Imminent Danger: And How to Fly Straight Into It Read online

  Kraigoth hesitated, looking at Eris questioningly. When she didn’t say anything further, he nodded to her and then left the dance floor.

  Varrin pulled her into his arms, and they began to dance. Despite having only one functioning arm, he’s even better than Kraigoth, she thought. Why does that not surprise me?

  “Did you have fun?” he asked.

  “He’s an excellent dancer,” Eris retorted. “Why did you cut in?”

  “In case you forgot, Mimi, you’re my mistress. I’d hardly be playing my role properly if I let you go off and dance with random men, now would I?”

  “He asked me to dance,” she said shortly. “You didn’t.”

  Varrin stared at her. “No,” he said. “I suppose you’re right.”

  They waltzed in silence for a few minutes. This is less awkward than I expected, she thought. In fact, it’s almost … fun. There’s something to be said about dancing with a man who looks like a modern-day Adonis and smells like a summer sun shower.

  Then Varrin broke the spell. “What were you and Kraigoth talking about?”

  “This and that,” Eris said evasively. “The ball, the hotel, stuff like that.”

  “I was watching you,” he pressed. “You looked flustered.”

  “I was no such thing. Well, I mean, he did offer Miguri and me a ride on one of his cargo ships bound for Psilos, but I—”

  Varrin abruptly released her. He stepped away, frowning. “He what?”

  “He was just being friendly,” Eris said. “I didn’t accept his offer or anything.”

  “Of course you didn’t,” Varrin said tightly. “Because I’m taking you to Psilos.”

  Eris rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry. I won’t cheat you out of your precious finder’s fee. I mean, you fought off a jsgarn just to keep your cargo safe, so—”

  Her attempts to appease Varrin only seemed to irritate him. “You don’t seriously think that’s why I saved you, do you?”

  “Then why did you?” she asked.

  “I—” He closed his mouth and shook his head. “Never mind. You’re right—I was just protecting my investment, nothing more.”

  Annoyed and confused, Eris said, “Maybe I should accept Kraigoth’s offer. Then you won’t have to worry about keeping me alive all the time.”

  Varrin laughed loudly. “Brilliant idea, terrestrial. Fly off into the sunset with some man you barely know. Let me know how that works out for you.”

  Eris noticed some of the couples dancing nearby were staring at them. “Look,” she snapped quietly, “you have no right to be getting all sarcastic like that, not after what you put me through. At least Kraigoth treats me like a human being!”

  “You are one!” Varrin exploded.

  “Keep your voice down!”

  The couples around them were starting to edge away. Several had stopped dancing entirely to watch the escalating fight.

  “I think,” Varrin countered, “you just can’t handle that, aside from one legitimate business transaction—which I’ve already apologized for—I’ve treated you perfectly decently. You’re just laying all the blame on me because you’re light-years from home and miserable about it!”

  Eris officially stopped caring what their growing audience thought. “You never apologized, and I wouldn’t have to be miserable if you would just take me home!” At a loss for what else she could say to him, she turned and fled the dance floor. The crowd parted before her.

  As she raced up the carpeted stairs toward the exit, she heard footsteps behind her. A hand closed around her wrist, pulling her to a halt. She turned to see Varrin standing several steps below her. His eyes were stormy, and he looked like he was about to start shouting. But when he spotted the tears pooling in her eyes, he faltered.

  Suddenly Kraigoth was there as well, interposing himself between the pair and forming a wall of protective muscle in front of Eris. He yanked her arm out of Varrin’s grip. Eris staggered back and had to grab the banister to keep her balance.

  “Get out of my way,” the Rakorsian said to Kraigoth, but his gaze was fixed on Eris. She had never seen his gray eyes so inscrutable.

  “The lady wants to leave,” Kraigoth said staunchly. When Varrin didn’t move, Kraigoth planted his hand on the Rakorsian’s chest and pushed, forcing him back down a step.

