Bartoc Secret

by Clara Woods

  Marakk approached the old man and started whispering something into his ear. The man’s bushy eyebrows rose several times. Then Marakk stepped back to take a position behind the chair. The room remained silent for several long seconds, and Lenah heard her own quick breath ringing loudly in her ears.

  “You come Cassidian sector,” the old man finally said. It wasn’t a question.

  Lenah nodded, so did Corinna.

  “Is dangerous. No contact.” The old man made a slashing motion with his hand.

  Lenah wondered if it meant that they were in danger or if he was just illustrating how the contact between their two sectors had broken up centuries ago. She hoped it was the latter but feared it was the former.

  “No good come.” Olonka Bren smacked toothless jaws together and leaned back in his chair as if that concluded the discussion. Lenah thought he looked down on them as prey.

  “But we have already come,” Corinna said, her voice firm. “And with grave news. At least listen to us.”

  Olonka Bren eyed her, and Lenah couldn’t quite tell if he had understood.

  “Do you understand me?” Corinna asked.

  The old man regarded her for a few moments in silence, then he nodded. “Understand.”

  “Good,” Corinna said. “A threat is coming. Ancient evil attacking humans. Only mind mages can defeat them.” She made a gesture around the room. “Mind mages like you.”

  “Mmh.” Olonka Bren moistened his lips with a white tongue, then smacked them together again.

  Cassius tensed next to Lenah. A moment later, the door opened again, and about a dozen more people walked in. Lenah, who had been too focused on the conversation, hadn’t seen their minds approach.

  The newcomers wore patchwork coats like Olonka Bren, but none as intricate or consisting of so many different pieces of fur and skin. Cassius shifted uncomfortably.

  None of the newcomers made a move on them. They positioned themselves in a half-circle behind Olonka Bren, a dozen pairs of eyes staring down at Lenah and her group.

  Corinna cleared her throat. “Humanity needs to stick together.” She made another gesture toward them, then herself.

  Olonka Bren didn’t answer but turned and waved at an older woman. Her coat was the one most similar to his own and touched the floor as she leaned close to the old man. The two whispered something quite loudly, maybe a testament to their diminished hearing abilities, but it was in Bartoc, and Lenah couldn’t understand a word.

  “Not needed,” Olonka proclaimed in a booming voice.

  “You don’t understand,” Lenah interjected. “Humans here in Saltoc and in the Cassidian sector are threatened. The Cava Dara are killing us.” She emphasized her words with the same throat-cutting motion he had used before. “We need to work together.”

  The woman shook her head, but it was once more Olonka Bren who answered. “Not needed.”

  Lenah wondered what exactly that meant. That they didn’t want to help humans in the Cassidian sector? That they didn’t need the help of two mind mages? If everyone here was a mind mage, if they had thousands, maybe millions, what did they care?

  “We ask for your help,” she said, but Olonka shook his head.

  “No. Wailing fight here. Olonka speak.” He waved at the door.

  A flurry broke out, the door slamming, several Bartoc coming in, and in the next moment, Lenah found herself crushed to the ground by Cassius.

  A loud boom made her ears ring and muffled every other sound.

  With her inner eye, Lenah realized that there were now dozens more presences in the room, spreading tendrils of mind magic toward them. How could they have entered so quickly?

  Lenah readied her own power, grabbing blindly toward Corinna. She squeezed the other woman’s arm and felt how Corinna shoved her magic toward Lenah.

  Lenah yanked at it, forming a protective wall against the front of the room. Realizing that the mind attacks were coming from the back as well, she quickly adjusted by stretching her barrier thinner so it would cover them from behind. The incoming attack hit her so hard she crumbled to the ground.

  Lenah held on to the combined power with all she had, barely realizing when Cassius jumped.

  She wanted to yell at him to stay in her circle of influence, but it was too late, and her cry died in her throat when she saw who was throwing mind magic at them from behind.

  It wasn’t a human.

  27 Trapped

  They were Bartoc mind mages. But then, not quite.

