Page 31

They used the last hour of daylight to set a couple of simple snares. Vahn watched Kara tie them off dexterously.

“You’re good at that.”

“I should be. You showed me how to do it.”

“I did?”

“You made me set them again and again until I could do them blindfolded.”

She finished arming the snare and sat back on her heels. “I got good at catching prey. But I never liked cleaning the kill. You always did that.”

“My father taught me,”

he said reflectively. “He often took me and my brother camping in the Verudiun Forest when I was a hatchling.”

They walked along the riverbank to the site of the next snare. This one required a tree branch to be pulled down and set under tension. It was too high for Kara to reach so she stepped aside and let Vahn do it.

“You’re the richest family on Vraxos,”

she said. “Why camping?”

“He always wanted us to be self-sufficient. And, I think, he enjoyed escaping palace life. We would ditch the guards and lose ourselves in the forest for days. It drove my mother mad.”

“It sounds idyllic.”

A smiled crossed Vahn’s face as he worked.

“It was exhilarating. One time we were all chased by a grekel which we accidentally woke from hibernation. It nearly caught Zorin.”

Kara was a good listener and he found to his surprise he enjoyed talking to her. He regaled her with his childhood adventures, some of which he hadn’t thought about in a long time. The hour passed in a flash.

She was laughing over his tale of a prank he’d played on his brother when he paused mid-sentence.

“Have I told you this before?”

“Yes. But it doesn’t matter, I enjoy the way you tell it.”

He swore.

“Is this what it will be like for me now? Repeating my stories to everyone like a forgetful elder?”

“I wouldn’t worry. You’re still the Zhaal. No-one will dare say anything.”

“That is not the point.”

“The point is there’s only us here. And I like hearing you talk.”

They walked back to the camp as dusk gathered. The human was surprisingly pleasant to be with, Vahn thought. Now that he’d stopped being annoyed at her skimpy apparel, he could appreciate her ready wit and easy conversation.

They lit the fire and sat next to it.

“Here.”

Kara threw him a foil pouch. “They say taste brings back memories. Try this.”

“What is it?”

“Best if I don’t tell you. Just try it.”

He opened the pouch to find a brown mush of indeterminate origin. He put some in his mouth.

“Drek’aa beresh. What in the pit of Xesh is this foul substance?”

Kara squealed with laughter.

“It’s an SDF ration pack. I stole it off my mother’s transport. It’s gross, isn’t it?”

“Are you saying I have eaten this before?”

“First few days we were stranded. It was the only food source we had.”

She lowered her voice to imitate his rumble. “If you can call this disgusting mulch ‘food’.”

“We clearly survived many tribulations during our ordeal,”

he said gravely. “We were braver than I thought.”

She laughed again.

“At least you’ve got a sense of humor about it. Luckily for you I brought some proper food for our first night. And a deck of stravi cards.”

“You know how to play stravi?”

He raised a brow. “That’s quite a complicated game for a human.”

“I won’t take that personally. But I warn you, I play dirty.”

“How did you learn to play at all?”

She looked at him and grinned mischievously.

“Guess.”

“Me?”

“The very same. We made cards out of leaves and you showed me how to cheat.”

“Cheat? Impossible. I play with honor.”

“That’s not how I remember it. Now go get the food out, snake-boy. And the bottle of melamak. You’re going to need it.”

Vahn had intended to go to bed early. His reasoning was simple; the quicker the four days were over, the better.

But as the evening wore on he found he was reluctant to end it. He was relaxed, which was a novelty. It was a relief not to have to pretend he hadn’t lost his memory. And he couldn’t deny he enjoyed Kara’s company.

“Stravi!”

she yelled, slamming down her cards. “I win again! You owe me half the Empire.”

“Your victory is extremely suspect.”

“Such a sore loser.”

“You must have hidden an extra card somewhere on your person.”

“Seriously? In this outfit?”

His eyes were drawn unbidden to her half-clothed body.

“As unlikely as it seems, there can be no other explanation.”

“You want to search me, snake-boy?”

Her tone was teasing and he had a sudden urge to call her bluff. He threw his cards down.

“I concede. I think I should give up now before I lose the other half of my Empire.”

“Smart move. We ought to get our heads down anyway. I’m going to take you on a tour tomorrow.”

“And what, pray, are our sleeping arrangements?”

“Um…”

she glanced at the new shelter. It was bigger than the old one with a lot more room inside, but it was still just one space. “We’re both going to sleep in there.”

“Kara, I do not think that is a good idea.”

“You can sleep fully clothed, okay? Or put a mountain of pillows between us. Whatever, I don’t care. But you promised to do things my way and this is what I want.”

She glared at him, defying him to break his word. He sighed.

“Fine. But we sleep at opposite ends of the shelter.”

He let her go first, using the excuse of banking up the fire. When he crawled inside, he found she’d pressed herself against one wall of the tent to leave him as much space as possible. It still felt far too small.

Silently he took his shirt off but left his trousers on. Then he settled down at the opposite end of the shelter on the portable mattress she’d laid out for him. He stared into the dark.

This is a mistake.

He’d known it the moment she’d insisted on sharing the space.

Because even when he turned his back, he could still smell her scent.