  Having seen Varrin’s unmatched superiority in battle and fearing for the Scalkan’s well-being, Eris placed a hand on her protector’s shoulder and said, “Kraigoth, you really don’t have to—”

  “It’s fine,” he said, glowering down at Varrin. “Mistress or not, he has no right to grab you like that.”

  “You would do well not to interfere with matters that are none of your concern,” Varrin snapped. “Now, for the second time, get out of my way.”

  “No!”

  Before either Varrin or Kraigoth could move, Eris flung herself between them.

  “What are you doing?” Varrin demanded.

  “Stopping you from doing something extremely stupid,” Eris said, facing him down. “Why does it always have to end in violence with you? Haven’t you ever heard of discussing your problems like a normal person?”

  “I’m not a normal person.”

  Eris threw her hands in the air. “I give up! Do what you want, just like you always do! But don’t expect me to stick around for it.” She jabbed her finger toward the exit. “I’m leaving now. Don’t you dare try to stop me again.”

  She stepped around Kraigoth and then ran up the golden steps and out of the ballroom.

  24

  Eris awoke the next morning with a headache and a sensation of bouncing. Forcing her eyes open, she saw someone jumping on the bed. A very small, fluffy-haired someone. “Miguri!” she exclaimed. “You’re back!”

  The Claktill pounced on her, and she flung her arms around him happily.

  “Did you find your family?” she asked.

  Miguri bowed his tufted head. “Sadly, no. There are hundreds of Claktilli refugee vessels, and I was only able to contact a handful. None of them knew the whereabouts of my family. But I sent out a general transmission—if anyone searches for my name, they will receive the message that I am alive and well.”

  Eris hugged the Claktill again. “I’m sure you’ll find them.”

  “That is my hope. I believe it is time for me to make amends. I know I may never be the Claktill they want me to be, but I am bound to them by love just the same.” Miguri glanced around the room. “Where is the Rakorsian?”

  In her excitement over Miguri’s return, Eris had forgotten the events of the previous evening. “We had a bit of a fight,” she said glumly. “In front of the entire hotel. I haven’t seen him since.”

  Miguri’s hair spiked in alarm. “He did not hurt you, did he?”

  “Only my feelings,” Eris sighed. “Don’t worry. I’ll get over it.”

  They heard a polite knock on the suite door. “I will see who it is,” Miguri said and scampered out of the bedroom.

  He returned a minute later with a shiny green package. “It is addressed to Mimi,” he said, handing it to Eris.

  “It’s for me? Who would be sending me something?”

  She tore off the wrapping and pulled out a knee-length purple, cottony dress with flowing alien lettering embroidered all over in gold thread. Accompanying the beautiful dress was a pair of golden high-heels.

  “These are beautiful,” Eris murmured.

  “Who sent them?”

  She rifled through the packaging. “I don’t know. There’s no card.” Eris looked down at the wrinkled, ivory ball gown she had been wearing since the night before. “But I guess I do need a change of clothes.”

  Grabbing the dress and shoes, she hurried off to the cleanser to change.

  After spending a few hours chatting with Miguri about his recent adventures, Eris decided she should probably go find Varrin. He’d better not have gotten drunk and fallen off a cliff or been arrested, she thought. He’s our ride off this moon, after
all. Besides, we need to talk about what happened last night. She sighed. Why are things always so complicated with him?

  Leaving Miguri to his lunch, Eris made her way to the hotel’s reception desk. As she approached, the clerk said, “Good afternoon, madam. How may I help you?”

  “I’m looking for Aedar Korlethi,” Eris said. “I don’t suppose you know where he is?”

  “I am sorry. Hotel policy only allows me to release that sort of information to family members.”

  “Oh, didn’t I mention that?” Eris said, batting her eyelashes. “He’s my husband. We just got married, you see. It’s all so new to me!”

  The clerk smiled knowingly. “And what was the name of your husband, again?”

  “Aedar Korlethi.”

  He typed something on a hidden keyboard. “Master Korlethi is currently in the crystal blue steam pool. Seventh floor, take a right out of the main elevators.”

  “Thanks a million,” she gushed. “You’re a life saver.”