  Lenah’s mind refused to process the severity of what it saw, a jumble of minds coming from the same creature.

  Dozens of bodies had not entered the room, but dozens of minds!

  More like fragments of minds, in many shapes and colors, swirling around each Bartoc. Lenah had never seen their like before. She was sure that the Bartoc she’d met so far had possessed only one single mind, as sturdy as they were.

  Olonka Bren and the humans behind him had all pulled up their mind magic, and Lenah concentrated on putting a protective wall between them and her group, then extended it backward. “Corinna!” she yelled and a moment later, felt the other woman’s mind magic within her grip. Lenah pulled it in, thickening the walls of her protection.

  The Bartoc, meanwhile, surrounded Cassius.

  Something snapped loudly and a stinger fell to the ground. The injured creature hissed, then vanished into the background.

  Persia pulled Lenah by the arm. “Over there,” she yelled over the noise and pointed her chin toward the humans. Her hammer was drawn.

  Lenah tried to get up and bring the three of them closer to the group of humans. Her magic barely surrounded Cassius now. If he moved any further, he’d drop out of Lenah’s sphere of influence.

  “Cassius, over here!” she yelled, her voice strangled.

  She could barely hear herself, but Cassius’s eyes snapped toward Lenah. He made a step in her direction, but the moment of not paying attention cost him.

  Three Bartoc were on top of him, their stingers lifted as tall as the ceiling.

  Persia pulled Lenah, and she lost grip over Cassius’s mind.

  Persia’s hammer swooshed by and Lenah forced her eyes away from Cassius who now must be under the mind control of the Bartoc. Yet, they kept attacking him, the sound of their clicking stingers giving Lenah shudders.

  Corinna, who was still lending Lenah her power, made a jerky movement with her lifted gun. She shot, hitting one of the human mages. He screamed and tumbled into the background.

  Suddenly, Lenah was surrounded by a multitude of minds in different colors, some wispy and barely visible, others so thick, Lenah thought she could physically touch them. The Bartoc, apparently having dealt with Cassius, were throwing all their presences on her now.

  Lenah swayed, the effect of the minds swirling like unconnected shards, disorienting.

  Corinna screamed in pain, and Lenah—overwhelmed—lost grip over their combined powers.

  She fell hard, hitting the floor before even realizing she had lost balance. Staying still and ignoring the pain in her shoulder, Lenah concentrated on building a protective wall around herself and Persia, who had fallen right next to her. But like spears, the fragments of Bartoc minds, slippery as if they were immune to Lenah’s power, shot in between her wall, destroying it over and over. Still not understanding how this was possible—what the Bartoc were—Lenah fought on until she was rudely hauled up. A pedipalp slapped her in the face, and she fell. Her head spun, tears shot into her eyes, and she was unable to hold her magic.

  Still numb, Lenah was lifted in the air. She tried weakly to fight in the grip, but she wasn’t held by any hands; it was pedipalps, tough and unyielding as metal.

  Her mind was surrounded by at least twenty different minds, encaging Lenah inside her own head. She blinked against the dizziness, barely able to see the room. They had lifted Cassius; he was walking awkwardly, bend at the hip, his throat clutched by a pedipalp. A poisonous stinger was held to his temp
le.

  Lenah tried to turn her head to see what Persia and Corinna were doing, but a Bartoc towered over her, blocking her view.

  He said something and his creaky voice sounded angry. Or triumphant, she couldn’t quite tell.

  Olonka Bren appeared in Lenah’s field of vision, and she could easily read the anger from his features.

  “Big mistake,” he said.

  Before Lenah could answer, the Bartoc hauled Lenah up again so she dangled half a meter off the ground. She could now see Persia and Corinna in the same situation. Persia was still struggling, but Corinna seemed barely conscious, her half-open eyes not focusing.

  Lenah craned her neck, hoping that at least Zyrakath had escaped, but he had been equally grasped by a Bartoc pedipalp, looking no bigger than a tiny doll.

