Page 87 of Aria's Ascension

Nodding, she automatically laid a hand on his arm in praise. “Good thinking. We don’t need anyone else coming in here and stealing people.”

Sighing, she rolled her shoulders, trying to loosen some of the tightness that constricted a little more every time she thought about her friend.

“Do you have enough of those to set a secondary fence around the ship?” she asked, tipping her chin at the disks in his arms.

They’d left the animals in the hold until they figured out where to put them, and she didn’t want any of the predators, some downright unnerving, that she’d seen in there getting loose on accident. Or, more likely, one of the hysterical people they’d rescued getting the idea that they could fly the broken ship back to their homeworlds only to end up destroying it beyond repair in the process.

“I do, yes.” Dipping his head to catch her gaze, he added softly, “Your dragon will not fail you, little Queen. He will find your friend.”

Forcing a smile, she murmured, “Yeah.”

But she wasn’t so sure. Her gut told her that her friend wasn’t going to be easily found.

Chapter 47

Aria left Rellik on the elevator and got off on the twelfth floor, headed for the room in which the Gaelli were being held.

Inputting the code Kix gave her, she drew in a deep breath and stepped inside when the door opened.

The space was huge, close to the size of the warehouse room where the gladiators’ original bodies were kept, but this one was set up very differently. There were pallets set in rows on the far left side, what looked like a gathering area in the middle, and a fifteen-by-fifteen-foot pool off to the right.

Throughout the room were the tall, gaunt-looking Gaelli who turned to stare at her as one when she entered then quickly moved to huddle in the center.

Smiling politely, she began, “Hello. My name is Aria. You may know me as Vhraress. I realize you don’t speak verbally, but I’ve been told you can understand me.”

Kix said they had something of a hive mind and seeing them clustered together, noting there were no perceptible differences to designate sexes, reinforced her theory that they were truly genderless. Both of those things made addressing them somewhat tricky, but she decided to address the group as ‘you’ and individuals as ‘they.’

Vicious killer gladiator or not, I still remember my sensitivity training.

She paused for a moment longer, waiting for a nod or some sign of acknowledgement she never received, before continuing, “I’ve killed the Overlord, Zhrovni, and his guards have either left or are dead.”

Pausing again when she saw them stiffen, she gave them a moment to take in that information.

“What that means is that you’re all free. Free to goorstay. It’s up to you. If you want to stay, I would be more than happy to have you.” She smiled a little wryly. “I could definitely use your help figuring out the technology in this place. If you decide to leave, I can provide you with supplies and a runner. If you come from offworld and want to return, we’re working on repairing the spaceship that crashed into the arena. I can’t make any promises we’ll get it operational, or find a pilot to fly it, but if everything works out, you could return to your planet. In the meantime, I could offer you sanctuary, freedom, and safety. I will never treat you like slaves.”

The mass of Gaelli crowded in the middle of the room shifted, making way for one slightly taller than the rest, with a darker shade of yellow skin, to walk between them.

A quick scan told her the person was unarmed, so she stood still and waited for them to approach. They stopped two feet away and raised a long-fingered hand in a way she interpreted as asking for permission to touch her.

It was a risk since Aria didn’t know what abilities these people possessed. A touch could kill her, but she didn’t think that was this being’s intention. Finally, she nodded once and braced herself when they laid their palm on her forehead.

A tickle inside her skull, and a slight feeling of vertigo, preceded a soft, androgenous voice speaking in her mind.

“We thank you for your offer, but we have no home. We are bred to be slaves. We know nothing else.”

Aria frowned up into the being’s large, black, ovoid eyes. “Just because you’ve never known freedom doesn’t mean you can’t learn to be your own people.”

There was a long hesitation before they responded, “We acknowledge the truth you offer, but we would ask toDelve.”

Aria heard the emphasis on the word, but didn’t understand what it meant. “What is Delve?”

“We ask to search your mind to see your truth for ourselves. Do you offer permission?”

So it was something similar to Kix’s telepathy. That hadn’t ever hurt her and she wasn’t sensing any threatening vibes from this being. She was still wary, but she needed these people, and if a show of trust was what they needed to trust her in return, then she was willing to do that.

“Uh, sure. Don’t scramble anything in there, though. I’ve got enough issues with my memories as it is.”

“We will cause you no harm.”

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