  Eris took an elevator to the seventh floor. When she stepped out into the hallway, she spotted steam billowing out from under a nearby door. Steeling herself for her upcoming confrontation with Varrin, she eased open the door and walked into the room.

  A large square pool dominated the space, and the air was thick with steam. The walls were almost entirely windowed but tinted to prevent outside eyes from peering in. A narrow wooden walkway led to a small, square platform floating atop the bubbling water. She could vaguely see someone seated on the platform.

  Eris stepped onto the walkway, wobbling in her high heels. As she carefully approached the platform, she could see that the figure was a dark-haired man, naked to the waist, sitting cross-legged with his back toward her. His right arm was encased in a black metal cast. Found you, she thought.

  Moving closer, she could see that an intricate pattern of black lines covered his back and shoulders, forming a stylized image of an eye surrounded by a sun. I never knew he had a tattoo. Then again, I’ve never seen him without his shirt on. The rays of the sun stretched up over the muscles of his shoulders and down his back to the point where they were hidden beneath the waistband of his black trousers.

  “I was wondering when you would show up,” Varrin said.

  Startled, Eris stumbled back a step. Her heel got caught between the boards of the floating walkway, and she toppled sideways toward the water.

  “Careful,” Varrin cautioned, suddenly at her side. He caught her flailing arm with his good hand and hauled her back upright. “Honestly, girl, you can’t go a minute without getting into some kind of trouble.”

  Eris wished he would stop helping her. And she was confused, because he looked completely at ease, without even the faintest hint of anger in his gray eyes. Did he get so drunk that he forgot about our fight entirely? It seemed too much to hope for.

  “I think you’d be safer sitting down,” he said.

  Eris nodded.

  Varrin led her out to the small wooden platform. Using his hand as leverage, she carefully sat down in the tight dress, tucking her knees to the side. As he sat down in front of her, she asked, “What’s with the tattoo?”

  From the way his eyebrows shot up, Varrin had obviously been expecting a different question. “That’s what you came to talk to me about?” Shaking his head, he swiveled around so she could see his back. “The sun represents the eternal glory of Rakor,” he explained. “The eye represents the all-seeing Emperor, who guides and protects his people.”

  “And it’s on your back because …?”

  “The tattoo is a symbol of rank. My family is considered fairly important on Rakor.”

  Eris found the lines etched into his skin mesmerizing. She reached out a hand and traced one of the sun’s rays with her fingertips.

  Varrin began shaking. Startled, Eris withdrew her hand. “What’s wrong? I didn’t hurt your arm, did I?” Then she realized he was laughing. “What’s so funny?”

  “I don’t understand you!” he exclaimed, turning to face her. “You’re helpless one minute, confrontational the next, and I don’t even know what the rest of the time. Instead of running off when you had the chance, you saved my life and stuck around to make sure I was all right. Sometimes I just want to stun you and sell you to the first slaver I come across, but I can’t make myself do it.”

  Eris didn’t know how to respond to that, so instead she took a deep breath and asked, “Varrin, why didn’t you come back to the room last night?”

  “Couldn’t sleep without me?”

  “Seriously, Varrin.”

  He stared at her curiously, head cocked to the side. Then, without warning, he leaned over sideways and dove into the pool.

  A wave of water splashed toward Eris. “Hey!” she spluttered, raising her arms in front of her in a futile attempt to stay dry. “Are you crazy? You’re wearing a cast, you stupid man!”

  Eris rose to her knees and crawled over to the edge of the bobbing platform, trying to spot Varrin beneath the surface of the bubbling, steaming water. Suddenly, a wet hand grabbed her arm and yanked her into the pool.

  “Eeeeeek!”

  Eris was not a good swimmer to start with, and especially not in heels and a tight dress. She splashed into the water and immediately began sinking to the bottom. But before she could panic, an arm wrapped around her waist and hauled her back to the surface.

  Eris clutched the edge of the platform, gasping for breath. “What’d you do that for?” she demanded, pushing her sopping hair out of her face.

  “You should have mentioned you couldn’t swim,” Varrin drawled. He floated serenely beside her, arms outstretched, his buoyant cast bobbing atop the water.

