by Dan Oakley
“What do you mean?” the captain growled.
The young man glanced up, a ghost of a smile on his lips as he looked directly at us. We were camouflaged by branches and leaves, but he stared straight through them. “The girl’s companions, they are here. They are watching us.”
The captain grunted and grabbed his weapon, as did the other pirates, and began to point at the jungle, swinging the guns around wildly.
We’d been right to guess their weapons were far more advanced than ours. They were even lit at the end to get a better view through the dark jungle, but they were looking for us in the wrong place.
It wasn’t until the young man pointed up to the tree canopy that they realised where we were. A pirate let off a volley of shots. One grazed the branch just by my feet. Holding my breath, I pushed my body as close to the trunk as possible.
The hulking great pirate, who held the rope around Kira, yelled, “Stop, you fool! They could be valuable.” He turned to the pale young man. “You said they are mages?”
His face tensed with concentration. “I believe so, yes.”
I heard Trella suck in a startled breath, and I realised this youngster had to be the pirates’ mage.
He didn’t look particularly impressive to me, but appearances could be deceptive. Somehow he’d managed to detect we were here, despite the fact Trella was trying to block any scanning.
The huge pirate let out a booming laugh and then tugged again on the rope around Kira’s body, making her fall to the floor. She hit a dark puddle, mud splashing up and splattering her face.
“Come out, come out wherever you are,” the captain roared in a singsong voice before breaking off into a booming laugh.
Chapter 9
Kira struggled on the mud, trying to get up. But since the animals had tied her arms behind her back and linked it to a rope looped around her neck, it wasn’t easy. The steady rain had turned the floor into a soup of rotting leaves and bracken.
I stood up, intending to make myself known, and sent a warning look to Trella. “You stay here.”
I slipped and slid as I made my descent down the dark slimy bark.
At the bottom of the tree I was grabbed by two of the burly pirates.
My first instinct was to shake them free, but I soon realised it was pointless.
I kept my eyes on Kira.
“I can tell you what you need to know but let the girl go.”
The big man, who held the end of the rope, grinned broadly at me, showing a dark gap in his smile where he was missing a front tooth.
“Now, listen up. You’re not the boss in this situation. I decide what happens next, and I say the girl stays with us.”
“I can take you to the mining complex,” I offered, trying to keep my tone calm and even when all I really wanted to do was direct an energy bolt straight at the man’s gut.
I was reasonably confident I could dispatch the big pirate, but it would be a huge risk. The rest of his crew could shoot Kira before I had time to do anything else. I couldn’t take that risk.
I also had to take into account their mage. He looked young but was probably far better at using magic than me.
I gestured in the general direction of the mines. “There are still lots of precious minerals there. You could fill your ship and be rich.”
“Do I look like a miner?” their leader said scornfully as he strode over to me, yanking Kira along by the rope behind him. She scrabbled along on her knees.
He shoved his face close to mine. So close I could see red bristles beginning to sprout on his chin and the greasy pores on his brown skin.
My whole body was tense as he spoke, his breath foul on my face.
“We’re not doing any mining. We’re here for the easy pickings, and if my little mage over here is correct, you also have magic in your blood, which means you’re worth a great deal to us.”
I glanced over at the pale young mage, who was staring at me speculatively.
My first impression had been right. He was slightly built and short, too. The top of his head only reached my shoulder. He wasn’t much taller than Kira.
Unable to bear it any more, I leaned down and gently helped Kira to her feet.
The pirate captain growled, “You ask my permission before you move, mage! Understood?”
I felt a tremble of energy pass through my body, but I clenched my fist to keep the energy bolt safely within.
He looked at my clenched hand and chuckled. “Don’t even think about it, mage. You kill one of us, and the girl dies. See this?” He held up a little square box with a red button and a metal switch.
I nodded slowly, not knowing what it was or what it signified. It had to be bad, though.
“All I have to do is flick the switch and press this little red button and your little spiky-haired friend here goes kaboom.” He smiled broadly again as I looked at him with distaste.
I was almost positive he was feeding me a line. I didn’t understand how that could possibly work. I glanced at Kira, and she nodded miserably, pointing at what I’d first thought was a rope around her neck. Now I saw it was a collar.
“He made me wear this collar,” she said angrily.
The strength of the anger that flowed through my veins took me by surprise. I could feel my body vibrating, and I desperately wanted to take this guy’s head off. But there were three other pirates plus the mage, and he was sure to be better trained than me. It wouldn’t just be a suicide mission, I’d be risking the lives of Kira and Trella, too.
Before attacking, I needed to lull them into a false sense of security. Maybe separate them somehow. They’d be easier to tackle individually.
I needed to get the pirates moving, focused on other matters. If they were satisfied with me and Kira as their prisoners, I hoped Trella could remain hidden, ready to ambush them.
“There is an admin building full of supplies.”
