Page 5

"What do you know about the humans?"

The drogin looked at him, confused. His eyes shot all around, and Nezka took hold of his chin to bring him back to focus on him. "Where are the humans?"

"Hu...Humans...?"

"That's right. They came here not too long ago. The team that was new to the city."

The drogin looked away then back. "I don't know...where they are."

Nezka's hand tightened on the drogin's jaw. "I think you might. You're a watchman at one of the gates. You saw them go into the undercity." His head tilted as he examined the shaking creature before him. "What do you know?"

The creature whimpered and said nothing until Nezka shook him slightly, and he yelped. "They...they went in to gather information about those living below. They didn't come back." The drogin tried to shake his head away, but Nezka held him tight. "The undercity is filled with a foul breed. They were warned not to go."

"Who took them?" Nezka asked calmly.

"I don't know for sure... I don't, I swear!" The drogin panicked as a knife came into his periphery. "But it was likely them! The Red Blades! They control...the undercity. They know everything!"

"The Red Blades...?"

"The criminal underlords. Their leader...no one has seen. No one knows...where they hide."

The knife lowered, and the drogin's breathless pants quieted only slightly.

"What else?" Nezka said patiently.

"Wh—what else? I...don't know."

"Are they looking for them? Your people?"

The drogin seemed to think on this for a moment, and then his eyes brightened. "Yes. Yes, the city officials have been looking. And there is talk of a bounty."

"Bounty?"

"They are looking to put a huge sum on the heads of the leaders and criminals responsible. And on the heads of the Red Blades. You...can see for yourself with my Ulink."

Nezka rifled through the drogin’s clothes until he found what he assumed the drogin was talking about. A thin, oval-shaped device with a simple interface. "This is tied to your network?" he asked.

The drogin nodded, and Nezka pressed against the device, lighting up its screen. "Ruumas, take this and download all information then link to their network." The skra took it as ordered and disappeared. Nezka grabbed hold of the drogin. He picked him up, forcing him to his feet.

"Please...please...don't kill me," he begged.

"I can dispose of him," said Silfres, the lygin watching nearby, a large feline with a scar across his nose and a dark mane.

It would be easier. But Nezka was just starting to get back into a good mood with this new set of information, and for that, he felt the drogin deserved to live. He let go of the creature, who stumbled back. "Wipe his brain. We will drop him somewhere."

Without question, the lygin took hold of the drogin and dragged him away. Nezka looked to the others who waited his command: Wruk, a grex with a wide lizard face and yellow eyes, Vijnn, a corax with a shark-mouthed grin, his back fins trembling in anticipation, and Jazlin, a nillium female with pale gold skin and crown-like points on either side of her head, adorned in a set of leathers. Some of Vesra's finest men and women at his beck and call.

"Make for the central callroom," he ordered. "I will meet you there."

The grex and the corax went as told. The nillium female didn't move. Nezka tilted his head at her, and she smiled.

"Leadership looks good on you, Nezka," Jazlin said as she leaned against an equipment box. "Surprising for one who only ever works alone. Always in Vesra's shadow."

Nezka stared her down then moved in, coming up close against her. "I know something else that looks good on me," he said low and watched as the nillium female tensed, her breath catching. She only faltered for a moment, her skin darkening slightly along her cheeks, but her composure returned quickly, and she lifted her leg up, encircling it around Nezka's lower waist.

"Oh, I remember," she said softly, almost purring. "And I wouldn't mind making you look good again."

Nezka was sorely tempted. And he certainly wasn't ashamed to do it here and now, whether anyone saw them or not.