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"Of course they did," Niara exploded on her chair, raising her even more in my estimation. She was definitely smarter and more cunning than her brother.
"What did you tell them?" Niara demanded.
"About?" Nathan looked confused.
"About where and how you got the information for the location of the atmospheric defenders." Niara huffed.
"Oh, I told them I bribed one of Vissigroth Myles's officers," Nathan looked proud of himself.
"I'm sorry," Niara looked at me, "please don't have him executed."
"What?" Nathan cried.
"The Chrymphten aren't stupid, Nathan. They know that you traded with them because Horn is broke. They know you used all the credits they gave you for repairs."
"So?" Nathan still didn't get it.
I spilled it out for him. "None of my officers can be bribed to buy this kind of information, the Chrymphten tried before. And even if they would take a bribe, it would be at a price you wouldn't be able to afford."
"Oh." Nathan crumbled even more on his chair.
I folded my hands behind my back and circled the seating area, "This is entirely my fault. I should have given you a cover story before I sent you out." I said, berating myself. I should have. But it was too late now.
"We can still recover from this though, I'm willing to bet that the date they gave you," I looked at him questioning and he answered right away.
"Three weeks from now."
"So they will attack in one or two." I concluded.
"How do you know that?" Nathan asked.
"Because they still want the element of surprise," Niara explained, not even looking at me for confirmation, so sure was she of herself. What a seffy.
"It might even be today or tomorrow," I concluded. "They will want to catch us of off guard."
"You have one place they'll attack for sure," Niara said.
"Where?" Nathan wrinkled his forehead.
"Your safe space," Niara couldn't quite keep the sarcasm out of her voice.
"Alright, lots of things to do." I concluded. "If I were you I would get Horn ready as soon as possible and take it as close to Aecor as you can," I advised Nathan, then turned to Niara.
"Coming?"
First it was Nathan's ostentatious behavior that threw me off, his audaciousness to wring concessions from Myles, our vissigroth. It would have been laughable had it not been so sad of an attempt.
Then his gullibility caught me off guard, how had he not seen that the Chrymphten would recognize his little scheme? I supposed I should have been grateful they allowed him to leave, but our father had taught us to be better leaders than this.
The last straw though was Myles asking, coming? toward me.
As if I would just go with him. Why would I do that? Especially now that it was so blatantly obvious how much Horn needed me.
"My place is here," I informed Myles haughtily.
"It wasn't a question," he clarified.
"I am still your hostage?" I asked incredulously.
