Page 35 of Vindicated

The judgment in this voice was unmistakable. I was sending a raider barely out of training in my place.

“He won’t be once I promote him,” I said. “I am going after the woman. Are you with me or do you wish to join Zarn and investigate the explosion?”

His gaze hardened. “I am always with you, Raas.” As I took off running, he matched me stride for stride. “But I wonder if, by finding the missing refugees from Kashara, we are not doing both.”

I bit back the defensive response I wished to make because I feared mymajakvery well might be right. Bile teased the back of my throat as dark thoughts swirled in my head.

Had I been wrong about Athena? Had Zarn been right to worry about her Zagrath connections? Had I been a blind fool who’d invited a Zagrath into my warbird and into my bed?

I inhaled acrid smoke, narrowed my eyes, and released a rage-filled roar.

Chapter 26

Athena

“They’re missing?” I asked over the strident bursts of the alarm.

Hal’s stricken expression twisted into something less sure. “I wouldn’t say that. It’s just that I’m afraid they got lost in this maze of a ship.” He waved a hand in the general direction of the ship’s core, which was, indeed, crisscrossed with all sorts of floating stairs, swinging bridges, and steel cage tunnels. “I told them not to go far, but Vern was dead set on finding the kitchens.”

Lettie nodded, her own shock clearly fading. “That sounds like Vern. Always hungry, that one.”

“But he went with his friend, right?” Vallia asked, peering into the room behind Hal.

“Dell?” Hal said, as if still learning the name. “He’s a quiet type, and lets Vern do most of the talking, but he did offer to go with Vern.”

I wondered if either man got a word in edgewise with Hal around, but I nodded in agreement with the stage manager. “Then I’m sure they’re fine. They probably got turned around?—”

I didn’t even finish that thought before Vern bustled up with Dell a few steps behind him.

Lettie swatted at her brother. “Where were you?”

The lanky guy looked embarrassed as he glanced back at his friend. “We got a bit turned around, and then we got separated.” His face morphed into a grin. “Then Dell found me and helped us retrace our steps back here.”

“No luck with the kitchens?” Vallia asked, her voice barely audible above the sirens as she pat Vern’s arm sympathetically.

His mouth drooped. “No.” He glanced toward the center of the ship where red light pulsed along with the alarm blasts. “You don’t think there’s a fire in the kitchens, do you?”

I hadn’t given much thought to what the sirens might be reporting on, but I suspected alerts on an alien warbird weren’t uncommon, and I doubted it had anything to do with a mishap in the kitchens. Not with as many raiders as were thundering past us. “I doubt it.”

Vern whooshed out a breath. “Good. I’d been hoping to get more of that Vandar bread. It’s not simnick, but it’s very yeasty.”

Dell hadn’t said much since their return, but he nodded along with Vern, while Lettie rolled her eyes and groaned at the continued bread talk.

“Thanks for bringing him back in one piece,” Lettie said to Dell. “My brother has never had the best sense of direction.”

“Hey now!” Vern spluttered, his cheeks reddening. “I’ll have you know I worked in the shipyards of Kashara. I had to keep track of lots of vessels coming and going.”

Lettie narrowed her eyes at him. “And how many times did you get lost among the rows of vessels?”

“Wouldn’t say I got lost,” he grumbled. “But so many ships look alike. You walk down one row, and it looks just like the one before it.”

Lettie shot me a look that said she’d been right, but she didn’t argue with him about it.

“We’re just glad you found your way back.” I jerked a thumb behind us and raised my voice to be heard. “It’s crazy with all the raiders running around now.”

Vern ran a hand through his short hair. “A few of them almost knocked us off our feet when we were crossing those swinging bridges.”

I flinched at the thought of how the suspended bridges swayed when only one person crossed them. Crossing them as multiple raiders pounded across at the same time must feel like an earthquake.