by Dan Oakley
Beside my head were two highly polished boots. I looked up and saw the man who was obviously their first bounty of the day, as I was their second,
Slowly and painfully, I managed to sit up.
I regarded the man steadily, but he didn’t even seem to notice I was there. His eyes frantically flickered around the back of the wagon, not resting on anything for longer than a moment. He was well dressed but looked worse for wear. His pristine linen looked expensive, though his shirt was stained purple with wine. Gold thread was intricately embroidered around his collar.
His hair flopped forward over his forehead, and he finally stopped his gaze darting around the wagon and turned his attention to me.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Tomas,” I said. “I don’t suppose you could help take this off, could you?” I nodded down at the glowing, blue rope.
He didn’t seem to hear me. His gaze shot away again as he looked in the darkened corners of the wagon. “I can’t. If I take my attention off them for a moment, they’ll attack.”
“Attack? Who’s going to attack?”
I followed his line of sight but couldn’t see anything apart from the edges of the material secured to the base of the wagon. There was some dust, what looked like an old sack crumpled up in one corner, but nothing that looked like it might attack us.
I turned back to the man, who was now sweating. “What’s your name?” I asked.
“Cordray,” he said and lifted his hand to shake mine from long-practiced habit before remembering that his hands were cuffed together. He dropped them back into his lap. “It’s the rats,” he said. “Can’t you see them? They’re crawling over everything.”
I looked again, but there were no rats in the back of the wagon.
I paid closer attention to his appearance. His eyes were staring, sweat dripped from his brow, and his pupils were small, like pinpricks. I didn’t know what he had taken, but he was on some kind of chemical high. Though why anyone would want to take something that would make them hallucinate about rats was beyond me.
I could smell the alcohol on him too, mingling with the stale, musty smell of the transporter. It wasn’t the most pleasant fragrance. The body odor of all the other men and women who had been kept in here before us lingered.
The transporter jerked as the machine’s electric engine hummed into action.
“Do you know where they’re taking us?” I asked him.
He blinked and turned to me. “They’re taking us back to the docks. So we can arrange for the bounty payment before they release us.”
I frowned. Perhaps he was more detached from reality than he looked. There was no way we were getting released. At least, I wasn’t. They would be handing me over to the red-cloaked inquisitors.
“Are you a mage?” I asked him.
He let out a high-pitched laugh that unnerved me. “Me? No, I don’t have a magical bone in my body. You?”
“Yes, although it’s not much good when I’ve got this rope around me. Are you sure you can’t help me take it off?”
“I daren’t risk it. If I move, they’ll attack. Don’t you know anything?”
Clearly, I didn’t know much about his imaginary rats.
I stopped talking, trying to concentrate. I needed to work out a way to extract myself from this mess. Again, I pushed back against the rope. It seemed to tremble around me, but its hold didn’t weaken.
I pondered over my predicament. Just when I’d found out how to track down the mage resistance, I was caught by bounty hunters. Perhaps it was my own fault. I should have followed Draylan’s advice and hidden back in the boardinghouse. I wouldn’t be able to help Trella now; we’d probably end up as cellmates.
I closed my eyes, desperately trying to think of a way to escape.
I heard Cordray’s breathing become ragged, and then he began to shudder so hard that I felt the back of the wagon shake.
“Hey,” I said. “Calm down. It’s going to be all right.”
Even as I said the words, I knew it sounded ridiculous. There was nothing all right about this situation.
But Cordray was beginning to turn purple. He’d stopped breathing.
I tried to shuffle over a bit closer to him but could do little with my hands and arms clamped to my sides. “You need to breathe. Calm down and breathe.”
“But they’re climbing on my legs. Look at them. Look at their teeth. They’re going to eat me alive!”
He began to wail.
That drew the attention of the bounty hunters. “If you don’t shut up, I’ll come back in there and slit your throat, bounty or not.”
“Listen to me,” I said to Cordray. “I’m going to use my magic to repel them. Okay?”
He looked at me wildly, desperately. “Can you do that? Really?”
I nodded. “Of course. It’s nothing for a mage like me.”
I shuffled closer to Cordray. “Right! Here we go.”
After a second’s pause, where I could just here Cordray’s ragged breathing close to my ear as he cowered beside me, he said, “Is it working?”
“Yes,” I said. “It’s working well. Look, they’re all running away. They’re running scared. Can you see them?”
