The Gauntlet

by Megan Shepherd

The insult didn’t seem to faze Ellis. She signaled to her deputies. “Help load the slaves he’s purchased onto his ships. If Dane gets a punch or two in the process, I won’t object.”

  “Err, no!” Bonebreak interrupted quickly. “We’ll load them fine ourselves. No need for you to go anywhere near the ships. Better for you all to keep a distance from them altogether, actually, for no particular reason at all. Now, I’ll be on my way—”

  He was interrupted by a loud ringing from a piece of equipment on one of the tables. Everyone went quiet.

  It rang again.

  Ellis pointed to one of her guards. “Hand me that intercom.”

  The deputy picked up the communication device as though it might bite and passed it to Ellis, who pressed a few buttons and then put it to her ear.

  “Yes,” she said.

  For a tense few moments, no one spoke. Cora could barely hear a voice on the other end but couldn’t tell if it was human. A worried feeling took root in the pit of her stomach. They were so close to being free. Just another few minutes and Bonebreak would conclude the negotiations. They’d be racing across the desert to his fake fleet of ships.

  Ellis continued to listen to the voice, expressionless. “I understand.” She hung up the intercom and turned to Bonebreak.

  Cora’s worry grew.

  “Okay, okay, fifty extra tokens,” Bonebreak said in a rush. “You drive a hard bargain.” He must have sensed, like Cora, that whatever Ellis had heard on that intercom might be trouble. “Fifty each and seventy-five for the pink-haired girl, that’s two hundred seventy-five tokens, quite a payday. Anya, my slave, fetch the tokens and we’ll be on our way, stench and all—”

  “No,” Ellis said quietly. “I don’t think so.” Slowly, her lips curled into a smile. “That was the Kindred transportation officers we liaise with. Their supply shuttle wasn’t scheduled to arrive until tomorrow, but it’s come early. It’s docking at the transport hub as we speak. And as it turns out, they informed me that these humans, who so suspiciously appeared out of nowhere, are fugitives. The Kindred are willing to pay well to have them back.”

  “You can’t give them to the Kindred!” Bonebreak yelled.

  “Oh, I’m not giving them to anyone. I’m selling them to whichever party offers the most, you or the Kindred.” She smiled. “We’re going to have a bidding war.”

  8

  Cora

  A BIDDING WAR?

  Cora couldn’t read Bonebreak’s face behind his mask, but from the way his body went rigid, she knew he must be as panicked as she was. More of Ellis’s deputies came in, followed by three uniformed soldiers who were nearly seven feet tall. Her breath vanished.

  Kindred.

  At first they were just silhouettes against the early morning sky. Two women and one man. Muscles like granite. Dark hair pulled back or else cut close to the scalp. They moved in the stiff way that revealed their emotions were cloaked. The flames in the fire pit cast a harsh light over their copper-colored skin, making it almost glow.

  The male Kindred faced the fire-pit platform. Cora bit back a curse.

  It was Fian, the Intelligence Council official who had pretended to be Cassian’s friend and confidant, but who had actually been a Council spy. He was the reason Cassian was being tortured and the reason she’d fled to this desolate moon.

  Her fingers sparked with rage.

  “Ah,” Ellis said. “The other bidding party has arrived.” She motioned to the bench on the opposite side of the platform from Bonebreak. “Have a seat, Kindred guests. Deputies, corral the rest of the wards. We can’t have them trying to escape. They’re our bargaining chips.”

  Ellis’s deputies prodded Nok and Leon into the corral. Cora gripped the wooden bars, glaring at Fian.

  “You know that one?” Nok whispered.

  “Unfortunately,” Cora said tightly. “He works for the Council. He’s been trying to stop me from running the Gauntlet.”

  On the platform, Ellis narrowed her eyes at the Kindred. “You aren’t the transport supply officers we normally deal with. Where are Titian and Malessi?”

  “This is no routine supply drop,” Fian said coldly. “I am here on official Council business. I have come for those wards. They are Kindred property. Hand them over to us now.”

  At seven feet tall, few creatures were more intimidating than Fian. But Ellis only smiled grimly, the firelight glinting off the badge soldered to her cheek. She jumped down from the fire-pit platform and reached between the corral bars, grabbing Nok’s fist.

