Imminent Danger: And How to Fly Straight Into It (20 page)

Varrin’s head lifted momentarily and then thunked back down onto the blood-streaked cobblestones. “Not in any sense of the word.”

Eris wrung her hands nervously. “Stop being sarcastic and tell me what to do! Is there a hospital nearby? Do you have a phone so I can call someone? Your arm is gushing pus, by the way.”

He glanced at his arm. “So it is. Jsgarn fangs are poisonous. Even with my Rakorsian endurance, I’m going to fall unconscious in … I’d give it another twenty seconds, maybe fifteen. Snap the rat out of his stupor and tell him what happened. He’ll know better than you what to do.”

“Varrin—”

The Rakorsian’s eyes closed. His head fell to the side. Eris prodded his uninjured arm but quickly realized he was unconscious.

“Well, this is just great,” she groaned, looking around the dark alleyway. “Now what?”

20

T
he jsgarn had stopped twitching, but the rank stench of the blood pooled around its corpse was verging on the unbearable. Its master was crumpled against the alley wall, the dagger’s hilt protruding from his chest, the front of his shirt stained crimson.

“Miguri?” Eris called, unable to spot her little friend.

Turning around, she saw him backed up against the wall behind her, blue eyes wide and body completely still. She crouched and waved a hand in front of his face. He didn’t even blink. “Good Lord,” she muttered. “Miguri! Snap out of it! I need your help!” When he didn’t respond, she grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

“Ah!” Miguri yelped. “What was that for?”

“Sorry!” Eris exclaimed. “Sorry! You were in shock, and I didn’t know what to do!”

“In shock?” The Claktill stared at her with a confused expression. “Why was I—” Sniffing the air, his hair shot up into spikes again. He swiveled around, saw the jsgarn, and screamed, “That’s a—”

“Stop panicking!” Eris shouted. “It’s dead, don’t worry.”

Miguri’s hair settled into a fluffy mass. “How?”

“Varrin. Apparently he’s good for something after all. Speaking of Varrin, he got hurt pretty badly, and I don’t know what to do.”

Miguri took a deep breath and then released it. “I apologize for my reaction to the jsgarn. I have not encountered one since I was a child on Claktilla centuries ago.” He paused and then added, “I panicked.”

“Forget it. I wasn’t exactly a vision of bravery myself.”
Although Varrin certainly was
. She grabbed Miguri’s hand and led him to the unconscious Rakorsian, who had started to shake. “What should we do?”

The Claktill bent down and examined Varrin’s arm. “This does not look good. He was bitten by the jsgarn. Their fangs are venomous. He will need medical attention. But that is a problem, as any hospital will contact the authorities as soon as they figure out who he is.”

Eris wracked her brain for a solution. “Didn’t he say something about starlight? Is that a code word?”

Miguri’s eyes lit up. “Yes, that could work! The Starlight is a hotel up on the plateau. They cater to rich clientele and would almost certainly have a private and discreet medical staff on site. But I have no money save for the few tetras left on the card the Rakorsian gave me. And he is hardly in a position to pay for a hotel room.”

“We’ll figure it out when we get there,” Eris declared. Looking down the alley, she added, “Didn’t Varrin say there’s a transportation center a few blocks from here?”

Miguri nodded.

“Great. So we’ll go there and use the card to pay for a ride up to the hotel. Then we explain the situation to the manager, and hopefully he’ll let us stay until Varrin’s well enough to pay for everything.” She paused, suddenly uncertain. “Will that work?”

Miguri shrugged. “We are certainly dressed extravagantly enough to pass for rich folk. In any case, it seems that we either attempt your plan or leave the Rakorsian here, where he will surely die. The choice is yours.”

Eris didn’t hesitate. “We can’t leave him here to die. He saved us.”

“Then we must hurry. You carry the Rakorsian while I go ahead and try to locate a vehicle for hire.” Miguri hugged her knees briefly and then scurried off down the alley.

“Carry him?” Eris repeated. “This will end well.”

She wrapped Varrin’s uninjured arm around her shoulders and tried to pull him upright but couldn’t get enough leverage.
Who am I kidding? Like I’m going to be able to carry a six-foot-tall, muscular, unconscious guy.
And these heels aren’t helping.
She kicked off the shoes.
Good riddance.

