Chapter 18
Five weeks later:
Kayren leaned back in her lounger, folding her seven limbs across her leathery abdomen. The Crithien’s color had faded from the brilliant magenta of pre-molting back to her normal sky blue. Her latest messy transformation gave her a sixth segment, smaller than the others but complete with a new brain.
She tilted her head from one side to the other, regarding Jim with dozens of glittering compound eyes. He sat calmly in one of her human-specific chairs, looking back at her. Kayren gazed at Rob and Maerlis in turn, sitting close together on her sofa.
After their adventure with the Dalsoria, all three of them were decidedly calmer in the presence of a massive, super-intelligent insect. At least Kayren’s genetics were stable, and theirs were in no danger of bei
