Clan and Crown (20 page)

Egilka dressed slowly, his hands
shaking, his expression a rictus of fear. The Adrafs averted their
eyes. Furred sentients often found the bare skin of those who did
not have pelts disconcerting. The Kalquorians looked somehow raw to
them.

Clajak gently prodded Egilka, noting
how their captors were shifting from foot to foot to foot. “Hurry
up, Imdiko. We don’t want to keep the captain waiting. Adrafs hate
dawdling.”

Black-and-White glanced at Clajak.
“That hair – you’re not the Crown Prince, are you?”

Egilka shot to his feet, his shirt and
pants on but hanging open. He shouted, “Yes, he is Crown Prince
Clajak! We may be stowaways, but the Empire will take it very badly
if he is harmed in any fashion.”

Black-and-White gave Clajak a careful
look. “Are you prone to hurting yourself?”

Clajak smiled reassuringly. “Not at
all. Forgive my companion’s hysterics. He doesn’t get off Kalquor
much.” He whispered loudly, in mock confidentiality, “He’s a
research scientist. Horribly responsible. That makes them twitchy,
you know.”

He followed that up with a significant
look. The Adraf looked confused. His head dipped down, the
equivalent of a shrug, before checking to see that Egilka had
gotten his clothes sorted out. Seeing that the Imdiko was dressed,
albeit mussed, Black-and-White jerked his head towards the door.
“Sure. Let’s go.”

The four Adrafs surrounded the two men,
keeping the shock wands at the ready. Clajak looked at Egilka, saw
that the Imdiko had no intention of trying to bolt, and relaxed. He
was pretty sure the wands weren’t set to kill, but he didn’t want
his betrothed to test that assumption. As for Clajak, he was fine
with going to meet with the ship’s captain. That was the person
with whom deals were to be struck.

They marched down the wide, brown
corridors to the rhythm of heavy hooves. Clajak turned his
attention to the white Adraf. Her coat gleamed along that long,
elegant neck and flashed brilliantly on her compact body and
muscular haunches. Yes, it did look long enough for
shearing.

Noting his interest, she cocked her
equine head in question. Clajak gave her his most charming smile,
hoping he wasn’t making himself ugly to the Adraf by doing so. “My
dear lady, you have the most beautiful fur I’ve ever seen. Is it
for sale?”

He ignored Egilka’s shocked look, his
smile growing more charming as the Adraf preened.

* * * *

The guards did not accompany Clajak and
Egilka into the captain’s office. The door opened, and the two
Kalquorians were waved in. The door shut behind them.

Behind a tall podium, the Adraf captain
was resplendent with chestnut fur save for on his freshly shorn
neck. He greeted them with a big smile and laugh that showed off
his fifty or so teeth to great advantage. With a return grin,
Clajak bowed. Egilka stood frozen, staring at the captain with
undisguised terror.

The captain whirled in a circle,
twisting away from the podium and towards them. He moved like a
tornado, the fastest way the three-legged Adraf could approach his
guests. With most of the floor space empty, his nimble progress did
not result in a crash. Except for the podium in the center of the
room and a long bar that filled one wall, the area was almost empty
of furnishings.

The Adraf stopped a couple of feet away
from the two men, prancing in his delight. “Crown Prince Clajak!
Ah, how I’ve long wanted to enjoy your presence. To have at last
crossed your path during one of your adventures! I am a lucky,
lucky creature, am I not?”

Clajak nodded and bowed again. “Here I
am, Captain. I am thrilled to make your acquaintance.”

The Adraf gave Egilka an evaluating
look. There was no hiding the greed in his tone as he asked, “And
your companion? What’s his worth?”

Clajak clapped the shaking Imdiko on
the shoulder. “My soon-to-be clanmate, which makes him a future
ruler of the Empire. Imdiko Egilka, this is this fine ship’s
captain.”

The odd introduction cut through some
of Egilka’s fear. “No name?”

The Adraf waved one of its tiny hands
at Egilka. “Of course I have a name. It’s—”

The noise he made sounded more like a
drawn-out buzz than any real form of speech. Egilka stared at him,
dumbfounded.