Eris decided to prod Varrin into partial consciousness so he could try to walk. “I need you to help me,” she told him. It took a few minutes, but she finally managed to maneuver him into a standing position, leaning against her for support.

Varrin groaned and mumbled something unintelligible.

“This whole thing is your fault, you know,” Eris told him as they teetered down the alley. The rough cobblestones were painful under her bare feet. “If you hadn’t suddenly decided to get all noble on me, I wouldn’t have to be carrying you.”

By the time Eris had half-dragged, half-carried Varrin out of the alley, she was exhausted. They were now in a sparsely populated section of the bazaar. No one seemed to notice Eris or her blood-stained companion, and Miguri was nowhere in sight.

Eris’s knees suddenly buckled, and she and Varrin crumpled to the ground underneath one of the glowing street lanterns. The injured Rakorsian groaned again. “Sorry, sorry, sorry,” she mumbled. “Come on, Miguri, where are you?”

Eris heard a whirring sound overhead. Gazing upward, she saw a small, open-topped ship hovering overhead. It descended slowly and landed beside her.

The ship’s door was flung open, and Miguri jumped out and hurried to Eris’s side. A few seconds later, the driver—a young female humanoid with pale blue skin—leaped out and landed before Eris in a crouched bow. The girl’s violet hair hung over her eyes, obscuring a view of her face, but Eris spotted a logo on her sleeve matching the design painted on the side of the ship.
She must be the taxi driver
, Eris thought
.

“Welcome to Vega Minor,” the alien girl said, standing up. The movement of her lips made the geometric tattoos on her blue cheeks flex in an eye-catching manner. “My name is Nida. I would be honored to transport you to the destination of your— Kari! What’s wrong with him?”

“We were on our way to the Starlight when we were attacked,” Eris told her, trying to sound in control of the situation despite the fact that she was currently sprawled on the ground, clutching a blood-soaked man to her chest. “I don’t suppose you could give me a hand?”

Nida hastily bobbed a bow.

With the driver’s help, Eris maneuvered Varrin into the backseat of the vehicle. She slid in beside him, resting his head and shoulders on her lap. Miguri jumped into the front beside Nida. “The Starlight, and quickly!” he said.

Nida plunged her hand into the basin of navigation gel. The ship lifted smoothly from the ground and streaked off into the night sky.

As they rose above the city, Eris was amazed by the scene below her. The market spread out like a living entity, covering every inch of ground with twinkling lights as far as the eye could see. She had never seen anything so huge. “Is it all just one big bazaar?” she wondered aloud.

“The market on Vega Minor is the largest and most diverse of its kind in the galaxy,” Nida said. “In fact, it stretches across the whole eastern half of the moon.”

They approached a sheer wall of rock that jutted up from the market, atop which were skyscrapers and several spires like those on Alpha Centauri Prime. The ship’s nose tilted up as they ascended to the height of the glittering plateau.

“The Starlight is up there?” Eris asked.

“Of course,” Nida said. “The plateau holds all of Vega Minor’s luxury resorts as well as the residences of the elite citizenry and all government offices.”

Glancing down at her golden gown, Eris suddenly understood why Varrin had insisted on purchasing such luxurious clothing.
We didn’t fit in down in the market, but on the plateau we should pass virtually unnoticed.

The Rakorsian groaned and shifted on her lap. Eris thought he looked distinctly worse. “Are we almost there?” she asked their driver.

“Yes,” Nida said.

They leveled out over the plateau. Even if Nida hadn’t told her this was home to the upper class, Eris could have easily figured it out. She saw many gardens and parks, and the streets here—actual streets, not dirt and cobblestone paths lined with tents and ramshackle buildings—were broad and clean. Well-dressed aliens strolled along the gleaming sidewalks, and uniformed guards patrolled the streets and parks.

Eris’s eyes widened as they slowly descended toward a sprawling, opulent white building with a huge golden star design emblazoned on the highest roof. The tufty pink trees that lined the roads leading to the magnificent building reminded her of the Dr. Seuss rhymes she had read as a child. “I wouldn’t mind living here,” she whispered to Miguri.

“Nor I,” the Claktill replied. “I have been to Vega Minor several times, but never have I had the opportunity to visit the plateau. It seems a dream world.”

“This is the Starlight,” Nida said. The taxi driver skillfully landed her craft about ten yards from the hotel’s front doors, which were twenty-foot-tall golden panels studded with blue and green gems.

