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

Sonya cocked her head—the corporal had only recently returned from patrol duty, got up to speed on what had happened while she’d been out, and then come directly to find them…trouble still simmered in the Silent Night barracks. She’d really hoped they’d squashed it, but…

She shook her head, then realized it looked like she was rejecting Chelsey’s offer. “Come with us if you like. Shadow’s thinking we should chat with the Lumar. You have a luminary you want to introduce us to?”

“Do I?” Chelsey bounded forward, making a point to bump her shoulder into each of them on her way through. Even Drake allowed it without a grumble. “People complain about the Lumar all the time, but they’re sweet, you know? Really good within the scope of their capabilities. It’s all porkies, what they say about them. You don’t ask a shark to hunt on land and then give the arse to him for flopping, do you?”

“We…do not,” Sonya said, a grin dropping her jaw despite everything else around them.

“That’s a good point.” Shadow took a few half step/half bounces to come abreast of Sonya and Chelsey, tilting his head to regard the corporal. “Do we need to get our suits?”

“To see the Lumar?” Chelsey laughed, her pace not as smooth as theirs. “Or to piss off an idiot or two?”

“Always up for that,” Drake muttered, and Sonya huffed a laugh, despite knowing—or because she knew—how serious he was.

“Nah. You kept your breathers clipped on? Buildings are old, and I wouldn’t entirely trust all the connections, but we’re all inside, and you can get to the Lumar without hitting the planet’s attempt at atmosphere.” Chelsey swung her arms wide, which gave her walk even more of a fluttery bounce. Rex rolled his eyes so far back they turned entirely white. “Gets chilly enough that some keep suited more often than not, but you got that covered.” She touched both Shadow and Sonya’s arms and gleamed up at them. “Got jealous of you lot every winter, such as we get in Brisbane.”

“Less so every December, I bet.”

“I don’t know, you’re a lot more efficient at cycling heat than all our sweating. I could do with less leaking out of me, you know?” Chelsey cracked herself up, still chortling when they reached a break in the corridor.

“Big Strong Fist?” Rex asked, cocking his head at the programmed sign.

“I love them.” Chelsey sighed, clapped her hands together, and pointed at the other door, labeled Silent Night. “Barracks are there. When the heat gets a little unsteady, folks congregate in the rec, where you…met up with the bulk of us.” She rolled her eyes, then stepped up to the Big Strong Fist door and pressed a button.

After a long moment, the door slid open, and a large Lumar leaned out, blinking at each of them. He was only a little taller than Rex, and though his four arms added some heft, he wasn’t quite the overwhelming force some of the mercs had made them out to be.

“Never get used to all the arms,” Drake whispered to Rex, who grunted in reply.

But then, from a Human’s perspective…Sonya flicked her ears in amusement, and the Lumar fastened his eyes on her.

“Fight?”

The fur along Rex’s back rippled in obvious excitement at a perceived challenge.

“No, Ulan, no fighting just now.” Of course Chelsey would have taken the time to find out their names. Sonya should have asked how many Lumar were on the planet; that was the sort of thing a good mercenary found out. “Is Iban able to come and talk?”

“No.” Ulan shook his head, turning back to focus on Chelsey. “Eating. You come?”

“We can come in?” Shadow asked, sounding more eager than Sonya would have expected.

Ulan shrugged and turned around, waving an arm on either side of his body for them to follow.

Sonya fell into the middle of their group, her nose twitching. The Lumar didn’t reek like the Pushtal, but there was a dry, burnt papery edge to these halls that itched along the inside of her nostrils, and she needed time to get control of her responses before someone noticed. She had never heard that Lumar were quick to take offense, but Humans didn’t like the implication that they stank, and better not to take the risk with a team of mercenaries bigger than Rex.

She clenched her jaw and rubbed her tongue against the roof of her mouth, trying to minimize the bitter edge in the back of her throat. A near-overwhelming urge to spit or sneeze set her eyes to watering, and she lowered her head in the hopes of hiding her expression.

“What is that stench?” Drake finally asked.

“Smells like something rotted then caught fire,” Rex agreed.

Sonya jammed an elbow into Rex’s ribs. Her brother grunted more in surprise than pain, and gave her a little growl. “Don’t be a wanker,” she hissed at him.

“Ulan, how long have you been on this contract?” Shadow asked from a few paces ahead of Sonya, trying to distract from his brothers’ idiotic behavior.

“Many.”

“And how many of you are there in Big Strong Fist?”

“Many hand counts. Less now. Still many.”

Hand counts, Sonya wondered. Just how slow are the Lumar?

“You work for the Zuparti?” she asked.

“Engineering Guild.” Ulan stopped, which Sonya realized only after she’d crowded up on Shadow, tromping on his heels. She muttered an apology and took the excuse to violently rub her nose and around her muzzle, though it did no good against the scent climbing through her nasal passages.

“The Zuparti aren’t the whole guild?”

“Not think so.” Ulan shrugged, his eyes passing over them and taking no special notice of her twitching nose. “Maybe? Contract with Engineering Guild. Watch planet, protect Aku.” He turned back around, started walking, stopped, and looked back