Honor Among Thieves (The Honors #1)(96)

“Told you,” Bea said. Not to me. To Nadim. “She’s not going to get over this any time soon.”

“Damn right,” I said. I took in a long breath and let it out. “Okay. So. What’s our situation?”

“Two Leviathan have come close. Neither have detected me.” The implied yet hung in the air. “They are singing my name. Searching for me.”

“I guess that’s the Leviathan version of a citizen alert,” I said. “All right. How long until you’re healed enough to move on?”

“A day,” he said. That sounded optimistic to me. “Zara—”

“Later,” I said. “Right now, I want to shoot something.”

Combat sim got the cobwebs out and blood moving and expended the anger that would have been pointless to level at Bea and Nadim. Afterward, I raided the weapons locker, because if we were really on the run, I damn sure planned to look the part.

Time to mend some fences.

When I found Bea in the lounge, I struck an action pose in my jacked-up skinsuit. I’d added multiple belts, two nicely lethal guns, a couple of knives, and something that Nadim had assured me was a sonic weapon, nonfatal to any species. I looked like a damn space pirate. I loved it.

“Well?” I asked.

Bea cocked her head. “Don’t you think it’s a bit—”

“Fantastic?”

“Frightening?”

“That’s the point, Bea. We’re not Honors anymore. We’re—I don’t know. Rogues.”

“I don’t have any idea how to be a rogue.”

“First rule: more belts. Second rule: no more rules. Except one: we don’t let Nadim get caught.” I reached out to her, and she took my hand. “Deal?”

“Yes,” she said. More lip biting. “Zara, I’m sorry. About—”

She was cut off as a strong electric pulse zipped through Nadim’s body, followed by six more, then a pause before starting again.

“What is that?” I asked. No immediate answer, and I didn’t think it was because he was still irked at me. “Nadim?”

“It’s a distress signal.” He sounded distracted. “A long way off.”

“From?”

“From a Leviathan,” he said. “I can’t make out which one. The song is . . . confused.”

Bea shook her head. “Trap.”

“Trap,” I confirmed. “Nope. Thanks for playing, Elder.”

“But—” Nadim seemed surprised. “If it’s genuine—”

“Nadim. Typhon wants to destroy you. Don’t you think he’d fake a distress signal and hope you come running? Because I’m betting that would be your first impulse.”

“Of course,” he said. A yellow wave of anxiety fluttered in him like a trapped butterfly. “This doesn’t feel like Typhon. I think one of my kin needs help. Right now.”

“Well, there’s a Gathering, right? Plenty of Leviathan out there to help. Including Typhon. We’re fugitives. That means no helping unless we practically trip over someone in our path, okay? We’re trying to find a place to hide, and we aren’t running some intergalactic hero service!”

“Zara.” Mournful green disappointment crashed over me. “We can’t be so selfish. Didn’t one of my cousins come to help when I was drifting in dark sleep?”

That was an accurate little guilt missile. He was getting to know me too well. “Yeah, but—well, I screwed that one up. What do you call the guys with all the tentacles?”

“You mean, the race of people? We can’t fully pronounce what they call themselves; we don’t have the vocal range. The closest is Abyin Dommas. That is a description from another language. It means—”

“Singers in the deep,” Beatriz said, which shut me up. How did she know? From the look on her face, she wasn’t exactly sure. “They—they are purely musicians. It’s their entire life. They’re born singing.”

“Yes.”

“I’d like to hear them,” she said wistfully. “It must be—”

“Amazing, sure thing, but let’s stay on target. Music appreciation later. So, I kind of stunned one of the Abyin Dommas and we broke all those rules and I’m not so sure your Leviathan cousins are all yay Team Zadim even if you do a good deed now. You understand? It’s a risk. A big one.”

He did, of course; he didn’t need all my spoken words to do that. It just made me feel better.

I hadn’t changed his mind, though. “Risk or not, someone calls, and I have to answer. I have to. It might be deception, but if it is, we can still run. If it isn’t—what if that Leviathan is drifting? What if his crew is calling for help, as you did? They could die.”

I thought about it, all my instincts telling me screw those people. Nadim couldn’t turn away. He couldn’t put himself ahead of the needs of his helpless kin.

I put my hand against the wall. Bursts of gold formed around it, and then streaked away down, then back. Exploded out in a silent flash.

Beatriz put her coffee down and did the same thing. Purple fireworks behind his skin.

We were saying yes without saying a word. His relief was tangible as he changed course, looping sinuously to intercept the beacon and then accelerating, a sense of urgency driving him.