by Dan Oakley
Finn shrugged. “It doesn’t have anything to do with me.”
He turned and made to leave.
“Wait!” I called, but the mage was already at the door, stepping outside as soundlessly as he’d entered.
Frustrated, I hit one of the bars with the side of my fist, then turned back to Trella.
“Be careful, Tomas. I know what you’re trying to do. But that mage read you.”
“Read what?”
“I don’t know, but he seems afraid of you.”
“He’s afraid of his own shadow if you ask me. He’s constantly on edge around the captain.”
Trella shook her head. “It’s more than that, but I’m not sure what it is. When I tried to read your energy patterns on Terrano, there was a fuzziness to the reading, but I could tell you were powerful. It wasn’t until we ran the tests on your blood and found the mutations that I realised the full implications. But this mage is a better reader than me, Tomas.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but I guessed it could mean the young boy could reveal my secret to the captain so he could command a higher price at the slaver’s market.
I took a sip from one of the bottles of water, wondering if it had been drugged, but it tasted okay, so I guzzled it down. Trekking across the jungle in the heat and humidity had been thirsty work.
Neither of us found the food very appetising, and as Trella was without her magic, she couldn’t reconfigure it into anything more appealing. I forced myself to finish the slop because I needed energy.
If it came to it, I didn’t want to lose a fight just because I was weak from hunger.
We’d just finished forcing down the food when the door slid open again and the captain walked in. He held a small personal computing device in his hand.
“Give me your best smile,” he said with a smirk and pointed the small computer towards us.
A green light appeared at the top of the screen, and I realised he was recording a video of us.
“I need to show my prospective clients a taste of the goods. If I’m lucky, I might even get a preliminary bid before we dock at the Marrachi space station.”
Trella scowled.
“Don’t pull a face. You need to look pretty for your new owner.”
“It’s illegal to buy or sell humans,” Trella said coldly, looking directly at the video.
The captain chuckled, using a thick, meaty finger to scratch the side of his nose.
“And what do you say, mage,” he said, chuckling as he pointed the recorder at me.
I remained silent. Nothing I said at this point would change anything.
But as the captain reached through the bars to stroke Trella’s cheek, I felt my spine stiffen and my muscles tense. I wanted to reach through the bars and smash the side of his head against the steel.
I felt energy flood my body, and directed my anger at the personal computer in his hand. In the next second, the PC slid from the captain’s fingers, jumped two foot in the air before crashing down on the captain’s head.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t hard enough to knock him out. But it was hard enough to make me grin.
The captain’s eyes widened, and he screeched, “Mage, get in here now!”
He then pointed a fat finger at me. “You’re going to regret that.”
The young mage ran into the room and looked around breathlessly. Without warning, the captain slammed his fist into the mage’s head.
He obviously hadn’t been expecting it, and it knocked him clean off his feet.
Finn pushed himself back, scuttling back on the floor as the captain loomed over him shouting angrily.
“The bysandown is wearing off! It was your job to make sure these freaks are contained.”
“I’m sorry...I didn’t realise it would wear off so quickly. I’ve been looking through the supplies, trying to find some more injections, but I can’t find any…”
“What?” The captain roared, reaching down and pulling up the poor mage by the scruff of his neck. He shook Finn like a rag doll, who despite his powers took the reprimand as though it were his due.
“Then use the tablets, you fool. We have them in the medical box.”
“Yes, of course,” Finn sniffed. “I’ll do it now.”
“You should have put it in their food.”
“Yes, Captain. I’ll do that next time.”
The captain shot one last angry look at me before stalking out of the room.
A small smile tugged the corner of my mouth. I didn’t like to see anyone get beaten up and bullied, but I had to admit the captain’s mistreatment of this mage could be our only chance to avoid being sold as slaves.
Chapter 12
Finn retrieved the medical box, and with shaking hands, popped two blue tablets from a plastic wrapper.
He approached the cell, looking over his shoulder to make sure the captain had really gone.
He pushed his hand through the bars, his pale eyes meeting mine defiantly.
I stared down at the tablets, not even wanting to touch them in case somehow the bysandown managed to seep through my skin.
“Why are you doing this, Finn?” I asked. “You’re one of us. He treats you so badly. Why don’t you help us so we can help you?”
The young mage said nothing for a few seconds, and I started to wonder if I’d pinned my hopes on the wrong person. Maybe I’d asked him for help too early. I should have bided my time and gained his confidence slowly during the voyage to Marrachi.
“Take the tablets,” Finn said in a dull voice.
I gritted my teeth and plucked the two blue tablets from the palm of his hand.
He regarded me with his pale eyes. “Now swallow them.”
I sighed. “It doesn’t have to be like this, Finn. What’s he paying you? Does the captain have something over you? You can tell me. I want to help.”
Finn gave a cold laugh. “You can’t help me.”
Trella moved slowly to the edge of the cage and stood beside me. “Maybe not like this, but you can help yourself. You don’t have to put up with this treatment.”
He popped another two pills from the packet and handed them to Trella.