Kira shot me a fierce look. She didn’t want the pirates to know about the place we’d made our home for the past few months, but I had to get them moving. The lizards would be on the hunt again soon. The constant rain had cooled the afternoon, and I had a feeling they wouldn’t be needing their usual midday siesta.
“We need to get out of here. There are predators nearby and—”
The captain started laughing and the other pirates joined in, albeit a little nervously. “Oh, are these the lizards the girl’s been telling us about? How can a big, strong mage like you be afraid of a little lizard?”
“They’re not little. I keep telling you,” Kira said, glaring at the captain.
He shook his head and cracked a joke in a language I didn’t recognise but guessed it must be native Marrachi.
“You can laugh all you want, but your colleagues have already been killed and devoured by the lizards you are ridiculing,” I said coldly.
That shut them up. The pirates and the mage turned to look at me.
“Why should we believe that?” the captain demanded, but he didn’t look quite so confident now.
I gestured back into the jungle. “Go and look for yourselves.”
He nodded at one of the pirates, who stood closest to me.
“You, go and verify what this mage has said.”
The pirate was a large, strapping man, but his lower lip quivered at the idea of going deep into the jungle. “On my own?”
“Blasted coward,” the captain growled. He turned back to me. “Why should we believe you?”
“Why should I lie?”
“To be fair, Captain, we haven’t heard from either team for some time, and they aren’t answering the radio calls.”
The captain looked around warily. “All right, let’s fall back. We’ll return to the ship and reassess the situation.” He looked at me with a cold smile. “But first we have a little surprise for you, mage, to keep your behaviour in check.”
He turned to his own spacemage, the slight young man, who was leaning back against a tree trunk, inspecting his nails.
The young mage looked up and gazed at me with his pale eyes. The mage had a way of looking at me that made me feel unnerved. His face was impassive, emotionless — unnatural.
“This isn’t the only one. There is another mage still hiding.”
My stomach dropped. I’d really thought they hadn’t known Trella was still hiding.
“Where?” the captain demanded, turning in a slow circle.
When I didn’t reply, he held up the black box with the red button. “Where is the other mage?” He spat as he glared at me.
I felt sick. Should I sell out Trella, or profess innocence and risk the pirate killing Kira? Maybe he was bluffing and she would be unharmed, but how could I take that risk?
I was saved from making the decision by the sound of Trella dropping down from the tree.
She strode confidently towards the captain and stared at him coldly.
“There is no need to treat the girl like that. It’s inhumane.”
The captain chuckled and turned to his fellow pirates. “Did you hear that lads? Goodness upon Grace I’m inhumane!” He put on a high-pitched voice and then fell about laughing as though it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard.
Trella whipped around and stared at the mage, then suddenly her stern expression changed. She looked afraid.
It wasn’t unusual to be afraid in this sort of situation. It was expected, but it was the dramatic change in expression that worried me. I tried to catch her eye, but she couldn’t or wouldn’t break eye contact with the mage.
I wanted to ask her what was wrong but didn’t want to do that in front of the pirates or this strange young man with his pale features and blank expression.
When the pirate captain had finished laughing he turned to his mage and grinned broadly. “Now this is a very good day. I started out with one jump mage and ended up with three!”
I knew jump mages were very useful, but I didn’t understand why he was so happy to have us. Surely there were more valuable things on the planet that they could steal and sell for far less trouble. As soon as the pirates got to an inhabited planet or space station we would find somebody to help us. The penalties for human trafficking were severe.
The captain yanked on the rope, pulling Kira along with him as he ordered one of his underlings to test the radio again, and try to contact their lost men.
Of course, I already knew there would be no answer.
Trella stepped closer to me and then leaned so her lips almost touched my ear. “Be very careful. The mage is a reader.”
She pulled away and gave me a meaningful look, but it didn’t help because I had no idea what a reader was. Before I could ask any questions, the captain slapped his hands together.
“Refresh yourselves men. We leave in five minutes,” he barked.
The pirates pulled out water containers and brown food bars wrapped in silver and began to eat without offering us anything.
The captain turned to the pale spacemage and with his mouthful of brown gloop said, “Now boy, tell us what we’ve got.”
The mage moved forward and put his hands on Trella’s arm and then her forehead. She pulled back, flinching, but eventually gave in.
I now realised what she’d meant about the mage being a reader. The mage obviously had a talent for reading mages somehow. Perhaps that was how he’d known we were hiding in trees.
After a moment he pulled away and said, “An excellent mage. Top ten percent, I’d say.”
The captain beamed in satisfaction as the mage turned to me.
Now it made sense. This was why Trella had been so worried. She knew the boy was going to do to me what she had done that day in the woods back on Terrano to Maureena and me.
He was going to read my abilities.
My heart rate increased.
I knew from the genetic testing Trella had carried out on me back when we were on the KSS Morellic, that I had extra mutations. I may not have lived up to my full potential as a mage yet, but would this boy be able to read my magic? Would he give my secret away to the pirates?
I had to stoop down so the boy could reach to put his cool palm against my sweaty forehead.
