Richard wasn’t wrong. The sleek design of the craft, both inside and out, made our colony ship look clunky by comparison. I wasn’t sure if the quality was entirely due to their more advanced engineering in general, or if this shuttle was on the luxury side given the fancy pants guy and his spiffily dressed Hunters that looked as if they were dressed in what Pops would have called their ‘Sunday best’. Dress uniforms, I surmised, as the leathers looked a lot like what Pilar and Miljack were wearing, only of a finer, less durable quality and with fancy stitching along the seams of the trousers, along the arms and collars of the bloused shirts, and a sash instead of a vest. That and they had filigreed scabbards by their sides. Some kind of elite guard for this mucky muck, then?
“Do you think they killed Roe before or after you left the manor?” Richard asked me, not bothering to whisper. Not that there was any point in doing so, of course. For one thing, whispers carried louder than an ordinary low voice and for another, Richard was only asking me something that would need to be answered anyway as part of the investigation.
Investigations, I mentally corrected myself. Our original one and the one regarding the piloris and pine needles. Or were they somehow one and the same?
Several heads turned our direction, listening avidly for my reply.
“I’m thinking after. The groom brought the beasts out while we were in the house, saying Roe wanted us to leave.” I frowned. “Though we didn’t see any sign of his Lordship since the previous evening.”
“So he could have been dead already,” Richard said.
“Hopefully we will have access to the body in order to ascertain time of death,” Miljack interjected. “There’s no way our people will want to simply take their word for anything without solid, tangible proof we can verify.”
Several of the Hunters nodded in silent agreement. The distrust the Council had bred over time, along with the current situation, didn’t bode well for the status quo going forward. We needed a shift in the power dynamic, to smooth over past slights and move forward together for the betterment of our peoples and this world.
I sighed inwardly.
And that brings us back to humans needing a voice in what happens, by truly participating in Ilyirzi matters as part of the group dynamic. To make it human and Ilyirzi as a whole, instead of us keeping ourselves to one side and them having to treat us almost as an afterthought by default through the Council’s own actions.
I turned my head to look three seats down, where Pilar sat. He was staring straight ahead, as if deep in thought, no doubt going over events to see if he’d overlooked any clues. I admired the delicate sweep of his jaw, imagining kissing along it in the mornings as we prepared breakfast together, and in bed, moving from the shell of his ear, down along his jaw, to his neck…
My trousers tightened uncomfortably and I knew my arousal had not gone unnoticed thanks to the flare of nostrils by Miljack and the Ilyirzi Hunter sat across from me, next to Richard. The unknown Hunter raised an eyebrow, while Miljack smirked. I leaned back, deciding to play it off. Depending on how things played out and what Pilar and I ultimately decided, this whole corner of the universe might very well know we had the hots for each other anyway.
Pilar suddenly sniffed and turned a wide-eyed gaze towards me. I swiped my tongue across my top lip at him, teasing. He grinned back at me, giving me a saucy wink.
A shifting of bodies around us told me our exchange hadn’t gone entirely unnoticed. And that Hand guy? He was smiling. Well, well, well. Looks like my Council wasn’t the only one keeping things a bit close to the chest, maybe.
I didn’t get much of a chance to think about this any further as the vehicle banked and came to a stop before the view out the windows told us it was landing. A soft bump and the engines cut off.
“That was quick,” Richard said.
“Much faster than by beast,” Miljack confirmed. “If we’d ridden over, it’d have taken us over an hour to get across the compound, through the crowds in the marketplace and all that. Plus, this way we don’t have to climb the stairs or ride the lift to reach his residence.”
“It’s carved into the side of the mountain and is part of a small ancient city we are working to preserve,” the Hand said proudly. “A living museum as it were.”
A city inside a mountain. Wait, a mountain? Just how fast had that train been traveling? There weren’t any visible mountains from our territories. In fact, if memory served me right, the nearest mountains were halfway across the continent, by the sea. Holy shit. No wonder they’d not managed to ambush us. We didn’t have any mode of transport fast enough.
Everyone was unbuckling themselves, except for Pilar and myself. Miljack reached to unfasten Pilar but was gently moved aside by one of the other Hunters.
“I’m sorry,” the alpha said to him, “but while he’s officially being detained, we have to go by the book.”
Miljack let out an annoyed huff. “Fine. Let’s get going then so we can get this stupid shit over with.”
Richard shot me an apologetic look as the Hunter next to me turned to help me out.
“We don’t know anything more than what we’ve already told you folks,” Richard said, addressing the Hand, a plea in his eyes.
The man waved it aside. “That’s fine. We just have to record you telling us this officially, during this debriefing, while the Arbiter listens in via comms. Then he can render his decision. No one expects you to know the answers to all of the questions surrounding these matters. It’s all still a mystery we have to finish uncovering all aspects of.”
“Forty-two,” Richard blurted.
“Forty-two what?” the Hand asked.
Richard flushed in embarrassment.
“It’s from a vid that was based on a popular series of books,” I explained.
“The answer to life, the universe and everything,” Richard mumbled, looking away.
The Hand barked out a laugh. “I see. I’ll keep that in mind.”
I blinked. It was good to know he had a sense of humor. I had a feeling we were going to need it before all was said and done. Thankfully Richard didn’t say anything else, and we all filed out of the shuttle and into a large stone courtyard that held two other shuttles that looked similar to the one we were just in. It was atop a massive wall that I could see must enclose something far below as a corner was visible in the distance. I turned and behind me, I spotted the mountain with a set of intimidating double doors of some iridescent material, metal perhaps, which stood ajar. It was there that our group was headed. Squaring my shoulders, I followed along with the two Hunters assigned to me, eager to see what marvels we’d be shown next.