“Of course you do,” Vykk murmured, kissing her cheek gently. “You’ve got us, right?”
“Uh … us?” she whispered.
“Sure. We’re gonna be together, sweetheart. We’re gonna get off this hellish planet, and we’re gonna be happy.”
She raised her head, staring blindly into the darkness; her nightsight could barely make out the lighter blur of his face. “But they never let pilgrims go,” Bria mumbled. “I read that in Teroenza’s mind.” “We won’t ask ‘em, honey. We’ll just up and go.”
“Escape?” she whispered.
“You got it,” he said. “As soon as I can figure out a way to do it, we’re gonna get out of here. I’ve already begun thinkin’ about it.” He gave her a quick kiss on her cheek. “Trust me. I’ve had experience at this kind of thing. I’ll figure it out.”
“But … but your money,” she said. “You’re under contract, and you can’t break it. If you run away, you’ll lose your money. You told me you needed those credits they’re paying you to try and get into the Academy.
How can you give that up?”
He shrugged. “One credit is as good as another. I’ll just have to get it outta Teroenza another way.”
Bria’s mind was fogged with exhaustion and the grief of betrayal. It took her a full minute to realize what Vykk was talking about. “The collection …” she whispered. “You’re planning to steal Teroenza’s collection and escape.”
“Pretty good,” he said approvingly. “You sure you’re not still having some of those glitterstim insights?”
“I don’t think so,” Bria said wearily. “I just know that you’ve asked me about it a lot of times, asked me what items are the most valuable.
You really think you can break the security locks and steal the collection?”
“Not the whole thing,” he said. “It’d take a bigger cargo ship than any on Ylesia to haul it all away. I’m just gonna take the small stuff—the really valuable small stuff.” He looked at her intently.
“And you’re gonna help me, right?”
She hesitated. Stealing antiquities was contrary to everything she’d ever believed in. But Teroenza’s antiquities weren’t in a museum, where the public could see them. They were being hoarded by a greedy private collector. If Vykk stole them, they’d be put back into circulation, and there was a good chance that at least some of them would wind up on public display in some store or gallery.
“Okay,” Bria said. She drew a long, shaky breath. “I’ll help you, Vykk.”
“Good. You and me, we’re gonna swipe a ship, and we’re getting ourselves off this planet. I’m sick of the heat, sick of the humidity, and sick to death of these priests and their hokey religion.”
Bria took a deep breath. Leave here? Never attend devotion and receive the Exultation again? How can I live without it?
Resolutely, she put the question out of her mind. She’d manage somehow.
Maybe she could wean herself away from it over the next week or so, until they left.
“There’s just one more thing, Vykk,” she said uncertainly. “What, sweetheart?”
“Muuurgh. What about Muuurgh? You told me that he’d given his word to guard you—that he’s as much your guard as your protector. What will you do about him?”
Vykk drew a long breath, and she saw the blur of his face move as he shook his head. “That’s the vrelt in the kitchen,” he said, using an old Corellian phrase for “bad luck” or “disaster.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do about him. I really like the big guy, but he’s told me about this word of honor code of his people. I’m afraid he’ll be loyal to Teroenza no matter what.”
“You mean if he finds out what we’re planning, he’ll turn us in?”
“Good chance of it.”
“Oh, Vykk …” There was a catch in her voice. “What are we going to do?
What if we can’t get away?”
“Don’t worry, honey. Leave that to me.” Vykk sighed. “If I have to, I’ll deal with Muuurgh. I’m a better shot than he is, and much faster on the draw.”
“You’d shoot him?”
“If it’s a choice between you and me, or Muuurgh, yeah, I will. I just wish I could convince him to throw in with us. If he did, I’d take him wherever he wanted to go. And give him enough credits to continue his search.”
“Search?”
“Yeah. He’s looking for his mate, and he came here thinking she came to Ylesia. But he guessed wrong. Togorians are rare, so rare that I’d never even heard of ‘em till I got here. If a female Togorian was here, she’d stick out like a sore thumb.”