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“Competent warrior. He has never failed the Eliava
before.”
    “True. Commander is a top fighter. But
he never had to kill a female before, I imagine.”
    “Hunnh. These are unusual
circumstances. Normally the Law teaches us a female is to be
protected. What would you do in his tracks? Destroy one little
she-cat? Or lose the flipping kingdom of wealth offered in
payment?”
    Zeff nodded, but felt his lips stiffen
in revulsion. Finding it hard to keep an unreadable expression, he
looked away. “Lot of power and wealth on the line alright.” He
looked out the window, down at the glimpse of the ground below as
the clouds folded away, trying to hide his abject revulsion. “But
no damn challenge or honor in killing a girl. Especially the
legendary lost young one.”
    “Sometimes the cost of one death is
required for the good of many.”
    Zeff turned his eyes back to Sneal.
“She’s a baby by the standard of our life expectancy, probably
hasn’t shifted more than a dozen times yet. Young, unsure of her
power and strength.”
    Zeff observed the larger and older man
a long moment. Not for the first time, he noticed Sneal’s eyes were
cold and dead, a man who had his uses but was without the normal
compassion of their people. “Maybe so. Maybe so,” he conceded.
Maybe so.
    “The disappearance of this one female
reversed Gald’s family fortunes for the better. She returns, claims
what’s hers, and all that goes back to the old status quo. No
knowing what upheaval will come if she makes it back home. Now that
Gald has located her positioning necklace, we can strike
first.”
    “Yeah, yeah.” Gald’s a truly evil one,
he thought. “They say Gald enjoys the kill too much.”
    Sneal’s eyes sparked with annoyance.
“Rumors. Lies. He wants only the best for all.”
    Hmm. A spark of something like life
flamed in Chief Sneal’s black, soulless eyes. He should back off.
He realized he was pushing Sneal too far.
    “Time to have a male lead us into the
future, Gald is the right male to do it. Ruthless, don’t forget who
you work for, Harro,” Sneal said.
    Ah, so that was it. Interesting piece
of information Sneal just gave. So, he definitely was not working
for their queen. Urgently, Zeff moved the conversation onward, not
letting on he’d heard. “You see the pictures of the lost female
sent back by the surveillance team?” Shift the subject now, learn
more without confrontation. Gald was a freaking mad man. He’d
learned that much on this trip. But no one was brave enough to say
it to his face. Unless maybe Lugar. A man could hope so anyway.
“Pretty golden eyes and tawny hair just like her mother, Pride Lead
Woman, Ladia,” he went on. “Beautiful, the girl is. Even in that
long-legged, Earth human shape. Imagine her as a cat.”
    “Yes. A male should toy with her for a
while first, then.”
    What? Zeff’s stomach lurched and turned
with disgust at the idea. Before killing her, Sneal meant. Cold.
Flipping cold bastard. “Not very honorable.” He risked jeopardizing
his mission to say that much. Sneal was showing his true nature and
it was not a good picture. Harro saw why the queen assigned him to
go undercover and keep an eye on this one.
    Sneal glared at him now, giving him a
disgusted look. “Honor is overrated,” he spat. “A useless trait
from our primitive past. Not needed in the new future of Gald’s
power. The commander will do what it takes. Earn her trust
first.”
    “What if she’s not dark evil like her
family? What if she’s innocent? What if she’s not Tryth’s daughter?
No threat to Gald at all.”
    “Stupid notion. She is no innocent.
She’s Tryth’s daughter alright, as sure as Gald is his nephew.
Tryth captured her mother, didn’t he? All of us know this. Her
grandfather was Kew, the Butcher of Verine. That blood will run
true in her veins. Always does.”
    Illegally abducted her mother, you
mean. Crazy bastard, Tryth, was criminally insane. “I
see.”
    “She will