Nida jumped out of the taxi and opened Eris’s door. “Can I do anything else for you?” she asked Eris, though her eyes were on Varrin.

“Um, could you maybe go inside and grab the manager for us? I’m not sure if I should be moving him again without a stretcher or something.”

Nida bowed and hurried off toward the hotel.

“What’s our story?” Eris asked Miguri. “Has Varrin been here before? Will they recognize him?”

Before Miguri could answer, Nida returned accompanied by a mustachioed humanoid with bright green feathers and four arms wearing a golden suit. The man walked up to the taxi, spotted Varrin, and exclaimed, “Aedar Korlethi! Is he all right?”

“He was attacked by a jsgarn,” Eris said, “and he had mentioned we were going to be staying at the Starlight, so I thought if I brought him here—”

The alien waved aside her concerns. “Not to worry, not to worry, madam. I am the manager of this hotel, and Master Korlethi is a valued customer.” He pressed a translucent band around his wrist, lifted it to his mouth, and said, “I need a medical team at the front doors.”

Eris released a breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding. “Will he be okay?”

The manager smiled. “Not to worry, not to worry. We’ll have him right as
ralta
in no time.” He peered at her. “You are his … wife?”

“Mimi is the master’s mistress,” Miguri chirped. “His
cherished
mistress.”

“What—” Eris began, but then she noticed the conspiratorial look in her friend’s eyes and realized he must have a plan.
It had better be a good one,
she thought, smiling tightly at the manager.

The feathered alien nodded pleasantly. A few seconds later, a group of male Scalkans in yellow uniforms stampeded up to the cab, accompanied by a hovering stretcher. “Aaosha Korlethi kuaa alohaha,” the manager instructed them. The attendants transferred Varrin onto the stretcher and carried him into the hotel.

“We’ll send him to your rooms just as soon as we’ve fixed him up,” the manager promised Eris. “My name is Forlozi, by the way. I will take care of paying the cab girl for you. And then it will be my pleasure to show you to your suite.”

“Thank you,” Eris said as she and Miguri clambered out of the taxi.

While the manager was paying the taxi fare, Eris leaned down and whispered to Miguri, “Care to explain why I’m Varrin’s mistress?”

“Because now the manager knows to be extra discreet. Besides, does Varrin strike you as the type to have a wife?”

Eris had to laugh. “I suppose not.”

They were buffeted by the gust of air as Nida’s ship rose from the pavement and shot off into the night sky. The manager bowed to Eris and gestured for her to follow him.

Forlozi led them to a palatial suite decorated with marble columns, patterned silken pillows, and complicated geometric designs. A broad, semicircular balcony overlooked a pool that was almost large enough to be called a lake. “This is Master Korlethi’s favorite suite,” the manager said.

Of course it is,
Eris thought, taking in the sumptuous decor.
Varrin doesn’t seem to believe in doing anything in half measures.

After the manager left, Eris and Miguri toured the suite. Opening a set of mirrored double doors, they discovered the suite’s single bedroom. It contained a set of ornate, silvery furniture, including a circular king-sized bed. The entire ceiling of the room was mirrored.

“Hmm, looks like there’s just the one bed. Some suite,” she scoffed.

“I shall be pleased to sleep on one of the sofas,” Miguri offered. “I am certainly small enough.”

“That’s thoughtful,” Eris said. “But to be honest, I’m concerned about what happens when Varrin gets back. Think he’ll be a gentleman and let me take the bed?”

“When it comes to the Rakorsian, your guess is as good as mine.”

As they walked back to the suite’s posh sitting room, Eris said, “So what should we do until Varrin gets here?”

“Find some amusement, I suppose.” He began rummaging through the lower drawers of an intricately inlaid cabinet. After a moment, he extracted a small teal box from one of the drawers. “Ah! Would you like to learn how to play
ka-shak
, my friend?”

“Sure,” Eris agreed. She did her best to listen as Miguri began explaining the complicated rules of the alien game. But it had been a very long day, and the couch was very soft.
I’ll just take a little nap,
she thought, her eyelids fluttering shut.

21

E
ris woke to the sound of a loud knock on the suite door. She opened her eyes to see it was just past dawn, and she was still on the couch where she had fallen asleep. Miguri was curled up on an armchair nearby.