  “Kindred property?” She held out Nok’s bare hand. “I see no tags. I see no paperwork.”

  “A technicality,” Fian said impatiently. “They escaped before they could go through the proper processing.”

  Ellis raised an eyebrow, shaking her head. “They are untagged and on neutral territory, which means they’re free humans. And as the lawmaker who supervises all free humans on Armstrong, it is my authority to govern them.”

  “We granted you that authority. We could take it away.”

  “The Kindred didn’t grant me anything,” she countered. “The sheriff’s position has been designated by the Intelligence Council at large: Kindred, Axion, Gatherers, and Mosca. As only one-fourth of that, you have no more power or authority here than he does.” She threw a finger toward Bonebreak. “And so you see, we’re at an impasse. But I’m a reasonable person. Take a seat and we can discuss the fate of these wards.”

  She motioned to the platform’s bench opposite Bonebreak.

  The wrinkle in Fian’s brow deepened. He exchanged a few words with his colleagues in their Kindred language. He and the other Kindred sat on the platform stiffly. Though their faces were perfectly calm masks of indifference, Cora could practically feel the rage burning deep beneath Fian’s emotional cloak.

  Ellis just smiled.

  “Excellent. Let the bidding begin.” She climbed back up on the platform and paced before the fire pit. “The rules are simple. This needn’t take long. Whoever pays the most tokens gets the wards.” She turned to Bonebreak. “The Mosca has already offered two hundred seventy-five.”

  “What do we do,” Nok whispered to Cora, “if the Kindred win?”

  Cora shook her head, uncertain. “We’ll cause a distraction and make a run for Bonebreak’s ship. As many of us as can make it. Leon, you’ll grab Mali and head for the shuttle dock.”

  He nodded.

  On the platform, the negotiations continued.

  “We only want the blond one,” Fian said, signaling to Cora. “We’ll give you one hundred tokens for her.”

  Cora shivered as his black eyes met hers. For a second, she felt a flash of connection. His emotional cloak slipped for the quickest instant, revealing a glimpse into his head. She felt roiling panic there that he was desperately trying to hide. Panic that seemed completely un-Kindred-like. She saw an image of the aggregate station in chaos. Kindred soldiers dead. The marketplace in shambles. But she didn’t know what any of it meant.

  “They’re a package deal,” Ellis said flatly. “And the price has just gone up to three hundred.”

  “Three fifty!” Bonebreak answered.

  “You don’t have three fifty,” Fian said flatly. “That isn’t even a real suit of shielding. It’s holographic, just like that fleet outside the encampment. These humans may not be able to see through your tricks, but we can.”

  Bonebreak jumped up, outraged. “I have never been so insulted!”

  Fian’s face remained calm outwardly, but his fist was flexing. His patience was growing thin.

  “Enough!” Ellis said. Her voice thundered through the tent, silencing even Fian. “Deputies, fetch me that one—the girl with pink hair.”

  Nok’s eyes went big as two deputies swung open the corral gate, reaching in and grabbing her. Other guards held Rolf and Leon back with guns. Nok twisted as they dragged her up to the platform, where the fire sent shadows flickering over her frightened face.

  “I’m tired o
f these games,” Ellis said. She grabbed Nok by the hair, forcing her to stand in front of the fire pit. “I want final offers. And if they aren’t high enough, I’m going to toss each of these wards, one at a time, into the flames until your bids are high enough. The blond one you both want so much burns last.”

  Nok let out a scream, trying to claw out of Ellis’s grasp. Though Ellis was strong, she was a good six inches shorter than Nok, and Nok flailed so violently that Ellis had to widen her stance to hold on to her.

  “You can’t!” Rolf yelled. “Stop!”

  Nok screamed again, twisting so hard that Ellis nearly fell over. Ellis let out a frustrated growl and tossed a look to the knives on Bonebreak’s trays of sliced cheeses. She jerked her chin, and the knives rose telekinetically. They glided eerily through the air to where Nok struggled. Two of them hovered on either side of her head, blades pointed at her temples.

  Nok, breathing hard, stopped struggling.

