Page 74 of Sheltered in the Storm

I raised my chin and didn’t flinch at the clear threat. “He was hidden in an air duct with a dart gun loaded with poison gas. But when he saw you, he couldn’t pull the trigger, because the poison would have killed you too.”

“This is all lies.” They pushed on the bolt, sending agony through me. I choked back a scream. “Lies he has fed you.”

“Why would he lie?” My voice was ragged. “He would have no reason to lie to me. We had no idea you might come for him.”

“Does he brag to you of his kills?” Another push on the bolt, and another gush of blood from the wound. My vision grew hazy. “This is bed talk for you?”

“No.” I fought to keep unconsciousness at bay. “This is the only story of his past he’s told me. He wanted to tell me how he knew what love was.”

The Kurutan stilled. “What does this story have to do with love, Calla Wren?”

“When someone threw a bomb into the embassy, your parent covered your body with theirs,” I said, and if my voice was edged with a sob I couldn’t help it. “They loved you so much, they gave their life to ensure you lived. Vos saw that. And then as the building was collapsing around you, he carried you out and gave you to the Bordians. He even covered your eyes soyou didn’t see your parent, because he knew seeing their body might cause you to die.”

I managed a deep, shaky breath. “You asked him ‘La ka na?’ and he said yes without knowing what the question meant. But hewasyour angel, you see. Hewas.”

“Lies,” they repeated.

“Not lies.” Gently, I put my hand on their claw where it rested on the bolt. “Not lies, I swear. He’d come to assassinate your parent with a dart gun. Why would he use a bomb, then, when it might have killed him? The Guard doesn’t use bombs that take out whole groups of people anyway. You must know that. That’s never been their practice. And it was his last mission for the Guard. He wouldn’t have wanted to die. He wanted to live. He wantedyouto live. He made sure you did.”

“I survived,” they grated. “That is not the same.”

“I know that.” I nearly shouted it, and the effort of doing so made everything go hazy again. “Gods, do I know. I told you I survived the Ganai arenas, didn’t I? Vos survived a twenty-year service in the Guard. Do you think either of us signed up for that? How old were you when all you’d known was ripped away? They got him when he was two. I was three and a half. You must have been less than a year old.”

“Not yet eight lunar cycles,” they grated. And thank all the gods in the cosmos, they took their claw off the bolt. “You believe this story Vos Turek has told you, but I do not. You have every reason to lie, to save him and save yourself.”

And yet, maybe they had a doubt now. That was a million times more of a chance than I’d had minutes ago.

“I do have reason to lie, but I’m not.” Maybe it was the blood loss, or maybe I figured I didn’t have much to lose, or maybe I just wanted N’Vors’s child to believe the true version of events over the one they’d shaped their life around, so I added, “I don’t know how to prove it to you, but if you’re not in the business of killing people for no reason like whoever was responsible forthe bombing on Bordia, maybe you should be sure before you blow me to pieces to punish Vos for a crime he didn’t commit.”

My captor said nothing. I couldn’t decide if that was a good sign or a bad one.

“Please, tell me your name,” I said. “I really want to know.”

“I am N’Mora,” they said as they rose to their full height.

I let out a breath. Gods, did I hurt. “And where are we, N’Mora?”

“What remains of a raider camp, a few kilometers from Vos Turek’s home.” They took a step back, so for the first time since I woke up I wasn’t staring straight up at their claws, which was a welcome change. “Whoever lived here must have abandoned it after fighting among themselves. Most of the camp was burned and we found corpses in the debris. Only this building and one other remain standing. There are no ships here now and no sign they intend to return.”

Neither Vos nor I had ventured anywhere close to the camp since the night I’d crashed. So maybe the surviving raiders, left without their leader, had squabbled, killed one another, and then packed up and left this moon. That was a shred of good news.

Belatedly, I realized N’Mora had said something unexpected. “Who’s ‘we’?” I asked. “Who’s here besides you?”

“My bodyguards.” N’Mora clacked their claws. “I did not come alone to face Vos Turek. I do not underestimate him. They await him outside.”

I struggled to lift my head. “N’Mora, don’t kill Vos until you’ve heard him tell you what happened on Bordia. Please.”

“I do not think Vos Turek will want to speak to me when he comes.” N’Mora moved between me and the door to the bunkhouse. “He found your blood where we took you. My people report he is enraged, gone bestial.”

My stomach twisted and my eyes filled with tears. My poor Vos. I pictured him emerging from the sea and finding nothingbut my blood on the grass. He must have blamed himself, and been gutted.

“You hurt him.” I forced myself to sit up despite the pain and sickness it caused. “I understand why you did it, N’Mora, but it must have broken his heart when he found me gone.”

N’Mora clicked. “Why did he leave you alone in such a place?”

“He was gathering pretty shells for me.” I covered the bolt in my shoulder with my other hand, as if somehow it might hurt less and stop bleeding if I couldn’t see it. “Instead of meeting him at the door, let me talk to him when he gets here. He’ll listen.”

“I do not think so, Calla Wren.” N’Mora inclined their head. “My people say he is closing in and prepared for battle. He will try to kill me. Probably one or both of us will die. It is better this way.”

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