Page 15 of On A Rift’s Edge (Riftworld #2)
The ride out to the monstertown was less fraught than Lyall worried it would be.
In fact, it was downright pleasant. Pogo gave a few nervous snorts but settled into a steady pace with a few calming words from Kat.
Chucky cast a longing look when a jackrabbit bounded several meters in front of them, but he took his job of protecting his strange rider seriously enough that he didn’t give chase.
The trash scorpion maintained the confident air of a politician in an open-air motorcade.
Kat, for his part, showed no sign of concern that he was traveling with a Riftworld monster species whose name alone sent most humans into hysterics.
He kept up a one-sided conversation with Lyall, who found himself replying with hellhound vocalizations that the human couldn’t understand.
None of that stopped Kat’s cheerful chatter.
The young human detailed everything he and Kaveh knew about the trash scorpion’s biology and gushed over the opportunity to observe the creature’s behavior.
He and Kaveh had a theory that the rift animal was exhibiting mating behavior by adding objects to its shell to increase the chances of a crabby love connection.
Lyall hoped the haul from the creature’s excursion into the Tucson art scene gave the animal a claw-up on the competition for a soulmate.
The story, though, was perplexing. He had learned a lot about illicit activity while working for Arimanius.
Some humans, especially in the military, would pay a lot for a captive Riftworld being.
Conversely, there were Riftworld species who wanted live humans for their own unpleasant purposes, like the frog monsters known as hoppers.
And of course, phantoms, although the humans they got their tentacles on didn’t live long.
Arimanius had a strong interest in stealing and then selling Riftworld technology, which was largely biology based, meaning that he was trafficking in living beings.
Cyberbugs like Remi’s Bug were a well-known example, but even they were rare and expensive.
Also, much to Arimanius’s annoyance, cyberbugs simply left if their owner irritated or mistreated them.
Bug could go back to the head of the Colony at any time, but it liked Remi and was even on good terms with that damned control object.
Most of the sentient Riftworld species who could cross over into Earth had the edge over humans when it came to defending themselves, and few Earth people would dare venture into a Riftworld to hunt any species.
The monstertown was in a rift interzone and reasonably safe for humans like Kat to visit.
The military base was under the control of the Saguaro Rift drakones now, and Remi had confirmed that the truce between Kaveh and his clan had included that concession.
With the control object living its best life in Remi and Kaveh’s apartment, those boundaries were set now.
So how had a member of a species found only at an abandoned military base inside a riftland controlled by a powerful drakone clan ended up as an art exhibit in a human city?
Lyall was suspicious of Kat’s date’s motives for sponsoring the event where the creature had been put on display.
Of course, Lyall already hated this Paul guy’s guts because he was in a relationship with Kat, even if it didn’t sound like it had been going on for long.
Was Kat sleeping with the loan shark? Lyall desperately wanted to know, but he had no right to ask a question like that.
They stopped outside the eclectic walls of the monstertown, which had been constructed partly from scavenged material after the fighting that followed the Sundering.
Lyall decided it was best to transform into his human shape.
He had forgotten he was wearing human clothing again, so it had been left in tatters at Javier’s feet.
Dressed in living leathers, Lyall wasn’t much less alarming to the town’s inhabitants than he would have been in his true shape, but he felt it counted as trying.
Kat tied Pogo up in a small stable outside the walls and made sure the animal had fresh water.
Lyall took the repoequus’s leash—bridle, whatever—and sent the animal mental images of the two guardians.
The komainu were an ancient Riftworld species so powerful even Lyall’s fractious clan would think twice about tangling with them.
The little beast had best behave himself around them.
Lyall had Kaveh’s permission to go into the monstertown as a guest anytime he wanted during his visit, but deference to the guardians was prudent, and he didn’t want the repoequus to cause trouble for him.
“Thanks for giving me the lowdown on how you found the trash scorpion.” Lyall hoped Kat didn’t find the number of weapons visible on his leathers alarming.
There were, of course, many more that were hidden.
No sense in taking chances. The human had turned away when Lyall had transformed back and had avoided looking at Lyall’s body for some reason.
“I don’t know if that story is connected with the hellmouth, but right now we need to consider anything unusual as possibly relevant information. ”
“It was pretty strange.” Kat’s long legs gave him a faster stride, but it was one that Lyall liked to match with extra speed.
Chucky trailed behind them, the trash scorpion content to remain on the back of the young repoequus.
“I didn’t want to ask Paul anything, because of the whole criminal activity thing. ”
“I forgot to ask, how was your date?” Lyall did his best to keep his rabid jealousy under control, as well as his intense interest in the answer.
“It was nice.” Kat didn’t sound terribly enthusiastic, but maybe Lyall was hanging his hopes onto those few words. “He talked about money a lot and exploiting Riftworld resources.”
