by Cheri Chaise
“A pretty name.” Jace caught the purse of my mouth and the raise of my chin signaling him to remain silent while I continued the interrogation. “Do you have other family on Crente?”
“My mom and pop. He works in the mines. Mom teaches at the community school.”
“I loved school. My favorite subject was history,” I offered in an attempt to connect. “What’s yours?”
She snorted most unbecomingly, her face morphing into the scowl that had first greeted us an hour ago. “Sitting in a classroom all day was never my thing. I’d rather be out doing something.”
“Like sneaking around starports and other people’s ships?” Jace interjected.
That shut Rylan up and toned down the scowl as her lips thinned. “I’d been stuck around Flint for so long that I ran out of what few credits I had. When I found out where they’d taken Rika, I had to do something drastic to get off that tin can.”
I waved a hand through the air. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit. Tell me what happened…from the beginning.”
Rylan’s shoulders sagged. Food and drink forgotten. “It was my fault.”
“What was?”
Silent tears coursed down her cheeks. “The reason my sister was taken.”
“Go on,” I encouraged.
“Mom had a meeting that night. We were supposed to go straight home after school…but there was this guy.”
Always a man. Oh, how men flirted with danger, twisting a woman’s heart around their finger until it broke. Just as Irik had done to me.
Rylan continued, “He hung out near the school, and we talked sometimes while I waited for my mom to finish up.”
“You liked him, didn’t you?”
A blush rose into her cheeks, and she nodded. “Rika usually waited with Mom, but since she wasn’t going home right away, my sister had to walk home with me.”
“But you didn’t go straight home.”
She shook her head, tears coming faster. “He offered to give us a ride in his new hoverspeeder. I’d really admired it when he’d shown it to me the first time, and there he was…offering to let me sit in it.”
My heart clenched as I realized what was coming – and there was no amount of wishing I could do to attain a different outcome. Just as nothing I could do would change my own outcome.
“I didn’t even get the chance.” Rylan hiccupped as her tears and breath came faster. “The next thing I remembered was my mom shaking me awake and asking what happened to my sister.”
“So you ran away to try and find her.”
“I had to, don’t you see?” She swiped at her cheeks, but it did little to staunch the flow. “Because of me, there’s no telling what they’re doing to my baby sister.”
I shivered at the torment in Rylan’s icy blue eyes. It rather mirrored what I kept tamped down in my own.
I moved the basket of dead fruit out of the way and took Rylan’s cold hands in mine. “How can you be sure Rika is here on Lyandra though?”
The shame in those eyes changed to solid gray steel that straightened her spine. “Because on Flint I found out who bought her.”
Chapter Seventeen
This was a complete and utter bad idea – and not just because of the strange uniform Jace had convinced me to don.
Instead of soothing sleep, I’d spent the remainder of the day putting off potential clients who might help restore my coffers to a more manageable level, and opted to spend credits. At least this time they all came from Jace’s ill-gained windfall.
First he dragged me to a common storefront bunker, where he proceeded to purchase for me a rather clunky pair of boots. I did have to admit, however, that they were exquisitely soft inside. Most importantly, they kept my feet toasty warm for the remainder of our outing.
It wasn’t like we traipsed around in the elements. Like most Rim colonies, Lyandra had a network of aboveground and underground tunnels that protected the populace from the extreme temperatures that would freeze human skin in mere minutes of continued exposure. But like my experience in the transport tunnels, the never-ending cold seeped through the snow-encrusted viewout tubes until my feet ached, necessitating our first stop.
I was continually amazed at what the mech tech taught me about life on the Rim. Sometimes I wondered how I’d survived on my own these last few cycles. Probably because I rarely left the warmth and security of my ship when planetside. The few times I’d absolutely had to had left a permanent stain.
And my accounts empty.
After the boots, he’d thrust me into a store that reeked of men. Working men. Rough men. Hairy and smelly men. A dimly lit shop that carried only the most basic of clothing items – and few of those at that. The low stock of pants and shirts reminded me momentarily of Trina’s gathering and the minimal foodstuffs offered, not to mention the unpalatable wine.
And yet she’d still managed to bring in real musicians to give it a touch of culture. She should’ve asked them to stock up and deliver foodstuffs as well, though the way the men in the shop looked at me while Jace and I shopped made me feel like more than an untasted morsel missing from the ambassador’s table.
Even though the trip into the heart of the city terrified me more than I cared to admit, at least I wasn’t alone this time. Jace’s constant presence at my side offered a sense of protection I hadn’t had on the trip to the enforcement precinct, offering yet another reason for keeping my mech tech aboard.
But the slicks smeared all over my hands and face had me rethinking this evening’s arrangements yet again.
“How do you put up with the constant smell?” I complained. “This substance caked under your nails?”
“Stop looking at your hands,” Jace admonished under his breath as the three of us sat at the empty table in the corner of the bar and gaming house. “And quit scratching your face.”
“But it itches.”
Rylan wrinkled her nose and huffed as she adjusted the cap that hid her pale hair. And her ears. “Is she always this prissy?”
