"Don't get arrogant. I had a lot more hours than you in a harness when I fell over four hundred feet, and your father had even more. Humor me."

Darice froze to stare at him. "What really happened on that climb?"

Dancer's eyes darkened with sadness. "The anchors and belay failed."

"Who was lead?"

"Your father."

Tears filled Darice's eyes. "Is that why you cut the rope?"

Bastien caught his slack jaw before it dropped as he realized that Darice was the son of Keris Hauk, who'd been killed right here.

For a moment, he thought he was the one who was going to hurl as he remembered the guilt and pain Fain carried over that event. The death of his older brother and near loss of his younger brother that fate-filled day was something Fain had never gotten over.

Until now, Bastien hadn't made the connection, and his respect for Dancer coming here again for his nephew increased exponentially. d.a.m.n, Dancer had to hate this place with a pa.s.sion. And he had to love Darice even more.

Dancer winced. "I didn't cut the rope, Darice. I didn't have my hands free to do it."

He scowled. "I don't understand."

Dancer clenched his teeth. "We fell because your father hit me before I could finish tying in to the belay station. I slipped and the anchors failed until we were down to only one. I was inverted, attempting to right myself and hold on with one hand, while I was trying to steady Keris with the other." He showed Darice the scars he had from the rope burns. "My knot was coming undone and the last anchor was slipping. We both knew what was about to happen. Even so, I didn't stop trying to hold on for both of us. Next thing I knew, Keris pulled out his knife and sliced through the rope before I could stop him so that at least one of us would survive."

Darice fingered the scars on Hauk's hands. "You really didn't cut it."

"I would have died before I cut my brother loose."

Bastien had felt the same way about Quin. While they might have fought more than they ever got along, he'd have gladly died so that Quin could live. Every breath he took knowing it came at the expense of his brother and sister was absolute h.e.l.l. The only thing worse than the grief was the guilt. If he lived to be a thousand years old, he'd never understand why he'd been spared his death sentence.

Surely the G.o.ds had intended him to be here for some higher purpose. Other than to torture him with the horror of it all. He refused to believe he'd been spared because of random luck.

He had to buy into that in order to get up in the morning and not blow his brains out. Right or wrong, he firmly believed he was here to see justice met. For his family. There could be no other reason that made sense.

Bastien met Dancer's gaze and they both knew that in this pain and misery, they were bonded brothers. Each one trying to find his way while lost in the guilted h.e.l.l of their pasts.

Darice wrapped his hands around his uncle's scars. "You were my age when it happened."

"A few months older."

He threw himself into Dancer's arms. "I won't fall, Uncle Dancer."

"I know you won't, Dare. And don't let Sumi fall, either."

Darice inclined his head to him. "I'll bring you back a feather since you didn't get one when you came."

Dancer ruffled his hair. "Deal." He handed Darice his climbing helmet.

Sumi offered Dancer a bittersweet smile as he met her gaze. "We'll be very safe. I just need to get him a feather to prove he made the climb and return here, correct?"

He nodded. "Remember, the sparn will attack if she thinks you're going after her nest."

"Don't worry. You rest and we'll be back before you can even miss us."

Dancer scoffed at her words. "Not possible. I miss you already."

Thia came running to hand her bright pink helmet to Sumi, and a pair of sport sungla.s.ses. "Good luck. Try not to strangle Darice."

Darice glared at her as he fastened his helmet on.

Bastien bit back a grin. For them to not be siblings, the two acted as if they'd shared a room since birth. And he could see the love they had for one another beneath those barbs they traded. If anyone threatened Darice, Thia would be the first one to gut them.

"Thanks, Thia. You'll take good care of the guys while I'm gone, right?" Sumi fastened her helmet before Dancer rechecked her harness and sling.

She sighed heavily, but said nothing about his paranoia.

"Absolutely. Be safe." Thia kissed her cheek then moved to stand beside Dancer.

Sumi inclined her head to them and clapped Darice on the arm. "Ready, champ?"

"I'm your belay slave, mu tara. Acrena tu."

"He said after you," Thia translated.

"Thanks." She led the way to the approach.

Dancer watched as Sumi and Darice began the climb.

Thia put her arm around his waist while he watched them. "It'll be fine, Uncle Hauk. You'll see."

He smiled down at her.

Bastien distracted himself with checking and rebandaging his injuries. d.a.m.n, he missed his family. What he wouldn't give to scandalize them one more time. To hear his sister's strident voice as she called for his parents to "sanction" him for abusing her dignity. Or Quin to ride his a.s.s for being an embarra.s.sment to their gene pool.

"One day, Bas, you're going to have kids. Are these really the stories you want floating around whenever you try to discipline them?"

"Well, Sa, I would behave, but at my age I hear you were neck-deep in a wh.o.r.ehouse, inciting riots."

Grinding his teeth against the agony in his heart, Bastien turned his back on the others.

Once they were out of sight, Dancer finally returned to sit and watch them through the scope in Sumi's rifle.

