, you planned this ahead of time?" she asked T'Van.

  "Well, Arek's father did," T'Van said. "The general likes to be prepared for eventualities."

  "Such as his son being mauled by furry little bots," L'Nola added, grinning.

  But two of the warriors exchanged a look, and Reva looked down rather than meet Mia's gaze. There was more to their presence here on this planet than helping Arek win the race, Mia realized.

  But if Arek didn't wish to tell her more, she could hardly demand he do so. Especially when he wouldn't look at her or speak directly to her.

  Even as furious as she was with him, she was in awe of his team's coordinated efforts. The Aurelian military clearly had access to a jump device of their own, or to Octiron's, and had used it to support their prince in the Race.

  "Well, thank you for saving my life," she said politely, and sipped her ale.

  T'Van gave her and Arek another strange, amused look. Mia decided to ignore them both.

  "May I help you with anything?" she asked Reva.

  The redhead smiled at her as if Mia had offered her a huge gift. "Yes, thank you. I'd like that."

  They ate supper under the dusk. The food was similar to what she'd been eating on the Starry Night.

  The Aurelians ate with gusto, but Mia's appetite had deserted her. She sipped her ale and pretended to eat, listening to Arek and his friends talk and laugh. They were all so easy together. The others treated him with respect, and affection, and he and T'Van seemed as close as brothers.

  She just wished she had friends of her own here to even the tables. Surrounded by these tall, stalwart warriors, she felt as alone as she had at the beginning of the race—or possibly more so, because for a few, dizzying hours it had seemed she and Arek were truly partners, even companions. Lovers.

  But all that had come crashing down. And how was she to even probe at the reason why, if he wouldn't speak to her?

  After the meal, she shot out of her chair as soon as Reva rose, and helped her clear away the meal.

  T'Van and Arek walked a little way away to inspect the contents of the storage pod while the others lingered to help, then went off on their own tasks.

  Mia looked out at the dusk falling over the gentle landscape, the sky a lovely lavender shading into blue over the sea. "It's so lovely here," she said to Reva. "Hard to believe it's full of the traps. What kind of monstrous beings would do that to a place like this?"

  "I know. They consider themselves scientifics," Reva told her, her face tight with disgust. "But I'm with you—they're really monsters. Reports in this galaxy show that hundreds, perhaps thousands of travelers have died here. The team found a trap east of here that looks like a kind of outdoor playground... but let's just say, it wasn't. The team spent two days springing the traps there."

  Mia shuddered. "Did they have to destroy the place?"

  "No. Some they disabled. But some are psi-traps, and none of us have psi. Do you?" the blonde flushed. "Sorry—I don't mean to pry. I just don't know much about Tygeans."

  "No psi powers here," Mia said. Unless one counted her feline senses, of course. But it wasn't as if she could move objects with her mind, just sense that they were there.

  She looked to the grassy knoll beyond the camp. She was tired, sore from the fight, and a little achy from her sexual exertions with Arek. But just thinking about him made her restless.

  "Any chance we can go for a walk?"

  Reva pointed to a series of thin white stakes in the grass around the camp. "I'm sorry, I need to finish preparations for breakfast tomorrow. You're welcome to walk around, but stay inside the perimeter for now. We widen it out every day, but there's so much we don't know yet about the traps left here. We can't take chances."

  "Sure," Mia agreed. "Having experienced one of their efforts already, I understand."

  She strolled to the highest point and turned slowly, taking in the view. A gentle breeze stirred her hair, bringing the scent of grasses and the sea with it. As she walked down the hill toward the pods grouped in the hollow, the murmur of deep voices traveled on the quiet evening air. Arek and T'Van on the other side of the pod, hidden from view, but well within hearing. She stopped, listening wistfully to the ease in their conversation.

  "... build a settlement down by the sea," T'Van was saying. "River comes in there, bringing fresh water, and making it easy to travel by water. A road alongside it, and we're set."

  "So you're ready to stay here?" Arek asked. "You and Reva?"

  "Me and Reva. Nothing for either of us to go back to. Neither of us have family like you. Although it sounds like you may be moving on too, yeah?"

  "Yes," Arek agreed. "The high council has plans, it seems."

  Mia was eavesdropping, and she really should move on. But then, though Arek lowered his deep voice, she heard the word 'Bryght'. She froze, holding her breath.

  "Really?" T'Van asked. "An embassy on Bryght? That's a new direction."

  "It's time," Arek said. "The Tygeans are open to our overtures, according to the general."

  "Start with them, and move on to talks with the other Alliance planets, huh? Hey, is that why you partnered with your pretty little Tygress, by chance? Show the Tygers we can be allies in more ways
than one?"

