by J. J. Green
Parthenia stepped back from her. “No,” she said gravely. “He’s still our brother.”
“How can you say that when he’s just put you back into captivity?” asked Carina.
“You don’t understand,” she replied. “You didn’t grow up with us. You weren’t part of our family.” She seemed about to say more but closed her lips and looked away.
“And I never will be?” demanded Carina. “Is that what you were going to say?”
“No. It wasn’t that.”
“Then what was it? I’d love to know.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Parthenia strode the few short steps to the bunk and sat down, her arms folded. She continued to avoid Carina’s gaze.
Carina couldn’t help but think she’d guessed correctly. It was true, she hadn’t been a part of their childhood. While her half-siblings had been living in luxury with their monstrous father and Ma, she’d been trying to avoid starvation on the streets of her backwater planet. She hadn’t been a part of that dysfunctional family’s existence and she would never share that bond they had, no matter how much she protected and cared for her brothers and sisters—with the exception of the asshole who stood in front of her. “I thought I told you to go away.”
Castiel’s expression had changed from embarrassment to a smirk. “It’s good to know my brothers and sisters will save me from you in the unlikely event you ever have any power over me.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” Ferne called out from his cell.
Castiel ignored him. “In case you hadn’t noticed, we’ve left Ostillon and we’re heading into deep space. Lomang is rendezvousing with a business client there. I will be present in order to Enthrall the client so he agrees to terms that are wildly unfavorable to him. However, in case I need assistance, Parthenia will be coming with me, and Nahla too, so Parthenia does as she’s told. Until then, you will all remain here.”
“We can’t all sleep in here,” Oriana said. “There isn’t room.”
“You’ll manage,” replied Castiel.
“Hey, Bryce, when Castiel ends up in your cell,” Carina said, “make sure he sleeps on the floor.”
“Oh, you can be sure of that,” Bryce replied.
“I’m not ending up in the brig,” said Castiel, his smirk turning to annoyance.
With another scowl, he finally left.
Carina slumped against the wall. Parthenia’s comment had hurt. She’d risked her life for those kids, more than once.
She felt a gentle touch on her shoulder.
“Carina,” Parthenia said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s fine,” she replied. “I’m fine.” She straightened up. “Let’s think of a way out of here. It sounds like you’re going to be the first one out of the brig. Maybe there’s something you can do.” As she spoke she noticed something on the ceiling above the bunk. “Oriana, stand up.”
“Huh? Why? I’m tired.”
Carina rolled her eyes. “Just do it.”
After the girl surrendered her seat she climbed onto the spot. A small, faint anomaly marked the smooth ceiling. Carina could only just reach it. She brushed the surface with her fingertips and felt a cross hatch of ridges.
“Shit.” They could forget about discussing escape plans, at least not out loud.
She waved to get Bryce’s attention, then pointed at the ceiling before cupping her ear. He understood immediately.
Parthenia also understood. She whispered first to Oriana and then to Nahla. They gazed upward at the tiny grille leading to a recording device. Carina climbed down from the bed. The inability to speak freely was another impediment to their already limited prospects of escape.
She sat in Oriana’s place, mulling over their situation. The mental exhaustion she’d felt in the van returned and she put her head in her hands. She began to wish, crazily, that her mother and father had never left her with Nai Nai; that they’d taken her with them on the trip that resulted in Stefan Sherrerr capturing them. Maybe he would have just killed her, but maybe she would have grown up in his family, not separated from Ma. Would her siblings have seen her as one of them then?
“I hope they bring us something to eat soon,” said Oriana.
But much to their disappointment Lomang’s guards didn’t reappear, with or without food. Hours later, when they’d given up even bothering to talk about food, or water, or to whisper about escaping, the lights suddenly went out.
The immediate darkness without warning brought groans of dismay from the children. It was a signal they would have to endure their hunger and thirst over the quiet time aboard the ship.
They had already discussed sleeping arrangements. If Parthenia slept at the foot of the bunk, Oriana and Nahla could squeeze together at the top. Parthenia’s feet would be in their faces, but it meant only Carina had to sleep on the floor. She’d done that often enough in her life for it to not be a major discomfort.
She folded her arm under her head to act as a pillow, told the girls to stop complaining at each other, and closed her eyes. She hadn’t slept at all the previous night, her head still hurt from her wound, and her psychological fatigue hadn’t abated. Despite the girls’ continued whiny chatter, she fell asleep.
When Bryce woke her, it took her a moment to remember where she was. At first, she thought he was waking her to take her watch at the temple. She sat up in utter darkness, confused. Her surroundings were nothing like the temple on Ostillon.
“Carina,” Bryce whispered urgently. “Move. We have to get out of here.”
Then it all came back.
“What are you doing in here?”she asked as Bryce fastened a hand around her bicep to help her stand.
“Shhh,” he replied. His lips touched her ear. “Castiel came back. He’s helping us escape. Come on. We have to hurry.”
Chapter Eighteen
They huddled in a storage room near the brig, conversing in low voices about how to take over the ship. Their familiarity with its layout would be an advantage but Castiel was hazy about the number of crew members and where they were stationed.
