Lirid’s eyes widened. “Wait, I think I understand. You’re saying the Makaen won’t go with Astir willingly. They’re going to put up a fight. A fight Astir will lose.”
Kat snapped her fingers. “Ding, ding, ding! We have ourselves a winner.”
Lirid puckered his lips and tapped his index finger against them. “Just give me a moment to think about this.”
He paused for a moment and then grabbed the communicator from his desk and contacted Astir.
“Astir, change of plans. Do not approach the Makaen when they are together. Wait till they are alone and stun them. Be extremely discreet. I don’t want anyone seeing you take the Makaen. Oh, and set the stun gun to maximum. The less they move, the better.”
“Will do,” Astir replied.
Kat jumped up. “Maximum setting? You might kill them.” Okay, they were pirates, but she didn’t want them dead. Even though Dykan would deserve it. That ruggedly handsome bastard, with his broad chest and tattoos. Kat cleared her throat and quickly shook off her thoughts of Dykan’s body.
Lirid snorted. “They are Makaen. You don’t kill them that easily. And it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Kat still wasn’t convinced. Overseers weren’t allowed to carry weapons, but they did have stun guns. The maximum setting was only used on Myrbyn beasts that had wandered into the city. The hairy green animals were peaceful planteaters but weighed well over a thousand pounds. They lived in the forest, but sometimes one or two got lost and accidentally entered the city limits. Myrbyn beasts were protected animals. Thousands of years ago their even larger cousins, the blue Marban beasts, had become extinct due to excessive hunting and the Myrbyn had almost suffered the same fate. Luckily, the Cassidi had wised up just in time for the Myrbyn beasts and had deemed them a protected species. It had been too late for the Marban, whose demise was still seen as a disgrace in Cassidirian history, but at least now it was illegal to kill a Myrbyn. And getting a Myrbyn out of the city alive and well wasn’t an easy task. When an animal got startled, you could end up with an uncontrolled thousand-pound projectile heading your way. So to avoid panicking them, they would be stunned and then gently transported back to the forest. A stun gun switched to maximum was the only way to bring a full-grown Myrbyn male down. Kat wondered if it would do more than just bring a full-grown Makaen male down.
“The Makaen aren’t as big as Myrbyn beasts and we do need them alive. Don’t you think it’s a bit excessive?”
Lirid sat down and waved her worries away with his hand. “No, not at all. The Makaen have a double-plated skull and a reinforced skeleton. They could be trampled by dozens of Myrbyn and still make it out alive. They will be just fine. Now, we wait.”
Mitha entered the office, also looking and smelling a lot better. Lirid quickly informed him about the decisions he had made in their absence. Mitha looked at Kat and rolled his eyes. He dropped into the chair next to hers.
“Yeah, my thoughts exactly,” she whispered, leaning over to him. “But the game is afoot. We can only wait.”
It took some time for Astir to get back to them. The wait was nerve-racking. It made Kat think about things she didn’t want to think about. She didn’t want Astir or his men to get hurt, but she also didn’t want the Makaen to be injured. Kat breathed out deeply. Maybe this plan was doomed to fail from the get-go.
She jumped up when the communicator blinked and she felt her heart beating in her throat.
“Yes, Astir?” her brother asked anxiously.
“Sir, we got five Makaen. We are taking them to the dungeons as ordered. But I believe the sixth one knows we are following him. I don’t think we can approach him without alarming him. What should we do?”
“Who is it?” Kat asked, but she already knew the answer.
“The captain.”
Kat bit her lip. “Where is he now?”
“He is sitting outside a tavern on the main square, having a drink and looking quite relaxed,” Astir replied.
Relaxed, my ass. Kat snorted. He was up to something. If she didn’t act quickly, this would surely end badly.
“Astir, don’t approach him. I’m coming. Wait till I’m there.”
“What are you going to do?” her brother asked, surprised.
“Making sure he doesn’t destroy half of Cassidiri. And do what we should have done in the first place: try to reason with him.”
“Aren’t you a bit late for that? You think he’ll be open to reason after we’ve assaulted his crew?” Mitha asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe he’ll still help us if I explain everything to him.” Kat ran to the door. “I must try, at least.”
“Okay, just be careful,” her brother said.
Kat gave her brother a wink. “You and your crazy ideas.”
“He’s still sitting in front of the tavern,” Astir said when Kat met him a little later. Astir’s men were transporting the unconscious Makaen to the dungeons, and he had been waiting for Kat behind a typical Cassidirian white clay building next to a narrow alley that led to the square. It was a beautiful day, like almost every day on Cassidiri. The sun was shining and the sky was a clear orange.
Kat peered around the corner. In the distance, she saw a huge figure sitting in a chair that was almost too small for him, with a drink on the table. Dykan. She would have recognized him even from a greater distance. Yep, he looked relaxed, but Kat knew better. She had no doubt that he was alert, totally aware of everything that was happening around him.
Kat moved back behind the wall. “I’m going to talk to him,” she told Astir.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Astir asked with concern in his voice. “He is pretty big and you…are not.”
She smiled joylessly. “Don’t worry, Astir. He won’t hurt me.”
Astir didn’t look convinced. “Okay, but take a stun gun. Just in case.” He took a small metallic device from his pocket and held it out for her. It had a narrow opening on one side and a button on the other.
Kat hesitated. “I’m not sure.”
“Take it.” Astir grabbed her wrist and pressed the stun gun in her hand. “If needed, aim the opening at the target and push the button. That’s all you have to do. The stun gun is already set to maximum.”
Seeing the worry in Astir’s eyes, Kat conceded.
“Fine, I’ll take the gun.” She put the device in her back pocket.
Astir nodded. “I will be standing right here. If something is wrong, just give me a sign and I’ll come running.”
“Thanks, Astir.” She crossed her fingers. “Here goes nothing.”
Kat stepped around the corner and walked through the narrow alley toward the square, her eyes locked on the Makaen sitting at a table in front of the tavern. Suddenly, she heard a very familiar and unwelcome voice.
“Yoo-hoo, Kat!”
Seeing Ramir hurry toward her, Kat grimaced inwardly. Ramir was one of her sister’s friends who on more than one occasion had made it clear that he was interested in Kat on a romantic level. Well, romantic was a big word. Ramir belonged to the upper class and he saw Kat, being the queen’s sister, as a good match, even though she was a half-blood. His words. For him it was all about status, certainly not love or even desire. If Kat were to believe the rumors, Ramir was even a bigger virgin than she had been. It was said that he, unlike most Cassidi, wasn’t interested in sex, at all. He was more interested in gardening. Truth be told, the man did have an absolutely beautiful garden with all kinds of exotic flowers. Ramir could talk about his plants for hours and hours with such affection in his voice, as if they were his children. He knew every single plant in his garden by name. All gazillions of them. Once, she and her family had been invited for a tour around his house and garden. She had enjoyed the walk and the scenery at first, but after having to listen to Ramir talk for hours on end, regurgitating the full name of every plant they passed and reciting a lot of tedious plant trivia—the Zitopia Strukta Demonica only blooms at night, the Furopa Cassidiri Zepia smells like a wet dog and the Bleepbloopbleep Yadayadayada sucks big-time—Kat had wanted to rip her ears off. It had been the most boring day of her life. Needless to say, Kat absolutely wasn’t interested in Ramir and she had made that very clear to him. But that didn’t deter Ramir from giving it his best shot every time they met.