Sighing, she lowered her shirt. A comb lay on the shelf beside the wosuur liquid. Since no mirror graced the wall, she had no idea how her hair looked. But it was probably a tangled mess.
Ava picked up the comb and left the lav.
Both Purveli men stood where she’d left them.
He wasn’t exaggerating, Ziv’ri’s thoughts floated to her. She is small.
Ava dredged up a tired smile as she approached them. “I’m not small. You two are tall.”
Jak’ri shot his brother a look.
Ziv’ri eyed her with surprise. “You’re not considered small on your planet?”
She shrugged. “I’m five feet three inches. I read somewhere that the average height for women on my planet is five-four. So I guess I’m about average.”
Jak’ri tilted his head to one side. “How tall are your men?”
“I think their average height is five feet ten. So most are shorter than you guys.”
Ziv’ri tilted his head at the exact same angle as Jak’ri, increasing their likeness. “What are guys?”
“Sorry. I slipped out of Alliance Common and into English there at the end, didn’t I? Guys is just an informal term for men or boys.”
“Ah.”
She smiled up at Jak’ri. “And you guys are tall. Are you both above average height or is this the norm for Purvelis?” She had to drop her head back to look up at them and guessed they were both a few inches above six feet.
Jak’ri grinned. “This is the norm for males.”
She shook her head, bemused. “I noticed the same with the Yona. Why are so many alien males tall?”
Jak’ri shrugged. “I can’t speak for other races, but Purveli youths—both male and female—tend to spend as much time in the water as they do out of it. Sometimes more. Our medics believe that swimming vigorously for long periods of time reduces the load Purvel’s gravity places on the body because we are more often than not in a horizontal position instead of vertical, so our bones lengthen more than they would if we were solely land dwellers, allowing for greater height.”
“That makes sense. Some scientists on my planet speculate that a child raised in a no- or low-gravity environment would be taller and have weaker bones.”
“We don’t have weaker bones,” Jak’ri said.
Ziv’ri nodded earnestly. “We’re also exceptionally attractive.”
She laughed, then grimaced and rested a hand on her aching stomach. “And so modest.”
Concern flashed in Jak’ri’s features as he touched her arm. “Ava?”
“I’m okay. But I think maybe I’d better sit down for a bit.”
“Of course.” He guided her to the pallet he’d made against the bars.
Ava sank down on it cross-legged.
Jak’ri sat beside her, his knee touching hers.
Ziv’ri seated himself on an identical pallet on the other side of the bars.
“Oh.” She held up the comb. “Is it okay if I borrow this? I’m pretty sure my hair is a mess.”
“Your hair is beautiful,” Jak’ri insisted.
She shook her head. “Your hair is beautiful. Mine doesn’t change color when it gets wet.”
“Yes, it does.” Reaching out, he caught a lock of her hair and curled it around his finger. “It turns from brown to black.”
Ava stared at him, inexplicably tongue-tied. Her heart rate picked up and butterflies fluttered in her aching belly. “Oh.”
He held out his other hand. “Give me the comb.”
She didn’t hesitate.
Jak’ri began to apply it to her hair, starting at the ends and carefully working through the tangles.
“Why do they even provide you with a comb? I wouldn’t think they’d consider that a necessity.”
“They grew tired of Ziv’ri’s incessant complaints about his tangled locks.”
Ziv’ri feigned a glare.
Ava grinned. “Or maybe one of the guards has a boy crush on you.”
Jak’ri paused. “What’s a boy crush?”
She struggled to find a comparable Alliance Common term. “An infatuation?”
Ziv’ri laughed heartily over the notion of one of the odious reptilian guards desiring his brother while Jak’ri cursed him. He was still grinning when he said, “Tell us how you came to be on the Kandovar.”
She hesitated.
Jak’ri rested a hand on her shoulder. “I know you worry for your friends. If it distresses you too much to speak of it…”
“No. It isn’t that.” She sighed. “It’s just not going to paint my people in a positive light.”
The brothers stared at her.
“I don’t know what that means,” Jak’ri said.
“It will make you think badly of my people. And I worry it may change the way you see me.”
Jak’ri frowned. “We won’t judge you by your people’s actions.”
Ziv’ri nodded. “We’ll only judge you according to how brilliant you think we are.”
Jak’ri rolled his eyes and resumed untangling her hair.
Ava laughed. “Well… I guess I should start at the beginning. Were you aware of Prince Taelon’s sister, Amiriska, disappearing?”
Both nodded.
“She came to our planet several times,” Jak’ri said, “to try to coax Purvel into joining the Aldebarian Alliance.”
Ziv’ri nodded. “And to negotiate trade deals. She was highly respected by our people.”
Jak’ri worked on a particularly stubborn tangle. “Her brothers searched tirelessly for her when she went missing, but could find neither her nor her ship. Their allies couldn’t either. Most ultimately assumed her ship crashed on an uninhabited planet, killing all on board.”
Ava bit her lip. “That’s the thing. Her ship didn’t crash. She went to Earth.”
Both stared at her with identical looks of surprise.
“She did?” Jak’ri asked.
Ava nodded.
“Why didn’t she remain in contact with her family? They’ve been mourning her loss.”
She grimaced. “That’s the other thing. She came to Earth against her family’s wishes. She wanted to warn Earth that the Gathendiens were headed our way. And she was hoping that—in exchange for technological advancements that would eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels, end all famine and drought on our planet, and enable us to terraform our moon to alleviate overpopulation—Earth would allow some of our women to travel to Lasara and help them with their reproductive issues.” The damn Gathendiens had approached the Lasarans as benevolent allies, then released a virus that had rendered almost all Lasaran females infertile.
Those who could still become pregnant had great difficulty carrying babies to term.
Jak’ri finished untangling a lock and paused to stare at her. “Earthlings are reproductively compatible with Lasarans?”
“Yes.”
“Then why would Princess Amiriska’s family object to such an alliance?”
She grimaced. “Because the Sectas shared their research on Earthlings with them and the Lasarans thought we were too barbaric, violent, and backward as a people. They thought any approach they made would be met with violence.”