Page 65 of Shielded Heart

Kiloq turned his head to look at Sam and smiled. “Terran! Come in, sit with us. We need someone with fresh luck to break Razi’s streak.”

Samantha’s brows lifted; she hadn’t expected such a warm greeting. “Oh, um, okay?” She stepped inside, glancing around again before lifting the tray. “I…wasn’t sure where to put this.”

“Over there is fine,” Koroq said, gesturing vaguely toward the counter without looking up from his cards.

Sam walked across the room and set the tray beside the sink.

“You can sit here,” the ilthurii said, scooting her chair aside before dragging an empty one over from the next table.

“Thank you.” Samantha seated herself and settled her hands in her lap, struggling not to clasp them together nervously.

The ilthurii grinned, her lips peeling back to reveal sharp teeth. “My name is Sekk’thi. I would have introduced myself sooner, but you were unconscious the last time I saw you.”

“Were…were you there?”

Sekk’thi nodded. “All four of us were there. And the vorgals, Thargen and Urgand.”

The cren with the large pile of credit chips leaned forward, fixing his electric blue eyes on Samantha. He was larger than Kiloq and Koroq, and his white hair was tied in a thick bundle of braids that fell down his back and over his broad shoulders. His slate-gray skin contrasted his hair and eyes.

“Razi,” he said in a deep voice. “Glad you’re okay, terran.”

Samantha smiled. “Nice to meet you, Razi. I’m glad, too.”

He grinned.

Kiloq, who sat to her left, manipulated the controls on the holo. Six blank cards appeared in the center, and he flicked his fingers, sending them toward Sam. Once they were in front of her, foreign symbols appeared on their faces.

“You’re in, terran,” Kiloq said.

“I don’t know how to play. And”—she glanced at the other player’s credit chips—“I don’t have anything to play with.”

Razi settled one of his large hands over his pile of credit chips and slid it across the table until it was in front of her. Samantha stared down as he pulled his hand away; the pile he’d left for her was larger than everyone’s but his.

Samantha pushed them back toward him. “Oh no, I can’t.”

“You’re in,” Razi said, dropping his gaze back to his holographic cards.

“I was going to win those back from you, damn it,” muttered Koroq.

“You weren’t going to win shit from him, and you know it,” said Kiloq. “At least now we have a chance to win them from Samantha.”

Sekk’thi shook her head and snorted. “Why do you think he parted with them so easily? He will win them back himself.” She looked at Samantha. “This game is called Conquerors, terran. Watch carefully. You’ll learn.”

The game—with its alien symbols and daunting gameboard—seemed impossible to learn at first, but Samantha quickly picked up on it. The central game board was like a map, and the goal was to claim as much of it as possible before all the space was taken up. Each card had its own values, but it wasn’t merely a matter of increasingly high numbers trumping each other—it was closer to a rock-paper-scissors scenario, with each symbol having strengths and weaknesses against the rest. Each card also had different traits depending on which way it was facing; a card strong on one side was often vulnerable on another.

By the fourth round, she had a fairly good idea of what was going on, and she’d managed to stifle the outward flow of credit chips she’d suffered for the first few matches.

That was when Sekk’thi opened a fresh bottle and slid it to her. “Drink, terran.”

Sam accepted the bottle and leaned forward, peering inside. “What is it?”

“It is calledgurosh,” Sekk’thi replied.

“It’s good,” Kiloq said.

Samantha glanced around the table; each of them, apart from Razi, had several empty bottles ofguroshlined up nearby, and she’d seen them drinking throughout the games she’d played with them.

Why not?

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