  They were walked toward the side door, and Lenah’s Bartoc lowered her ungently to the ground. Her knees knocked into the hard metal, then he dragged her with him through the door.

  Beyond lay a large hall with more humans gathered there, staring at them. Lenah didn’t see any friendly faces.

  They passed through quickly and went down a staircase.

  Her captor hissed as he struggled with the human design, and Lenah couldn’t do anything but try not to be slammed into the railing with each step.

  She scanned the area once more with her inner eye, not to attack, but to study. The minds surrounding each Bartoc were still there, looming right around her, encaging her own power.

  She knew from experience before that the minds of all intelligent species looked very much alike. It didn’t matter if it was a human, Cassidian, or Craff. The minds of animals or semi-sentient beings were different, less solid. But this was not the case here. These were fragmented minds, a mix of what looked like intelligent and non-intelligent creatures, and it didn’t make the least bit of sense to Lenah. Was it an illusion and she just had to find the right one?

  Before Lenah could consider the idea further, the area around her became pitch-black. Her guard dropped her, and something ripped heavily at her wrist when a pedipalp sliced through the band of her wristpiece, also cutting open some skin.

  A door shut.

  Lenah, unable to see, focused on the Bartoc minds, now distancing themselves to some place above them. Only what she thought was one Bartoc stayed behind, presumably right outside the door. Cassius and Persia were in the room with her.

  The air in the room smelled metallic and wet as if they were somewhere underground with failing life support.

  Lenah heard Persia breathing heavily behind her, and to her side, the rattling of metal. A chain?

  “Persia?” Lenah croaked and sat up in the dark.

  “Right here,” came Persia’s strangled voice. She sounded as if she had been choked.

  “I’m here too,” Cassius said under more clattering. “They shackled me with something strong. I can’t get out.”

  Persia groaned.

  “They have cyborg-safe shackles?” Lenah asked. “They were prepared.”

  Cassius merely grunted.

  After a short silence, Lenah asked, “Zyr? Corinna?”

  “I am here,” the drone answered from somewhere to Lenah’s right.

  Corinna didn’t answer, which Lenah expected. She had already known Corinna wasn’t here.

  She managed to sit up, trying to find Corinna’s familiar presence, but there were so many minds at the periphery of her awareness, and she was so drained, she couldn’t focus.

  “Corinna?” she repeated, but once more was only met with silence. “Persia, Zyr, help me search this room.”

  Persia sucked in a breath.

  “We need to make sure.” Lenah swallowed, then crawled toward the door. After what must have been a couple of meters, her hands touched something cold. A metal wall. She went in the other direction, fingering around blindly and hoping not to find Corinna. At the same time, she was also scoping out the room. It was a larger cell than she had at first imagined, about seven meters deep.

  Her hand bumped into something warm. A leg.

  “Just me,” Cassius said.

  Lenah crawled sideways, systematically imagining lines in the darkness. Twice she ran into Persia who was taking a similar path. They didn’t find Corinna.

  “She’s not here,” Lenah finally said. “That’s good.” Yet, she felt panic. What were they doing to Corinna? What had they gotten themselves into?

  “Zyr, have you heard of Bartoc mind mages?” she asked, partly to not feel isolated from the others in the darkness.

  “I have not. Is that what led to our defeat?”

  Lenah realized she was the only one who would have seen. “Yes. They were mind mages. I think…” she trailed off.

  “What do you mean you think?” Persia asked. Her voice sounded close, and a moment later, Lenah felt hands touch her thigh, then settle in right next to her. Grateful, Lenah leaned against Persia.

  “They were using mind magic, but it looked very different from any other mind I’ve ever seen. Like fragments of different minds, all mingling together. They were impossible to grasp when I tried. Like hiding behind each other, stabbing through my defenses.” Lenah swallowed.

  “Curious,” Zyrakath said. He had come closer as well, and Lenah heard his voice right next to Persia.

  “Curious?” Persia repeated. “Can’t you satiate your scientific curiosity once we…” she broke up, “…once we make it back to the Star Rambler?”