Cordray swallowed hard and blinked a couple of times before nodding slowly. “Yes, yes I can. They are. They’re leaving!”
“Yes, none of them are near you now, and it won’t be long before they’re all gone.”
“Oh, thank you. Thank you so much for doing this! How can I ever repay you?”
“Funny you should ask, if you could just help me get this rope off?”
His face was still dripping with sweat, and his eyes were wild, but he nodded. “Yes, of course.”
But as he reached for the rope, the transporter jerked to a halt.
We’d reached our destination.
Chapter 7
Cordray and I were pulled from the back of the transport wagon and, stumbling and tripping over our own feet, we were half pushed and half dragged towards a run-down, two-story house.
I took a quick look at my surroundings before I was slapped around the temple by Greasy Hair.
“Don’t even think about it, mage,” he snarled.
The street was deserted and filled with similarly run down properties. The construction material looked sound, but trash sat in piles beside the front doors, and colored paint was scrawled on the walls. I couldn’t read the language and guessed it was Marrachian.
There was no one around to witness the bounty hunters beat us for moving too slowly. Each stinging blow bruised my ribs. Instinctively, my arms flinched, but they were still firmly bound by the rope.
I looked around just before we entered the dark doorway. Surely someone was watching. I muffled a sigh. If there was a man or woman watching, how could I cry for help? In this situation, people would see me as the criminal, the bad guy.
They prodded and poked us as we made our way up a narrow staircase, past old strips of wallpaper peeling at the edges. When we reached the second floor, Greasy Hair unlocked the door to our right. We staggered inside. The old decorations were crumbling from the walls, the floor was bare and hard, and there was nothing to sit on, except uncomfortable-looking wooden stools.
As though they suspected we’d been planning something in the back of the transporter, they separated us, making us sit on separate sides of the room.
The man with the tattoo on his forehead stood between Cordray and me, regarding us suspiciously.
The greasy haired man stood by the window, keeping watch.
“Won’t be long now,” he said gleefully, tucking his greasy locks behind his ears. “Inquisitors pay on collection. As soon as we have our money, they have you, and we can say goodbye.”
“You don’t care that I’ve done nothing wrong?” I asked.
“Care?” the man with the tattoo said with a sneer. “Why should we care? You’re nothing but a dirty mage. Everybody knows mages are filled with evil, nasty tricks and
dark magic. It’s wrong. Your kind should be wiped out.”
Wiped out? If there were no mages, there would be no jump ships, and so no transport around the Kingdoms.
“You should be careful what you wish for,” I said coldly.
As every moment passed, I was experiencing more and more sympathy for the resistance. Coming up against this kind of prejudice day after day, being treated differently than the general population, was not right.
Cordray leaned forward, his head slumping over, and his hair flopping down over his eyes. He’d stopped sweating, and I thought that was a good sign. Perhaps his high was dissipating.
Maybe I’d get my chance to escape when the inquisitors arrived. With any luck, they might have to remove the rope. If they did, I’d act quickly.
“Thank you,” Cordray said.
I turned to him in surprise.
“For getting rid of the rats back there,” he said. “Whatever I’d taken obviously didn’t agree with me tonight.”
“You’re welcome,” I said. “It was nothing.”
He shook his head, but said nothing more. He looked sheepish, maybe a bit ashamed.
“Enough chatter!” Tattoo Head snapped.
Cordray turned slowly and regarded the bounty hunters through narrowed eyes. “When my man gets here, I expect you’ll give me back all the things you stole, won’t you?”
The two bounty hunters exchanged a look, and the greasy haired one began to stammer. “I… I don’t know what you mean.”
“I may have been out of it last night, but I’m not an idiot. I expect to have my gold wrist device and my gold cuff links back in my possession before my man arrives. Otherwise, it will be you looking out of a prison cell window. Is that understood?”
Cordray’s voice was low and commanding. There was no sign of the scared young man who’d sat in the back of the wagon, terrified of imaginary rats, now. He was rich. I guessed very rich, possibly powerful too, or at least someone in his family was.
Grumbling under his breath, the man with the tattoo dug around in his pocket sand produced the stolen items. He put them in a money bag and tied them back to Cordray’s belt.
Cordray watched him coolly but said nothing.
“Someone’s arrived,” the greasy-haired bounty hunter at the window said, unable to contain his excitement.
He bounced on his toes. Rubbing his hands together, he walked towards the door.