I stared directly into his pale eyes. A moment passed and nothing happened.
Maybe it would be okay. Maybe he wasn’t such a great reader after all.
Then he frowned and pressed his palm harder against my forehead.
Suddenly, he let his hand drop and recoiled. His eyes were wide and a look of horror covered his face.
It was quite disconcerting.
“What did you see, boy?” the captain demanded.
“I… I…” The mage stammered.
Trella was staring at him, and I tried to communicate wordlessly with my own eyes, begging for clemency. If this boy told the pirates what he’d read about me then I could be in serious trouble.
“Spit it out, boy,” the pirate roared.
“I’m not sure,” the mage said, still staring at me with a startled expression. “A good mage I would say, though.”
The captain huffed. “Well, you can try again on the ship, I suppose. Gear up men, get ready to move.”
Trella and I exchanged an anxious look.
It seemed they were intent on taking us back to the ship and making use of us somehow.
“Look, we can show you where to get the minerals. We can even help you extract them. It will only take a matter of days,” I said, even though that was just a wild guess. “But you can leave us here and perhaps get a message to one of the Kingdoms ships, telling them about our predicament?”
The pirate looked at me as though I was mad. “Don’t be a fool, boyo. Why would I mine the minerals when you’re far more valuable?”
Trella, who was standing just in front of me, tensed. “You can’t mean that you’re going to try and sell us?” Her voice was tight and strained. “It’s outlawed.”
The captain tapped the side of his nose. “Of course, it is, darling, but I won’t tell if you don’t.” He chuckled to himself. “You’ll fetch a good price on the slavers’ fair.”
Slavers’ fair? I’d thought Marrachi was supposed to be an advanced culture. It was supposed to be better than Terrano! Back on my home planet, we had peasants but we never had slaves!
I took a deep breath. This didn’t have to be the end. We could still get out of this. We just had to work out how powerful this mage was. If we could disable his magic, then Trella and I would be able to take the pirates... just so long as I could get the little black box out of the captain’s hands without detonating anything.
My mind was whirring through the possibilities when I saw the mage walking towards me holding a long, thin cylinder with a needle attached.
“What are you doing with that?” Trella demanded.
“Don’t resist,” the mage said. “It’s only bysandown.”
Trella began to backup. “No. You are not injecting me with that.”
We heard the sound of Kira choking as the captain lifted the rope, tightening the collar around her slim neck. She clawed at it desperately but to no avail.
I raised a hand ready to shoot off a warning energy bolt, but the captain lifted the small black box in his other hand.
I let out a growl of frustration and stood motionless as the young spacemage walked forward with his eerie blank expression, holding the syringe in front of him.
Chapter 10
I flinched as the mage came towards me with the syringe.
Trella had described the effects of bysandown to me. It was a drug used to counteract mage abilities, but I didn’t know what other effects it might have…
I guessed the mage had used his reading abilities to detect at least some of my mutations and assumed I was more powerful than I really was.
After we’d been injected with this stuff and lost our magic, I hoped I’d still be able to fight.
It was the realm I felt most comfortable in. I’d grown up being bullied for my magical abilities, and I’d had more than
my fair share of fights. I could hold my own in a fistfight.
The mage looked weak but he wouldn’t need to rely on physical strength. He had his magic.
The captain was a hulking man, but I imagined he was slow and cumbersome. He would certainly pack some weight behind his punches, but a big man like him wouldn’t be as quick as me.
The other three pirates were unknown quantities. One was tall and slender, but his arms were long, meaning he’d have a good long reach. The other two were stocky and muscular.
But who was I kidding? I couldn’t take on all four of them, and even if I had a chance in a straight fight, the captain would detonate the explosive collar around Kira’s neck as soon as I started an attack.
One wrong move on my part, and Kira could lose her head.
“Put your weapon on the ground,” the pirate closest to me growled as two of them walked towards me, preparing to restrain me for my injection.
I had no option but to comply. I briefly considered throwing a blast at the captain’s hand, wondering if I could blow his hand from his arm before he had a chance to detonate Kira’s collar. But it was too much of a risk.
I lowered the weapon slowly and put it down on the wet leaves.
Then gradually straightened up again.
The two stocky pirates grabbed my arms. I looked at the captain’s smug face as he held aloft the little black box. I’d never wanted to hit someone so much in my life.
“Wait,” Trella said. “We don’t want any trouble. It’s quite clear you have outsmarted us.” She gestured to the collar around Kira’s neck. “But I think you’ve underestimated the danger on this planet. Lizards have already wiped out the rest of your crew. By disarming us, you’re making us weaker collectively. If there is an attack, we won’t be able to fight back.”
The captain’s upper lip curled in disgust. “Do you really think we’re that stupid?”
“It’s not a matter of what I think. It’s what I know. I have seen what the lizards are capable of, and we will not be able to defeat them with only four armed men. Let us keep our magic, or let us keep our weapons. We won’t attack you, not when you have that collar around our friend’s neck.”
