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And on Thorzan, we had plenty.
Clearly, Marex meant something to his people. But even he had little—a show of solidarity when resources were so scarce, perhaps. I wondered how the Zathki picked who to follow. I’d always thought them more of a hive than a society, but they had been monsters to my mind. With a sidelong glance at Marex, I thought perhaps I knew too little.
Soon, food was brought. It was some sort of animal, roasted, pieces cut on a plate with what looked like a root vegetable.
We sat at a metal table, and Wesley was the first to dig in. He groaned. “This is so good.”
Marex smiled, and bitterness filled my chest. That Crux had mistreated Wesley so severely that he would be impressed by this paltry fare grated. Surely, he knew that I could give him better once we returned to my planet.
“We have better on Thorzan,” I grumbled.
Wesley’s brow furrowed. “Yeah, but I’ve pretty much been eating tasteless white bars of nothing for weeks. So maybe I can have this for now, and when we get back, you can show me all the delights Thorzan has to offer.”
I stared at him for a moment, a spark of understanding firing in my mind. I didn’t trust it, until I saw the shy smile tugging on Wesley’s full, tempting mouth. He tucked his chin, color rushing into his face as he took another bite of the gamey meat.
Then, a smile spread on my face, the sense of victory taking hold in a slow, inexorable pull, until the world had narrowed to only me and Wesley and all the delights I could share with him right here.
Marex rolled his throat. In annoyance, I huffed, turning my head to look at him. “What?”
“You have begun to eat. Are you ready to listen?”
I grabbed the leg of the roasted rodent and tore, lifting the whole thing to my mouth and sucking the meat off the bone. With it, I waved in Marex’s direction.
“Proceed.”
For a moment, he inclined his head, his gaze down. His eyes narrowed on the plate between us. When he finally spoke, it was lies. “The war between our people ended in a treaty with Crux.”
I scoffed. “Crux the Progenitor has no control over the politics of Thorzan. He is a scientist. A breeder. Savior of our people, to be sure. But had you desired peace, you should have brought your bid to Xyren the Imperator, or to my father.”
There were only two warriors that the Thorzi would listen to in matters of war and peace—the king, and the war chief.
Shock clear in the wideness of his blue eyes, Marex blinked. “You are the son of Zul?”
My chin turned up. “I am. The only son of Zul the Proeliator.”
Marex clenched his teeth, his lips pulling back to bare them, but his growl never sounded. My father had killed many of his people. He had forced back the Zathki horde with the tactician’s mark and his own brute strength.
“Such a traditionalist,” Marex mused. “I never thought Zul would father a hybrid child.”
I did not have Marex’s control, and I did growl. “My line is strong, rather Thorzi or human. My father Murphy crossed galaxies to sire me.”
Wesley’s hand closed on my knee and squeezed. He was staring at me with those same stars in his dark eyes. With a huff, I leaned back, even relented. “Why did you deal with Crux?”
“He approached us. He said your people desired our technology. We desired resources from Thorzan. Food. Furs. Precious metals. Your planet is rich. Ours is barren. We have protected our people in these caves, but we struggle now to feed us all. We need more. Trade with Thorzan.” Marex blinked slowly, his posture too casual for me to trust.
“How long ago?” I asked, an uncomfortable sense that I already knew the answer.
The Zathki had not invaded Thorzan since before my birth. Nearly thirty cycles, and I had never heard of trade with Zathkar. Yet they had not mounted a full-scale attack. There had only been skirmishes in space, attacks on ships. Like the attack on Crux’s ship.
“Before you were born, hybrid warrior,” Marex said heavily.
That was when nausea spiked, hot and acidic in my gut. “And the technology you gave to Crux...”
Marex’s blue lips pressed together, so thin they nearly disappeared. I knew the answer then.
The Zathki had given Crux the technology he had used to save our planet and our people. They were the reason Thorzi were able to procreate with humans, the tubes and systems he used to splice and incubate our offspring.
“Your people were dying. He’d found another compatible species, but only half were able to bear children. Not enough. He desired a way to save you.” He continued then, speaking specifics while Wesley leaned forward, attention rapt. But I did not hear of the Zathki methods of rearing children that protected them from the cold, that kept the stress of bearing offspring from bodies already strained by survival on their inhospitable planet.
