28. Athena
Athena
Enemy sabotage.
The words hung in the hazy air, and I felt every eye that had been on Lorken slide instead to me.
Wait, did Lorken’s brother think I had something to do with this?
Why would I want to sabotage the ship that had provided me and my friends refuge?
Why would I hold any grudge against the Vandar?
More than that, how would I have sabotaged a warbird?
I didn’t know the first thing about them.
I wanted to laugh at the implied accusation, but the laugh didn’t come. Not with so many raiders scowling at me. My throat closed up tight, and all I could manage was open-mouthed silence and the frantic hammering of my own heart.
"We found a tampered lock on the outer hatch," Zarn said, still not looking at his brother, his gaze fixed on me like I was something he'd cornered. "Forced from the outside. This was not an accident, and it was not one of our raiders."
My mind spun, grasping for any reason why the Vandar would suspect me, of all people. What had I done to arouse suspicion? What had I done to wrong Lorken’s brother or convince him that the woman who risked herself to save Kolt and Skye would do something like this?
But before I could mount a defense, Zarn's dark eyes had moved past me to his brother.
"There is only one person among your new guests," he said, "with both the motive of revenge against us and the blood to carry it out."
Blood? Well, that couldn’t be me. I didn’t have a blood vendetta against anyone, much less the raiders who fought against the Empire.
"Zarn." Lorken's voice cut across his brother's like a blade. "You have said enough. I will deal with this."
"Will you?" Zarn rounded on him fully now, his tail whipping behind him. "I am battle chief, Lorken. Interrogations are my domain, not yours."
Interrogations? Was Zarn suggesting he needed to interrogate me?
This was getting absurd. Just because I was new on the ship didn’t mean I was an enemy.
Was he going to suggest interrogating my friends next?
Hal didn’t know a blaster from a bread roll, and Lettie would never do anything to harm the raiders she considered so handsome.
"Battle Chief," Lorken’s majak said quietly, a warning in his voice. "Calm yourself."
But Zarn only rounded on him too, his composure splintering.
"My job is to protect the ship and lead our battles.
It is up to me to see the threats before they blast holes in our warbird.
But how am I meant to do that when my own brother is too blinded by his desire to see the truth standing in front of him? "
Lorken went rigid beside me, and when he spoke, his voice had dropped to a dangerous growl that I hadn't heard from him before, not even in the theatre when I’d held a blade to his throat. "I said I will handle it."
The two brothers faced off in the smoke-thick air and the smoldering steel, both radiating a fury that made the raiders around us go still and silent. Zarn's jaw worked, his hands curled into fists at his sides, and for one terrible moment I thought they might actually come to blows.
I finally found my voice, unwilling to let the Vandar fight over something that was such a misunderstanding.
“I don’t know why you think I could have had anything to do with this.
I’m the one who helped your fellow Vandar raider when he was hiding from the Zagrath on my planet.
Why would I do anything to harm the Vandar? ”
“You do not need to defend yourself,” Lorken rasped, his gaze unwavering from his brother and his body practically vibrating with rage.
“I know where she could best defend herself, Raas.” The battle chief’s scowl curled into a malicious smile. “If she is innocent, the oblek will tell us.”
The majak drew in a quick breath. I didn’t know what the word oblek meant, but I could guess that it wasn’t good, and I wanted no part of it.
“You overstep, little brother,” the Raas said, his words little more than a deadly whisper. “You should be more careful.”
For the first time since he’d focused his ire on me, Zarn’s confidence faltered, and he took a fraction of a step back, his gaze dropping to the floor. “I could say the same to you, Raas.”
Then Lorken took my hand and pulled me away from his brother's blazing eyes and the destroyed munitions bay, marching me back through the corridors so fast I had to half-run to keep pace with his furious strides. I didn’t pull my hand from his grip, and I didn't attempt to ask him where we were going or why. I wasn't sure my voice would have worked even if I’d tried. I was reeling from what had just happened and the accusations that had been leveled at me. It would have been absurdly comical if Lorken’s brother hadn’t seemed entirely serious.
We didn't stop until we reached his quarters, and the door had slid shut behind us and sealed away the distant echo of shouting raiders.
Then he let go of my hand and raked both of his through his dark hair, pacing two steps before he whirled around to face me.
My breath hitched in my throat, and I nearly stumbled back when I saw the fury in his eyes.
"Why do you no longer go by the name Hommler?"
I stared at him, my mouth falling open. The question was so unexpected that for a moment it simply didn't compute. Hommler. The name meant nothing to me, and yet some small, distant part of my mind stirred faintly at the sound of it, like a bell rung from a great distance and another lifetime.
If I didn’t know it, why did my body suddenly go rigid from fear?