Page 32 of Vindicated

I forced a weak grin. “You know Zarn. Always itching for a fight or an interrogation.”

“He is battle chief,” Dawz reminded me. “That is what we should want from him.”

I didn’t tell mymajakwho he wished to interrogate or about Athena’s Zagrath connection. Not yet. Not there. I cast my gaze toward the door leading to my strategy room.

“Come with me to—” I started to say before a shrill security alert sounded and shattered the relative calm of the command deck.

I’d barely turned before Dawz was at the nearest console, scanning the readouts.

“Incoming vessel?” I asked, glancing back to the viewscreen and expecting to see a Zagrath ship.

He frowned as he met my gaze. “Internal security breech, Raas. There’s been an explosion in the munitions room.”

Chapter 24

Athena

“This is it!” I paused in front of the door I was sure belonged to Lettie and Vallia.

The Vandar who’d been escorting me looked just as uneasy now as he had when we’d first started trekking through the warbird. I’d assumed he’d been nervous to be put in charge of ensuring the Raas’s personal guest didn’t hurt herself on one of the treacherous bridges and walkways that dangled high above the ship’s gaping chasm, but he looked equally unsure now that we’d reached our destination.

“I’ll be fine,” I assured him as he made no move to leave.

He shifted his weight from one exceptionally muscular leg to the other and ran a hand through his shaggy, black hair. “If I leave, you will have to return to the Raas’s quarters without an escort.”

The Vandar really didn’t want me wandering the ship on my own. I exhaled and patted his bare arm. “How about you tell the Raas to send for me if he wants me back there?”

His brows lifted, and I guessed he didn’t want to be the one to suggest this to his boss. I didn’t wait for him to challengemy suggestion, though, and I rapped my knuckles on the metal door.

It slid open almost immediately, and Vallia stood inside while Lettie lay sprawled across one of the small beds, her frilly dress taking up most of it and draping over the side.

“Thenie!” Lettie leapt up with impressive speed, pulling me into a crushing embrace before Vallia could even open her mouth. “We were just talking about you, weren’t we, Val?”

The tiny woman bobbed her head, her lavender hair swishing. “We wanted to make sure you were okay, but we didn’t know how to find you.”

Lettie pulled me inside, and the door glided shut and left my Vandar escort standing open-mouthed in the corridor.

“We did try to look for you a little while ago,” she continued, “well, Vallia wandered around looking for you while I stayed here and finished breakfast.”

“The ship isn’t so scary once you get the lay of the land,” Vallia said, winking. “And once you get used to seeing the Vandar walking around, they aren’t so intimidating either.”

I was glad to see Vallia back to her old self, and Lettie rarely seemed to be anything but her authentic, exuberant self.

Lettie sat on the bed and the mattress groaned in response, as she patted the spot next to her. “Sit, sit. We want to hear all about the warlord and his fancy quarters.”

I sat and Vallia sat on the other side of me, her enormous eyes luminous and unblinking.

“You are sure you’re okay?” The willowy woman touched my dress. “You’re a bit damp.”

I laughed at this. “My clothes being damp is a long story, but I promise I’m okay.”

“And the Raas?” Lettie leaned in close and her bouffant hair tipped forward. “What’s he like? He hasn’t tried anything funny with you, has he?”

I thought about him rescuing me from the bathing pool completely naked and then about poking him in his sleep and him flipping me onto my back. Those weren’t exactly nothing, but they were also more on me than on him.

I shook my head. “Nothing funny.”

Lettie gave me a sly wink. “Well, that’s a shame. I wouldn’t mind letting one of these hot raiders try something with me.”