Dark Horse by Michelle Diener Read Free Book Online

have guessed, based on her size and slender form.
    Her bones must be far denser than his. Her muscles, too.
    She could pass for Grih, though. Well, she would be considered very short, but the similarities between her and them were startling.
    If her genetic structure showed up orange, and Kila assured him it did, then there was a world out there that had somehow taken a very similar evolutionary path to his own.
    Right now she was looking at them all, at their weapons, and the look on her face was one of . . . betrayal. Like sheʼd thought better of them and theyʼd proven her wrong.
    She bit her lip. “You shoot me?” she asked. Then she shook her head. “Are you going to shoot me?” Her second try was perfect Grih, but melodic and smooth.
    He shifted uncomfortably, and he wasnʼt the only one.
    Two of Appalʼs team dropped their weapons slightly, and Appal gave them a sharp look. The weapons rose again, but Dav could see they were losing the high ground. The longer they gave her to talk, the less inclined any of Appalʼs team would be to harm her, even if she was a threat.
    “We donʼt know what you are or where youʼre from. These soldiers are under my command and I donʼt want to risk their lives.” Dav kept his weapon level as he spoke.
    The woman lifted her arms from her sides and gave a nod. “I can understand that. Iʼm unarmed, and I have no intention of hurting anyone.”
    She stumbled over a few of the words, but that just made the words she did say properly all the more beautiful.
    A Class 5, and a music maker, all in one haul. Dav didnʼt know whether to laugh or groan. Because this was definitely the most important day of his life.
    “What happened on the Tecran ship?” Appal retracted her helmet screen as she spoke, and the woman blinked at her, and then smiled. A sweet, friendly smile.
    Dav wondered why Appal would get that reaction, and not him.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Why did the Tecran send you down here, to Harmon?”
    She shrugged. “They werenʼt in the habit of explaining themselves to me.”
    Now that heʼd seen her, Dav wondered if the Tecran had already been having problems with their ship, and, knowing they were stranded, had tried to hide her and the animals theyʼd taken from her planet.
    They would have known that if the Grih boarded them, theyʼd have been in serious trouble over their violation of the Sentient Beings Agreement, as well as evidence that they had explored so deep into the universe they had come across unknown planets and not declared them to the United Council.
    Harmon was uninhabited and if theyʼd managed to get the explorer craft away soon enough, Dav would have had no reason to look at Harmon at all. The Tecran could have had plans to fetch them later, after theyʼd accomplished whatever theyʼd invaded Grih territory to do, if their Class 5 hadnʼt malfunctioned.
    “Do you know what the Tecran are doing in our territory?”
    The woman tipped her head toward him, and there was something closed off in her. “I have been in a cell on the Tecran ship for the last three months. In that time they have poked me, observed me, opened me up and welded me back together. Just about the only thing they havenʼt done to me is let me know what theyʼre up to.”
    Her unspeakable anger vibrated through her words.
    They were all silent, looking at her, and she drew in a deep breath, smoothed back wisps of hair that had fallen from her braid onto her face, and then shrugged. “Sorry. Why donʼt you ask them? Unless they got away?” She looked up at the sky for the first time, but there was no way to see either the Class 5 or the Barrist from here, and she looked back at Appal.
    He found it interesting, and a little bit annoying, that since sheʼd seen Appal, sheʼd directed every comment to his commander, and ignored him.
    “They didnʼt get away, but asking them will be difficult. Most of them are dead.” He spoke bluntly, and at last she looked his way again.
    There