Bastien shook his head at the Andarion's actions. But then, he'd be even worse with his woman and nephew.

While Dancer watched, Thia went to gather rocks for her little brothers who'd been left at home. Apparently, that was the memento they wanted from the trip.

"So who was the first mother hen? You or Fain?"

He dropped the scope to glare at Bastien. "Meaning?"

"You two are so much alike. It's actually scary."

Dancer didn't comment. And as Sumi and Darice vanished completely from his sight, he c.o.c.ked his head. "What was that?"

Bastien scratched at his chin, wishing he had a decent razor. "What?"

"That sound?"

"I don't hear anything."

Thia stood. "I do.... Someone's coming."

Dancer moved to draw his blaster, but before he could, three darts went into his chest.

Bastien went for his. Like Dancer, he was. .h.i.t before he could reach his weapons. The paralytic was fast and vicious. Within a few heartbeats, everything went black.

CHAPTER 8.

Bastien came awake with a foul curse to find himself inside a steel cage with Dancer and two other human men he'd never seen before.

And of course, Dancer appeared to be in the middle of a fight with a human female who stood outside the cage holding a long electrified pole. Two similarly dressed women were behind her.

"See." She balanced the pole on her shoulder and swept her gaze over the other two women. "And we have a problem. Andarions eat humans. Raw. Leave him in that cage and he'll devour the others."

Bastien laughed at the thought as the two men behind him began to whimper and whine like babies.

Dancer ignored them. "Let me go and I'll leave here without any drama."

The blonde woman tsked at him. "It doesn't work that way, cutie. You have too big a bounty on your head. Eat the others if you must. You're worth a lot more than they are."

Bastien arched a brow at her nonchalant offer. Fabulous. They were a.s.sa.s.sins as well as slavers. Just what they needed. Only good news was that they hadn't realized Bastien was worth as much, if not more, than Dancer.

Dancer glared at the women. "I will get out of here, and when I do-"

"Don't make me kill you, Andarion. While you have one h.e.l.l of a bounty on your head, I'm thinking there are a lot of people who'd pay a fortune to have an Andarion slave." She raked his body with a hungry smirk. "Now be a really good boy and I might send you off with a smile on your face."

He exposed his fangs to her. "You're really going to let me eat your heart?"

She scoffed. "Watch them, Pheara!"

Dancer grabbed the bars over his head and used his entire body weight to kick at the door again.

Bastien cringed and braced himself for impact as he realized what Dancer intended.

The other two women took three more steps back.

Eyes wide, the woman named Pheara gulped. "I don't think that's going to hold him, Telise."

"If he kicks it open, blast the s.h.i.t out of him. Price-wise, given the scars and wounds already on him, it won't matter if he's banged up a bit more."

Dancer took that insult with a roar. He pressed his face between the bars to glare at Telise. "When I get out of here, I'm going to feast on your organs."

She pressed the prod to his stomach and blasted him.

Dancer growled and somehow managed to stay on his feet, glaring at her.

That succeeded in putting fear in the harita's eyes.

Unsettled, she stepped back and turned toward her friends. She handed the prod to the smaller of the two. "If he gets out, open fire and call for backup."

Oh yeah, 'cause that always worked. Especially against an Andarion.

Dancer fanged them again. "Hey!" he called to the two who eyed him like the vicious predator he was. "There was a woman with me. Where is she?"

Pheara cleared her throat. "We took her weapons and left her where she fell. Why? Is she yours?"

"My niece, and if any harm comes to her, I swear by every G.o.d who protects Andaria that I will rain down a h.e.l.l on you so severe you will beg me for the mercy of death." He kicked the door again.

They backed up.

"I'm going for more guards." Pheara took off running, leaving the other woman to watch them with a bug-eyed stare that would be hysterical if Bastien wasn't so enraged.

Dancer turned toward the men behind him. They shrank away from him as if terrified he really would eat one of them. Dancer grimaced at the typical human reaction to his kind.

Bastien shook his head at their unwarranted fear. "Don't worry. We fed him earlier. He's not hungry. Right, Hauk?"

He glared sullenly at them all. "Feeling a bit peckish, suddenly."

That only frightened them more.

Bastien sighed at his irascible companion. Must be an Andarion thing. Fain was the same way, and Jullien set the universe's record for the shortest fuse-as most likely to agitate any situation, anywhere, anytime.

Returning to the door, Dancer eyed the woman with menace. When he went to kick it again, Bastien stopped him. "Why don't we try something a little less violent and more productive, my large Andarion friend?"

Dancer scoffed. "Blood. Mayhem. Violence. That's my go-to happy place."

His too, but right now that seemed like a profoundly bad and highly unproductive idea that might get one or both of them tranqued again. And given how badly Bastien's head hurt, he wasn't keen on taking another hit of their sleeping juice. "How 'bout we try to find a new one?"

"Such as?"

He plucked a wire out of his cuff that he kept for just such rare occasions. "Picking the lock."

"I'd rather kick it open."