“Do you always stow away on other people’s ships?” I challenged before tapping the wrist cuff she wore. Jace had programmed it to a short digital perimeter that would cause Rylan a world of hurt if she strayed too far from where he wore the matching one beneath his shirtsleeve. “Remember, you’re here only because we’ve agreed to help you find your sister.”
The name of the buyer Rylan had discovered was apparently falsified in order to cover his true identity. We’d spent another good part of the day searching Lyandra’s databases to no avail. But the location identifier was real enough, so we were simply biding our time in the establishment to see if he’d show his face.
The table surface lit up with a dull glow as my hand rested on it, offering a variety of games for those who wished to gamble away their hard-earned credits. For the first time in my life, I could see the draw of games of chance.
The desperate would do almost anything to reach beyond the hole they’d dug for themselves – and I’d grown quite desperate over the course of the last cycle. The temptation for quick credits to line my accounts glittered before me in a siren song before anger at those who preyed upon the weak silenced its voice.
Apparently Jace had no such qualms as he input his code-in information. The advertising images dissolved into his chosen game before he picked up the digicards that materialized on the surface. Rylan didn’t hesitate as she followed suit.
Jace glanced under the rim of my low-slung hat. “Pick up your cards.”
“Are you two really going to play a game?” I glanced around the dark, smoky room at the other patrons. “I thought we were here to find Rylan’s sister.”
“It’s called blending in.”
“And try not to act so girlie,” Rylan whispered as I fingered the cards.
They gave off a low vibration as I picked them up, flickering ever so slightly as I stared in confusion at the assortment of faded blacks and reds.
“A courtesan isn’t girlie, Ryl
an. We use our womanly attributes in a myriad of ways. Training starts at a young age so that by the time we come of age, we behave like ladies born to the nobility.” I raised a brow at her grimy and hard countenance. “Training you’d sorely benefit from if you want to succeed in this universe.”
Blue eyes narrowed above the cards she held. But Jace beat her to the response. “Play your cards, and check out the group coming through the door.”
Rylan dipped her head with a tilt that allowed her to peer nonchalantly from the corner of her eye. I was impressed with her vigilant yet sly mannerism. It almost reminded me of the submissive pose drilled into a courtesan. But there was nothing sultry in the stare that raked over the group.
Her shoulders relaxed as she laid down a card, looking for all the galaxy as if she’d been staring at the table the entire time. “Not them.”
“Your turn,” Jace prodded me.
The cards in my hands were like another language. “I…I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“Doesn’t matter, since this is just for appearances.”
“Didn’t a game of chance get you into some trouble recently?” I reminded.
“Learned my lesson,” he returned. “This time I rigged it to pay for all of us, but also so that when we’re done whatever credits the winner gets will all come back to my account anyway.”
Rylan’s head jerked his way. “You can do that?”
There went that self-satisfied grin again. “There’s a lot of things I can do when it comes to tech.”
“Can you show me?”
“You planning to game your way around here?”
She shrugged. “It’s how I’ve survived everywhere I’ve been so far.”
“Sounds dangerous for a young girl,” I offered.
“It’s better than the alternative as a passagewalker.” Rylan glanced at me and snickered. “No offense.”
My blood steamed. This girl was good at getting under my skin. All it took was a sneer. Or a word. Or an insinuation.
“A courtesan is a far cry from a common passagewalker.”
She propped her elbow against the table and rested her chin in her palm, batting her eyes so innocently. “And yet you both fuck for your food.”
To think I’d felt sorry for her mere hours ago. If not for her sister, I was tempted to leave Rylan – and the headache her presence brought – on this freezing hunk of ice.
“Hey, are we gonna talk or play cards?” Jace interrupted.
She raised a pale brow my way and smirked. “I’m just trying to play cards.”
I was completely out of my element. Why had I agreed to help this foul-mouthed teen? The sooner we found her sister, the sooner we’d be free of Rylan’s snarling scowl. I shut my mouth and focused on the cards in my hand.
Within moments, the green playing field lay littered with a mess of cards, blinked out, then the table reset. A few minutes later, it did it again. And again.
After several hours of inhaling stale smoke and alternately staring at new human faces and old card faces, I still didn’t know what I was doing. But I rested in the assurance that at least my credits were not being wasted each time the girl and my mech tech went head-to-head.
If Rylan ever got ahold of Jace’s tech secrets, the Rim would never be the same. I had no delusions she’d use whatever advantage possible to scrape by and rid both friend and enemy of credits. Having her on my ship was no longer just about her age. I’d speak with Jace as soon as possible about what it’d take to upgrade the ship’s security features, because I envisioned many a sleepless day and night before she returned home.
A shame really. Even with all of the grime marring her features and her mannish fascination with all things tech and gambling, it was clear Rylan would eventually grow into a rare beauty worthy of the Courtesan Court.
At least that was my summation until anger twisted her countenance and fear again strained her whisper. “It’s him.”
I cautiously glanced around in the general direction of Rylan’s surreptitious stare. Jace’s muttered curse signaled the moment both of us realized who we were up against.
“Shit.”