“You’re pretending to be concerned, so I’ll help you. You might think I’m stupid, but I’m not. I graduated second in class at Marrachi Mage School for Excellence.” He glared at me and then…
“We don’t think you’re stupid, Finn,” Trella said softly.
I was starting to see that this young mage was a bundle of confused emotions. Hurt and Angry. I’d been put through the wringer growing up on Terrano, but this kid was more messed up than me.
“He must have something over you,” I said, exasperated. “Why else would you put up with the captain’s mistreatment?”
Finn broke eye contact.
Then suddenly he reached through the bars to grab my arm. His eyes flashed with understanding before I could pull away. He was trying to read me again. That was creepy.
“Hey, what are you doing?” I demanded, yanking my arm away and stepping back out of his reach.
“There’s something not right about you,” he said, his haunted eyes fixed on me.
Finn couldn’t have known how deeply his words hit home. All my life, I’d known I was different, but after learning that mages were not outlawed throughout Kingdoms, I thought I could find my place. But even among other mages I didn’t fit in.
I assumed Finn was referring to my extra mutations, but I couldn’t be sure.
“Maybe your reading gauges are off,” I snapped, defensively. “There’s nothing wrong with me.”
Trella put a calming hand on my bicep.
But I moved away, gritting my teeth. She was doing it again, trying to calm me down.
I took a deep breath. Losing my temper wasn’t going to get me anywhere, especially if I lashed out at Finn, who was the one person who could help us.
I turned away, leaning against the bars as Trella tried another tack.
“W
e could help each other, Finn,” she said. “Why don’t you just think about it?”
Finn didn’t reply and walked towards the door, punching the exit button and leaving as soon as the doors slid open.
He hadn’t stayed to make sure we took the tablets… Was that his way of helping us? I had to admit I would have preferred more active help, perhaps helping us fight the pirates and taking command of their vessel, but I supposed it was better than nothing.
I slid the blue tablets into the pouch attached to my waist. The pirates hadn’t searched us before locking us away. Not that it helped me much. I had no weapons. Our plasma weapons and wrist devices had been taken by the pirates.
“I thought Finn would be more open to helping us,” I said to Trella before apologising for losing my temper.
She shrugged. “Maybe the captain has got something over Finn’s family, or maybe he is simply scared. The captain is a bully.”
I nodded. She’d get no disagreement from me on that.
“So, we either wait here and hope that Finn comes to his senses and decides to help us, or we use our magic energy and get out of here ourselves, find Kira, then take control of the ship.”
Trella looked up at me, and the corner of her mouth lifted in a wry smile. “You say that like it’s going to be easy.”
“Well, not easy exactly, but the bysandown is wearing off, so that’s a good start. If we can find Kira, do you think you could use your magic to remove the collar safely?”
Trella rested her head against the steel bars. “I’m not sure. I’d have to guide you to do it, I think. My magic is still too weak. The effects of the bysandown injection haven’t faded enough yet.”
I was a fair bit bigger than Trella so maybe that meant I processed the drug faster.
I nodded cautiously. “It’s an option, as long as you don’t think the collar would explode if it’s tampered with.”
“Actually it’s highly likely to detonate if the collar is tampered with physically. But with magic we should be able to get it off without a problem… just so long as the captain is nowhere near at the time with his little black box.”
“Right then,” I said. “No time to lose.”
I clasped my hands around the bars and felt the familiar rush of energy as I accessed the votoom zone. The atoms in the steel bars began to vibrate, warming beneath my hands until I was able to push the bars aside like soft butter.
Grinning, I stepped through the gap in the bars. “Task one completed. Now to find Kira.”
Trella followed me through the gap. She was still a little shaky on her feet.
We exited the room through the sliding doors. I held my breath as we left the room, hoping it wasn’t alarmed.
There was no audible alarm, or flashing lights, but we decided to move quickly anyway, just in case they came to look for us.
A long corridor ran along the length of the ship, and as we walked swiftly away from the room containing our prison cell, we passed doors on the left side of the corridor. Unfortunately we had no way of knowing where Kira was. I cursed the fact they’d taken our wrist devices.
I winced as my steps on the metal grating beneath my feet sounded louder than I would have liked.
“You need to listen at the doors, Tomas,” Trella whispered. “We can’t just walk in and search for Kira. Pirates could be in any one of these rooms. You just have to put your hand against the door and then listen very carefully, focusing on sound waves coming from the room.”
Trella’s instructions weren’t detailed, but I’d done something similar back on the KSS Morellic when I’d listened in to one of the training sessions quite accidentally.
As Trella directed, I put my hand flat against the first door, closed my eyes and tried to focus. But there was nothing out of the ordinary, just the hum of the air coming through the vents.
I looked at Trella and shook my head. “I don’t think she’s in this one.”
“Right, let’s move on to the next room.”
As we walked, I tried to soften my footsteps against the clattering metal. Luckily for us, there appeared to be no cameras in the corridor, but we could get discovered at any moment by a pirate. So we moved quickly.
I repeated the procedure at the second door, putting my hand flat against the sliding panel and trying in vain to listen.
