“You look like you require assistance,” Anders said.
“What I require is a way to stop Elio from dying.”
That dropped the smirk off his red face. “He’s dying?”
“He could.” It was possible for him to bounce back from a glitch on his own, but he hadn’t done so in weeks. I always had to shock him back into action. And without a computer system to do it, who knew how many of his memories would be gone by the time he came around.
If he came around.
“We should help him, then,” Anders said. “He is timid, but … what’s the word? Precious?”
“He didn’t give you permission to compliment him like that.” I gestured to his body. “Just pick him up. If you can.”
“I’m insulted.” Easily, Anders swung Elio over one shoulder, gripping the back of his legs to hold him steady. “Where’s the Earthan?”
“Wren? She ditched us.”
Anders growled. “Typical.”
“I have to get to her ship. If it’s still here. I need to plug Elio into the control panel. It’s the only way…” I trailed off, throat catching.
Anders looked massively uncomfortable with my sudden show of emotion. “Understood.” He faked a cough. “I doubt the ship left. You would hear it if she launched. Trust me, I’ve been a prisoner long enough to know.”
“And how exactly did you end up a prisoner here?” Knowing the inhabitants of Andilly, he probably murdered somebody and then used their bones as a toothpick.
“I don’t ask you deeply personal questions, Cora. Now move. I’m right behind you.”
Stars, he was bossy. But I listened anyway, not because I cared about him in the slightest, but because I cared about Elio. I hadn’t failed him yet. And I certainly wouldn’t start today.
Holding Anders’s stolen comm in front of me like a map, I followed a blueprint of Ironside as we crept cautiously past the cells and through the dusty gray halls, entering a corridor across from an even grayer and dustier med bay. Vials and syringes littered the floor, showing the path the room’s inhabitants had taken during their run to join the food fight outside. Streaks of something black were crusted on the countertops, and a tang of iron filled the air. Blood. I suddenly regretted every bite of my breakfast.
“Dumbwaiter?” Anders suggested, pointing out two rusty doors at the end of the hall beside a storage unit. I directed the comm at the lift, hoping to infiltrate the computer system and see what floor it journeyed to last. Maybe Wren had come this way as well. But my search brought back only disappointment: the dumbwaiter hadn’t been used in over four months.
“No way. I’m not getting stuck in there. We’re taking the ramp down.” I headed for a narrower door in the corner, but Anders cut me off.
“Who’s helping you transport your friend? You should accommodate my generosity and take the simpler way down.”
“Who talks like that? Accommodate my generosity.” I checked the ramp, which spiraled down to the smallest of the three docking bays. Not large enough to contain a spaceship, but it was a start. “I don’t need your help. Roll Elio down the ramp for all I care.”
“I’m calling your bluff. You like this robot so much that you might start kissing it.” He shuddered.
“Elio’s family. Are you purposely trying to be annoying? I know you said you had multiple talents, but I didn’t think that—” I froze. “Someone’s coming.”
“What?”
Wrenching open the door to the ramp, I ushered him inside. Footsteps sounded in the corridor, followed by the low buzz of a blaster powering up. Through a crack in the door, I spotted a bright orange cloud drifting through the air—the aura of a curious Ironside guard.
“He’s coming this way,” said Anders, his breath hot on the back of my neck. It smelled like he hadn’t brushed his teeth in months.
The guard was getting closer, his aura thickening. We could run to the floor below before he spotted us if we moved right now.
“What are you doing? Come on,” I hissed, trying to wave Anders forward. He instead lowered Elio to the ground, gently leaning him against the wall, then turned toward the door.
“Anders.”
The guard had reached us. His blaster hummed from the opposite side of the door, just a foot away, but it was his aura that really let me know he was so close. Like a cloud of orange syrup. I was gagging on it.
The door opened.
The guard looked at both of us, stunned. He appeared even younger than me, and although he had his blaster raised and ready to fire, I judged by his wide eyes that he didn’t truly expect to use it.
Before he could move, Anders lunged for him. I failed to repress a scream as the nails of Anders’s right hand lengthened into thick black claws. He was horrifying, eyes wild, mouth snarling. I screamed again as his claws plunged toward the guard’s chest, tearing open the front of his uniform like it was made of paper, ready to rip through skin and bone and—
He stopped short.
“Anders?” I tried hesitantly.
The guard’s eyes bugged out of his skull as Anders slowly curled his hand into a fist. His fingers flashed between nails and claws while he shook his head, like he was trying to dislodge something trapped inside his skull. As dramatic and life-threatening as the entire situation was, I really didn’t have time to watch Anders struggle with himself—or whatever was going on in his giant lizard brain. I had a ship to catch. More importantly, I had a droid to save.
Raising my comm, I got ready to bring it crashing into the back of Anders’s head, but before I could follow through, his fist shot forward. He smashed the guard’s stomach, then his head. The boy wheezed as he tumbled to the ground. But after a moment, he grew still.
The orange cloud of his aura snuffed out like a candlewick.
Even though I hadn’t done anything, I fought to catch my breath. “I guess there’s some truth to those flesh-eating-lizard rumors after all.”
