Indentured (Book 2 of the Dana Halliday series)

REALLY MOST SINCERELY DEAD. CHEATING. THE PRISON.

I became aware of a sudden deep, exhausted depression, almost apathy. The town was in ruins, the last of the vessels disappearing into the black sky over the shipyard. The air was hazy with smoke and dust, and I could hear the crackling of fire. I turned the flashlight off and let my eyes adjust until I could see the glint of the flames, on the high street and reflected against the remains of the arena.

The arena. I turned my light back on, and started picking my way through the zoo. It had fared better than the rest of the compound. Along the way, I started opening any gates that still stood, hoping the animals could make their way to some kind of safety. I found Gra'ly'os helping Bar'lem over the half-crumpled fence in the Qir habitat, J'oey clinging to his father's back.

"Are you all right?" I asked them. He muttered an assent, and they fell into step behind me.

Srarit and Oriv were climbing their gate, speaking their hissing tongue at each other. I hesitated, wondering how wide a berth I should give them, and pulled the sword out.

The Nessians saw me and paused. Srarit spoke. "We shall not hunt you. Not...tonight. Only if we get hungry enough."

The hairs on the back of my neck prickled, but I squared my shoulders and moved on. Gra'ly'os kept me between himself and his children, and I sighed. I was the one with the sword, I supposed, and I gripped it a bit more tightly as we passed the reptilian beings.

I suppressed an urge to run as we approached the arena. Part of it had collapsed, buckling inward, and my already thumping heart increased its tempo. "Liti!" I called from outside the holding area. "Liti, are you in there?"

There was no answer. "Stay here," I said to Gra'ly'os, although he showed no enthusiasm about following me. "I'll be right back, I hope."

The holding area was intact. There were some random creaks and groans from above, and I hurried through to the arena. In the strong but limited radius of the flashlight, the mad obstacle course looked hardly more battered than it had before. My light fetched up against one of the big screens, now a shattered ruin on the ground.

"Liti!" I crept farther in.

The light illuminated a dark bulk on the ground, and I almost screamed as I realized it was Mennu. He was so still I knew he was dead, but I set the sword down and went to him, unslinging my pack. I was rooting through it for my stethoscope, when something stirred nearby.

"I wouldn't bother. He's gone." Liti stepped into the light and knelt beside me.

"Are you okay?" I asked, then gave up all pretense of composure. I threw my arms around her. "Oh god, Liti, I'm so sorry."

Liti stiffened for a moment, then she relaxed and hugged me back. "I don't know why you're sorry," she said, in our cobbled-together speak. "Unless Earthers can predict the ground shaking."

It seemed like too much of an effort just then, to try explaining how I might have been forced to abandon her. "No." I swallowed back the damn lump in my throat.

Liti touched her temple to mine. "I'm all right. Are you? I can smell your blood."

I sat back, rubbing at my side. So, Richard Pants-On-Fire Fischer had stabbed me, at least a little. "Just a scratch."

I turned to the inert Champion. I put my stethoscope in my ears and listened to the huge chest. The Pemlo'hban's heart lay dead center, under a massive sternum and about a foot of muscle, but it would have been easy to hear had it been beating. It wasn't.

Liti sighed, in a manner that said she was exhausted. "I told you," she said, as I sat up and put my stethoscope away. "I can hear when the heart stops, usually." She shuddered. "I didn't want to kill him."