Nothing. I shook my head, and we moved on to the next door.
This time, it was different.
I put my hand flat on the door and almost immediately yanked it away again.
I’d heard a deep, rumbling sound — like a very loud snore.
“There’s a pirate in there, and he sounds like a heavy snorer.”
Trella nodded, but kept her mouth shut and tugged on my arm.
At the next door, I heard nothing yet again. But we had a more promising result with the fifth door.
I couldn’t know for sure that Kira was in the room, but I could hear someone walking backwards and forwards. The footsteps didn’t sound heavy.
“I think she could be in here,” I whispered.
Trella bit her lower lip as she pressed the door release button on the right-hand side of the door. Nothing happened.
She huffed impatiently under her breath and then held her hand against it. Her face creased as though she was in pain, and her other hand gripped my arm. Slowly the door slid open and Trella gasped for breath.
Using her magic in a weakened state had drained Trella even more. I supported her as she staggered inside.
Kira had been pacing and stopped midstep when she saw us. Her eyes widened as though she couldn’t believe it was really us. Then a smile lit up her face. The room was similar to the one where we’d been held captive, and the pirates had locked her in the same type of cell.
“Thank goodness,” she said. “I’m so sorry I got caught. I thought the lizard was chasing me, and I just didn’t stop running until I ran right into the pirates. I’m such an idiot.”
“You’re not,” I said, relieved to see she seemed physically unharmed and that the pirates had unbound her hands.
“None of that matters now,” Trella said reaching through the bars and squeezing Kira’s hand. “We’re going to get you out of here.”
I put my hands on the steel bars and used my magic to ease them apart just as I had with our own cell just moments ago.
Kira looked impressed. “That’s amazing.”
She touched the bars, testing their strength, but they didn’t move when she touched them. She stepped through the gap in the bars I’d created. “What now?”
“Now we have to try and get rid of this collar,” Trella said matter-of-factly.
Kira tensed in alarm. “The pirate captain said if I try to remove it, the collar will explode.”
Trella nodded. “We’re not going to physically touch it. We’re going to use magic to hack into the electronics and release the collar that way. I know it sounds scary, but I need you to trust me.”
Kira hesitated only for a second before nodding. “I do.”
Hacking? I didn’t like the sound of this. Trella said she was going to guide me through the process, but I hadn’t had much luck back in the communications suite on Tor.
I rubbed my hands together. “Right, so what do I have to do?” I asked, trying to hide my apprehension as I inspected the collar.
Trella smiled weakly. “It’s okay, Tomas. I’ve got this. I can feel my magic coming back.”
I was incredibly relieved. It was one thing to screw up the hacking process when nothing was at stake, but if I messed this up, it meant Kira died. I didn’t think I could live with that on my conscience.
Despite her weakened state, Trella made it seem easy. She placed her hands on either side of Kira’s neck, only an inch away from the collar, then closed her eyes.
It was hard to wait. I knew Trella was doing something even though we couldn’t see it.
Kira’s gaze met mine, and I tried to give her a reassuring smile. Beads of sweat appeared on Ki
ra’s forehead, and she reached out and grabbed my hand.
I cradled her much smaller hand in both of mine. I wanted to tell her it would be all right, but I didn’t speak in case I broke Trella’s concentration.
A moment later there was a click that made us all jump, but it was simply the release mechanism of the collar. I didn’t dare move as Trella slowly lifted the collar over Kira’s head.
She clicked it shut and put it down in the corner of the room.
After a moment, the realisation she was free hit Kira and she flung her arms around Trella, who grinned at the display of emotion. Then Kira hugged me too.
“Thank you. Thank you, so much. I tried to tell them I was alone on Tor, but they didn’t believe me. I think the mage detected you somehow.”
“We were trying to follow discretely, so we could mount a rescue,” I said. “Unfortunately that didn’t quite work out as planned.”
Kira grinned. “So what do we do now?”
Trella gave a weak smile. “You’ll have to ask Tomas. It seems he has it all planned out. If I remember correctly, all we have to do now is overpower the entire crew and take command of an unfamiliar vessel before landing on Marrachi where we will probably be met by slavers…”
“Well, I might not have worked out the final details just yet,” I said with a smirk. “But I think it’s a good idea if we locate the weapons before we plan our attack. I also think we need to take out the mage.”
Trella’s eyebrows lifted. “I thought you wanted him to be on our side.”
“I did, but I don’t think we can trust him,” I said. “He is still living in fear of the captain.”
Trella started to reply, but then we all turned as we heard the door open behind us.
Finn stood in the doorway, holding a tray of food and looking as shocked as we did.
I opened my mouth to try to persuade him not to raise the alarm, but before I could say a word, I felt something akin to a clammy hand cover my mouth, and I was slammed against the wall. The door slid shut with a flick of Finn’s wrist, and then I saw him pin Trella and Kira to the wall beside me.
Our feet hung helplessly a foot off the ground. I couldn’t move.
I strained against the force pressing me against the wall, but it was no good. Finn was too strong.
