air, and her stomach rumbled.
He added something that looked like eggs—pale-green eggs—to the pan, and she had a sudden hysterical urge to giggle. Here she was on an alien planet about to eat green eggs. Was the other ingredient some type of ham? She choked back a laugh, and Tanor frowned at her.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. This is not how I expected my life to go.”
“What did you expect?”
“I run—that is, I ran—a shop that sold flowers.”
“Sold flowers? Why would anyone want to buy them? All you have to do is go and pick them.”
“My planet is not as rich in plant life as this one, at least not in most places.”
He snorted and returned to his pan. A few minutes later, he tipped the green omelet out of the pan, cut it in half, and put each half on a plate, then handed her one. She carried hers to a small table, and he joined her a moment later, carrying two glasses of pale-blue liquid. He handed her one, and she looked at it a little doubtfully.
“It’s safe,” he muttered. “Gave the boy my word.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have doubted you.”
“Nah. It’s always good to be careful.”
He dug into his plate, and she followed suit, almost moaning with appreciation. The food on the ship had been fine, but this was the best meal she’d had since she’d left Earth.
“This is really good. Thank you.”
He grunted, but she thought he looked pleased. She took a cautious sip of the blue liquid, then hummed with pleasure. It tasted like a light, fruity wine. By the time they finished, her stomach was full, and she had a very slight, pleasant buzz from the wine.
“Can I wash the dishes?” she asked as Tanor cleared the table.
“I got it.” He opened a drawer and put the dishes inside, and she realized that he was actually loading the dishwasher. The rustic surroundings made it easy to forget that this was a civilization advanced enough to have spaceflight.
“How did you know we arrived?” she asked.
He didn’t answer directly but pressed a small button. A big screen and an elaborate control panel slid out of an interior wall. She recognized the image as a map of Pardor. Small, glowing lights were scattered across the surface, most of them clustered in two large central areas but several of them isolated. He tapped on one of the solitary lights.
“This is Aidon’s ship. We monitor all traffic on and off the planet. I knew as soon as he entered the atmosphere that he was coming. But when you walked out, I thought I had made a mistake.”
“But why were you hidden? Why didn’t you come out to meet the ship?”
He pressed the control, and the screen disappeared again.
“He doesn’t come here to see me.”
“But you were going to watch for him anyway?”
He shrugged and busied himself in the kitchen.
“What happened between the two of you?” she asked.
“Nothing worth talking about.” He rejoined her at the table, handing her a second glass of wine. “So how did you go from selling flowers to being…to nursing my grandson?”
“I don’t really know. I was out collecting flowers on my planet, and the next thing I knew, I was in a cage on a Derian ship.”
“Those bastards. They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.”
“Slavery, you mean?”
“Slavery isn’t forbidden, but taking slaves from primitive planets is prohibited.” He sighed. “Not that the restriction stops them. That was our first encounter with the Empire.”
“They tried to enslave you?” she asked, horrified. As much as she hated being taken, the thought of the Derians trying to take over a whole planet was even more horrifying.
“They tried.” Tanor bared his teeth, fangs on full display, and she shivered, suddenly reminded of just how big and threatening he had appeared when they’d first met. “We made it hard enough that they decided to trade with us instead.”
“You traded with slavers?”
“Of course not. But there were other merchants who were interested, and we took advantage in order to gain technology.”
“You don’t seem to use much of it,” she said cautiously.
“We prefer to live the way we’ve always lived.” He shrugged. “We learned what we needed to in order to protect ourselves and our planet. The rest doesn’t matter.”
They sat in silence, sipping their wine, and she thought about what Aidon had told her.
“Why did Aidon leave?” she blurted out.
Tanor rubbed his temple, and for the first time, she thought he looked old.
“Stupidity. On both our parts,” he added when she