“Right,” he maintained. “We took you thinking that you were the Lissa, and we’ve just been informed that the Kints found out why her return home was delayed.”
“You mean they found out she didn’t want to be married off like cattle?” It was the only reason she could think of for anyone being desperate enough to do this to someone else. Not that that justified it. At all.
His eyes narrowed, but he continued. “They aren’t happy. They don’t believe that Olena really wants peace. Their Zane is boarding as we speak. If he discovers that Olena eluded us, that she went to such great lengths in order to do so, he’ll reinstate the war.” He paused, locking his odd-colored eyes on hers and holding them until he knew he had her complete attention. “They’ll kill us, Delaney.”
“Kill us … dead?”
“Pretty sure there’s no other version of kill, even on Earth,” he said dryly.
“But it’s not my fault, or yours for that matter. It’s Olena’s.”
“They’re our enemies. They don’t care. They’re itching for a reason to go back to war. The Kints don’t just want this planet; they want Earth as well, and my people and this treaty are the only things keeping them from enslaving yours.”
The red light above them changed colors, flashing orange now. Pettus swore, using the same word as Ruckus had before, and opened his mouth to say something else when suddenly Gibus was at the door.
He handed a small square box over to Ruckus.
“Go,” Ruckus ordered them. “Delay him.”
They left without another word, and he twisted the top off of the small box Gibus had given him. Inside, there was an item that reminded Delaney of a circular bandage.
“I need you to do this,” he told her, attention still on the small circle.
“I don’t.” She shook her head.
His eyes shot to hers, full of frustration. “They want to kill us, Delaney. They just need an excuse.”
He moved toward her, motioning for her to angle her head. When she didn’t immediately do so, he sighed again and held the circle up before her. “We call this a hebi. It’s a translating device that’s embedded into the side of the neck. We’ve been speaking English; the Kint will not do so.”
“Sounds like I’d only need that if I planned on speaking to them then,” she countered, “which I do not.”
“Do you want to die?” he asked. “You do this, maybe we live. You don’t, we definitely die. Choose.”
“Maybe?” she repeated.
“You’ve done a good job of hiding your fear so far. Draw on that.”
If the peace treaty between the aliens was broken, then the treaty between them and Earth would be as well. She knew Pettus was right about the Kints wanting her planet. And Ruckus was huge; she’d never seen anyone as strong or as tough looking as him. If he was worried … maybe she should be, too.
“Just this once, right?” Her voice was a bit weak, and she strengthened it. “I pretend to be her and get us out of this, then you guys tell your Basileus, or whatever, the truth and take me home.”
“Yes.” He made to lift the hebi closer, but she held up her hand.
“Promise.” She didn’t know if aliens made promises, or if they knew what they were, but desperate times and all that.
“I give you my word, Delaney. I’m the one who wrongly took you; I will return you to your rightful place.”
She allowed herself one last deep breath and then straightened, coming to her full five-six height. She didn’t have to say anything aloud, because he noted her silent agreement.
“So I’ll be able to understand the Kints with this?” she asked, tilting her head to the left to give him better access.
“And Vakar,” he confirmed. “It attaches to the brain and will allow you to instinctually speak our languages as well. It translates and deciphers so that words in our language that are similar to yours will be translated accordingly.”
“To my brain?” Her nerves spiked up another notch.
“I’m not a Sutter,” he stated, busy placing the hebi. “I don’t know all the logistics.”
“I’ll speak a different language without knowing I’m doing it?” That seemed like a question he could answer.
“It calibrates to whatever language is first spoken to you. For example, if I spoke to you in Vakar, your reply would automatically come out as Vakar.”
“Kind of takes away having to actually learn, huh?”
The hebi was practically see-through, and at first, when he placed it on her neck, it felt sticky. Then her skin tightened around the area, and a cooling sensation followed. Ruckus stepped back, and when Delaney touched the right side of her neck, she couldn’t feel anything.
“It disappears into the skin,” he informed her, already turning away. “Ensures it can’t be removed accidentally or otherwise.”
Guess that meant she was never taking it off, either.
“Wait,” she said, stopping him just as he was about to open the door. “What’s a Zane? Who is he?”
Amazingly, Ruckus actually looked a little guilty when he said, “He’s their prince.”
The door was open, exposing them to the long hallway before she could respond, which was probably a good thing, because the tightness that’d been in her chest turned to lead in her stomach.
Their prince.
Olena’s betrothed, the one she didn’t want to marry and the one who knew it.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
You can do this! she told herself as Ruckus motioned with a curve of his chin for her to follow him. She stepped out into the hallway, leaving the room for the first time and suddenly wishing she didn’t have to. It was safe in that room, safer than out here, anyway, and she wanted desperately to turn around. She didn’t, fighting against her flight instinct and focusing on the one that would get her out of this hellish situation.
Fight.
“Have they met before?” she asked him quietly, afraid someone might be ahead of them and overhear. Right now it was just the two of them in the long, winding white hallway, but she didn’t know where they were going. As soon as they’d taken a few turns, she also didn’t know the way back.
“A few times,” he answered out of the corner of his mouth. “Don’t be too nice, but don’t be rude, either. Remember, all of our lives depend on you.”
“They don’t know about the device, right? The one that did this to me?”
He shook his head.
Well, that was something, at least. Even if she was a little odd during this meeting, there was no way the Zane could jump to the conclusion she was someone else posing as the Lissa. Only a crazy person would think of that.
They heard voices up ahead, and turned a corner, entering a large square room. It was the center of a crossway, halls branching off in all four directions. The group before her had obviously just come from the corridor directly across from them. When they came to the entryways, both parties halted.