Page 75 of Star Prince

After a short flight a vibration rumbled through the vessel, indicating a docking maneuver was underway.

“The ship we’re on is docked with theSun Devil.”Muffin said finally. “I’ll come down to get you. Wait until you see who brought me here.”

Muffin escortedIan and Tee’ah out of the cargo bay. Ian climbed the gangway leading to the main deck of the rescuing ship. Tee’ah grabbed hold of the first rung, but Muffin stopped her with a firm hand on her shoulder. His voice was urgent and low. “Gann is here. He’s come to bring you home.”

“What?” she asked. Her stomach plummeted.Home?It looked as if her family had finally caught up to her. Only this time there was no place to run. “Gann…who?”

“Gann Truelénne, Rom B’kah’s loyal warrior.” The big man appeared apologetic. “And my good friend.”

Her hands tightened on the rung. Gann. She tried to picture him and couldn’t, but the name was familiar. Her parents must have contacted Rom for help and he had chosen Gann for the mission.

“I thank you for telling me. I wouldn’t have wanted to be caught unawares.”

“I know,” the big man said with surprising empathy. “I figured all along that if you’d wanted to go home, you’d have told us who you were.”

“You knew who I was? All along?”

He grinned. “It’s been seven years, but I never forget a face.”

“Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you tell Ian?”

“It was never my destiny to change yours,” he replied cryptically.Go,he said with his eyes,and don’t let on to a soul what I just told you.

At the top of the gangway a tall, handsomeVashgentleman embraced Ian. They pounded each other on the back and appeared genuinely excited by the reunion.

“Ah. The pampered one returns,” said a woman standing behind them. Her eyes were so jaded and cool that Tee’ah didn’t give her the pleasure of a reaction. The lovely dangling silver earrings of the same length as her hair suggested delicacy, but the woman appeared as hard as any ship’s trillidium hull.

Ian stepped away from Gann. “Don’t tell me you just happened to be in the area.”

Gann laughed. “We’ve been tracking you forweeks, only I had no idea it was your trail we were on. Rom sent me.” He shifted his eyes to Tee’ah. If her odd-colored shorn hair shocked him, he did an excellent job of hiding it. His eyes reflected curiosity, but his smile was cordial, revealing his respect of the social distance between them and little of the true man behind it. The palace dwellers had smiled at her like that all her life. She thought she had escaped it. “My mission,” he said, “was to find your cousin, Princess Tee’ah. Welcome to theQuillie,honored lady.”

“Thank you.” She avoided meeting Ian’s eyes.

As a group, they moved into the cockpit. Quin was there, wiping his hands on a rag. “Princess.” He made a fist over his barrel chest and bowed.

She sighed through her nose. Never had she thought she would long for the mechanic’s overbearing know-it-all manner.

A chime sounded, indicating an incoming priority message. “Lara, would you get that?” Gann asked the woman with the cold eyes. Interesting, but when she looked at Gann her gaze thawed.

Lara took the call as everyone milled about, exchanging stories of what had happened in the last hellish days. Almost sheepish, Tee’ah and Ian stood next to each other. They had just tied their hearts to each other in what they assumed was the hour of their death. Now they would have to endure the awkwardness of knowing they had made promises they would never be able to keep.

“It sounds like we’ll be able to continue our mission without much delay,” she told him lightly. “At least this time we’ll have the whole crew with us.”

Ian looked appalled. “You’re aVash Nadahprincess.”

“So it seems,” she agreed dryly.

He lowered his voice to a private tone. “You’ve been sheltered all your life. You can’t work on theSun Devilanymore.”

“So. I’m fired?”

“You’ll get yourself killed.”

“Please, Ian. As if working for you wasn’t dangerous this morning, or in all the weeks before—” She stopped herself, trying desperately to forgive his lack of logic; he was as rattled as she was.

“You don’t belong in the frontier.” He spread his hands. “You’rea princess.”

“So, where do good little princesses go, hmm? Home?”

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