had torn the sling off his neck in annoyance, only to wince with pain and have Bonnett shake his head at him.
“Stop that and come over here,” he’d ordered, in that exasperated tone of voice usually reserved for children under the age of ten or mental defectives. He tied the damn thing back around his neck, repositioned Rasc’s arm, and shook his head at him.
“Now leave it alone. That’s an order. It’s only a bad bruise, but you don’t want to aggravate it. It should be well enough to take the sling off by tonight, if you’ll take it easy and stop ripping it off.”
An order, his ass. Just what army did Bonnett think Rasc was in, anyway? Completely out of sorts, Rasc had eaten a bite or two of his first meal and had strutted past Bonnett without a word when the horn sounded for everyone to leave their cells and go out to the yard. He stopped just outside the door, though, to allow Bonnett to catch up to him. Setin was waiting too, with a concerned look on his face.
“How’s the shoulder?” he asked, falling in beside them.
“It’s my collarbone, and it’s not bad. Not broken, anyway. According to the great Tygerian know-it-all, that is.”
Setin peered around Rasc to glance over at Kylon, who seemed to be serenely ignoring them both as he looked around the yard with interest.
Rasc took Kylon’s arm, which garnered him a look of disbelief. Kylon pulled away and glared at him. “What are you doing?”
“I was just going to take you across the yard to our table. Damn, don’t be such a touch-me-not.”
“A what? More odd human phrases? I can figure that one out easily enough, though, and I don’t need to be manhandled. I can walk over there on my own.”
“Do it then.”
“I will.”
“Good.”
They glared at each other as Setin watched them, his eyes wide. When Kylon turned and strode away from them, he grabbed Rasc by the arm. “Rasc, what’s going on with you and the colonel? There were a lot of strange, loud noises coming from your cell last night.”
“I told you not to call him that, Setin. He’s certainly not mine, and we don’t need to advertise that he’s a c-o-l-o-n-e-l.”
“What is that? Are you spelling? Does that make it harder for people to understand? It does for me, but…”
“Oh, shut up. And nothing is going on. I have no idea what you’re talking about. He’s a bad-tempered ass, that’s all. As for strange noises, I was injured. I might have moaned a little.”
“More than a little. It sounded like you were being tortured. It was him, wasn’t it? He didn’t hurt you, did he, Rasc?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Rasc had been turned while he talked to Setin but glanced back up to track Bonnett’s progress across the yard. When he did, he blanched as he saw Bonnett walk directly over to the pirates’ table and casually take himself a seat beside Pax. One of the other pirates sitting there bristled and another jumped to his feet, but Pax turned to speak to them and the men sat back down.
“Damn him,” Rasc muttered. “What is he doing? Pax won’t like him just walking up on him like that.”
“He met Pax last night, though I’m not surprised you don’t remember. You were sort of out of things after that guard hit you.”
“I was not ‘out of things.’ I was in pain, damn it. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
As they watched, Kylon sat down beside Pax and leaned in close to talk to him. “Damn it, he’s going to get me into a fight with somebody before he’s through.”
“Get you in one? But why would you fight over the c-o-l—what was the rest of it?”
“Oh, just…just shut the hell up, Setin.”
He hurried over to stand next to Bonnett, with Setin scurrying along beside him, but by the time they got there, Selinias Pax was actually smiling at something Bonnett said and nodding his head. He looked up at Rasc when he came closer.
“Ah, you look better than the last time I saw you. How is your injury? Kylon tells me there are no broken bones.”
“Kylon tells you that, does he?” Rasc adjusted the stupid sling around his neck and shrugged. “I didn’t know you two knew each other.”
“We met last night at the dining hall. You don’t remember?”
“Not really. Anyway, I’m feeling better. I don’t really need this damn sling.” He started to pull on it again, but Kylon’s