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“Take it easy,” she said. “Try to relax.”
“Chax,” I said. “He’s hurt. He needs your help.”
The female Yayora turned to him. His skin was red and raw where it hadn’t already burnt off. She returned to focusing on me. Couldn’t she see he needed more help than I did?
“Help him,” I said. “He needs help!”
The female Yayora took something from her pocket as more of her species ran over. Their eyes were big and yellow and wide, looking for any danger that might come from the dark.
“We don’t have long,” one of the Yayora soldiers said.
The female Yayora jabbed something in my leg. I was in so much pain I barely even noticed it.
“He needs help,” I said. “He needs…”
The words turned to nonsense on my lips as my head dropped back on the grass and I fell unconscious.
Save the few random sounds and images I recalled as I passed in and out of consciousness, I remembered nothing more about that night. But it instilled a desire in me. To find Chax and make sure he was okay.
Shink!
The door slid open, revealing a small figure. I caught the briefest glimpse of light behind her. Yayora welded a shuttlecraft in the middle distance. They shouted to one another as a worker dropped a metal tool.
The door slid shut, blocking them out. I was left with the female Yayora. She carried a tray laden with food.
“You’re awake,” she said.
Her smile was warm and genuine. She was the same Yayora I saw outside, the one who ran to my side to help me and Chax.
“You must be hungry,” she said, placing the tray beside me on the bed. “I didn’t know what you like to eat, so I brought a little of everything.”
None of it looked appetizing. They were lumps of jelly. It didn’t help they were brightly colored.
“Thanks,” I said.
An uneasy silence passed between us the way it always did between strangers.
“I’m Stari,” she said.
“Maddy,” I said.
The uneasiness returned with a vengeance.
“What happened out there?” I said. “I mean, I know what happened. Just… what happened?”
“You were waylaid by Iron Hoof,” Stari said. “He knew where you would be and at what time. After you injured him before, all he had to do was wait for you to turn up.”
“How could he know where we’d be? I mean, no one else knew where the shuttlecraft was.”
Stari’s eyes shifted to one side. It told me everything I needed to know and the blood drained from my face.
“He knew?” I said. “How?”
“The Changelings told him.”
“How is that supposed to be fair?”
“It’s not. None of this is meant to be fair. If it was, there’s a chance you might escape.”
