Honor Lost (The Honors #3) - Rachel Caine Page 0,5

our planet and people.”

“Intentions?” I blurted. “We’re not taking you on a date!”

“Zara.” Chao-Xing shut me up fast. “Starcurrent, tell them we have peaceful intentions. We came to their defense. We took damage on their behalf.”

Ze sang that without hesitation, and a lot of trills erupted in response. A whole harmony of questions, I guessed. After listening to all those comments, ze turned back to us and said, “We receive thanks for these efforts. The council also asks how one of the Elder Gods awakened.” Ze paused, and I could tell from the flutter of tentacles that ze was uneasy. “I will tell the truth, Chao-Xing. Lying is not a skill we acquire.”

Shit. Of course it wasn’t. C-X thought about it, then gave a decisive nod, acceding to Starcurrent’s right to make the call. Lowering her voice, she whispered, just for my ears, “Be ready.”

Oh, I was. On high alert, I settled into battle mode; I’d always been handy in a fight, and these last few months with Nadim—all the shit we’d faced—got me to levels I never thought I’d reach. Chao-Xing and I were lethal when we had to be, and that was valuable in situations like this.

Not that I wanted my first real alien diplomacy to end with a fight. In our time on the Sliver, we fought in the gladiator pit, and we’d learned that while the Abyin Dommas might be pacifists by nature, you did not want to throw down against them. Courteous, friendly, kind, all that was true, but they were also venomous and would kill if they had to. They just tried not to kill anybody as a matter of course.

Unlike us, I guessed. Humans had made it an art form.

Starcurrent sang more, and we waited. It was more of an opera than a pop song, full of dramatic runs and accompanied by gestures from all zis limbs. Fascinating to watch. But I didn’t like the shifting hues of those who were listening. None of those colors looked happy. The Abyin Dommas also changed positions as they heard Starcurrent’s story; some drifted higher, some lower, tentacles brushing the floor. Some faded back, some forward. Might have been normal shifting around. I didn’t know, and I didn’t love being uninformed.

Starcurrent went on a while, and when ze fell silent, nobody else spoke. Nobody. They just drifted, colors pulsing and flashing in complicated patterns that I knew meant something but couldn’t interpret on my own.

Then one of them spoke. Just one. “Leave or die.”

That was . . . direct. I exchanged looks with Chao-Xing; I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. But she bowed again, deeper than before. “Our sincerest apologies,” she said. “We will be at your disposal if you need us. On behalf of our Leviathan—”

This time it wasn’t one of them. It was all of them, except Starcurrent. “Leave or die!” There was a definite edge to it.

Starcurrent’s colors turned ashen, almost translucent. Zis tentacles went limp and drooped. Though I didn’t speak chromatophore, I could tell that this was bad. Really bad.

One of the others said, “Starcurrent may remain, but ze requires punishment.”

“I go with my Leviathan and crew,” ze replied.

“Then you choose exile.”

Starcurrent’s aspect remained bleak and ze simply said, “Understood.”

Then the alarms went off.

I couldn’t tell sound from pain. The whole city was ringing, and we stood inside the bell. I clapped my hands to my ears, but it didn’t help, and I tried to yell to C-X but she was already moving back toward the Hopper. The Abyin Dommas had guided us in and cut off access to flight controls. What did punishment mean, exactly? And were they trying it on us? Maybe they’d moved on from the sentencing phase and were prepping for execution.

Starcurrent had jetted ahead of us, moving so fast in this low-grav that ze was a blur; we followed more clumsily. We weren’t made for this, and it took me a second to remember how to move without weight, only mass. I let myself go still and settle, then bounced off at the right trajectory and soared ahead of Chao-Xing, who pushed off and leapfrogged me. We arrived together, or very nearly, and Starcurrent already had the hatch open and was inside.

C-X got in the pilot’s seat with a grace I envied, and I strapped in as she checked the console. Before she touched anything, the Hopper started moving. “Shit!” I yelped, and she let out a blistering yell of fury and hit the console