Clajak didn’t want to make fun of the
frightened Imdiko, but it was impossible not to laugh along with
the Adraf. Egilka’s expression was too humorous in its
befuddlement.

Patting his companion’s back, Clajak
said, “Rather hard to pronounce, isn’t it? They take no offense
that we don’t try.”

The Adraf nodded, his eyes bright.
“Absolutely not. Drinks, sirs?”

Clajak eyed the bar that took up one
entire wall of the featureless office. “Why not?”

“Your pleasure then.”

Clajak went to the many bottles lining
the shelves and chose a bottle of Kalquorian kloq for himself and
bohut for Egilka. He wanted to keep his head clear while appearing
friendly. However, the Dramok thought his fellow prisoner could use
the more potent drink.

He poured the bohut into a blue-glassed
mug and brought it to Egilka. The Imdiko took the drink, his
expression drifting to a more hopeful demeanor. “We’re not going to
be put off the ship?”

The captain, lapping some milky fluid
out of a bowl, started. “By the mane, this one doesn’t get off the
planet often, does he?” he asked Clajak.

The prince smiled an apology. “I’m
afraid not.” He told Egilka, “You see, the Adrafs are an enormously
intelligent and practical people. Why shove stowaways out the
airlocks when you can ransom them and make a little
money?”

The captain winked at him, his milky
drink dripping off his muzzle. “You are as smooth-talking as
they’ve described, Prince Clajak. It is a most civilized business,
don’t you think?”

Egilka struggled to comprehend their
situation. “So we’re prisoners?”

The Adraf sent a long gray tongue out
to lick where his lips would be if he’d had them. “I prefer to
think of you as honored guests. I can’t bear to part with you
unless compensated for the loss of your company.”

Clajak grinned and raised his bottle of
kloq in salute to the captain. Egilka’s too familiar scowl crept
across his face.

“You knew how it would go if we were
caught,” the Imdiko accused.

Clajak sank down onto the padded floor,
crossing his legs comfortably. “Of course. We needed a ride but had
no money. We are uninvited, but our rank assures that the captain
will collect the fare we weren’t able to pay.”

“With interest,” the Adraf buzzed, his
muzzle wrinkling with avarice.

Clajak laughed. “Which will be given
without complaint. Everyone wins. Oh, you might want to add ten
bottles of leshella to our tab, Captain.”

The Adraf spluttered, sending drops of
his drink in all directions. “Ten? So early in the trip? You
Kalquorians can certainly drink.”

“My companion was rather emotional at
the time. I confiscated it for medicinal purposes.”

His voice bad-tempered, Egilka
muttered, “I was not emotional.” He sat down next to Clajak, giving
the Dramok a black look.

The Adraf finished his bowl. He buzzed
something in his incomprehensible language and a holographic vid
appeared before him. Though Clajak couldn’t see well enough from
his vantage point to read the lines of characters, he had no doubt
it was an accounting sheet. The captain smirked.

“I will see to it the leshella is added
to my demands for compensation. Did you see anything else in our
cargo you would like? In addition to the booze and fruits in the
bottom bay, we have a fine shipment of building components and
cloning devices.”

Clajak shook his head. “Unless those
cloning machines can replicate fertile Kalquorian women, I think
we’ll have to pass.”

The Adraf lifted a hoof to scratch his
back. “Nothing successfully clones you Kalquorians. Your organic
structure is too complex.”

“No kidding,” Egilka sighed.

He exchanged a look with Clajak.
Cloning machines were typically used mostly to replicate plant
life. Living creatures such as animals and sentient beings like
Kalquorians could be scanned and copied in physical form. However
the animal forms of those duplicates only lived a maximum of half a
dozen years. Copies of Kalquorians never drew the first
breath.

The Adraf regarded them with sympathy.
“Still going extinct, huh?”

Clajak pushed aside the disquiet that
gnawed on his guts. “Yes, so make sure you don’t take our ransom on
credit.”

