“Holy shit, what are you doing here?”
Corran leaned forward, his disguise had a scar running down the side of his face, and it pained me to look at the scab. Then again, it matched the rest of the ferocious Neanderthals in this room.
A sudden stomping of feet had me lifting my gaze to several Khonsu who walked into the room wearing crimson robes that fell to their ankles and hoods over their heads. They held chains that were tied to several women behind them. Beautifully stunning women, some were Vepar by their horns, wearing corset type blood-red dresses that flowed to their feet. Furs warmed their shoulders, while the chains around their throats reminded them, they were nothing but eye candy. A possession. A slave.
My insides tightened to see women treated this way.
There was no sign of Bruda though. I didn’t know if that was good or bad.
With the females’ arrival, a band started playing music on a string instrument, not too different from a violin, the music building up to a crescendo. Everyone broke into chatter and dug into their foods. Thane nudged me as he got up to fill his horn and mine, even though I hadn’t drunk any yet.
Derrial and Corran reached for the food, and I picked at my plate, not sure I could stomach too much right now. “So, what’s the plan?” I whispered to Derrial.
“We eat and wait for everyone to have their fill of what you call pumpkin wine.”
My eyes widened. “We don’t have pumpkin wine.”
“Those grape things. Just the Khonsu use pumpkin. It’s probably the best thing to come from these vermin invading our planet.” His words were barely a whisper, and I looked up to see the elite were sitting on the table next to us with their new women. I was surprised the women were allowed to even sit at the table with them.
Thane returned, already drinking from one of the horns.
“Take it easy with the pumpkin wine,” I murmured, but he didn’t hear me as he flopped back down next to me and set to eating. Food was probably good, so he didn’t get drunk. Though could you get drunk on fermented pumpkin juice?
A conversation at the next table caught my attention. One of them mentioned the word "humans." All of my attention immediately gravitated towards the two Khonsu speaking. They were both dressed in crimson robes I’d seen the elite wear, so I assumed that whatever they were talking about was probably important.
"Why have the other humans showed no signs of possessing the same traits as this one," one of them said, gesturing over to where I was sitting. The other one looked over at me and I immediately averted my eyes, trying my best to pretend like I wasn't listening.
I elbowed Derrial, who was paying attention to another conversation between another group of crimson robed Khonsu.
"Just a minute," he said as he tried to listen. I elbowed him again.
He looked over at me impatiently. "What is it?" he asked. I blanched for a moment at how fierce he looked in his Khonsu form. It was only his eyes that looked anything like my Derrial.
"They're talking about other humans. Do you think that it's possible that there's other humans that were taken to this planet?" I asked, my voice a mixture of eagerness and concern.
A look passed over his face, one that I couldn't read very well.
"They’re talking about other humans on Veon?" he asked, sounding concerned.
"Yes," I responded, this time more eagerly as I continued to listen to the conversation taking place between the Khonsu’s. I was only faintly aware of the looks being exchanged between Derrial, Thane, and Corran.
"You have to do more testing, especially after those numbers that she displayed," one of them said. The other one nodded, a look of pure excitement all over his features.
I shivered at the thought of what tests they had in mind. I'm sure they were even worse than the ones used by the Vepar during their fertility treatments.
"We have to find out where they are keeping them," I said urgently, pulling on the side of Derrial’s tunic.
I immediately dropped my hand and adopted a demure expression when I saw a few of the other Khonsu at the banquet table watching me suspiciously. I knew in their culture that the women were extremely subservient to the males, so it probably looked bad how I was behaving towards Derrial.
Corran reached out and touched me gently. "Of course we will do everything we can if there are other humans on this planet," he said. Thane nodded beside him. "Anything we can," Thane repeated.
I was surprised that they were being so agreeable about this. I'd expected them to say something about how my safety was more important than any other humans or other crap like that, but they seemed to agree with me.
Maybe our short separation had gotten through their thick skulls that the rest of the human race wasn't completely worthless.
I doubted that was actually the case, but I took the victory where I could.
At that moment the two Khonsu that I had been listening to got up from the table and began to walk away together.