They Cautioned Her About Apex Predators—She Asked With a Laugh, “Which One? I’ve Eaten Six”

They Cautioned Her About Apex Predators—She Asked With a Laugh, “Which One? I’ve Eaten Six.” Rafaela Daleridge is a field cook from the north of England who applied for a job feeding cadets. Thanks to one very unlucky translation, the alien Coalition of the Brass Horizon enrolls her as a Specialist Cadet instead, and the very first thing she does is laugh when the instructor warns the class about apex predators. "Which one?" she asks. "I've eaten six." The cadets are a prey people who have never spoken those words in one sentence, and the rumour spreads across the desert trading hub of Kenzhathek like wildfire. Her shadow is Nupud, a sixteen-year-old cadet who is afraid of everything, and who is about to find out what courage actually looks like. When a glass wind strands a field exercise in the dunes and something ancient wakes beneath the sand, Rafaela has to decide what a cook owes to the thing she kills. Back at the crossroads, the raiders of the Syndicate of the Opal Verge arrive with a clever plan and a law older than any treaty. It will take one frightened teenager, a very old rule, and a bowl of something warm to answer it. #HFY #SciFi #AlienAcademy #Deathworlder #HumansAreSpaceOrcs #ScienceFictionStory #FirstContact #SpaceOpera #SciFiAudiobook #ApexPredator