“How’s he planning to get his hands on anything in the Riftworld?” Lyall was starting to hate this guy even more than he already did. “Humans have trashed their planet enough. They better not mess with the little territory we have left.”
He regretted the words as soon as he said them, but Kat beamed.
“Exactly.” There was a hint of righteous anger in his tone, a side of Kat Lyall hadn’t recognized before.
Damn, he was so fucking adorable when he got riled up.
Lyall wanted to grab and kiss him. “The whole concept is offensive. Humans have no right to take the resources of a different universe from its indigenous population.”
“I’d like to see that loan shark try to take anything from the Mt. Hood hellmouth.” Lyall forgot himself, and the words came out with an added snarl. “For that matter, none of the higher clans would stand for it.”
They walked up to the immobile lion dog statues seated on blocks on either side of the gate, the larger female guardian on the left and the male on the right.
“Konichiwa.” Kat greeted the two guardians in Japanese and bowed to them. They had come up on the komainu fast, and Lyall was prepared to hang around for a while until the slow-moving pair responded.
But the female komainu swung her head around with a grinding noise in what was startling speed for her species. “Greetings, Katsuo Nakamura. I see you have brought us interesting guests.”
Lyall squirmed. The damn lion dogs didn’t miss much, and they had known Remi was Kaveh’s match long before anyone else. They had kept that to themselves then, and he could only hope they would keep their rocky mouths shut now.
“Yes, I have.” Kat gestured to Lyall. “I believe you’ve met Lyall before, well, as a pet dog, but you probably knew that.”
“It’s good to see you’re willing to work with our Kaveh, even though he is a drakone.” The female lion spoke in a modified but understandable version of Lyall’s native language. “It is a fraught time. Enemies become friends, and friends become enemies.”
Lyall didn’t know what the fuck she meant by that last part, but unlike Remi, he knew that asking a komainu for clarification was pointless. He gave them both a deep bow and said nothing.
“And you know Chucky, of course.” Kat gave the scaly little repoequus a fond pat on the neck before gesturing to the towering pile of trash and the creature underneath it. “I don’t know its name, but this is a trash scorpion from the base who ended up in downtown Tucson.”
The male lion dog made a series of clicking and squeaking noises that didn’t make much sense to Lyall until the trash scorpion responded in kind.
Kat’s eyes widened, and he whispered in Lyall’s ear. “They can communicate with it?”
Lyall nodded, the soft heat of Kat’s breath against his skin going straight to his cock and making him incapable of speech.
“Disturbing.” The female Guardian said the words in a low rumble. “Thank you, Katsuo, for helping our friend here escape captivity.”
The trash scorpion let out another set of sounds, some of which were pitched too high for human ears to hear.
“He and his clan owe you a debt for the rescue and the many gifts.” The male lion paused in his translation as the trash scorpion spoke again, then continued. “Such courtesy is unexpected from a human. In return, he and his clan wish to repay you.”
“Oh, that’s not necessary,” Kat said, but Lyall put a hand on his arm to stop him.
“Most Riftworld clans are prickly when it comes to debts and gifts.” Lyall snatched his hand back. Damn, he had to control the overwhelming urge he had to touch Kat. “I’d recommend you accept it.”
Kat eyed the pile of junk on top of the trash scorpion and whispered, “Hopefully it won’t be the thong.”
Lyall had to suppress a laugh, and Kat gave a fake cough to cover his own amusement.
The vet assistant nodded in the male lion’s direction. “That’s very generous of him, and I’d be honored to accept.”
Both lion dogs gave approving nods.
The female komainu spoke to the trash scorpion again, but this time she didn’t translate the crab-like creature’s answer. Instead, both guardians fell silent.
Lyall didn’t like that. He felt confident he had given Kat good advice on how to handle this Riftworld interaction, but the trash scorpion’s answer had the lion dogs concerned. He could smell it.
With a loud grinding noise, the female guardian climbed down to the ground. Once there, her body transformed into brick-like components which assembled themselves back into a humanoid shape approximating that of a woman. She came closer to Kat, and Lyall stepped in front of him.
He didn’t want to go head-to-head with the guardians, but he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to Kat.
The female lion dog regarded Lyall with a flat stare. “I have shifted into this form so I may better explain to Katsuo the words of the—” Her words dissolved into the collection of sounds that must be the name the trash scorpions gave themselves.
“Fine.” Lyall didn’t move from his spot. The komainu could damn well explain herself with him standing there.
This time it was Kat who gripped Lyall’s shoulder, as if for reassurance. “What did it say?”
The lion dog shifted her gaze from Lyall to Kat, then back again. “He and his clan know where the human prisoner is being held in the base. The gift they are offering you is the captive’s life.”