Page 61 of Rauf: Minotaur Mates

There was a spaceship in the ditch.

“When the hell did this get here?”

Korfas stood beside me at the edge of the bank, looking just as pleased about the discovery as I was. We’d left the truck on the narrow road above us. Beyond the ditch, the last stretch of our fence disappeared uphill into the brush. This was my fucking property. Someone had put a spaceship on it, and I’d had to hear about it from Korfas.

It wasn’t a large ship, though it had made a mess of the stream. Its nose was buried in the far bank, its rear wedged against a boulder that forced the water around one side. From the road, most of it had been hidden below us. Down here I could see the torn metal and the long tank hanging crookedly from its side.

Something black dripped from a split in the tank. Each drop spread across the water before the current carried it away. The stink was sharp enough to burn my nose, with something rotten beneath it that made me want to spit. I moved farther up the bank.

Was that what poisoned the goats?

Beyond the ship I spotted a nasty gash in the earth where it looked like half a mountain had been blown away. There was mud in the channel and I wondered if that could have caused the stream and cave to flood.

Were we looking at the source of all our misfortune?

“There’s human writing on it,” Korfas said. Today he was all business as he studied one of the metal panels. “I don’t know how to read it, but I recognize the letters. They look like some of the paperwork Nezara has had the brides fill out.”

The same paperwork that I had just filled out in my own minotaur scrawl.

Did Korfas even know that Teresa wasn’t going to be his? I kept the thought to myself. He was behaving himself now, but we were in the middle of nowhere and we didn’t need to start fighting.

If we shed each other’s blood, only one of us would survive.

Maybe.

I could kill him. But he’d been skilled enough in the arena that I wasn’t sure I could do it without taking a killing blow myself.

Something whirred in the air.

“Get down!” I yelled on instinct just as a drone popped out of a panel on the downed ship.

Korfas dropped. A blast struck the hull where his head had been, showering his shoulders with sparks. I threw myself sideways as the drone swung toward me. The next shot tore into the bank beside my hoof.

I scrambled up the slope, ducking beneath a low branch. The damned thing followed. It was scarcely larger than my head, but it moved fast, rising over the brush while I had to shove my way through it. Another shot snapped past my ear.

There was a fold in the bank ahead of me. I slid into it, hit the ground hard, and rolled onto my back. The drone descended until its weapon cleared the lip of the ditch.

A rock smashed into its side.

The shot went high. The drone spun, struck the bank, and landed beside me with an ugly crunch. One of its little vents kept whining. I drove my hoof through it, and the noise stopped.

Korfas stood a few paces up the slope, another rock already in his hand. He lowered it when I got to my feet.

“I always wanted to do that in the arena.” He looked down at the wreckage with considerable satisfaction.

“You and me both.”

He snorted, and I found myself grinning at him.

Then his mouth twisted as if he’d just realized who he was smiling at. I stopped grinning and stepped back. He moved away from me, scowling.

I had enough problems without liking the bastard.

We approached the ship again, more slowly this time. I watched the open panel while Korfas worked his way along the bank toward what looked like a hatch.

Korfas reached toward the hatch. Three panels snapped open.

Fuck.