Page 67 of Blightfall

“This seems pretty private,” I said, turning around again.

Dayan moved so fast I could hardly react. A light-whip bloomed to life in their hand, and they cracked it toward us, catching us both around the knees and knocking us down. My hand tangled in my bag as I tried to draw my pistol, and I heard Nope squeak as I elbowed her.

“Sorry!” I said, kicking to get my feet clear of the whip, still trying to wrangle my pistol free, wondering if I ought to just shoot through the bottom of the bag, but I might catch Nope in the blast.

Dayan circled us, lashing our bodies together and pulling tight. Soon my arms were pinned to my side, and I couldn’t draw the pistol if I wanted to. Dayan stepped back onto the veranda, hauling Nedd and me to where their light-whip wouldn’t be visible from the street.

“Wait!” I said, stupidly trying to hold up my hands in surrender. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”

Dayan stood over us, holding the whip tight. “What did you do to them?” they demanded.

I blinked. I looked over at Nedd, whose prosthetic had come loose, making his arm look broken inside his sleeve, his gloved hand hanging at an unnatural angle. If Dayan thought they’d seriously injured him, they didn’t react.

“What did we do with who?” I asked.

Nedd managed to get his foot free and kicked at Dayan, catching them in the knee and sending them stumbling backward. They stayed on their feet and pulled the whip tighter, staying clear of Nedd’s leg.

“With Zimmel,” Dayan said. “And Laryna and Yamin.”

“We don’t know who any of those people are,” I said.

“Don’t lie to me,” Dayan said. “I know you’re not from the rice farms. Zimmel said there were people snooping around, asking questions, and now he and the others are gone. So drop the act and tell me what you did to them.”

My legs were losing feeling, and one of my arms was bent so hard I thought my shoulder might dislocate. We weren’t going to get out of this by pretending to be rice farmers.

“Okay!” Nedd said. “You got us! We’re not from the rice farms. Can you let us free so we can talk about this?”

“Why, so you can make me disappear too?” Dayan asked. “I know you all are watching us from your precious star. You think you can just come down here and abduct us and no one’s going to do anything about it?”

“You know about the star?” I asked. “About the aliens watching you?”

Dayan yanked on the whip, and I cried out as my arm wrenched farther. Nedd twisted, trying to loosen the pressure on my joint before it popped out of the socket.

“Stop!” he said. “Let’s talk. We aren’t who you think we are.”

“That’s exactly what you’d say,” Dayan said, “if you were aliens who thought I knew too much about your little schemes.”

Oh, stars. Did Dayan know about the Superiority’s schemes? If they did, they’d be an invaluable resource. We had to talk our way out of this without hurting them, and somehow convince them we were all on the same side.

“We’re not with the aliens on the star,” I said. “We’ve been on this world for less than a day. We came from another human colony, and we want to help you.”

Nedd glanced at me, like he wasn’t sure I should have said any of that, and maybe I shouldn’t have. But lying or hiding who we were would only make Dayan more suspicious, and we needed their help to figure out what was going on with the Superiority and get off this planet.

“You can release us,” I said. “I promise we aren’t going to hurt you.”

“So you weren’t reaching into your bag for a weapon?”

Oh scud. “I was!” I said. “But only because we don’t know you and you were ambushing us in an alley and frankly I wasn’t entirely off base to think this was a dangerous situation.”

Dayan considered this. “Drop your bags,” they said.

Oh no. Now they wanted to take our bags, which contained the taynix.

“Um,” I said.

“No arguments! Drop your bags. I’m going to take your weapons, and then I’ll release you and we can talk.”

Talking while they remained armed with a light-whip, and Nedd and I were both totally unarmed, didn’t seem entirely fair, but it would be an improvement. I looked to Nedd.