He ducked his head and sunk deeper into the corner’s shadows as Sir Kranst sauntered into the room flanked by two security guards and a striking child in his arms. Those amber eyes practically glowed as he sat at a table and perched his plaything on a knee.
She couldn’t have been more than eight or nine, though Sir Kranst had her decked out in a baby-doll dress that screamed two or three. The skirt had enough lavender crinoline to hold it straight out from her thighs and offer peeks of frilly, matching panties above the close-toed flats.
Dark hair was curled in ringlets and held away from her face with a gigantic bow that emphasized the fear in her wide eyes. She was a morsel about to be fed to a mob that ogled her like a prize.
Sir Kranst ordered drinks for the house and set about playing at a table near the center of the room. His hands rested against bare leg, her shivers just as much in distress as from the cold. It didn’t take long before someone cried out to raise the stakes by offering up the child’s virtue. A pure, innocent child in the hands of men with no scruples.
My blood no longer steamed. It boiled. I pressed my hands on the table, ready to launch up and confront the bastard.
Rylan smacked her hand over mine, stopping my upward progress. “Please.”
The desperately whispered, one-word entreaty sat me back down in the chair and lowered a chin I didn’t realize had jutted out most unbecomingly.
But it did little to stem my rage. “She’s not his ward, is she?” I asked, remembering Sir Kranst at the enforcement precinct. Whatever she was, I’m sure he’d gone through channels to at least make the child’s status as a ward appear legal.
Rylan just shook her head in silence.
But I couldn’t be. I picked up my cards and squeezed, sending the digital imagery flickering as I fought to temper my outrage. “He’s buying and then using these…these children?”
She nodded this time. “It’s been a different one the last two nights.”
Nausea rolled my stomach. How many children did he have at his disposal? How many had he already sacrificed on the altar of twisted and corrupted morals?
Understanding began to dawn as I took in the pain and terror in the icy blue eyes before me. Rylan’s attitude about my business. Like others, she’d equated life as a courtesan as nothing more than the physical acts of joining. She had no comprehension of the deeper purpose served as a member of the Court. The honor of my profession. To Rylan, I was little better than Sir Kranst, peddling a fuck a night.
I closed my eyes as my insides knotted at the very idea of what these children were going through. What Rylan must think of me, and how utterly wrong she was.
But I had a chance of setting her straight – if we could just find Rika. “What about your sister?”
“I haven’t seen her around here yet,” she admitted, sadness seeping into her voice.
“How do you know he hasn’t…done something else with her then?”
Like sell her to another sick individual? Maybe Sir Kranst was only a middleman in this unholy trade of flesh. Maybe that’s why he brought them down here at night – to show off what he had waiting in his…
Oh damn. His brothel. What if that was only a front for his real business. Surely Trina would’ve shut him down if she knew.
“I…” Rylan peered up at me from beneath long lashes that hinted at the moisture seeping from her eyes. “I just know, okay?”
Something in that look triggered a memory. The long, almost white hair. The wide, icy-blue eyes. I should’ve seen it before.
The girl Kranst had picked up from the enforcement precinct. Rika and Rylan. The only differences between the two were age and a slight color variance in the depth of the blue in their eyes.
“You know, Rylan, I do believe you’re right. I think Rika is still on Lyandra.”
Tensed shoulders r
elaxed. “I just haven’t been able to figure out where this guy lives. I’ve tracked them to the same transport station every night but then lose them in the tunnel network.”
“I think I can help with that,” I admitted as the first tendrils of a plan formed in my mind. “And I’m fairly certain he’s using these children for something other than sex.”
At least for the time being. Or at least I hoped that was all he was using them for.
Hope sprang across Rylan’s face and the tears that threatened at the edges of her eyes were held in reserve. “You know who he is?”
Jace stared up at me from the depth of the shadows, a deep frown creasing his handsome features. His eyes blazed in realization as he pieced together the puzzle surrounding the events of his arrest. A slight nod signaled he understood where I was going before he pushed aside the drink the barmaid set at his elbow.
“Sir Kranst is a recent acquaintance.”
“One of your clients then?” Rylan scoffed in disgust.
“No,” I admitted, grateful I’d delayed the requested rendezvous.
I didn’t hesitate to down the bitter concoction the moment it was set near me. If I got the luck of the draw, Jace would ensure my safe return to the ship. Besides, if the surprise ended up at my elbow, I could sure use the deep sleep tonight – drugged or otherwise.
I stared through the smoky haze at my target as I slammed the empty glass on the table then swiped a rough sleeve across my mouth as if to remove Rylan’s prissy moniker.
“But he’s about to become one.”
Chapter Eighteen
The lights from the stage didn’t reach the theater’s royal box, which suited my purposes adequately as I waited for my sight to adjust. From the moment I entered, I was caught up in the dazzling array of spinning, leaping, and twirling of the acrobatic troupe as they performed feats of gravity-defying entertainments for the crowd that filled the seats below to capacity.
But oh, how I wished for the warmer clothes I’d worn earlier that night. Instead I had rushed back to the ship to change into attire more appropriate my station. Even though the building sat belowground like many of the older structures, I still felt the seeping cold along every inch of exposed skin as the attendant seated me next to Ambassador Dregas.
