Page 34 of Spectral Seas (Spectral Worlds #2)
A DOZEN INDICI monk warriors filed in behind Sss’kallion, each uniformed in the same dark full body leather armor as the dragon rider, and each with an arcing electro tipped stave. They double timed into a circle formation around the trio and the massive mining device, then dropped their arcing electro tips inward.
Leta slipped her thumb over the hilt of her blaster, triggering a scarlet augment to flare in the corner of Abby’s eye to match the others surrounding them. “Don’t,” he chipped. “Let’s go along with it.”
Sss’kallion may not have had ocular implants, but he apparently noticed Leta’s subtle movement. “Confissscate their weaponsss,” he said, prompting one of the warrior monks to grab Leta’s blaster from her side while another jabbed a stave toward Abby. Abby calmly opened his coat wide so that the first monk could take his saber as well. When the two warriors returned to formation, Abby readjusted his coat, then took a defiant half-step toward Sss’kallion. “So, it was you all along,” he said .
The Indici’s shoulders stiffened and his head twitched to the side.
“But why?” Abby asked. Then he pivoted back on his heel, grinning at the warrior monks surrounding him as he spun. “I mean I can see stealing crystals if you didn’t have any, but the beds of the Indici gardens are robust. Your monastery has countless wealth.”
“We didn’t do thisss for wealth,” said Sss’kallion, a taint of annoyance in his hiss. “Mortal richesss are meaninglessss to usss. There are thingsss greater in the universsse.”
Leta furrowed a brow. “But if you knew we’d find out,” she said, “why’d you allow us to come?”
“Because,” said Abby, “he knew we’d pose no threat.” He spun back toward the reptoid. “But, I assure you Sss’kallion, you’re mistaken if you don’t consider the Homeland a threat. You’re up against the syndicates and the Bureau.”
Sss’kallion’s inferno eyes burned on the two. But rather than let the mortal provoke him, he stayed silent.
“Where’s Sss’kyrone again?” asked Abby. “I take it he isn’t on sabbatical.”
“Oh,” Sss’kallion’s head wobbled in an odd lizard nod. “He isss. Of sssorts.”
“He’s alive?”
“For now. He will have to anssswer for hisss collaboration with the Alpha Plane.”
“I see,” said Abby.
“You do not yet sssee,” said Sss’kallion. “But I asssure you that you will.” Then, to his men, he said, “Take them.” He pivoted, then proceeded toward the corridor.
Abby smirked and sunk back on the lizard man’s exit, but a loud crackle, followed by a sharp zap to his kidney, jolted him forward.
~*~