Anders shrugged as the animal claws receded into his fingertips. He picked Elio back up. “I told you I’m multitalented. I also wanted a new blaster. Grab his for me, would you?”
“You … didn’t kill him, right?” I wanted to pull Elio away from him, out of his monster grip, but I picked up the guard’s blaster instead. The handle was still warm.
“He’s unconscious, not dead. I’m not…” He licked his lips. “I’m not that heartless.” His voice held no emotion, but as I followed him down the ramp, I caught him wiping his hand off on his jumpsuit. Like he was willing away the memory of what just happened.
Interesting.
The docking bay at the bottom of the ramp was empty except for dust motes floating in the air. A rolling steel door gleamed from the opposite end of the long room, probably the cleanest thing in this entire prison. It would take me a minute, but I could tap into the pass codes to unlock it so we could run, but then what? We had one comm, one blaster, and one malfunctioning android, none of which would hold up against the citizens of Andilly. Anders was probably the most pleasant of them all, and I’d just witnessed him beat a man unconscious.
So we continued on. A short hallway led from one bay to the next. The second was empty, but the third bay … yes. There it was. A hulking mass covered in a ragged tarp filled nearly all of the circular room. The Starchaser. My heart swelled so big that it took up all the space inside my body. Already I could picture us breaking through the atmosphere and flying into deep space. Free.
I hurried forward, but Anders held me back, black claws curling around my shoulder. “Carefully. In case someone is—”
Without warning, Elio let out a wail. He flopped off Anders’s shoulder, hitting the ground before jerking up like he’d been run through with a lightning bolt. His ears fell across his eyes as he beeped so fast that it sounded like just one long scream coming from his mouth. I had the sudden urge to shush him, but I was so happy he was okay that I pushed the feeling down.
He blinked up, first at me, then Anders. “What is that?
Where are we?”
“That’s Andy,” I said. “You’ll remember in a second. As for where, it doesn’t matter, because we’re leaving.”
“Not quite yet,” a voice rang out from the other side of the bay.
A shadow rippled beside the Starchaser at the same time the doors behind us shut with a metallic snap.
“I knew it,” Anders muttered with an indignant huff.
A dozen guards approached us from all sides, appearing out of the corners like phantoms, while the tarp fluttered on the ship and a ramp lowered from the hull.
Wren.
A guard dragged her out of the ship, depositing her on the floor in front of us. A seam in her jumpsuit was ripped at the shoulder, and a bruise was beginning to bloom around her eye, the same bright purple as her hair. I raised my stolen blaster, but I was unsure whether I was better off aiming at her or her captor.
The guard aimed his own blaster at Wren’s head. “Lower your weapon or your friend’s brains will be splattered all over the walls.”
That was a disgusting visual, but my arm didn’t budge. After she left us to rot, Wren and I were far from exchanging friendship bracelets.
The bodies behind us crept closer. I felt the brush of a knife along my spine. Elio whimpered. As usual, Anders was uselessly stoic.
“How about this?” the guard tried again. He looked older than the others, with a deep scar across his forehead and left eyelid. “Lower the weapon and maybe I won’t kill you. And after that, perhaps if I feel like it, I can arrange for you to set foot on this ship after all.”
Could he really promise that? A hand slammed down on my shoulder, rattling my bones. I felt the cold pressure of a blaster barrel press against the back of my neck.
“If I were you,” the old guard said with a cold smile, “I would say thank you.”
“I—” But I was cut off by the guard behind me. I looked over my shoulder just in time to see her bring the barrel of her gun speeding toward my head. And then I did lower my weapon.
My entire body collapsed to the floor.
7
The prison really could have benefited from some redecoration.
While I was out cold, the guards had apparently cuffed my hands behind my back and then dragged the four of us out of the docking bay and into an office on the floor below. It was filled with a desk covered in papers, a gruesome display of shrunken heads lined up in jars against the wall, and four wobbly iron chairs, which the guards had shackled us to. The room smelled strongly of mold and contained precisely two colors: gray, and grayer.
“That was a valiant escape attempt,” the old guard said. He slammed the office door, leaving the others in the hall, and then sat, propping one shiny boot on the edge of the desk like he owned it. Maybe he did.
“It almost seemed too … simple,” he continued. “You encountered only one guard on your way to the bays, one who didn’t put up much of a fight. Then you reached the ship to find your friend there first. Although, how she made it on her own, nearly undetected, seems almost too good to be true, despite the little distraction you orchestrated.” He turned to Wren, trapped in the chair beside me, and grinned. His bright white teeth didn’t match the burnt red scales spread across his skin.
Wren frowned back. How did he know Anders and I crossed paths with a guard on our way through the prison? The uncertainty of it all made my stomach twist into knots. There was only one explanation.
“Have you been spying on us?” I demanded. The guard Anders hit was definitely still out cold. There was no one left who could have tattled on us.
The man dug through a drawer in his desk, taking his sweet time doing so. He eventually found what he was looking for—a sharp bone—and used it to pick between his two front teeth.
“You’re almost as perceptive as I thought you might be,” he said, folding his hands beneath his chin. “Cora Saros.”
I stiffened. He knew my name. And if he knew my name, he knew of my family.
