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His head swam as the pain faded. “Who are you?”
The woman smiled at him. “My name is Myrria.” Then she tilted her head. “I could ask you the same thing, since I found you slumped in my doorway and covered in soot.”
He frowned as he tried to remember this. He had no memory of anything beyond leaping from the building in which he’d been held captive. “You live in the Den of Thieves?”
She nodded, her expression darkening for a beat. “My husband brought us here. He said it was a place for people who were blessed with luck.”
Rixx scanned the small room and peered through the open archway into a larger, common room. He saw no one else.
As if sensing his confusion, the woman pursed her lips. “I was not blessed by luck. My husband joined the crew of a ship, and he never returned.”
“He left you alone?” This was unthinkable to him. Why would a male leave his mate and take a dangerous voyage on a spaceship?
“Not all alone. I have a daughter.” She flicked her gaze to a small head peeking around the corner of the archway.
Rixx met her gaze. “And you took me in? A single woman and her child?”
Myrria lifted her chin. “If you’re asking if I was afraid of you, no. You were so wounded when I found you, my daughter could have fought you and won.”
Rixx laughed, but the pain in his side stopped him. “Then I owe you a debt of gratitude.”
“Kurril is not a kind place to strangers or the weak and injured.” She shook her head. “I know that too well. If I hadn’t brought you in, they would have stripped your body for organs or thrown you into the fighting pits as bait. Someone was kind to me here once. I am paying that kindness forward.”
“You will be well rewarded when I am returned to my ship.” Rixx’s head was clearing now. “I came here with a crew of Dothveks and bounty hunters.”
A glimmer of recognition sparkled in her eyes. “I don’t venture out much, but I did hear of some gold-skinned aliens who arrived on the planet.” Then her face fell. “But their ship departed.”
“Departed? They left?” He reached out his mind and found no trace of Dothvek thought.
She nodded. “Many days ago.”
“Days?” His voice cracked. How long had he been unconscious? “I have to get word to them that I’m alive.”
“Not if you want to remain alive.” She dropped her voice and glanced at the shuttered window, as if someone was listening in to their conversation. “As soon as the bounty hunter ship left, a fleet of Zevrians arrived, and they’ve been searching the city for any clues as to where it went or the aliens who crew it. They are hunting for Dothveks.” She shivered. “They are hunting for you.”
Rixx closed his eyes. He was stranded on Kurril with a fleet of Zevrians hunting him and no way to escape. When he’d left his home world looking for adventure, this had not been what he’d had in mind.
