by Dan Oakley
I thought back, remembering the tiny item Draylan had plucked from my shirt while I’d been held in the brig. “You could have told me,” I said.
Draylan took a long drink of his beer and then shook his head. “If I’d told you then you would have made it too obvious. You’d have asked questions that would have made the commander suspicious. He’d know we were recording him.”
“So, you sent the recording to reporters?”
Draylan nodded. “Yes, to news stations throughout the Kingdoms. And the Kingdoms’s councils as well as the law office here. I knew I had to give them some time to validate the recording before they released the news.”
I sat back and tried to digest the information. “You did it. You’ve brought the commander down.”
Draylan picked up his beer glass and held it aloft. “We all did,” he said.
Bayliss, Kira and I all lifted our glasses and clinked them against Draylan’s.
Kira grinned. “What a turnaround. An hour ago, I thought he’d gotten away with it.”
“Not a bad result,” Bayliss said, returning her grin. “I won’t be getting my job back, but I can live with that.”
The celebration at the Explorer’s Inn carried on for hours. It wasn’t only us four, either. Kira sent Finn a message and he came to join in the merriment. The other patrons also seemed to be in a jubilant mood. Commander Taggert was not a popular man.
We’d finished three large jugs of beer, and it was my turn to fight my way to the bar for a refill.
I got to my feet, slightly unsteadily, carrying the empty jug.
Justice felt good. The fact that there was one less corrupt individual with power in the Kingdoms felt even better. But despite the joyous atmosphere and the laughter around me, I couldn’t feel content. I was glad the commander was going to get his punishment. But my desire for revenge didn’t stop there. I needed to make Zarak pay, too.
One down, one to go.
I nudged my way towards the front of the bar and glanced at my wrist device as I waited my turn. In the midst of our celebration, it felt to me like there was one person missing: Trella.
I’d considered messaging her again, but held back. It would be hard to describe everything that had happened in a typed message.
I had to shout to place my order, and then leaning heavily on the bar, I waited for the barman to refill the jug.
The beer sloshing around my system was probably the reason I hadn’t spotted the cloaked figure before now. He was right next to me.
I turned sharply and glared at him.
He had light blue eyes, fair skin and a small scar on his right cheek.
“You’ve been following me,” I growled.
He didn’t reply.
“Aren’t you even going to deny it? Who do you work for? Pirates?” My voice was slurred, and I cursed the fact I’d had too much to drink. I’d let my guard down.
Maybe he was after me and Kira. Perhaps he was the pirate who’d been waiting for us at Marrachi.
I gripped the bar, glancing back to my friends. But they were still laughing and joking and hadn’t realised anything was wrong.
“Who are you?” I demanded through gritted teeth.
“I’m not here to talk about myself,” he said, lifting his head so his hood fell back a little more.
“Then why are you here?” I snapped.
A crackle of energy passed from my fingers, crashing into an empty glass on the bar top. It splintered into hundreds of pieces, taking even me by surprise.
The hooded man didn’t seem worried. His eyes never left my face even though shards of glass had landed on his forearm.
No one else noticed. A broken glass in a busy bar? It was an everyday occurrence.
“She said you had a raw talent.” His mouth lifted in a half smile. “You really should learn to control that.”
“Don’t tell me what do…” I trailed off. My mind was muddy with drink. She? Who was he referring to?
“Who said I had a raw talent?”
His smile widened. “Trella, your friend from the Morellic.”
Friend. I’d thought she was. At one point I’d even hoped she might be more than that. I had a connection with Trella that I’d never experienced with anyone else, and it was only now she was gone I realised how much I missed her being around.
“Are you the man who got us our IDs? Have you spoken to Trella?”
The smile slipped from his face. “Quiet. Don’t be a fool. You never know who is listening.”
“Is she all right?”
“Not exactly.”
Blood drained from my head, and my stomach churned. “What does that mean?”
“It means she needs your help.” He leaned closer to me. “I need you to come with me now and tell no one where you’re going. Can you do that?”
I stared at the man in the cloak. I’d never met him before, but strongly suspected he’d been stalking me, and now he asked me to trust him. If this had happened back on Terrano, I would have laughed in his face. In all likelihood, he was a scammer and I would be robbed or set upon as soon as I stepped foot outside the bar.
But Trella… What if she really did need help?
I turned back to our table. Kira looked happy, grinning at Finn. She was dwarfed by Bayliss’s large frame. Draylan was draining the last of his beer. They were all still on a high, exhilarated that the commander was finally going to pay for his crimes.
I looked at the man’s blank expression, trying to read him. The sensible thing to do was tell him to pass a message to Trella for me. Surely she could contact me herself if she needed help.
I should go back to my friends, drink and celebrate, but how could I do that if Trella was in trouble?
I pushed away from the bar and looked the hooded man in the eye. “I’ll come. Tell me what I have to do.”
The End.
The Forbidden Spacemage, book 3, coming soon.
Author’s note
A huge thank you for reading! If you have a moment to leave a review, I would be very grateful. It doesn’t need to be more than a line or two to say you read and enjoyed it, and it makes a huge difference.
I hope you enjoyed the continuation of Tomas’s adventures in book two of the Forbidden Spacemage Series.
The book was a bit harder to write than the first. I wanted to include more of Trella’s storyline, but found the book was getting too bloated and long. So you’ll find out what happened to Trella in book 3. Fortunately, book 3 is well underway, so you won’t have to wait too long.
I started the story without an outline again, but needed to rewrite the second half to keep the pace and cut some extraneous details.
Tomas’s magic is improving as he learns to harness his power, but he still has a long way to go. In the next book, he learns more about the corruption in the Seven Kingdoms.
I have plenty more ideas for this series sketched out in my notebook if people want to read more about Tomas’s journey. If you give this book a review, I’d really like to hear what you think of the story direction. It’s always helpful to get feedback.
The next book should be up for sale very soon. If you would like to get an email when my books are released, you can click on the link to sign up for my new release email:
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All the best,
Dan
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