  Arek answered too quietly for Mia to hear his words.

  But it didn't matter.

  She'd heard more than enough, including the way the two men chuckled together. Laughing at the way he'd inveigled his way into her arms... and even worse, into her trust. When he, and probably T'Van and the rest of them, thought she and her people were sly, untrustworthy felines.

  Her supper an icy knot in her stomach, she turned blindly and walked away. She stumbled once on a tuft of grass, and righted herself, then walked on. Past the galley pod, which was empty now. Past the white stakes in the ground, and down the hill. Anywhere, as long it was away from the Aurelians.

  Especially one Aurelian in particular. Her lying, conniving, seducing liar of a Race partner. Who'd slept with her, and probably gotten himself assigned as her Race partner, because his people wanted an 'in' with hers. A channel to diplomacy.

  Probably so they could take over the Alliance, she thought bitterly. A clandestine coup from the inside, instead of shooting their way in with their warships.

  Something whizzed past her ear and flickered at the edge of her vision. She flinched, and then glared at the spybot hovering before her at eye level. Great, Octiron had found them again.

  "Go away," she hissed.

  "Sorry, Tygress," Deuce said in her ear. "No can do. May I assist you in another way?"

  She crossed her arms and glared at the tranquil copse of trees below on the hillside. "Yes. You can find the nearest psi-trap for me. In fact, find the worst one on this planet—so I can throw my partner into it!"

  "Erm," Deuce said. "That's also a negative."

  "Then just... be quiet. Please." While she attempted to calm herself enough to return to the Aurelian camp and face Arek without rearranging his face more than the mawwr bots had today.

  And if the thought of hurting him physically made her stomach knot even tighter, that was too bad.

  "Mia?' asked a familiar voice.

  Startled, she looked through the evening shadows on the edge of the trees, and into Tenn's smiling face. "Tenn! What are you doing here?" Not only on Altaria, but near the Aurelian camp.

  He strolled out of the trees toward her. "The same thing you are, I imagine. Here to complete a challenge. But at this moment? Trying to escape my partner—at least for a little while."

  She huffed a laugh that tasted bitter on her tongue. "You got that right."

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  On the other side of the knoll, Arek gazed out over the Altarian sea, shaking his head. "I don't know how we came to be assigned partners," he told T'Van. "But Mia is... she's unexpected. Strong, for a civilian."

  "Too bad she's so short," T'Van said, waggling his brows. "We could train her as a warrior."

  Arek snorted. "I don't think she has any aspirations toward the military."

  "Or a spy, then," his irrepressible friend went on. "You said it yourself—Tygeans are sly, sneaky as all hells."

  "Not this one," Arek said slowly, the words dragged from the depths of his heart. But the sec he'd voiced the words, he knew they were true. Mia was hardly a slinking felinoid. "She wears her emotions on her sleeve, bright as that damned Race medallion."

  A beep sounded, and T'Van straightened, looking to the surveillance com on his wrist. "Huh," he said. "Then why is she outside our perimeter, headed straight toward your competitors' camp?"

  "What?" Anger firing in his gut, Arek turned and jogged around the pod, and to the top of the hill. T'Van signaled for him to drop near the top, and they crouched behind the tallest clumps of grass, and peered down the hill.

  There stood Mia, facing Tenn. The two humans were laughing together. Arek cued his com, and their voices sounded in his ear.

  "You got that right," Mia said to Tenn.

  "Your partner is as big a disappointment as mine, huh?" the smarmy human asked her, oozing sympathy.

  She answered, her voice edged with bitterness. "Well... let's just say I trust him to keep me alive, but not for much else."

  Arek realized he was growling under his breath when T'Van nudged his arm, and gave him a 'what the hells' look. He blew out a breath and fought for his habitual calm. Why would the Tygress mistrust him? He was the one who had cause to not believe her.

  "Whoa, thought you and he were a tight team," Tenn was saying, moving closer to Mia.

  "So did I," Mia said quietly. "I thought we were getting to know each other, you know? But I've just been proven wrong."

  Wait, what? Arek stared at the back of her head, his mind racing. She'd just been proven wrong? What did that mean?

  T'Van nudged him again, and pointed to the copse. Arek saw movement in the trees. He stiffened. The Serpentian, Naali was there, slithering nearer and nearer to Tenn and Mia. And she had her laser drawn.

  Either Tenn's appearance was a trap set by him and Naali, or Naali suspected Tenn and Mia of colluding against her. In any case, she looked ready to shoot someone. And furious as he was at Mia, Arek sure as hells wasn't going to sit by and let her be harmed—not in any way.

  Someone else dropped into position on T'Van's far side. L'Nola, with a long-sight laser in her grasp. "Want me to take out the Serp?" she breathed, already sighting in with her weapon.