Carina watched Castiel tell them what he knew, not believing for a minute that he had come over to the mages’ side, even though he’d handed them each a canister of elixir. He had some other, long-term plan, and he needed his siblings’ help to enact it, that was all. Perhaps her telling him that Lomang would turn on him eventually, had made him change his mind about keeping them in captivity, but whatever his motivation was it was self-serving. She had no doubt about it.
“I’m pretty sure most of the crew are in the crew’s quarters and only Lomang is in the passenger section,” Castiel said. “We should just space them all as soon as we see them, Transport them outside the ship.”
“No,” said Carina. “That would be cruel and unjust and not something a mage should do. Though they haven’t exactly been kind to us…” she reflexively touched the clot of dried blood on the back of her head… “we did steal their ship.”
“What?” said Castiel. “Weren’t you the one talking about Splitting me a few hours ago?”
“It isn’t unjust to punish people as they deserve,” Carina replied.
“What have I done that means I deserve to die in agony?” asked Castiel, his tone rising.
“Cut it out, you two,” said Bryce. “Let’s focus on what we need to do now.”
Castiel turned away from Carina. “I know which cabin Lomang is sleeping in. I figured it out before I came to release you.”
“We can Enthrall him,” Oriana said. “The rest of the crew will do whatever he tells them.”
“That might work,” said Carina, “but only temporarily. Lomang knows about the Enthrall Cast because Castiel’s told him he can use it at this business meeting he has planned. Lomang might have told the crew about it and if they receive strange orders they’ll suspect something’s up. We can’t Enthrall them all, either, and even if we could it would be a round-the-clock job to keep them all under.”
“We can’t put them all in the brig,” Ferne said. “There isn’t room.”
It was true. Just the giant who had captured Carina would take up most of the space in one of the cells.
“Could we put them somewhere else?” asked Bryce. “Somewhere we could lock them up indefinitely. Could we confine them to one level of the ship?”
“Imagine if we put them in the hold for months,” said Oriana. She wafted her hand in front of her nose. “Phew!”
“We can’t put them in the hold,” Carina said. “There are all kinds of things in there. They might be able to make something they can use to escape.” She was reluctant to confine Lomang and his crew to the passenger area for the same reason.
“If we were near a planet I could Transport them to the surface,” mused Darius.
Carina ruffled his hair. “You could.” She thought for a moment. “Maybe that’s what we should do. We haven’t been underway for long. If we return to Ostillon, we only have to keep them captive while we fly back. Then we dump them on the surface and leave them there.”
“And then they find a way to find us and take back the ship,” said Bryce. “They found the Zenobia once despite all Darius’s Cloaks and your course corrections. They’ll find it again.”
“And isn’t Ostillon where we want to be?” Parthenia asked.
“Yes,” said Ferne. “We need to do it the other way around. We take control of the ship, fly to Ostillon, then we Transport to the surface.”
“That’s no good,” said Carina. “Lomang has some idea of what we can do, thanks to Castiel telling him. He’ll come after us because he knows he can use us, and as we found out it isn’t easy to lay low on Ostillon right now.”
“Then what should we do?” Castiel asked tetchily. “I thought when I set you all free you would be of some help. I would have been better off sticking with Lomang.”
“Maybe we should space you,” Carina said. “You’re more danger to us than Lomang and his crew put together.”
“Stop it,” said Bryce. “Arguing among ourselves isn’t helping.” He paused, listening. “Shit. Someone’s coming.”
The hard surface of the passageway floor outside the storage room was resounding with the heaving footfalls of running feet, growing rapidly louder.
“Someone’s noticed the brig is empty,” Carina guessed. “They’re going to start searching for us. Wait until they’ve passed, then we run for it.”
“Where to?” Ferne asked.
She didn’t know. They still had no plan.
“Lomang’s cabin,” she decided.
It was the only place she could think of. Perhaps the smuggler would still be there and they could Enthrall him, buying themselves some time.
She stood with her ear to the door, waiting for the noise of the running men to recede. As soon as it did, she opened the door and peeked into an empty passageway.
“Let’s go.”
She led the others out of the storage room. The passenger cabins were in the level above. Luckily, she knew where the nearest service tunnel lay.
She began to run, the others following.
Carina rounded a corner and smacked her head against a wall of skin and muscle. She looked up right into the giant’s face.
He grinned and shouted something in a language Carina didn’t understand while reaching for her shirt. Grabbing the material, he lifted her off her feet, but her hand was already on her elixir canister.
She unscrewed the lid and took a drink before the giant had time to realize what she was doing. His eyes widened and he slapped the container out of her hands. It clattered against the wall, the liquid spilling out. She heard the kids shouting as her eyes closed.
The giant’s other hand closed around her neck. He squeezed, sending blood into her head so it felt like it would explode, but she stayed calm and wrote the character in her mind. Pressure built up behind her eyes and tongue as she sent the character out. Hands were on her, trying to pull her away from the huge man.
A moment later, the grip on her throat relaxed a fraction. Carina opened her eyes. The giant’s gaze was vacant.
“Release me,” she gurgled.
