The Merry Hunters of the Galaxy

The Rattler's Pit

The King Cobra's Medical Bay, The Planet Apepia

Rattling Jack Diamond

The first stitch yanked through my scales around the blaster wound on my tail with a partially numbed jolt of pain.

Those blasted Merry Hunters. I'd take them down as soon as I could.

My wristband beeped.

Good thing I needed a distraction. I took the call with a tap of the screen. "Who is it?"

Vernon Buford's face appeared in the screen's holographic projection, now wearing a tie as gold as the wall behind him.

Our talk before the Merry Hunters crashed in came back. He'd wanted to tell me about his latest find, a six-by-three-foot piece of caronine from the White Mountain. This would bring more business to Lepidoptera...and to the Black Star.

Buford's golden eyes narrowed to match his horizontal pupils. "Rattling Jack? The last time I saw you, things looked bad. What happened? Are you doing all right?"

The nurse jabbed in another stitch.

"What do you think?" I winced.

"Oh," Buford grimaced with me. "I'm sorry. Getting attacked by the Merry Hunters..." He shook his head. "I don't understand. Your power's not out in the open, Jack! They only hunt rich and famous people like...well..." he gulped and tugged his collar.

"Like you," I finished. If he got out from under General Pole's shadow, Humayra Nagai could visit him.

"Anyway," he gathered himself, "What brought the Merry Hunters to you? The place you were in didn't look very posh."

"Draco Kamado is...a former friend of a friend," I put our past vaguely. "He disapproved of our partnership. I tried to get him out of our way, but...you saw it didn't work."

"So, that's what happened to his face," Buford shuddered.

"Now," I stiffened with another stitch, "You were telling me about a large piece of caronine?"

"Oh, yes!" His eyes widened. "The Lepidopteran Caronine! Would you like to see it?"

Was he with it? Or did he have pictures? "I would."

Buford vanished, and white letters saying Camera Mode flashed.

Something shiny and clear came into view: the top of a coffin-sized caronine crystal. The camera retreated—Buford was backing up—and the entire Lepidopteran Caronine lay before me.

It contained a young Lepidopteran, about sixteen, wearing a white robe trimmed in gold. They had matching wings and fluffy antennae. So, they were a moth type. Wavy platinum blond hair flowed down their chest and intermingled with a bushy tail. That tail—they were half-Rodentian. They had the small, upturned Rodentian nose, too, complete with a few freckles. Their abdomen rose and fell slowly.

I flicked my forked tongue. "So this is what it contains." If only I could sink my fangs into them. No, I couldn't think about eating the moth squirrel yet. They were in a massive piece of ancient caronine. If they weren't secured, the Merry Hunters could find them. Ignatius Scutigera would blow them to bits.

A jabbing stitch cut through the thought. No, that's not who Kamado would send; the Lepidopteran Caronine was too valuable. He'd send the rat who stole my wallet. She was old enough to find the moth squirrel irresistible.

White letters saying Communication Mode popped up, and Buford reappeared.

"It has quite the history. Ancient Lepidopterans sacrificed two-bloods—that was their name for the mixed species—to please their gods. They brought their victim to a caronine pool in the dead of winter and drowned them. We found dozens of skeletal remains beneath the Lepidopteran Caronine, indicating an annual custom practiced over millennia."