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CHAPTER10
JAX
“Iam going to hunt,” I growled at Wesley. I didn’t want to scare him, precisely, but he had ceased listening to me, and I was worried for his safety.
When I had gotten up, keen on seeing something changed in our circumstance, he had begun to follow me around, insisting that wherever I went, he was coming. That included following me to the open bay of the ship, where I was doing my best to tuck a blanket around my shoulders and torso.
The Thorzi did not typically wear clothing on their upper halves. It was not pragmatic, in the humid heat of our jungle city. And once, we had required bare skin so that our mages could use our star marks to fight off our enemies.
Now, I wished I had taken some of those furs that I’d left as rugs on the floor of my room back at the palace on Thorzan, and made myself a coat. We weren’t meant to survive the cold.
In hunting, I hoped that there were more than Zathki on this barren moon, that by finding and slaying a creature like the fearsome zintari or the gentle nondti of my home planet, our chances of survival would increase.
Now, Wesley was standing there on the tilted floor, his weight unevenly balanced, wrapping blankets around his shoulders, tucking them around his arms.
“And I’m coming with you,” he insisted, pausing long enough to glare at me and push his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
“It’s dangerous,” I countered. “It’s cold. I’m unfamiliar with this land. I don’t know what beasts there might be out there—if there are any at all. I could get lost on the ice. Freeze to death out there—”
“And then I’d freeze to death in here. Slowly, and alone. I’m not doing that, and if you care about me, you won’t condemn me to it.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. Stubborn, demanding, peculiar human. Over and over, he put himself in harm’s way. He’d flown with me over Thorzan because he had wanted to do something.
I’d allowed it, and now he was in more danger than ever.
But his lips quivered, just for a second. His breath hitched, and he bent to pick up one more of the blankets from the pile on the nearest bench. His arm outstretched, he carried it over to me. The thin, light fabric dragged over the metal floor. I could use it to tie the thicker one in place.
“I get you’re big and all, but there’s a difference between being out there for a few minutes and, you know, going on an entire hunt,” he said, shifting the blanket in his grasp.
With a sigh, I reached for it. I dragged the cloth around my shoulders while he watched, tied it around my waist. I did not think it would do me much good, but my makeshift jacket was better than nothing. Moreover, it was something that Wesley had provided for me, and that warmed me more than any blanket ever could.
“Thank you,” I muttered, inclining my head. He seemed not to like my serious, focused attention, but I kept it on him nonetheless. “I wish you would stay here.”
“And I’ve already told you, that’s not happening. So, are you ready?”
“Almost.”
In the docking bay, there were cubbies for each member of Kaelum’s crew. In each, there were weapons, tools. Perhaps they were not intended for use on Zathkar—no Zathki had met a Thorzi warrior in hand-to-hand combat in living memory, and the blades were meant for trees and jungle brush, not icy fields—but they had to be better than nothing at all.
I was lucky enough to have four marks, but some warriors did not have any. Aldor only had one, and it simply turned his skin pink.
And there Wesley was, with no marks of his own, with a slight, human build. He was plenty clever. He had proven that in his time in Crux’s lab, in his quick adaptation to battle on a ship. But cleverness alone would not keep him alive.
I found a pike and held it out to him. There was no sharp tip apparent, but when he took it in his hands, I guided his fingers. “Like this,” I said, with a squeeze and a slide.
The blade pushed out from the far end. Wesley’s breath caught as the light glinted off deadly steel.
“If anything comes at you, you use that. Or a blaster.” I gave him one of those too. At once, he lifted it and looked at the cannon end, eyes squinted as though the object was an unfamiliar shape.
I pushed a hand atop it and turned it away. “Careful,” I warned, edging it further from him.
He laughed, the sound awkward, a little nervous, and he was quick to let me ease the blaster from his grip.
“Why don’t you hold onto that? If you, you know, end up going down, I’ll see what I can make of it then.”
But the pike, he took and used to keep his balance as we set off across the ice to try and find something to eat that would not drive us mad, and furs warm enough to keep us safe from the cold.
CHAPTER11