The hands opened and she dropped to the floor.
“I Enthralled him too,” said Darius excitedly.
“Then he’s double-Enthralled,” Carina said, rubbing her throat and picking up her elixir canister, which was now nearly empty. “But he called his buddies. We have to go.”
The entrance to the service tunnel was only another twenty meters away. As they reached it, however, the smuggler’s men appeared. Some of them halted when they saw the giant and spoke to him in their language. Others ran on, spotting the mages as they climbed into the tunnel. Carina waited until everyone was on the ladder heading up to the passenger level before she climbed in herself, closed the hatch, and Locked it. She made it just in time. Immediately after she sent out the Cast, hands hammered on the outside.
Given the commotion going on, Lomang was unlikely to be in his cabin any longer but they didn’t dare go more than one level in the service tunnel now it was known they were inside. At the next exit they climbed out.
“This way,” said Castiel.
He took off along the corridor. Carina followed with the others, wondering what was really going on in the mind of the dark-haired boy in front.
He took them to the suite she, Bryce, and Darius had shared. The door stood open. Lomang had gone.
“Dammit, where is he?” said Bryce. “He’s the key to everything.”
The sound of the elevator’s chime came down the corridor.
“Quick,” said Carina. She ran toward the elevator, already draining her remaining elixir. As soon as she caught sight of Lomang’s large form, she stopped, closed her eyes, and Cast.
She opened her eyes. Lomang had turned and was staring at her, his arms raised as if to fend off a blow. He was utterly still.
The elevator doors opened. Carina tensed, waiting to see if anyone stepped out. She was all out of elixir, though the remaining mages had joined her.
No one emerged from the elevator, and the doors closed again.
She walked up to Lomang. The man’s eyes tracked her as she approached but he didn’t move. He was wearing a yellow silken robe, fastened around his considerable belly and now that he was no longer wearing his hat, his hair hung down to his shoulders.
He had seemed strong-willed in their previous encounter, so she knew he would throw off the Enthrall Cast fairly quickly. In the meantime, they had a shipful of hostile crew to subdue. Casts alone wouldn’t do it. They would need weapons, somewhere to confine the crew, and a plan for what to do next.
“Lomang,” she commanded. “Return to your cabin.”
“What are you going to do with him?” Parthenia asked.
“I’m not sure,” said Carina. “I’m still thinking.”
She only had the germ of an idea but it was rapidly taking shape in her mind. Her frustration and exhaustion over their constant need to run, hide, and defend themselves as mages, and her short time with Lomang and his crew, had sparked a potential solution to their problems that was entirely new.
As they reached Lomang’s cabin, she asked him, “The Zenobia’s tracker, can it transmit a message?”
The smuggler replied in a monotone, “Yes.”
Chapter Nineteen
The brig was crammed with as many of the smuggler’s crew as would fit inside the two cells. Carina had put the giant in their with the other men who seemed the most dangerous. Others were locked into a few of the crew’s cabins—conventionally locked in, not by the temporary effects of a Cast. She had confined Lomang alone in his room on the passenger deck. She didn’t want him near any of his crew in case he thought of a way for them to take back control of the ship.
The situation regarding the prisoners was not great. Conditions in the brig were bad, and Carina feared that sooner or later one of the crew would figure out a way to escape. Then he would release the
rest, they would all swarm the mages, and everything would be back to square one.
All in all, Carina had counted twenty-five crew. Her own small group was vastly outnumbered and four of them were just kids. Though the young mages could Cast, they couldn’t be expected to fight. Only she and Bryce were competent with a weapon, and Castiel was entirely untrustworthy. If he thought it would be to his advantage he would switch sides in a heartbeat.
But a return message had arrived that meant an end to the precarious state of affairs was possible—if only they could hold out long enough.
Carina saw Lomang as the greatest threat. He was the smartest and had the most to lose. He’d certainly demonstrated his high motivation to reverse the fate she’d thrust upon him, promising her all kinds of painful and humiliating retributions for taking his ship from him again. It was even tricky opening his door to send in food.
The first couple of times he’d been waiting and had wrenched the door open and tried to escape. He’d even hit Bryce over the head with a leg from the bed. So they decided to Enthrall him the second the door was open. Only they couldn’t perform the Cast while he was out of sight, so someone had to stand by, waiting for him to emerge.
Then Lomang had taken to hiding in the room. Despite his size, he managed to remain hidden long enough to surprise both Parthenia and Bryce. He’d grabbed Parthenia and threatened to break her neck, but Bryce had told him about the Transport Cast that could put him outside the ship.
Lomang had demonstrated his intelligence and desire for survival by letting her go. However, Bryce had reported that the man remained angry. Dangerously angry.
Yet Carina was cautiously confident she’d hit upon a strategy that would see an end to Lomang’s threats and to the constant threat of capture the mages had labored under for so long.
The kids had been overjoyed to have the run of the ship once again. As the Zenobia sped towards the rendezvous point, they had taken over passenger cabins at the opposite end to Lomang’s, returned to preparing feasts in the galley, with liberal and imaginative use of the meal printer, and made gallons of elixir.
