by Jaleta Clegg
Chapter 6
Stifling hot and cramped, I clawed my way up the engine access tube. It narrowed even more. Fire burned through the engine room. The heat crept through the tube. Someone shouted. I struggled to crawl forward. If I could reach the controls, I could shut it down, activate the emergency fire suppressant. I couldn't move. I was trapped, my arms pinned next to my side. The heat built. I couldn't breathe.
"Dace!" An urgent whisper tickled my ear.
I fought against the walls of the tube, strangely flexible. Something blocked my mouth. I smelled smoke.
"Dace!" The whisper came again.
That wasn't right. No one could be next to me. It had to be air escaping the ship. Hull breach? My panic reached new levels. I wriggled, trying to free myself. Something clamped over my face. I couldn't get my hands free to pry it off. I was wrapped tightly, not by tube walls but by fabric. The smoke smelled of wood, not charred plastic and metal. I didn't hear alarms, only someone breathing.
I fought to open my eyes, to wake from my nightmare. I couldn't breathe. Whoever held me in the blanket had a hand clamped over my mouth.
"Hold still," Tayvis whispered in my ear. "Dace?"
I went limp, wondering why he had his hand over my mouth, why he'd immobilized me with the blanket, and why he inched his way backwards into the bushes, dragging me with him.
He turned my face using the hand clamped over my mouth. When he saw my eyes were open, he eased his grip.
"Keep quiet," he said, his voice no more than a breath across my cheek. He waited, studying my face in the broken moonlight. His hand slipped to my shoulder. He looked past me, out of the bushes.
"He was here." The rough voice spoke the language of Dadilan with a coarse accent. "Looks like he packed up and moved on, though. The fire's cold."
"He was alone?" Ky, Leran's second, spoke.
"Looks like," the first voice answered. "Though I can't be sure, not in the dark."
"They were together, in the village," Ky said. "I want her found. I want to know who this man is. I want to know why he's helping her."
"And you want the truth about her," the first man said.
"You're being paid to track them, not make comments," Ky snapped.
"There are tracks back there. One horse, headed northeast."
"Gragensberg." Ky swore softly. "We have to move quickly."
"You aren't paying me enough to go there. I'm not having anything to do with the Duchess or her sorceress."
Footsteps crunched away. Silence fell.
Tayvis relaxed. "They're gone. Do you have nightmares like that often?"
I shrugged, loosening the blanket. "I was trapped in an engine tube during a fire drill once."
Tayvis twisted the blanket, trapping me again. His face was cold in the moonlight. "Who were they? Why do they want you?"
"One was Ky, Leran's assistant. I don't know the other one." I sensed anything less than full truth would get me killed. "I don't know why Ky's looking for me."
"Leran's smuggling," Tayvis said. "Convince me you aren't involved."
"How?"
His teeth gleamed in the dark as he grinned humorlessly. "That's the problem, isn't it? You don't have any proof."
"You can't prove I'm lying. And I can't prove I'm telling the truth. You said you trusted me, at least as far as you could throw me."
"That was before they hired a tracker to follow you. Now they know I'm with you."
"I'm not lying, Tayvis. I've told you the truth."
"You really have no idea what you've fallen into." He sighed and let go of the blanket. "Your story is wild enough it just might be true, although it's hard to swallow. If you lied, your story would be more believable."
"So you trust me?"
"For now." He slithered out of the bushes.
I followed, pulling the blanket free.
He dug through a different bush to pull out his pack. "Dawn isn't too far off. We're walking for a while. At least until I catch up with my horse."
I folded the blanket over my arm, shuffling my bare feet in the dirt. Tayvis slung the pack over his shoulder. He walked off, his boots silent.
I could stand where I was and wait for Ky to find me or I could follow Tayvis. I didn't want to walk barefoot through the forest. Tayvis offered me a better choice than Ky and Leran.
I picked my way after Tayvis, wincing at each step.
It was brutal, walking in the dark. I managed to step on half a dozen thorns within the first few minutes. I stubbed my toe on a rock. I stopped to pull a thorn out of my foot. Tayvis waited, not saying a word. He pushed through the bushes when I finished. I stifled a groan as I followed.
We crossed over a hill, into a rocky valley. I stumbled down the slope, splashing into a stream at the bottom. The cold water froze my feet, but it took the sting out of the thorn pricks and scrapes.
Tayvis waded through the stream to dump his pack on the far side. He put his finger in his mouth and let out a piercing whistle. He looked upstream, waiting.
He whistled again. Hoofbeats echoed off the rocks. His horse trotted down the stream bank, bobbing its head. Tayvis stepped towards it. The horse snuffled into his hand, allowing him to catch hold of the reins.
"Are you coming?" he asked as he slung the pack onto the horse.
My feet hurt too much. I couldn't go farther. The water rushed past, wetting the bottom of my skirt. I bit my lip. Tayvis might leave me behind if I stopped. I stumbled my way out of the stream. When I stepped onto the bank, I couldn't stop the gasp of pain. I limped over to the horse.
