Page 39 of Claim
Except evenhehadn’t recognized her at first.And he couldn’t call out, not without endangering her.
He could only stare at her—he wasn’t the only one—wondering where the rest of his crew were, terror and yearning swirling through him.
“Iz haz zee fortune here to take zee big un.”She flourished a strand of credit chits that glinted in the harsh light.
Most often, credits were exchanged via transfers, no need for archaic coins.But some situations—such as subsisted at the Gloom—favored immediate and untraceable currency.The inscribed chits she was swinging around on a bright chainwerea fortune.
More than theDeepWandercould spare, and far more than he was worth.He had to bite his tongue hard enough to bleed some more to stop from bellowing a rejection of his own sale.Whatwas she doing?
Szakh apparently had no such questions.ThePratorim’s captain charged forward, one hand already reaching greedily for the chits.
But the June-haired creature yanked the strand out of reach.“Un no quibble-haggle?Meanz Iz pay much too too.”
Mag held back a groan.She was taking this farce too too far.Or maybe she was just angry at the way he’d abandoned ship.
She pivoted, pointing her datpad at the other prisoners.“Maybeez…”
Szakh’s fingers were twitching, so close to the glittering chits.“Ah, merely half that would be more than fair.”
Mag grunted.Only half?
June shot a look his way.He could scarcely believe it was her.The quartz-bright eyes that had glazed with pleasure and twinkled with delight were enlarged and refracted by the respirator into misshapen orbs, unnervingly alien though the i’lva knew it was her.Slowly, she unlocked the strand and separated the chits.Szakh was practically bubbling like an Ajellomenes.
Jutting her lower lip—where had those teeth come from?—June walked a circle around him and then ticked one of the chits back.“Damaged,” she said.“Not soz mighty.”When he grunted again, louder, she wiggled another chit off the total.“Surly too?Eh.”
“He’s grand,” Szakh hastened to reassure her.“Don’t mind the bruises.”
June loosened the chits off the strand, rolling them in her hand.“Unlock now.”
Fumbling with his truncheon, Szakh stalked up to Mag.“If you try to run before I get those credits, I’ll shoot you,” he hissed under his breath.“After, I don’t care what you do.”
As the Sauronilan guard released him from the scaffold, Mag held his breath.It was just too close.She was too close and too fragile.He would shoot Teq and his brother for letting her do this, though he understood that their orcish size was too hard to disguise.
No, it was his own fault that they were taking this risk at all.He had made the mistakes that brought them here, so this time he would follow their lead.
Szakh yanked him off the platform, jolting a complaint from the arthropod at the resulting sway.But obviously the credits were too tempting for restraint.
June held out her hand, the chits winking between her fingers with a hypnotic glint in the ugly light.Too hypnotic.He’d longed for his Earther woman but it was a mere fortune that held his eye?
Those weren’t credit chits; they were sung stones.
Even across the distance between them, the stones whispered of the riches of ill-gotten gains, of escaping with none the wiser, of wishing to be someone else somewhere else…
Ah, that part was what spoke to him.But he was exactly where he deserved to be.
Shoving him at June, Szakh snatched for the counterfeit chits.Mag rumbled under his breath, but she gave up the disguised stones without complaint.Why, when the stones trulywerea fortune?If Illgattoa hadn’t spread those rumors, Mag would’ve paid the debt.
But he was supposed to be following her lead, remember?
So he fell into step behind her as she spun toward the exit, her mantle flaring.Underneath, he realized it was his cloak from the revel, quickly fashioned into a new disguise.His simple, straightforward orcs were getting good at subterfuge.
He glanced back at the dais that had seemed like his own.“The others…”
“Waiting for us in their places,” she whispered.She must’ve thought he meant Sil, Teq, and the rest.“But we have to get out of here.Now.”
He couldn’t leave the other prisoners.
“Wait.”Szakh blocked their escape.
