Night Song (The Guild Wars Book 9) by Mark Wandrey (best management books of all time .txt) 📗

and Drake, one nearly as light as Ripley. Sonya’s nose twitched, but at first she couldn’t pick out the two strangers’ scents, beyond how fundamentally different they were from her siblings.

Different, but with a nagging thread of same she couldn’t place. One male, the other female, and something…Behind her back, her hands tightened around each other, as though she could wrangle the scent with her fingers. There was something right on the edge, the absence like a missing tooth, that she couldn’t place or even name. Ripley’s scent changed ever so slightly, and she knew her sister felt it, too.

For their part, the stranger Zuul stopped short inside the doorway, eyes moving quickly from one of them to the other, stalling longest on Rex.

They seemed surprised, which made no sense to Sonya. Did these…these aliens think they’d be weak and underfed, misshapen from growing up on Earth? That Dana and Alan had tolerated them, kept them on chains in a yard, and…

“You thought we’d be smaller.” Shadow’s voice, serene, interrupted her ratcheting anger.

“Younger,” the female replied, staring at him.

“We started sending our messages fourteen years ago,” their father interjected, nearly as calm as Shadow.

“That is not the communication that brought us here.” The light-furred female flicked her ears and stepped forward. “I am Uufek, young ones.”

“And I am Teef.” The male looked expectantly at them before his eyes went back to Rex. They both assumed he was their alpha, because he was the biggest, and the fact that it was true galled Sonya enough to make her speak first.

“Are you from our clan, then?” She put all the confidence she could muster into the question, determined to sound as though she knew the important things about her own kind.

“I…” Uufek dropped her muzzle, eyes widening for a moment. “I do not believe so, young one. I am here as a representative of the governing body of Zuul mercenaries, the K’lak.”

“Ah.” Shadow stood and walked across the room to them, brushing Dana’s hand on the way past her. “I’m Shadow. My brothers Rex and Drake, and my sisters Ripley and Sonya.” He paused, perhaps not as sure of himself as he appeared, and Sonya wondered if they would offer their necks, or choose to smell his.

It could be that she and her siblings did that only by instinct, a throwback custom ‘civilized’ Zuul had outgrown, and—

After a moment, Teef stepped forward and leaned down to exchange scents with the smaller male. Sonya pressed her boot against Ripley’s, hoping her sister had also observed how wide Teef’s eyes had become, and the quick flicker of his ears.

Did they smell so different to other Zuul?

Teef moved out of Uufek’s way, and the female replicated the gesture. Though she had better control of her ears, her eyes widened as well. Sonya glanced at Ripley, who lifted one shoulder a fraction of a millimeter.

They crossed the room together, Rex and Drake belatedly following.

Teef and Uufek repeated each of the siblings’ names before turning their necks, reminding themselves of the sound and scent combination of each sibling, maybe. Sonya supposed their Earth names sounded odd to the Zuul. Closer in, the smell of each Zuul solidified into which was which, but still something slipped out of her fingers, an ache she couldn’t place. A thing she had known, or knew she should know, but couldn’t place. It was like the first time she’d been in a room with Madelene Gibbs after the woman’s husband had died. Emotions had been hard for Sonya to reconcile for some time, given how good some Humans were at denying or hiding them, and grief had been a new one to her then.

After all the sniffing, she looked back to Dana and Alan, hoping her parents would have some suggestion of what to do next.

“Have a seat if you like. All the chairs are made to accommodate tails.” No humor in her father’s tone, and belatedly Sonya realized a contingent of the company remained outside their residence. All very friendly for the moment, but her father had never been stupid.

Sonya and Ripley sat on either side of Shadow on the couch, and Rex remained standing behind his chair. After a small hesitation, Drake joined him, and for once Sonya had no idea what any of her brothers were thinking.

“You expected us to be younger,” Shadow repeated, as though several minutes hadn’t passed.

“We did. Orphans lost during the recent war.” She sat tentatively in a chair, settling more comfortably as she realized how well it fit her proportions. “The K’lak could not remain apart from the broader Mercenary Guild with such conflict, and we have many clans that committed to countless battles.” Uufek’s gesture was too quick for Sonya to catch.

“The Zuul who was here, a few months ago.” Ripley’s ears remained attentively pointed toward the strangers. “She sent a message.”

“Something like that. I am…disappointed we did not receive your message years ago.” Uufek glanced at Alan, and her tail brushed slowly behind her. “Fourteen years ago, you said?”

“Yes. As we left Gephard. Again, when we returned to Earth. Several times in the years since.”

“They are hardly pups, then, but grown Zuul.” Teef’s tone was level, but Sonya had seen his shoulders stiffen at the planet’s name.

“They are children still, here.” Dana had a command voice as well, sharper than Alan’s, but as always it was her eyes that gave it weight.

Sonya glanced from Zuul to Human and back, hoping Shadow or Ripley would have something insightful to say, or that Rex would do anything but glower. She knew better than to expect Drake to do anything except leap into the fray, if it came to violence.

“If you aren’t our clan, why were you chosen to come and meet with us?” She snapped her mouth closed when she realized she’d been the one