Page 61 of Star Champion

He jerked his head up at the sound of Jemm’s voice. She approached him, her steps growing hesitant as she absorbed the sight of his face. “What happened?” Neatly combed away from her face, her red-and-blonde hair revealed her small, feminine ears, and also the need for a haircut to trim the girlish curls at the nape of her neck. Without the body padding she typically wore, her unfastened bajha suit revealed the tempting silhouette of her body.

It drove home the precariousness of their plan.

“That was His Royal Highness, King Rorrik,” he said, his voice ruthlessly brusque. “My father. It’s been discovered that Team Eireya has a new recruit. Apparently, rumors are flying about a talented new teenage discovery of common birth. On one hand, it gives us an excuse to keep you out of the public eye—your youth. On the other, you must be prepared to play at the highest level, and you are not. In mere weeks you’ll be playing pro matches. You’re not ready. Hear me, Sea Kestrel. You are not ready. Not even close.”

She flinched, then scrunched her eyes at him. “I may not be fully ready yet, but I will be.” Her narrowed eyes did little to hide her glowing determination, and a flash of pain.

“You have to be stronger than this,” he lashed out, knowing his words had hurt her. But she had to be able to deflect such verbal blows, or there was no hope. “Weakness in you translates to weakness in our plan.”

“What’s gotten into you—?”

“We didn’t come here for a vacation. Obey your coach. Gear up and get in the ring.”

He felt her scandalized glare on him as he strode over to his sens-sword case and opened it.

She fastened her bajha suit and sealed her boots. “I won’t let ya down, coach.”

Her earnest conviction brought back the night in Nico’s club. The night he should have let her walk out of his life. Then, when his father called, asking about a commoner player of stunning ability, Klark could have answered honestly: it simply had not worked out. From there he could have gone on with his life. There would have been no repercussions. His father’s baseline opinion of him as a distant-second son would not have changed.

“It’s just reality setting in. I feel it, too. The pressure. I’m going to win us that Galactic Cup. I told ya before, and I meant it.”

“Words will not make you the best bajha player in the galaxy.”

“Butheartwill. I’ve got the heart to go the distance.”

Her heart was a prize most definitely out of his reach.

“Keep it up, young Kes Aves—the fans will gobble up such inspiring clichés,” he said to stoke the fire of her anger. “However, words are still words, no matter how pretty. It’s time you threw some weight behind them. Arm your weapon and prepare to fight.”

“Swords armed? But you never play with—”

“Armed, I said.”

He heard the faint whine of her sens-sword going active as he slid his light-glasses over his eyes. Hefting his weapon in a gloved hand, he joined her in the ring. They donned their helmets.

With her headgear masking half her face, she faced him with her legs set apart. “You’re acting like a cog,” she said quietly. “You know that, right?”

“As a female, you’ll have to be better than every man you play,” he growled. “Every blasted one.”

“That ain’t nothing new for me. I’ve had to be better than every man I worked with since the day I first sat behind the wheel of a tug.”

“If you think because you beat G’Zanna and Muse so handily that other pros will fall as easily, you are incorrect,” he shot back as if her assertion carried no merit.

Her chin came up in defiance. “Maybe I ain’t gonna ever lose another match. Did ya ever think of that? I have. All those nights, lying in my bed alone, I thought of it. That maybe Skeet was the last one ever to beat me. I agree ya should have let Xirri come. I would have proved it to ya.”

“Words, nothing but words. If you want to prove anything, you’ll have to prove it in the ring.”

A few heartbeats thumped by. “You’re on,” she said.

“Lights,” Klark called. The blackness was all-encompassing.

“What did your Da say to get ya so worried?” she asked in the dark. The blasted female could see into his soul. Doing so in the midst of lovemaking was one thing; but when he wanted to shield his thoughts it was entirely another. “Whatever it was, it was wrong,” she said.

“So, you’re smarter than a king now, are you?”

“That’s not fair.”

“Since when is life fair?”

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