Tayvis caught my arm. "How bad are your feet?"
"Does it matter?" I didn't look at him. I stared at his horse instead.
"You must have a very good reason to want to stay with me. Are you spying on me?"
"Would I be this obvious if I were? Leran and Ky threatened to kill me. You say they were headed for the slave market, probably to sell me. You're my best way out of here. Whether you trust me or not, that's the truth."
He studied me for a long moment. Birds chirped sleepily in the trees. The stream gurgled over rocks. The horse snorted and chewed grass.
"We've got a lot of ground to make up." Tayvis released my arm. "Do you want help getting on?"
I expected him to throw me on the horse, like before. I folded my arms through the blanket and waited.
"Put your foot in here." He touched a loop hanging from the seat. "Step up and swing your other leg over. It's easy."
"The horse is taller than I am."
"Left foot. Use the front of the saddle for leverage."
The loop hung at least three feet off the ground. He helped me slide my foot in. I grabbed the seat and pulled myself on. The horse sidled away. Tayvis shoved me the rest of the way over the horse. The horse tossed its head. I grabbed handfuls of hair.
Tayvis pulled the reins over the horse's head. I moved my foot out of the loop so Tayvis could mount. The horse grabbed a last mouthful of weeds before walking down the trail.
I looked down at Tayvis' arm around me, browned by sun. Why hadn't he left me behind?
He didn't trust me. I had my selfish reasons for sticking with him. What were his reasons for helping me? Did he think I knew something I wasn't telling him? He'd been nice, but he'd also threatened me. I had no idea what he thought.
I could puzzle out his motives later. All of the knowledge Ameli stuffed into me was finally accessible. Dadilan was primitive, but it hadn't always been. Two thousand years had passed since settlement, long enough for technology to have been discarded, abandoned, or just plain forgotten. Ameli had filled my head with information on the social structure of Dadilan but only sketchy generalities of technical details.
Why was Dadilan important enough to rate an undercover Enforcer? Tayvis mentioned smuggling, but not even the Patrol took protected status that seriously. Nothing in Ameli's information indicated what could be of such importance.
Tayvis pushed the pace until the sun rose well
clear of the horizon. We left the mountains mostly behind us, skirting the tallest. Land sloped towards a flatter valley glimpsed only through trees. Tayvis stopped the horse in a broad meadow dotted with white flowers.
I gingerly picked my way to a rock. I was exhausted and the day had barely started.
"Hungry?" Tayvis tossed me a dried bit of fruit that might have been fresh several months earlier.
I fingered the unappetizing snack, but it was all I had. I nibbled off a corner.
"How are your feet?" Tayvis asked.
I wondered idly if he had a foot fetish. "Sore. I never really appreciated boots before."
"Not many people on this planet can afford them. You would look suspicious if you had a pair." He sat on the grass near me.
"Because I'm supposed to be your slave?" I couldn't help the edge in my comment.
"Exactly. I'll see what I can do when we get to Gragensberg."
He reached for my foot. I pulled it away. He shot one unreadable glance my way before watching his horse instead.
"We should get to Gragensberg this afternoon, if your friends don't catch us first." He chewed on a piece of the dried fruit.
"Ky is not my friend. I think he hates me, though I'm not sure why." I picked off another bite of fruit.
Birds cheeped in the trees. Something small and brown scampered across a rock near the horse.
"Why aren't you asking me questions?" Tayvis leaned on his elbow.
"Would you answer any of them?"
He frowned as he bit off another piece. "If you were a spy, you'd be asking me all sorts of questions, trying to find out what I know. But since I suspect you, you'd sit quiet and wait for me to talk. If you aren't a spy, then you should be at least a little curious."
"Maybe I'm just tired and hungry and want to get off planet."
He chewed his fruit. I finished mine. The horse ripped up a clump of weeds. Green goo dripped off its lips. The small brown animal came back, perching on a rock to watch the horse suspiciously.
"You aren't going to ask me anything?"
The brown creature darted away.
"Why don't you just tell me whatever it is you think I need to know and save us both the bother."
"And accidentally say something I shouldn't?"
"I don't think you do anything accidentally."
His face went blank, his mask fully in place. I looked down at my bare feet, uncomfortable in his stare. He stood, brushing grass off his pants.
"We should be moving again," he said.
I wanted more breakfast. He wasn't offering. I followed him to his horse. He watched me with his chocolate eyes that gave nothing away.
We mounted the horse again. I managed to do it without help. The horse moved away from the stream. My muscles protested, but not much.
"Leran is one of three researchers with a grant to study Dadilan."
I glanced over my shoulder and got a good view of his chin. "Why are you telling me?"
"Because you need to know. Before you blunder into something."
"And screw up your investigation."
"And get yourself killed."
"Why would you care?" I faced forward, watching the horse twitch its ears.
"I didn't say I would. It would cause a lot of paperwork and I don't like paperwork."
Even though I barely knew him, it still hurt to have it put so baldly.