  Cora glanced at Fian. This was what he and the Council had most feared: proof of humanity’s growing abilities. It wasn’t just Anya and Cora who had perceptive skills—if Ellis did too, then there had to be more. Humans all over the known universe, in menageries and enclosures and maybe even back on Earth. But Fian didn’t flinch at the psychic display.

  He already knows, she realized. That’s why he’s trying so hard to stop me from running. One last desperate attempt to silence us.

  “It’s a pity,” Ellis said, admiring Nok. “She’s a pretty girl.” She shoved Nok an inch closer to the fire, the floating knives moving with her.

  Rolf yelled, “She’s pregnant!”

  The room went silent. Ellis jerked Nok back and pulled back the frilly apron over her belly. For a second, whispers spread throughout the tent, the tension palpable.

  Then Ellis shrugged. She flicked a finger, making the knife blades press closer against Nok’s temples. “That’s two into the fire, then.”

  “Five hundred!” Bonebreak sputtered. “That’s as high as my credit goes! Check the system!”

  Ellis glanced at Fian.

  The Kindred only shrugged. “Go ahead and throw her into the fire, pregnant or not. That one means nothing to me.”

  Ellis’s eyes narrowed. “You’re bluffing.”

  Fian didn’t blink. “Burn her and see.”

  “No!” Rolf cried. “Nok!”

  He tried to climb up and over the corral bars, but a swarm of deputies aimed rifles at him. Cora’s heart was thrashing with panic. She grabbed the corral bars, knuckles going white. This couldn’t be happening.

  Think!

  Ellis gave Nok a solid push toward the flames.

  “No!” Cora yelled.

  Time seemed to move more slowly. She forgot about the deputies. She forgot about the Kindred. She could only focus on her friend, falling forward, pitching toward flames.

  No.

  She threw out a hand, palm aimed toward the knives. She poured every ounce of her concentration into those knives. Wrapping them with her thoughts like a hand. Gripping them. Jerking them away from Nok so that Nok could twist safely to the side.

  The knives clattered to the floor. One slid off the platform.

  “Nok!” Cora yelled. “Roll!”

  Nok tucked her chin and balled herself up as though preparing for a somersault. The quick movement threw Ellis off-balance. Nok twisted to the right, rolling backward and landing behind Ellis. She pushed to her feet. The sheriff spun away from the fire pit to face her.

  Nok and Ellis both looked down at the remaining knife on the platform.

  Quickly, Nok stepped on the blade. It rattled under her foot, trying to move telekinetically, but Nok threw her whole weight on it.

  “Burn, you bitch!” she yelled, and shoved Ellis backward into the fire.

  9

  Leon

  IN THE NEXT INSTANT, the tent plunged into full-on chaos.

  The sheriff’s screams still echoed through the tent. Leon didn’t have to be a genius to see that Ellis would be dead in another second—the flames crackled impossibly hot in the dry alien atmosphere. Too bad she couldn’t levitate herself above the fire.

  Her deputies stood in a stunned stupor, not used to making the slightest decision on their own. There was no designated second in command. Half the deputies, the tent guards who had kept him captive in the wives’ tents, immediately looked toward the mine guards, who in return seemed just as wary. He’d heard the grumblings. The two groups had no love for each other.

  At the commotion, another dozen Kindred soldiers poured through the entrance.

  “Oh, shit,” Leon said.

  He glanced at Cora. She was just as slack-jawed as the deputies. He gave her a sharp nudge. “This is what you call a distraction, sweetheart!”

  She immediately blinked out of her shock. “Right. Let’s move!” Together they scaled the corral fencing, and right behind them was Rolf, who ran to Nok on the platform, enveloping her in his arms.

  “Over here, little childrens!” Bonebreak yelled, waving to them as he cowered behind Ellis’s big chair.

  But Kindred soldiers were already headed in their direction. Anya scrambled up onto the platform, knitting her unsteady fingers in the air, and a handful of Ellis’s deputies started swaying at her command like puppets. They raised their rifles. Assumed battle stances. Charged Fian’s troops.

  Leon braced himself.

  The warring bodies collided in an explosion of sparking weaponry. Tent guards. Mine guards. Kindred soldiers. In the confusion, the Kindred fought back against both, but uncertainly—their war was with neither.

  “Leave them!” Fian yelled. “It’s the girl we want!”

