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Human? Jagga was not familiar with this word. In the language of the nith, which was the same language Jagga spoke, the word carried the-szkktsuffix which indicated it was some kind of meat. As for the wordfemale…he was completely at a loss.
But the blood was clearly from an ukkur. All the other creatures of this planet had green-black copper-based blood. Only the ukkur carried iron-red blood in their veins. In fact, that was the very meaning of the word ukkur—red blood.
What the hell was a human, though? Some new kind of ukkur that the nith were creating for food? As far as Jagga knew, the nith created ukkur to use as slaves on their ksh farms, but perhaps they had begun experimenting with other uses.
There was a shrill beep, then a stern nith voice replied through the speaker of the communication device.
“Remains? Do you mean the human female is dead?”
“Yes, my captain,” the nith answered. “The ukkur has eaten her.”
Jagga scoffed silently to himself. He still didn’t know exactly what a human was, but the idea that some random ukkur had devoured this one was absurd. Even if the human was very small, there would be more left behind than some splattered blood. Bones, for example. Or the guts. Something.
But the nith were not thinking about it that carefully.
The captain’s voice came over the communication device again. “Eaten her? Hmm, yes. She was a tasty looking little morsel.”
“How shall we proceed, my captain? Do you wish for us to pursue the ukkur?”
There was a pause while the nith captain on the other end, thought.
“No,” the captain’s voice replied at last. “The ukkur is of no consequence. The human was dangerous because she knew about our plans. She might have returned to her companions and warned them. But now she has been conveniently disposed of. And the fact that the ukkur devoured her indicates thatheis not allied with the main tribe. Therefore we need not concern ourselves with tracking him down.”
“Of course, my captain,” the nith with the communication device said ingratiatingly. “Your logic isimpeccableas ever.”
The captain’s voice chittered approvingly, soaking up its subordinate’s praise. As Jagga well knew, the nith were highly egotistical creatures.
“Return to the ship at once,” the captain said. “We must assemble the army for the invasion of the canyon. The high command has decreed that we shall invade at the next halfmoon.”
The next halfmoon? That was two nights from now.
“Aye, my captain,” the nith in the gorge said.
There was a beep as the communication device clicked off.
“You heard the captain. Mount up. We must return to the ship immediately.”
The other nith clicked and chittered quietly as they moved toward their hovering vehicles, which were parked next to the wall of the shallow chasm below. Still, none of them had so much as glanced toward the lip of the gorge.
Jagga watched. Beside him, Grodd whined faintly. The big bearded ukkur did not want to let the nith escape.
It was time for Jagga to make a decision.
He was not afraid of fighting the nith. Not in the slightest. And especially not such a small group of them. However, he sensed this situation was not as simple as it seemed. The nith had been speaking of big things, grand things—armies and invasions. Plus, something about the bloody scene on the riverbank was not quite right. A trap of sorts? Or at least a trick.
Jagga’s intuition told him killing these nith would lead to trouble down the road. His intuition was usually correct.
Yet he could sense Grodd beside him, still trembling with scarcely restrained rage. Was Jagga going to deny his faithful companion the pleasure of murdering a half dozen rotted nith soldiers? Of course not. Grodd deserved to have some fun. After all, Jagga owed his life and his freedom to the big crazy bastard.
“Rot it,” Jagga whispered under his breath. “Fine. The leader is mine. You can have the rest of them.”
Amid his dense beard, Grodd’s cruel grin and sharp tusks flashed white in the moonlight.
The big ukkur leapt.
For a moment, time seemed to slow almost to a halt. Grodd’s powerful frame hung suspended in the air, his stretching muscles limned with silvery moonlight. Below, the dark-robed nith were utterly unaware of the danger above them.
Grodd dropped like a boulder.
