But I don’t have time to look at it as everything suddenly becomes urgent. I stumble down the stairs into the main area where there is a similar depression to the one in most Sarkarnii quarters I’ve ever been in, only this one is square, not round. There’s a wall which has a food dispenser installed behind frosted glass but no sign of anything which can be used to eat or drink out of.
However, eating and drinking are of less urgency than the other things I need to do. Clutching my abdomen, I start slamming my hand on the walls, hoping to hit the switches to open a door, any door, one which I hope will be a bathroom.
My luck is in as one of my random slaps reveals exactly what I need, and I practically dive into the room which smells of water.
Only there’s no toilet. I throw my head back and groan.
“Calculating.”
The metallic voice comes out of the walls and makes me jump, but not as much as the way the floor morphs into…a loo.
I stare at it like a toilet has just morphed out of the floor. A toilet…
Then my stomach reminds me why I’m here and…let’s just say…I make use of it. Least said, soonest mended.
Probably.
“Sorry about that,” I say out loud as I exit the room.
And run instantly into a wall of scales and muscle.
“Little mate,” Driok croons, his hand in my hair and his lips on mine.
It seems like a lifetime of cares are tossed into the fire when I am with him. Nothing, nothing matters. Only his heat, his scent, his presence.
I didn’t even realize I needed him like this.
When I’m released, for a moment, I keep my eyes shut, savoring the moment. Then he is there, in all his scaly glory.
“What…?”
Driok releases me and stomps over to the food dispenser where he slams his fist against the register pad.
“Ale wine,” he growls.
The dispenser hisses to acquiesce to his request. Driok looks over his shoulder at me, his eyelids heavy.
“Fee,” he adds as he removes the goblet from the dispenser and swallows the contents in one gulp before holding out the cup of steaming liquid to me.
I think I’d have preferred the ale wine, but I take the fee anyway as he moves his huge bulk over to the sunken area which looks out over the city.
“What happened, Driok?” I sit opposite him. “Where are we?”
“It’s gone, Maggie.” He stares out at the city. “The ship, my crew, the one chance we had. Gone. I thought I’d lost you too.” A muscle in his jaw jumps.
His eyes…they’re filled with pain. Driok looks younger, vulnerable in a way I don’t think I’ve ever seen him. Then he blinks, and all of it is gone, replaced by the warlord once again.
“They attempted to subdue me with paraxio, I think, but I’ve been training my resistance to the drug, and it didn’t work. I managed to get us on a transport off Szorn, and we’ve ended up here.”
“Where’s here?” I ask, clutching my fee, my mind whirling with all he’s said and all which seems to have happened in the time I’ve somehow been unconscious. “Where is this place?”
“This.” Driok looks out the window. “This is Xracak City.”
“What planet?
“Xrarcak City is the planet. It’s the one and only place our enemies cannot find us, and it’s the one place from which we cannot return to Vorostor.”
MAGGIE
