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

This time Makori fixed her with a steely stare. Still, she could see uncertainty creeping through him. Eventually he shook his great head. “I…” Makori snapped his jaw, tail high. “Did you come here to speak of the Hosh, or check on the Humans? The Earth pups are far from us now, and from what I hear, our enemies once more.”

“They are no such thing.” Veska longed to bite sense into him. “And both, as they are interrelated. The Humans are the chosen clan of a Hosh. Nothing happens by accident. Nothing. They should be treated with all honor.”

“As they are.” The large male pushed off the wall, gesturing behind him. The cells were all open into one common space, and comforts of furniture and food had been brought to them. It seemed more a favored squad’s barracks than a prison.

“They are still penned, like pups without sense.” She lifted her lip, staring him down. “Let me in.”

“Veska—”

“On this contract, I have the captain’s ears. I am the onnogo, Makori, and this is more important than Eshtoo. Coshke moves in this, and I move with the gods.” She stood tall, her shoulders set, her tail still. Her eyes remained unwavering on his. “If there is punishment to follow, I alone will take it. Let. Me. In.”

He dropped his gaze first, tilting his chin back to expose the length of his neck. She tamped down the wave of satisfaction—the gods did not reward smugness. The moment he moved aside, she brushed past him into the common room, making him move further out of her way.

She would not be smug, but she could enjoy her victory a little.

In the room, she sobered. Eleven Humans sat with such careful stillness, she couldn’t believe Makori hadn’t noticed it. Veska had spent some time with Rex, a smaller amount with his siblings, and even less with their Human compatriots, but even that little had been enough to know they weren’t sitting in here relying on honor, no matter how real that honor was.

“You are well?” she asked, making a show of examining the room, which gave her the opportunity to see if Makori had leaned in to listen. The humans sat spread out in various poses—two on the table in the middle of the room, some against the walls between cells, others in the low chairs set around the common space. The leader stood when she spoke, and after a moment, her translator began.

“We’re as well as can be, when our allies take us prisoner.”

“You have been a member of the mercenary group longer than I have,” Veska said, angling toward the furthest reach of the room and keeping her eyes respectfully on him even as she walked. “You must know as well as I how important it is to adapt when a contract is in place.”

“A’kef said something very similar.”

Her shoulders tightened at his casual use of her Rei’shin’s name, but she hadn’t used whatever title the Human claimed in addressing him, either, so she supposed that was fair.

“Then I will not remind you of lessons the Guild teaches.” Her ears flattened, and she bit back the annoyance. She hadn’t come in here to shame the Humans, nor antagonize them. If only they made sense. Of course she understood why they would be upset, with such a drastic series of changes so quickly, but in the end, one handled the situation one was in, not what one had expected it to be. The Zuul would treat them with respect until the situation changed again. Why wasn’t that good enough?

But that wasn’t why she was here. She forced her ears upright and smoothed her hands down the fur of her face and neck, putting everything into its place.

“You are one of the Insho’Ze who have spent time with the Privates Porter,” the Human leader Trucker said, folding his hands behind his back.

Tension thrummed through her before she could check it. Humans were more often enemies than not, and clever ones, besides. Their powered armor was locked away, but Veska had heard enough stories of their wiliness to not underestimate them. Though likely they thought they knew what she was capable of, given they had fought alongside Zuul…but not Zuul who had been trained as she had, to the fullest capability of her larger, stronger body.

Coshke would not lead her astray.

“I am Veska of Insho’Ze,” she replied, knowing the short version of who she was to be more than enough for Humans. “I have enjoyed getting to know the Zuul who traveled with you, yes.”

“I remember you,” Tucker replied. “And yet you agree to holding us prisoner.”

“There are contracts,” she said, as gently as she would to a pup on his first mission. “Your other Humans have not reached out since joining the rest of your people on their contract.” She hoped the translator would relay her emphasis. “This is the life of the Mercenary Guild.”

“Barely a guild anymore, anyway.”

She shifted to regard the new Human who had spoken, the young one she knew was a friend of Sonya’s. She flicked her ears at him in acknowledgment, though his point made no difference. The moment they’d been pulled into the system, their circumstances had changed.

“We do not want this to end poorly. I add my request to that of my leaders, that you be patient until this is resolved. Zuul do not kill captured enemies.”

“The Pushtal do,” someone else said.

“Yes,” Veska was forced to agree. “However, you are not under their protection. You are under ours.”

“And if you’re ordered to fight our people?” the younger one asked, and Veska felt the attention of every Human in the room sharpen. Perhaps Makori’s, as well.

Something coiled and angry writhed through her gut, but she held ears and tail still, showing none of it.

“I