Page 30 of Alien Triton's Prize

A poisoned arrow would explain it. But— “Nerialdid this?” I asked.

It was Iravan who replied. “Not personally, but she organized it. They caught the shooter. He killed himself before he could tell us anything, but a quick look into his finances showed that Nerial recently sent him a substantial payment. He also had his conch on him, and there were highly incriminating messages between the two.”

“And all this because you were smart enough to reject the bitch.” Cetia was pacing now, her motion churning up the water in the room.

All this talk about a female I hadn’t wanted in my life had me thinking of the one Ididwant, but Vera wasn’t here. Had Nerial gone after her? Panic had me trying to get out of my healing pod, which set off another round of frantic beeps that went straight through my head.

“Where is she?” I croaked.

“Nerial? They have her in custody,” Cetia said.

“Not Nerial. Vera.”

The three of them exchanged a look.

“Where is she?”

Iravan held up his conch in front of my healing pod. On the screen was amateur video of the race taken from somewhere in the spectator stands.

“All the official feeds were turned off mid-race. We were lucky that security got a tip-off about someone looking suspicious and carrying a weapon. They wouldn’t have caught the shooter otherwise.”

The video showed Iravan and another competitor struggling to haul me through the cables at the finish line. Then Cetia and Vera were there. Vera held, no, clutched my good arm, her face awash in worry until the emergency healer started loading me into a pod. Algrim was right behind her. The footage showed him grabbing her by the arm and yanking her roughly out of the frame.

“We’ve tried calling her,” Iravan said, “but we’re not getting through. Investigators called Algrim in; he expressed surprise atwhat happened at the race and claims he has no idea where Vera is now.”

“I should have seen it coming.” Cetion’s voice oozed sadness. “I should have watched him better.”

“It’s not your fault, Grandsire,” Cetia said, embracing the older male. “We all knew he was dangerous.”

Suddenly, the healing pod was much too small for me. I needed to get out and find Vera now. I opened the pod and detached the tubes that connected me to the machine, making it complain loudly.

A nurse rushed in. “No no no. You can’t go yet. You’re very lucky you even made it out alive.”

I ignored her and started toward the door. Iravan stopped me.

“The nurse is right, Cet. I know you want to go find your wife, but it’s not worth your life. The only reason you survived is that you spent that time living with the Jutka tribe.”

“It was jutkaris posion?”

“The very same.”

I’d stayed with the Jutkas for about a twin moon’s cycle. The tribe was known for their ability to eat jutkaris, a tiny but very abundant fish that populated their shallow sea that also happened to be poisonous. They built up a tolerance to it by eating small amounts of it every day almost from birth, until by the time they were only a few years old, they could feed off it without suffering any ill effects.

The tribespeople had treated me like a baby during my stay, putting minute amounts of the poison into my food every day, hoping I’d develop a tolerance even as an adult. I’d left before Icould do that entirely. But I guess it was enough to save my life even years later.

“Why don’t I go find her,” Iravan suggested.

“No. She’s my wife. Maybe even my true mate,” I admitted. “I have to go find her.” I turned to the nurse. “Please have my file transferred to healer Lago.”

“I already called him,” said my grandsire. “He’s on his way.”

Which meant I had to be out of this healing facility before he arrived, or else he’d never let me go find Vera. The nurse tried to usher me back into the pod, but I evaded her.

“Where is my conch?”

Iravan handed me my harness.

Before anyone could stop me, I was swimming through the corridors toward my home and checking my conch for the last known location of Vera’s device, glad that she’d opted to share her location with me in case we ever got separated when we were in town.

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