"Leran is only one of three," he said as if he had never been interrupted. "We're going to Gragensberg to check out the second."
"We?"
He let that slide. "Shomies Pardui is working with the Duchess Karoni, ruler of Gragensberg and the surrounding area. The third researcher is Barricion Muir. I'm supposed to bring him in on charges of voiding his research contract. He's set himself up as a social reformer, interfering with the native culture."
"How is that different than Leran? He's set himself up as a wizard."
"Or Shomies Pardui? They're both working through a native ruler. Barricion Muir isn't. He calls himself Robin Goodfellow. He's running a criminal organization in the woods north of here. That's about all I know. The files were sketchy on details."
"So he's the smuggler?" I remembered him mentioning smuggling earlier.
"I don't know. It could be all three of them or none of them."
"I haven't seen anything on this planet worth trading legitimately. What could be worth enough to risk smuggling?"
"You really don't know?"
"Would I ask if I did?"
"Possibly."
"Are you going to tell me?"
"They're smuggling shara." He waited for me to react. "Shara's a drug that enhances psychic abilities." He waited again.
I frowned, trying to figure it out. I'd never heard of shara.
"Were you raised in a creche somewhere? You have no idea what I'm talking about."
"I grew up on Tivor, in an orphanage," I admitted. "My first and only encounter with psychics was testing at the Academy."
"Tivor?" He sounded surprised. "The food riots twenty years ago?"
"That Tivor, yes." When the other cadets at the Academy had found out where I came from, I'd been the butt of every cafeteria joke. I hunched forward, expecting the same reaction from Tayvis.
His arm squeezed me sympathetically.
"You aren't going to make fun of me?" I squirmed around so I could see his face, sliding both legs down the same side of the horse.
"Is there a reason I should?"
"Because I'm from a backwards world. Because I'm from Tivor, the armpit of the Empire."
He just watched me, his eyes unreadable.
I turned away. It was old pain.
"Shara is dangerous." He slid past my comments. "The Patrol controls all shipments."
"So someone in the Patrol is smuggling?"
"No." He shook his head. "The shipments are all accounted for. The problem is that unauthorized shipments of shara were confiscated on several planets six months ago. I'm here to find out where they came from and how they got off Dadilan."
"So what is shara? You said it enhances psychic abilities."
"The stronger the psychic, the more the drug affects them. Someone scoring a ten for telepathy would be boosted to fifteen or higher. They wouldn't be limited to reading your surface thoughts. They'd be able to plant thoughts in your head and you wouldn't know. They'd be strong enough to take over a weaker mind completely. Now imagine that in the hands of the crime syndicates."
"Oh," I said, finally understanding.
"Oh is right. And that's just one aspect of the drug. It's even more potent for an empath."
Empaths were rare, even more so than strong telepaths. Few people scored over a four for either. True telepathy, reading thoughts, required a seven or better. Empaths could only read emotion unless they rated at least an eight. Twelves could project emotion, but not far and not focused. If they boosted to eighteen, empaths could wreak havoc on a world. Mental shields could block telepathy, but no one had a shield for blocking empaths.
Shara in the wrong hands could bring down the Empire; destroy civilization on thousands of worlds. If I thought my life on Tivor was rotten, this would be a million times worse.
"I'm here to stop it," Tayvis said. "If I can't, the Patrol will quarantine Dadilan." He didn't say that the Patrol might decide to sanitize the world, burn it off completely to neutralize the threat. Shara was that dangerous, if what Tayvis said was true. "A single shipment of shara could buy an entire planet. The syndicates are involved, although the Patrol has no proof. Someone wants me to fail. My partner is missing and your presence was just a bit too convenient."
"You trusted me enough to swear me in to the Patrol."
"You took that seriously?"
I blinked back tears, shifting to sit facing forward. It was all a joke? It was a cruel one. What did he want from me? I'd told him the truth.
"Dace, I do need the help. Tell me I can trust you and make me believe it."
"I've tried."
"And I'm suspicious by nature. You've stumbled into a highly classified mess. Clearance level ten."
I swallowed hard. Level ten meant that ninety nine percent of the Patrol wasn't allowed to know and none of the rest of the Empire could even guess.
"They'll kill to keep their secrets."
"And you don't know who they are."
"Which is why I'm gathering what information I can about all three suspects. From what you've told me about Leran, I'd guess he's involved. Why else would he send his assistant to kill you? You may have seen something dangerous and not realized it."
"They know you're with me," I said.
"I hope they don't know who I am. From what I overheard, they just know you met with someone."
"They'll figure it out. They know you were headed for Gragensberg."
"And they won't make a move there. All three researchers guard their turf jealously." He glanced at the sun. "We've got to move faster." He pulled me against him as he kicked the horse into a gallop.
I clenched sore muscles.
"Move with the horse and it isn't so bad," he said into my ear. His arm was like a steel band around my middle, holding me in place. The trail leveled out. The horse ran faster. I leaned forward and enjoyed the ride.