  Lenah squeezed her arm. “We will make it. All of us,” she said with a lot more conviction in her voice than she actually felt. “First, we should figure out how to get Cassius out of his shackles.”

  Lenah crawled away from Persia and back toward Cassius. She felt for his shackles.

  One hand and one leg were tied to the wall, forcing him to lie on his side. The material felt cool under Lenah’s hand as she followed a small chain toward the wall. Once there, it made one smooth transition into the metal plating.

  “There’s no joint in the wall,” she said and felt again the actual cuff. “We have to try to open the lock. Does anyone have something sharp, anything to pick a lock?” Lenah asked.

  No one answered.

  “A hairpin?” Lenah asked.

  “I had one, and I lost it weeks ago,” Persia said.

  “You should try to get everyone else out of here,” Cassius said very quietly when Lenah leaned over his shoulder to inspect once more the cuff shackling his enhanced arm. His lips were suddenly at her neck.

  Lenah froze.

  “Go and get everyone else out,” Cassius repeated, his breath whispering on her cheek.

  “And you?” Lenah whispered back.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “No, you won’t,” Lenah said, louder now.

  “What are you saying?” Persia asked.

  “Cassius wants us to get out without him,” Lenah grumbled.

  Silence followed that statement, in which Cassius’s lips found Lenah’s neck again. She turned her head, and their lips connected.

  “I won’t leave you behind,” Lenah whispered against his lips.

  Instead of answering, Cassius breathed out and kissed her.

  Lenah leaned into it, trying to get energy out of the stolen moment. But it didn’t quite work, and instead, she started to think of what the remaining crew back on the ship would do when Lenah and the others didn’t come back. Would they actually leave like she’d ordered them? She broke the kiss and simply leaned her forehead against Cassius’s.

  They stayed like that for long moments until a loud cry made Lenah jump.

  28 Locked and Cuffed

  “Was that Corinna?” Persia whispered after the scream had died off.

  Lenah nodded, even though no one could see it. It wasn’t necessary. The voice belonging to the sharp cry of pain was Corinna’s.

  Cassius shifted next to Lenah, the chains clanking as he made his biggest effort yet to get out.

  Lenah headed in the other direction and
crawled toward the door. She bumped into Persia, and together, they groped in the dark for a lock.

  They found nothing, only smooth metal.

  Lenah touched everywhere in case a mechanism was hidden in a different place, maybe close to the floor to accommodate pedipalps opening it. To no success.

  Corinna screamed again. A sharp sound filled with so much pain, it gave Lenah goosebumps. What the stars were they doing to her? Why had they taken only Corinna?

  Frustrated, Lenah leaned back. She focused on her inner eye, on the single Bartoc placed in front of their door.

  Lenah took a deep breath, then spread her magic out toward all its combined minds, sending a message to let them go. She put in all her desperation and urgency. Several strands of the Bartoc’s presence shot by Lenah toward Persia and Cassius.

  Persia screamed.

  Cassius groaned.

  “Closer to me!” Lenah pressed out while she struggled to build up a large wall that would cover all three of them.

  At least Zyrakath, being fully mechanical, was safe from mental attacks.

  Lenah groped for Persia and pulled her through the room toward Cassius.

  Her friend was barely walking; she stumbled halfway through the room and struggled to get up again.

  Corinna yelled once more, the sound cutting through Lenah’s consciousness like an icy blade. Her magic slipped from her, and she was swept away, the room vanishing from underneath her feet.

  * * *

  Lenah came to in a small room, its wall made of unevenly cut rock. She moved her head, looking down at her body. She was stretched out on her back on a metal contraption. Her limbs were tied.

  A Bartoc was with her, and she swore it was smiling down at her. The device clicked, and Lenah’s limbs were pulled, the pain all-consuming. She screamed just as the room around her started to shake.

  “Lenah!” a high-pitched voice yelled loudly into her ear, doubling Lenah’s torture.

  With effort, Lenah turned her head, but there was no one there. Only the wall and a view of her arm stuck in the contraption.