  “I’m soaking wet now, you complete jerk! I could have drowned!”

  “Not with me around.”

  Eris gaped at him. Then, out of nowhere, she started laughing. Perhaps it was that all her pent up frustration was finally being released into the soothing waters, but whatever the reason for the laughter, she couldn’t stop. She had to hold on to the platform with both hands to keep from sinking again.

  “You are a strange woman,” Varrin observed.

  With a great deal of effort, Eris regained control of herself. “Okay,” she said and then took a few fortifying breaths. “You got me in here. I hope you have a plan for getting me out.”

  Varrin floated over to the platform and hefted himself up with his good arm. Leaning toward Eris, he extended his uninjured hand and yanked her up beside him. She sprawled face-up across the wooden surface, disoriented and bedraggled.

  “I’m having a very strange day,” she remarked, staring up at the tiled ceiling.

  “Perhaps you should tell me what this is really about,” Varrin suggested. He resumed his cross-legged position in front of her.

  “I don’t know.” She sighed, pushing herself upright. “Sometimes I just wish we had a more normal relationship.” She looked down and began twisting the water from her dress. “I don’t mean relationship relationship. I just mean I wish I wasn’t worried about you double-crossing me all the time.”

  “And if we had this normal relationship, it would make things easier for you?”

  She looked up. “Of course it would.”

  “How so?”

  “Well, for one thing, I’d be able to trust you.”

  “I think what you really want is for me to be normal.”

  “Maybe I do.”

  Varrin’s expression turned unexpectedly grave. “Do you know what happens to normal people on Rakor?”

  Eris shook her head.

  “They’re considered inferior to genetically modified Rakorsians like me. They’re assigned lives of hard labor for low pay, often in remote areas of the empire.” He paused. “What have I told you about Kaydrin?”

  “Nothing. You never tell me anything.”

  “Kaydrin was my closest friend. He was the son of a lieutenant in the imperial guard. We spent most of our childhood chasing each other around the city
getting into mischief.”

  Eris had a hard time imagining Varrin ever being young and innocent, but he had a far-away look in his eyes, and she wondered if it might actually be true. “So what happened to him?” she asked.

  “How much do you know about Rakorsian society?”

  “Not much beyond the obvious. Militant. Ruthless. Insane.”

  “Did you know there’s no middle class on Rakor? There are only two classes—those who matter, and those who don’t. My class, the class that matters, is called Rakorsian. We are the inheritors of all the wealth and knowledge of our ancestors. The lower class are called Shin’lar—the forsaken ones.”

  “And Kaydrin was one of these forsaken guys?”

  Varrin looked away. “We didn’t know at first. His father hid their identities well. I understand a great deal of bribery was involved. But someone must have suspected, because they did a genetic screening, and Kaydrin was uncovered as Shin’lar.”

  “What, so you stopped talking to him because he was a little different?”

  Varrin suddenly leaped to his feet. Eris squeaked and grabbed the sides of the precariously tilting platform. “You have an annoying habit of judging without getting all the facts,” he said.

  “Then explain it to me!”

  “My people are the foremost experts on genetic manipulation in the galaxy. We were changing our genes, enhancing ourselves to be more physically capable, thousands of years before your species had even invented language. Shin’lar aren’t a different race. They’re a different level of our species entirely, because they haven’t been genetically enhanced at all. They’re what you seem to appreciate so much—perfectly, 100 percent normal. Because my best friend was normal, he was shipped out to an asteroid mine twenty light-years away.”

  “Did you try to—”

  “Contact him? Of course I did.” Varrin laughed bitterly. “My father made certain I would never find him. He doesn’t share my … liberal attitude.”

  Eris lowered her gaze. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I didn’t realize—I mean, I’ve never had your problem. I’ve always been normal, maybe a bit smarter than your average person, but nothing to write home about. No one ever looked at me like I was something special. I doubt anyone even cared that I was abducted. Well, except my mother, but we barely talk, and she’s probably given up on me by now anyway.”