Chapter 7

Chapter

Seven

R ixx's breath caught in his throat as Myrria let her gaze return to her bowl, almost certain he'd felt a faint pulse of something. But it was only a whisper of an emotion that had dissolved as swiftly as he had detected it, so he did not know if it had been fear or excitement or something else. What else could it have been and who had it been from?

He eyed Myrria, but her gaze was locked onto the stew she slowly stirred. He shifted his eyes to Zala, who stared at the wanted poster with barely disguised excitement. It could easily have been her. She was a child and her emotions bubbled erratically on the surface. But why would he sense the child's emotions? She was not Dothvek. He should not have been able to sense her feelings—or anyone's on Kurril—now that his ship had gone.

"I've never seen a flyer like this before." Zala tore her gaze from the paper and looked at Rixx. "You must have really upset the people who made this."

Rixx thought about the Zevrian mercenaries who had held him captive. "Well, I escaped from the house where they'd been holding me prisoner, and my crew mates killed a lot of their people as they rescued me. Then the building caught fire and burned down, killing everyone inside."

Zala's mouth gaped. "That's why your pants were burned and you smelled like the inside of an oven?"

Rixx couldn't help chuckling at her description of his smell. "I am not surprised I smelled like the inside of an oven. I almost got cooked, and there was a lot of smoke. I jumped from a high window as the burning building collapsed behind me."

Zala's eyes grew even wider. "Can your people fly?"

Rixx jerked his head up and made a clicking sound with his tongue. "I wish we could, but I am afraid I fell like a stone. I don't remember anything after that."

Myrria looked up, her eyes soft. "You must have wandered away from the burning building and then collapsed. When I found you, you were barely conscious."

"How far is the site of the burned building from here?" Rixx asked.

"Not far. Only down a few alleys, which is probably how you walked away without being seen." Myrria shuddered. "It's a miracle you weren't taken by the scouts looking for fighters for the rings or by a slave trader."

Rixx knew little about the Den of Thieves, since he had only spent a little while in the main market before being snatched by Zevrians. The rest of his time in the outlaw city had been split between his captivity in the Zevrian house and recuperating in Myrria's home. He hadn't seen any of the slave trading arenas, fighting rings, or pleasure houses that filled the city. He could only take Myrria's word that the place was treacherous. Her word and the fact that he'd been abducted within minutes of his arrival.

"Why did they take you in the first place?" Myrria asked. "Abducted creatures usually end up in the rings or on the auction block. Why hold you?"

Rixx shook his head. "I do not know for sure, but one of our Dothvek brothers had been on Kurril before and had not left on good terms, especially with the Zevrians. He did not leave the ship this time for that reason, but maybe the Zevrians do not know how to tell Dothveks apart, or they did not care which Dothvek they used to get revenge."

Rixx had a feeling that if the Zevrians ever found him again, they would not bother to hold him captive. They would simply kill him, especially since he'd been the cause of so many more of their soldiers dying. He took another bite of stew to distract himself from the knot growing in his stomach.

Zala had finished her bowl, and she scraped her spoon around the insides. "I've never known anyone who was wanted before."

Myrria stiffened. "There is nothing exciting about the Zevrians hunting Rixx, and you can tell no one, no matter how thrilling you think it is, that we are harboring a fugitive."

Zala reared back, looking offended. "I know how to keep a secret. I'm not a little kid, you know."

To Rixx, she looked exactly like a little kid, but her expression was so stormy, he would never have dared say that out loud.

Myrria's shoulders relaxed. "I know you do, it's just…Rixx is not the only one in danger."

Zala shifted on her stool. "You know I won't tell. Besides, who would I tell?" She dropped her gaze to her lap. "You don't let me have any friends."

Myrria blew out a breath. "There are no children in Kurril who aren't pickpockets or runners for the slave traders or members of a gang. This is not a place you make friends."

Zala nodded, as if she'd heard all this before, but Rixx was struck by how sad the child's life was. He had understood that life was hard for Myrria as a single mother, but now it hit him how lonely it was for Zala.

"Would you like me to tell you about growing up on a planet made almost entirely of sand?" He asked Zala in a low, conspiratorial voice.

She bobbed her head up and down as he stood and took his bowl with him toward the washbasin. "I've never seen sand."

"On my home world, there is so much sand that it looks like an endless, gold sea," Rixx told her as he turned on the faucet and began rinsing the bowl.

Zala joined him at the sink, pulling over a small step stool and standing on it with her own dirty bowl. "I've never seen a sea, either."

"Then you've never surfed down a wave of sand or water?"

She shook her head from side to side, but he held up a finger. "This is how Dothveks say no." Then he gave a small jerk up of his head and made a clicking sound with his tongue.

Zala imitated him perfectly.

Rixx grinned at her. "You would make an excellent Dothvek."

Her cheeks mottled pink as they worked side by side to wash up the bowls, and he told her tales of surfing down massive dunes and hunting for sand snakes. He could feel her mother's gaze on them from behind, but he could tell without looking that she did not disapprove. She was pleased, grateful even, although he did not want to think about how he was so sure about that.

Sensing anyone but a Dothvek was impossible, unless…