I was as good as dead.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Wren’s head whip toward me, her mouth hanging open. Great. A budding thief like her—she was probably a big fan.
“You are Cora Saros, aren’t you?” the man asked.
“I…” I caught Elio’s eye, and he shrugged. “On a good day.”
“And what kind of day is today?”
“Honestly, not that great.”
The man leaned back in his chair. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that yet.”
Whatever that meant. “How do you know my name?”
“I know every inmate’s name. It’s my job. I’m the warden at Ironside.” He placed the bone on the surface of the desk, lining it up perfectly with a row of pens and a pocketknife. “You may call me Warden, or you may call me Sir.”
Anders snorted. I glanced at him, but his eyes were searing into the sharp bone on the warden’s desk.
The warden didn’t seem to notice. “You asked if I was spying on you, Cora Saros. I confess, it was no mistake that you were able to acquire the pass codes to the hangar or journey through the entire prison without encountering any obstacles. Nor was it a mistake that your friend was able to board her ship today before I stopped her. I could have had all four of you killed instantly, but instead I told my guards to step back. You nearly succeeded, because I allowed you to. I wanted to see what you were capable of. Miss Saros, when I was told that a pod ship registered under your name had been found on Vaotis and that you were being brought in, I truthfully couldn’t believe my luck. You are exactly what I’ve been waiting for.”
“I’m really not sure what you mean.”
Wren snorted. “I think he’s implying that you’re the Chosen One.”
“I’ve seen that net drama!” Elio shouted. He kicked his legs, little feet swinging almost a foot above the floor as his chair wobbled from side to side.
The warden pounded his fist on the desk. “Silence! I can have you dragged back to your cell immediately, and believe me I will not make the remainder of your stay at Ironside pleasant—”
“It was pleasant before?” Wren muttered.
“However, if you wish to be useful, then I will—”
“Useful?” This time it was Anders who spoke up. “Funny how you always make that sound like an honor when what you really mean is that we’re here to be used. Bent to your will, then discarded and left alone in a cell to rot—”
“He talks?” Wren gasped.
“A bit too much, it seems,” Elio said.
The warden stood forcefully, sending his chair crashing to the ground. In an instant he was in front of us, his nails transforming into claws, just as Anders’s had. He grabbed Anders’s face and dug them into his cheeks, ripping up his scales, causing a trickle of blood to drip onto the collar of his filthy jumpsuit.
Anders only smiled. “You haven’t changed at all. Have you, Father?”
Father? I leaned toward Elio. “Please tell me that’s how citizens greet their leaders on Andilly.”
“Nope,” Elio replied. “Don’t think so.”
Oh, great skies above. The warden kept his own son locked in a cell? Talk about daddy issues.
“You are no son of mine,” the warden hissed, releasing his grip on Anders’s face.
Wren piped up. “Except that’s what people always say when they are talking about their son—oh! No thank you, Sir. I don’t want your claws inside my face.” She tried to shrink away as the warden neared, claws dripping blood. But he surprised us all by letting them retract inside his nails before returning to his seat.
He picked up the bone again. “Any more questions?”
“Just a million,” I said. “First, what is going on? You let us hack the pass codes. You let us reach the docking bay. You know who my family is. What is it you think I can do for you?”
“The better question is what do I think we can do for each other?” The warden’s eyes took on a greedy twinkle. Anders made a sound like he was gagging.
&nbs
p; “Have you ever heard of the Four Keys of Teolia?” the warden asked. When we all shook our heads, he didn’t seem surprised. “She was the first empress on the planet that is her namesake. Legends claim that upon the eve of her death, she was gifted an elixir made by her palace aide, a woman whom she had been in love with for quite some time. The elixir was meant to grant Teolia the gift of immortality. But before her aide had a chance to administer it, Teolia was brutally murdered in her sleep.”
“You look strangely happy about that,” I pointed out.
“Indeed,” said the warden. “Because the elixir was never drunk by Teolia, her aide had no use for it. She certainly never planned to drink it herself, preferring to die of old age so she could be with her true love once again. So she shut away the elixir in a chest, which could only be opened by four different keys inserted into four different locks simultaneously. Then she shipped the chest and each of the keys to five different corners of five different galaxies, hopeful that no one would ever find them and no one would ever be killed over such an extraordinary gift ever again.”
“That’s a nice bedtime story,” Wren said. “But I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”
“Oh, it’s more than a bedtime story. For I happen to have one of the keys right here.”
He opened another desk drawer, producing a key nearly as long as my forearm. The shaft was shaped like a hook, interspersed with multicolored gemstones and orange spots of rust. The warden held it at eye level, practically drooling.
“I confiscated this from an inmate who was arrested last year. He claimed to have found it on a moon of Jupiter, one of Teolia’s favorite planets. He never managed to locate the others. Unfortunately, he suffered a tragic accident in his cell soon after his arrival. Never in all my years have I seen a man’s spine broken into so many pieces.”
“You had him killed,” Wren said.
The warden pressed a hand to his heart. “I did no such thing!” But he was smirking. “Regardless, I loathe the thought of having competition.”
The Good for Nothings Page 8
