Night Song (The Guild Wars Book 9) by Mark Wandrey (best ereader under 100 .txt) 📕

Shadow on the shoulder, then pulled him forward to rest their foreheads together.

“I know you got it, son. I trust you.”

“I know, Dad.” Shadow made a noise that might have been any number of things and spun away. He watched his son go, considering. He’d always pegged Rex as the natural leader. Maybe Ripley. Both were quick to volunteer and were ready for anything. But he’d never seen them in real life or death situations until now. Rex had acted decisively and saved Ripley, yes. But just now it had been Shadow who’d stepped up and defused a potentially explosive situation. Not only that, he’d done it in a calm, logical manner.

Time enough for the rest later. For now, he had to get ready for the Zuparti.

* * * * *

Chapter 8

Vergola Assault Base—E’cop’k System

Meesh sent his strike leader Skeesh, third in command, crashing across the command center with a yowl of pain. “Impudent kitten!” he roared in rage as Skeesh tried to staunch the flow of blood from his face. Another few centimeters lower, and Meesh would have opened his jugular. “All you had to do was repel the cursed Lumar’s pathetic attack.”

“It wasn’t an attack,” Skeesh growled back. Meesh took a menacing step toward him.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“I mean it was a diversion to launch a shuttle for recovery of staff off the Zuul ship.”

“You said two Zuul boats landed here…” Meesh said, confused now.

“They did, but a third headed for the objective on the other side of the planet.”

“And?” Meesh asked menacingly.

“It landed at the Engineering Guild’s facility,” a new voice said.

Meesh turned his head slowly to look at Nillab, leader of the Zuul.

“And what good were you in this?” he asked.

“Our ship was too damaged to be of any use, and we’ve expended all our drones. It was your drones that performed the intercept of Paku—which, I might remind you, is our ship as well.”

“You know the RoE,” Meesh said dismissively.

“Yes, it says once intentions are ascertained, appropriate action is to be taken. No intentions were ascertained. In fact, we barely had time to realize it was our ship before the Vergola cruiser was shooting the scat out of it.”

Meesh’s eyes flickered to another Zuul, this one obviously younger than the graying Nillab. There was also yet another dog, this one somewhere between the two in age. A male who moved with a strange self-assurance about him. “Who are these?”

“This is A’kef, the Rei’Shin of Insho’Ze. He is what you would call our war leader. And this is Veska, whom I have chosen as a junior adjunct to join us.”

“Whatever,” Meesh replied. “Who was on the other shuttle?”

“Humans,” Nillab said without emotion. A’kef glanced at her, but didn’t say anything.

“What? More Humans? Why were they on a Zuul ship?”

“The Zuul were looking for us and our ship. The Humans were looking for their own vessel, the one that brought the Humans here in the same way we were…recruited. Pure happenstance.”

“GenSha shit if it was!” The fur on his neck stood up, and he slid his claws in and out, his ears going back. Maddeningly, all Nillab did was narrow her eyes. The younger one, Veska, let her lips curl slightly to show shining white teeth. He was just beginning to consider whether a good fight would solve things when a Vergola entered the room in their disconcerting gliding gait.

The alien towered over all of them with its ridiculously thin neck and stupidly shaped head. Its brilliant green eyes regarded the assemblage curiously. “I was unaware of a tactical meeting?” One of its wraithlike hands seemed to float out of the robe it wore and gestured around it. “What are we discussing?”

“Master Guildsman Fak’l,” Meesh said, bowing his head slightly.

“Master Guildsman,” Nillab echoed, inclining her head even less.

“We were discussing that the newly arrived Zuul came with more Humans,” Meesh said. “And that the Zuul took no part in the fight that allowed the Humans they brought to join the Engineering Guild.” He spat and angled himself behind several of his crew in case the Vergola decided to lash out.

“Oh?” The alien’s tone sharpened with far too much interest, but the old Zuul didn’t so much as twitch an ear.

“I’ll remind you, our ship is all but disabled,” Nillab said evenly. “It is difficult to lead a charge in a space battle with no combat-worthy spaceship. However, it is capable enough to serve as a prison. The Humans are contained on my ship. We will learn if anything else is underlying the matter, but I suspect it is as it seemed. Unfortunately, our firepower is not increased, as the Zuul ship that arrived was summarily incapacitated.”

“The Humans,” the Vergola spoke, splaying its too long fingers to make a point of some kind.

“Are securely tucked away on my ship.” The Zuul was large for her kind and had many scars, evidence of her past battles. Her teeth were coated in metal of some kind, but she did not bare them nearly as often as Meesh would, had he gone through such a procedure.

“And if you learn of anything—” the Vergola said, letting the last hang.

“I will of course inform you directly, should there be anything that changes our situation. As per our contract.” Nillab emphasized the last words enough that his translator picked up on it.

Zuul had such strong ideas about the letter of a contract. Ridiculous, as the only important thing about them was the credits they delivered at the end. After all, it had been entropy-cursed contracts that had ended up costing the Pushtal everything. He’d burn the guild down if he had his druthers.

“The Zuul brought more Humans, some of whom have joined the Engineering Guild, and we’re just going