Chapter 32

Chapter

Thirty-Two

Volten

“ D id you hear?” Kann did not wait to be fully seated across from me before the question burst from his mouth.

I looked up from my bowl of chidi berries and grinned at the enormous plate of fried padwump he placed on the table between us. The salty, savory smell wafted up and teased my nose. “Did I hear that the kitchen is now out of padwump?”

He rolled his eyes at me as he picked up a strip of the crispy meat and took a loud bite, sending shards onto his lap. “No. Did you hear that the inspector from Earth has arrived, and that our security chief made him run the gauntlet? ”

I cocked my head at my friend. “Vyk made the human envoy run the gauntlet in the School of Battle? Is that some sort of strange new security protocol?”

Kann swallowed and his grin widened. “Doubtful. My theory is that Vyk has gone so long without torturing anyone that he snapped.”

I had heard plenty about the commander’s reputation in Inferno Force as a ruthless interrogator, but I had also thought that he had been given a short leash by Admiral Zoran, especially after the fiasco of the trials. “Are you sure about this?”

Kann sat back, glancing around the deserted staff dining room. “One of my fellow Blade instructors saw Tivek leaving the gauntlet with the human and then Vyk walking out. He said that the human did not look like he had enjoyed the experience.”

“Welcome to the Academy,” I said under my breath. I could not imagine arriving from Earth after enduring multiple jumps through vast amounts of space and then being challenged to the gauntlet. I enjoyed scaling the climbing wall, and I had favorite holo-chamber programs, but never having to do the gauntlet again was one of my favorite things about being a Wing.

“Vyk isn’t even a Blade.” Kann chomped on another strip of padwump. “I cannot imagine why he thought the gauntlet would be a good way to introduce our guest to the school.”

I could think of one reason a Drexian would want to put someone through the gauntlet, but I could not think of a reason why Vyk would want to humiliate an envoy from Earth that we should be trying to impress .

“If Tivek was with the human, then he must be meeting with the admiral now.” I wondered if Zoran knew of Vyk’s plan, or if he had authorized it, but that seemed unlikely. Admiral Zoran was no fool, and he wished the integration of humans and Drexians to be a success. He had fought for the program. Why would he jeopardize it?

“I saw Zoran stalking the corridors earlier.” Kann waved a fried strip at me like a pointer. “Now I know why. He must have been looking for the envoy.”

If that was the case and Tivek had retrieved the man to escort him to Zoran, I did not want to be Vyk. “Why would Vyk do something like that?”

Even though we were the only ones sitting at one of the long wooden tables, Kann dropped his voice. “Especially after, you know…”

I did know. I had been the one Vyk had told of the planned sabotage before the maze. I had been the one he’d enlisted to help him reveal the plot. It did not mean we were close, even though we had included him in the card game. The gruff, older Drexian was still a mystery to me.

I straightened as I spotted Ariana walking in, my heart tripping in my chest. It did not matter that we spent every night together, the sight of her still made my breath catch and my pulse quicken.

She smiled at me as she crossed the room, ignoring the back table laden with platters of food. “I thought I’d find you here.”

Kann beamed at her as she sat next to me. “The early Drexian gets the padwump. ”

She eyed the mountain of the crispy meat and shook her head. “You have the metabolism of a hummingbird.”

Kann wrinkled his nose, probably wondering about the strange Earth birds that hummed. “Help yourself.”

Even though Ariana’s demeanor had dampened since learning of her sister’s imprisonment by the Kronock, she managed to find moments of lightness. It helped that our plan to find Sasha was already being implemented by Inferno Force recon teams. That was the only reason she hadn’t commandeered a ship and taken off to find her sister on her own.

She took a slice of padwump and nibbled the end neatly. “I thought I might find Fiona here.”

“You weren’t looking for me?” I teased her with a look of manufactured pain.

She elbowed me in the side. “I rolled out of your bed only a few hours ago. Don’t be greedy.”

Kann leaned back. “Is Fiona missing?”

She shook her head. “She found me in the shipyard a little while ago, but she was searching for the officer that arrived from Earth. I wanted to know if she found him.”

Kann’s eyes popped wide. “I do not know if she found him, but I do know that Vyk did.”

Ariana’s brow furrowed.

“Commander Vyk put the envoy from Earth through the gauntlet,” I explained.

She didn’t look any less confused. “The gauntlet? ”

Kann released a mournful sigh. “You Wings know nothing about the academy if it doesn’t fly.”

I shot him a look, although it was not altogether false. The only reason I knew of the gauntlet was because of my years as a cadet. Otherwise, there was no reason for a Wing to be in Blade territory. “It is a series of physical challenges in the School of Battle. It is not easy.”

Ariana’s brows lifted. “As if anything in this place is easy.” She rested her hand on top of my leg. “Why would the security chief take him there?”

Kann shrugged one shoulder. “Who knows? The good news is that he survived with minor bruising and is with Admiral Zoran now.”

Ariana’s hand on my leg was making it hard to focus, especially since she was moving it up and down absently.

“I guess that answers the question of where Vyk took him,” she said.

“What?” Kann and I asked at the same time, as we swung our heads to Ariana.

“When Fiona was looking for him, it was because Vyk had gone off with the man to give him a tour. Fiona couldn’t find them, and for some reason, she suspected that Vyk might throw him in the dungeon or something.”

“She wasn’t far off,” Kann said.

I placed my hand on top of Ariana’s so she wouldn’t rub my leg to the point that I would be unable to stand without terrifying my friend with an enormous hard-on. She glanced at me and smiled, as if she’d just realized what she’d been doing. She squeezed my leg, then twisted her hand so that she could interlock her fingers with mine.

“I should probably find Fiona and tell her that her friend is okay.” She gave my hand a final squeeze and stood.

“Friend?” I asked. “Fiona knows the envoy?”

“She does.” The tone of Ariana’s voice told me that there was more to the story, but I didn’t press her. I would get to do plenty of that later that night.

As she walked from the room, I traced her steps and made no secret of watching her swaying ass. Then I cursed at myself and shifted on the wooden bench. I would not be standing for a while.