  Two Kindred soldiers turned toward the corral like mechanical warriors. A thrill ran through Leon. Damn, but he loved a good fight. He started to draw back a fist, ready to smash it into their faces, but then paused. There was no telling how long the Kindred shuttle would be docked at the transport hub. And before it took off back to the Kindred station, he and Mali needed to be on it. He’d promised her that he’d help her rescue Cassian.

  Where was Mali?

  He scanned the tent until he found her in the very center of the fight. Of course she’d be in the thick of it—she loved a fight as much as he did. She kicked a Kindred in the kneecap with an audible crack. He grinned.

  “Cora! This is where we say good-bye.” He jerked his head toward the fight. “Mali and me, we’ll meet you on Drogane after we’ve found Cassian.”

  “Hang on,” Cora called. “I have to tell you something.” She jerked her head toward the corral fencing, which provided just enough shelter that they could speak in safety for a few moments. She pulled out Lucky’s journal from her pants waistband. “You might need weapons. And I know where a stash of kill-dart guns is on the station. Lucky wrote about it. The hostess gave them to Dane in case an animal ever got out of control. There are a few big ones and more handheld ones. They’re kept in a secret panel in the Hunt’s medical room. This is the symbol to use to open it.” She flipped through Lucky’s journal and showed him the emblem.

  Leon patted her on the shoulder. “You’re full of surprises, sweetheart.”

  Cora threw her arms around him. “Thanks for going after Cassian, Leon. I mean it. The sooner you can get him, the better. We only have twenty-two days until the Gauntlet starts.”

  He hugged her back. “We’ll get him in time.”

  Leon turned back toward the fight. It was such a tangle of bodies and flashes of armor that he didn’t see Mali at first. But then—there she was. Fighting off a female Kindred officer who must have weighed double Mali, but hell, that girl knew how to use her small size to her advantage. She was faster, lower to the ground. She managed to throw the Kindred off-balance and slam the woman’s head against a metal tray.

  “Mali!” he called.

  But two gloved hands suddenly grabbed him from behind. His muscles tensed on instinct, until he recognized Bonebreak’s shielding and relaxed.


  “What gives?” Leon hissed. “Mali needs my help. How did you get over here so fast, anyway? I saw you just a second ago on the far side of the platform.” He sniffed the air. “And why do you not smell as bad as usual?”

  “The girl will be fine,” Bonebreak answered, dismissing Leon’s worries with a wave. “You and I have unfinished business.”

  “The money I owe you? Seriously? Now?”

  “Forget the debt.” Bonebreak motioned for Leon to follow him into a corner of the tent, deep in the lee of the canvas curtains. “I overheard your plan to return to station 10-91 and free the Kindred Warden.”

  Leon eyed him suspiciously. “Yeah, so?”

  “I left a valuable provision pack on that station, in my old storage containers. If you were to use the tunnels to fetch me that pack, I would make it worth your while.”

  Leon scoffed. “I don’t smuggle anymore. I’m a hero now, didn’t you hear?” The fight raging in the main part of the tent showed no signs of dying down. Cora and the others were arguing. Nok kept pointing to the platform emphatically. He thought he heard Cora yell something about a chimpanzee.

  He started to push past Bonebreak, but Bonebreak clutched him with an iron grip. “Wait, boy. A hero, are you? The kind who would help a pretty girl, yes? Isn’t that what heroes do?” His gaze shifted to Mali.

  Leon hesitated. “What are you saying?”

  “I saw glimpses of what is in that girl’s mind. A family back home that she barely remembers and no way to get in touch with them. So sad. So tragic. But I have ways. Fetch me that pack, boy, and I will tell you how to find your girl’s family. She would be grateful to you. You’d be a real hero, yes.”

  Leon gritted his teeth. He looked at Mali, who was now fighting off two Kindred at the same time.

  “An easy job,” Bonebreak continued in a rush, preying on Leon’s indecision. “It will take you only a few minutes. Just grab the provision pack, that’s all I’m asking. Your girl does not even have to know about our arrangement.”

  For a second, Mali looked his way and their eyes met. Blood was splattered on the side of her head, but it was dark. Not hers. She gave him a time to go look, jerking her head in the direction of the shuttle outside, before she punched one of the Kindred officers in the nose, sending more black blood spurting everywhere.