The Last Narkoy: Gathow: Book 2 by Elizabeth Price (good e books to read .txt) 📗

little effect on him or his rock-hard emotionless face. He stood, with arms crossed, waiting for her to climb down. And as she descended from the cockpit an uptight, an almost pleased smirk appeared on his pink lips.

“You really pissed off the old men,” he stated. He reached behind taking a helmet off the wall and handed it to her. “Might want to try this next time. Has a transmitter. We could have told you there was a starship off the Nogoana moon.”

Sedom grabbed the helmet, tossing it into the cockpit. It would have certainly come in handy, but she wasn’t about to let the nephew of Nokinil know. She breezed past Danstu, paying him little mind on her way to Lolum’s office. For some odd reason the man followed her, not close enough to be a threat, but still followed.

She paused, he paused, she turned, and he remained firm. “Who are you, Garric?”

“I need your permission to leave Gathow this evening,” he explained.

The very act of laughter halted her breathing for nearly a minute. “You, in the forest, alone?” It was as if she ate a foul piece of food. She couldn’t laugh, wouldn’t laugh in his presence, in any one’s presence. There was a persona to keep up, though it took every bit of her strength not to laugh. She managed to gulp the laugh away.

“Terman’s coming with me. A team from the Underground is lost and has agreed to join us if we come rescue them.”

“Rescue a team of military officers? They’re not starting out on the right foot, are they?” She turned away, hiding her amusement. She continued towards Lolum’s quarters.

Danstu followed close behind. “So, is it okay?” he called.

“Take Zion and Rosanheer.” She waved him on, giving him the okay to leave Gathow.

At Lolum’s office, she entered and closed the door before Danstu could have a chance to follow. Lolum was sitting in his robe in front of a holographic image of a fireplace on his wall, cutting his jagged toenails. Watching Lolum cutting his toenail disgusted Sedom more than pulling the entrails out from a Lombaust.

“The unruly child returns,” Lolum grumbled in his usually condescending tone to show he was not at all happy about her leaving. “Your luck will eventually run out one day. You know that?” He asked, pointing his nail clippers at her.

She moved his hand away, keeping the nail clippers far from her, and then sat next to him on the sofa. “We have a problem,” she began, gaining little enthusiasm from Lolum. The fact that he began filing his nail caused her to believe that he didn’t care. “While I was out, I saw a Marisheio starship docked just off the moon of Endradis.”

Lolum shrugged. “I see we can do very little about that.”

“How about fighting back? They are taking over Matrador!” She yelled, inflamed at the situation and Lolum’s lack of urgency.

Lolum calmly put down his clippers. “We have very few men capable of piloting a ship, let alone a Narkoy ship. And you’re the only one who knows how to fly those ships. How would you plan to attack the Marisheio? How many men are you willing to sacrifice considering you just saved them from the same fate?”

He was right. She hated when he was right. Sedom sunk her body into the sofa, almost to pout. “I want an army,” she huffed.

“Don’t think I don’t. I want those Marisheio demons dead as much as you. But the men are not available,” he explained. He took back his nail file and continued his task. “We have to wait.”

Wait? Sedom hated waiting. She rose, leaving directly for the door. Lolum didn’t bother calling to her. He knew better. Outside, Danstu still remained, waiting for her. All this waiting, she couldn’t bear it. Her hands clenched into fists. Her lips were so taught her bottom teeth were visible under the skin.

“Agh!” she cried out, irrational beyond even her recall.

Danstu calmly leaned against Lolum’s outside office wall, waiting for her little tantrum to end. When she had finally calmed down enough to hear him, he began, “Were you aware that a normal Marisheio battle cruiser houses approximately two-thousand able-bodied slaves on any given voyage? Many were pilots and ex-military taken prisoner in battle,” he mentioned as if it was a common fact.

The golden flecks in Sedom’s eyes still pulsated when she turned to Danstu. She stared at him with a firm look of irrational suffrage at first. Then she thought about what he said. Slaves? Her eyes cleared, her face softened. Able-bodied slaves? She nodded anxiously, her tongue crossing over her teeth as she thought. She walked away with the thought not fully developed in her mind. Sometimes, the act of walking helped an idea complete itself in her head.

She walked all the way to the main tunnel’s entrance before she realized she had to return to Lolum’s. Oddly enough, Danstu didn’t follow her this time. He was still waiting for her back at Lolum’s office. And when she arrived, he was still leaning against the same wall.

“Took you long enough,” he mocked.

Lolum was half-asleep on his sofa when she returned. “I want twenty men to meet me tomorrow at dawn in the docks. I’m going to teach them how to fly,” she decided, sure of her idea.

Lolum looked up at her out of one eye. “Twenty, hum? Think you can win a war with twenty men?” he asked.

“I think I can bring down a starship. I just need a distraction,” she stated overzealous.

Lolum chuckled. “You realize you’ll have to speak to the others… for once.”

A conceded rolling of the eyes followed Sedom’s long sigh. “Suppose I must.”

“Well then, good. Start with Danstu, he’s your assistant. Give him the orders and leave an old man to his rest.” With that, Lolum covered