for this sex-deprived lot. Did they say anything while I was out of it?”
Gracie shook her head. Her expression was tight, and controlled panic showed in the backs of her eyes. Indra didn’t blame her. Like her, Gracie had been through a lot before she’d arrived on the Izal’vias. Being captured by pirates at this point, after all they’d been through, was just taking the piss.
“Not really. They keep saying, ‘for the glory of Ursal-Kai,’ though.”
Indra sighed, her head thunking back against the metal wall. “Great. Fanatics. I thought I recognized the look. We had a problem with Brothers back on the streets for a while.”
“Oh?” Gracie looked at her, interest in her eyes. “What happened to them?”
Indra didn’t blame her for the sudden focused interest. The Brothers of Grace movement were among the worst of the cults that had grown out of the old religions from Earth. Cutting and splicing together the worst parts of several religions, they’d created something new and hideous, warping the minds of their followers and turning them into blind sheep. They preyed on the outer colonies usually and once they got a foothold were very hard to eradicate. But, although they could be violent, they often didn’t try and move into ganger territory.
“One of the gangs in our territory imploded. Leadership used to be cousins who had opposing views on how things should be run. Gossip said they killed each other. The Brothers tried to move into their territory and fill the power vacuum but the rest of us weren’t having that. No one wanted assholes like that on the streets. Not with their leanings toward breeding their women.”
She told the story absently. It had been during her initiation period and the only time other than the assassin in her quarters that she’d killed anyone. But what was a gal to do when she found three of the assholes about to “convert” a little girl in the most brutal way possible?
“First time the gangs on Talax-Four had worked together. Took us six months to get rid of the fuckers. Most of ‘em went into the reclamation units. Didn’t want ‘em stinking up the streets.”
Gracie eyed her with admiration and concern. Mostly admiration. “Remind me never to piss you off, okay?”
She sighed as she leaned against the wall next to Indra. “Wish we could’ve done that to those fucking scavengers instead of having to compile evidence to make a case. We knew what the assholes were as soon as we hit dirtside.”
Indra made a small sound in the back of her throat. Talax-Four might have been well-established but even they’d heard about colony scavengers. The worst of the worst, they hit outlying colonies and took them over, killing and stealing resources before they moved onto their next target. People like that should be in Mirax Ruas, but the authorities had a hard time catching and convicting them thanks to the law.
“Might not have lost Niall and Dave then.”
There was real pain in Gracie’s voice and Indra reached out to cover the other woman’s hand with her own in silent support. The movement surprised her. Look at her getting all touchy feely and down with the emotional crap. A few weeks among the “normals” and she was getting soft.
“Members of your team?” she asked in a soft voice, sensing the other woman needed to let some of that pain out. “What happened to them?”
Gracie barked a small laugh. “Same thing that happened to the scavengers. They got taken by that bastard Krin thing and eaten.”
Indra looked over at the guards, still stoic and unmoving. “Could do with something like that here right about now.”
Gracie shuddered, the look in her eyes haunted. “No. You do not. You really do not.
Movement by the door caught both their attention and they pulled back toward the back wall as a new warrior entered the corridor. His black-on-black gaze swept over them dispassionately, and he threw something on the floor through the bars. When Gracie picked it up, the bundle of slippery fabric revealed itself to be two gowns.
“Put them on.” The warrior ordered in a hard voice. “The prophet has summoned you.”
16
When Nyek returned to the rooms he shared with Indra, they were empty. That was not a surprise, not with the way he’d abruptly left the lab in Sector Four. Plus he’d made Stephens look like an idiot again. And if humans were anything like Lathar, as he’d seen so far, they wouldn’t appreciate that at all.
Which meant Indra