Claktiss paced inside the small den, her boots ringing from the stone floor.  She turned, kicked the hard sleeping pillow in the middle of the room, spun, and paced some more.  She’d tried the door earlier and found it unlocked, but when she’d opened it and poked her head outside, the guard across the hall had scowled and nodded.  Ensnared in ways that had nothing to do with locks, she felt all the more trapped for it.

“Say nothing of Chuktik or the ha’la’ai,” Tahn’di had hissed during one of their few moments alone.  It hadn’t lasted long enough.

“I don’t understand why not,” Claktiss whispered in response.

“Just say nothing until I’ve returned and we’ve had time to talk.”

That was the e...

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