His tone betrayed him, suggesting he was lying about not being warriors or having an army. Their association with the Krilex ships made it clear.
“So you ended up here? You still haven’t explained why you’re working with the Krilex.”
“We were attacked by them. Our fleet was discovered by them on an uninhabited moon. Above the planet, we had cloaked ships and fought back using our superior weapons. They didn’t stand a chance against us,” he boasted.
Theflutzing grikhad the audacity to lie to my face. “I thought you didn’t consider yourselves warriors?”
“We have weapons. Our lack lies in our fighting skills.”
“You claim not to be warriors, but you possess weapons. Is your purpose here to invade planets?”
“We do not plan to invade.”
Once again, a lie. Annoyance flared, causing my shoulders to tense.
“You still haven’t explained why the Krilex work for you. Were you the ones who organized their visits to Alara and Graacux? Was the purpose of it to scout? What are you trying to find?”
The alien put up his hands his eyes wide.
“We need certain resources. Our ships require a special source of power that we are low on. That is all.”
I huffed out some air through my nostrils. “What is it you need?”
He cleared his throat. “A combination of rare minerals, praseodymium, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, samarium and gadolinium. They combine to make Flonium.”
“That’s a lot of minerals some of which areonlyavailable on Alara and Graacux. Is that why you sent the Krilex to our planets instead of contacting us directly?”
He acknowledged with a nod. “The Krilex can process the raw materials into Flonium, butwecannot. They offered a trade involving their mines. They advised us against negotiating with both you and the Ixul.”
Of course they did. Their desire is for The Alaran system to become more easily pilfered. I clenched my jaw. They will face consequences.
If it was the last thing I did, I would force them out of Alaran space.
“You should have come to us for help.” I stood up tall and ran a palm across my chin.
The monk whimpered. “The Krilex are the ones who are power hungry. We only seek to survive. Their leader,‘Yaz the strong,’decided it would benefit them to align with us in exchange for certain weapons.”
Krin and I shared an amused look. His brows raised. “Yaz the strong?” he smirked.
Bloody devaras.“The Krilex are forbidden from entering Alaran space and they know it. You have aligned yourselves with the wrong people.” I growled through clenched teeth.
The alien glanced between us before resuming his stammering.
“We also require the Krilex to provide us with another critical resource. Something onlytheycan provide.”
I had a feeling that whatever the reptilians were offering would be detrimental to us in Alaran space. “What other kinds of resources do you need? Something that would help you reopen a wormhole to go home?”
“No. We cannot ever go home. But we also do not wish to become extinct. Although we have superior weapons on ourships. We are a dying race. If we returned home, our enemy would destroy us.”
“What then? What is it you want?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.
“Your females.”
32
Grace
A SOUND IN THE CORRIDORalerted me to what sounded like a scuffle outside our suite. An uneasy feeling settled in the pit of my stomach, causing me to tighten my grip on the fabric of my tunic.