The captain laughed and bowed his long,
sheared neck. “Let’s have more drinks, gentlemen. It’s been a while
since I had the pleasure of such entertaining company.”

He refilled Egilka’s mug and handed
Clajak another bottle of kloq. The prince relaxed, delighting in
how things had turned around for them.

The following hour was spent drinking
while Clajak and the Adraf captain traded stories of their various
exploits. The captain matched the Dramok for close calls and
adventures. The tales grew more outrageous with each drink as the
two tried to outdo one another for audacity.

Before long, Egilka was laughing along
with them, his reactions shocked, riveted, and disbelieving in
turns. It wasn’t drunkenness that had him so relaxed. The Imdiko
nursed his drinks, downing only the first two mugs of bohut before
switching to kloq. Clajak thought his betrothed’s ease came from
knowing they were safe at long last.

The prince stole many looks at Egilka.
The man was beyond handsome when he was at ease and smiling. To
think he would soon be Clajak’s clanmate! The thought made his
heart swell. The fantasy of getting Egilka into a proper playroom,
with toys to tease and please, made other parts swell.

Egilka was having fun. Things had
worked out fine. Life was good.

Clajak was thinking about drinking
something a bit more potent from the captain’s fine selection of
spirits when Adraf speech filled the air with an irritating buzz.
The captain set down his latest bowl of whatever it was he drank
with an air of annoyance. He looked at Clajak.

“You had trouble with a Bi’isil prince
named Ru’imbu back on Dantovon?”

Egilka went very still, the smile
dropping off his face. Clajak sat up straight. “He did not follow
us.”

“He did, my dear prince. He’s on board
a hunter-killer craft too.” The captain blew impatiently, the edge
of his mouth fluttering. “Come along and let’s see if he will hear
sense.”

Clajak jumped to his feet. He followed
the captain out of the room, using a door on the opposite side of
the room from he and Egilka had entered.

As they stepped onto the ship’s bridge,
Egilka crowded close to whisper in Clajak’s ear. “Is this bad?
Those hunter-killer crafts are supposed to be lethal, a match to
our destroyers.”

Inhaling the air smelling of warm,
woodsy fur that would have been comforting at any other time,
Clajak answered, “This ship is no match for a Bi’isil
hunter-killer. Damn it, I knew the little gray bastard was obsessed
with us, but I never anticipated he’d chase us through
space!”

Feeling ill, Clajak wove his way
through the near forest of glassed cubicles which contained
podiums, each manned by an Adraf. The room would have been dark but
for the virtual reality screens displayed before each crewmember on
the glass walls. Knowing that some were helm commands, some
navigation, and others controlled the rest of various ship
functions did not make the screens any less confusing to Clajak.
Perhaps if he wore one of the visors that the crew did to operate
the systems, it would be clearer.

He turned towards the front of the
bridge. A large vid displayed a chevron-shaped craft dotted with
bright white lights. It was a Bi’isil war craft, the lethal
hunter-killer.

Clajak swallowed. Ru’imbu was
determined to have the Kalquorians. The Adrafs had no real defense
except to turn them over.

The captain didn’t look at him or
Egilka as they stood close to his command podium. He buzzed
something in a long stream of speech. The tone sounded like he was
trying to negotiate a deal.

He’d barely finished
speaking when Ru’imbu’s cold telepathic voice filled Clajak’s
head.
This is your only warning. Surrender
both the Kalquorians to me or I will destroy you.

The captain blew, spittle flying from
his muzzle as he protested in Kalquorian for Clajak and Egilka’s
benefit. “See here, you little bulbous-headed pimple on a Tragoom’s
backside. You have no right to my cargo. These ruffians boarded my
ship without paying and I mean to have compensation for the
additional load. What will you pay for them?”

Egilka looked as if he’d been struck.
He asked Clajak, “He’ll give us up to Ru’imbu? I thought the
captain liked us.”

Clajak didn’t think his heart could
sink any lower, but the situation proved him wrong. “He does like
us, but Adrafs are practical, remember?” The prince’s thoughts
whirled. He was only half-kidding when he told Egilka, “There’s
still the option of stepping out of an airlock.”