  "Fry her weapon if you can," Arek decided.

  The blonde curled her lip in disgust. "If I can?"

  She fired, and below them the Serpentian woman gave a hissing cry of pain and staggered back, clutching her empty weapon hand.

  Tenn ducked, then grabbed Mia and hauled her in front of him, facing up the hill. "Don't shoot!" he yelled, holding Mia as she struggled, her eyes wide with shock.

  "Tenn, what the hells are you doing?" Mia demanded.

  "Staying alive," the man said. "Now stop fighting me. I don't want to hurt you, but I will if I have to."

  "I got a good headshot," L'Nola told Arek. "Want me to take him out?"

  Then Tenn screamed, and Arek smiled crookedly as the man staggered back, letting go of Mia to clutch at his hands.

  "What've you done?" he wailed, holding up his hands, now oozing blood.

  "No need to shoot," Arek said. "My partner's got this one." He vaulted to his feet and headed down the hill.

  "What did I do?" Mia was yelling at Tenn. "You're the one who tried to-to... I don't even know. But you and your disgusting partner were up to something, that much is clear! And ugh—now I have your blood all over me."

  As Arek reached her, she was wiping her hands on the short grasses that filled in under the taller clumps.

  Tenn was whining and carrying on, cradling his wounded hands as his partner ran from the copse to his side. "Don't go near the feline," Tenn told Naali. "She's some kind of shifter freak. She clawed me."

  "She's a Tygress, you spineless idiot," Arek told him. Then he pulled back his arm and punched the man square in the nose, feeling cartilage crunch under his knuckles.

  Tenn fell backwards, pulling Naali with him. They landed on the ground in a tangle, Naali hissing in fear and fury.

  "Can I shoot them now?" L'Nola called from the hilltop.

  "Sorry, not today," Arek said. "But you can put them in restraints and put them back on their ship. Their Race handlers can come and pick them up—or not. I really don't care what happens to them, as long as they're out of our way."

  "I don't understand any of this," Mia said, hands on her hips. "Why did one of you shoot Naali, and what are she and Tenn even doing here?"

  Arek moved to her side. "Team Daybreak has been camped on the other side of these trees. When you walked down here, Tenn saw you and came to chat. Naali didn't like that, probably because she knew her partner wants to do a lot more than talk with you, and came to get rid of her competition, both Race and romantic."

  "Romantic?" Mia repeated, looking repulsed.

  "It was his idea," Naali said, shoving Tenn away. "He said if we captured her, you'd come looking for her, and we could get rid of both of you. But he was too stupid to notice your friends camped right
over the hill."

  "Hey!" Tenn protested, sitting up. "The trees hid them, and their noise. Or maybe it's this fucking planet, I don't know. Go ahead and call the Race handlers. I just want to go home."

  "Don't think you're gonna be going home, boyo," T'Van said, jogging down the hill. He was followed by two more of the Aurelian warriors, one carrying soft restraints. "More like Deep Six."

  Tenn sneered. "I don't think so. My mother is an executive at Octiron. Their lawyers will keep me out of trouble."

  "Damn," T'Van said. "Maybe I should let L'Nola shoot you."

  Mia put her hand on Arek's arm, and he looked down at her. "Your friends won't really shoot them, will they?" she asked.

  "No," he said. "We don't need any blood on our hands. Are you worried about Tenn?"

  "No! I just don't want your friends to get in trouble."

  Turning her back on him, she stalked over to Tenn. She set her hands on her hips and looked down at him in disgust. "I may be a 'shifter freak', but I'd rather be that than a spineless Pangaean garden worm like you. So consider yourself lucky I only clawed your hands, not your balls!"

  She turned on Naali, who regarded her warily. "And as for you, if you're stupid enough to do his dirty work for him, you deserve whatever happens to you."

  With a toss of her long hair, she strode away, up the hill, leaving the warriors grinning behind her.

  "Hear, hear," L'Nola murmured. As Arek passed her, she tipped her head toward Mia and nodded her approval.

  Arek grinned wryly, then followed his Tygress. One thing about this quarking Race—there was never a dull moment.

  * * *

  Mia stopped in the middle of the Aurelian compound. Looking around her, she realized she had no idea what to do next, or where to go.

  She clenched her fists, a scream of pure frustration building in her throat.

  "Mia." This time, the deep voice was the one she most wanted to hear—but only if he had a very big apology on his lips.

  "Yes?" she asked, not looking at Arek.

  A big hand settled in the small of her back. "Walk with me," Arek said.

  And somehow, she found herself doing so, around the pods to the hill where they could look out over the sea. The place where he'd stood earlier, and made fun of her with his friend.