I heard footsteps on the staircase and held my breath as the bounty hunter opened the door. I was watching for the red cloaks of the inquisitors, but instead, I saw a tall, wiry man in his sixties.
His gray hair was closely cropped, and he looked disappointed as his gaze fixed on Cordray.
“Not again, Master Cordray.” He shook his head. “You’ve been missing two weeks this time. The bounty is the only way your father can get hold of you.”
Cordray nodded grimly. “Sorry, Mandelson. Terrible business. You know what I’m like. One drink and I just can’t stop.”
“I do know what you’re like, only too well, unfortunately.”
He turned back to the bounty hunters, who were practically salivating as they waited for payment. “I take it you’ve already given him back his possessions, have you?” Mandelson asked dryly.
“Of course,” Greasy Hair said, forcing a smile. “We only took them away for safekeeping. They’re back in his money pouch now.”
“Very well,” Mandelson said. “How much do we owe you?”
“A thousand credits.”
“Anonymous money transfer suitable?”
“Yes, very suitable,” the man with the tattoo said, cradling his injured arm.
“Mandelson, it’ll be two thousand credits,” Cordray said. “We’ll also be paying this gentleman’s bounty.”
Mandelson turned and regarded me with suspicion. “Well, I really don’t think that’s a good idea, Master—”
“I don’t employ you to have ideas, Mandelson. Pay it.”
Mandelson nodded, as though he were used to being ordered to pay bounties for random people by Cordray.
Tense, I watched as Mandelson agreed to pay the extra thousand and began the transfer using his wrist device.
I bit down on the inside of my cheek as I waited for the payment to go through, expecting to hear the sound of inquisitor’s boots marching up the stairs at any moment.
If luck was on my side, I could leave here and get to the Marrachi Pearl before the inquisitors showed up. Somehow, I’d have to find a way to communicate with Kira and—
“Okay, payments cleared,” the greasy haired man said. “Pleasure doing business with you.”
He held out his hand for Mandelson to shake, but the old man looked at him with distaste and turned his back.
He pointed at Cordray’s wrists. “Please uncuff and release the prisoners.”
The greasy haired man leaned down to release the cuffs on Cordray’s wrists. The man with the tattoo approached me nervously. He eyed the glowing rope around my midsection. “This one’s a mage. I don’t think it’s safe to take off his restraint.”
Mandelson raised an eyebrow. “Not so brave when your opponent isn’t incapacitated, eh?”
“It’s not that,” the man with the tattoo said. “I happen to know he’s dangerous.”
Mandelson walked away from his master to study me. “He is? He doesn’t look particularly dangerous.”
“The money is paid so release him,” Cordray said sharply.
Mandelson tapped his chin with his forefinger thoughtfully. “If this gentleman removes your restraints, do you promise to leave the premises and leave him unharmed?”
Unharmed? I had been planning to deliver a few energy bolts as soon as the rope was removed. I wanted a little payback for the bruises around my ribs.
I put on what I hoped was my best trustworthy expression and nodded. “Of course.”
As soon as Mandelson turned his back, I looked at the man with the tattoo and winked.
He gulped and approached me gingerly. Then started half-heartedly tugging at the rope. When it finally fell free, he rushed to the other side of the room, his terrified eyes fixed on me.
But there was no way I was going to risk getting revenge when so much was at stake. I needed to get out of there before the inquisitors arrived.
I held up my hand to Cordray. “Thank you so much. I don’t know how to repay you.”
“No payments necessary. You earned it.”
Together we left the room and began to walk down the stairs.
“You know, I didn’t really do anything with my magic to get rid of the rats. I couldn’t do magic with that rope around me.”
Cordray turned and smiled wryly before continuing to walk down the stairs. When we reached the street, he turned back to me. “Where is it you’re going? Can we give you a lift?”
I thought for a moment. I could head straight to the docks to find the Marrachi Pearl… or I could go back to the boardinghouse and get in touch with the others first. That made more sense. Going it alone hadn’t worked out well for me.
I nodded. “If you wouldn’t mind, I could do with going back to the mage district.”
“Not a problem,” Cordray said and pointed at a shiny, black vehicle. I’d never seen one like it. It was some kind of carriage with rubberized wheels. Its sleek engineering looked very out of place in such a tired neighborhood.
Mandelson finally made it down the stairs and out onto the street. After pressing a button on his wrist device, the vehicle’s doors opened. Mandelson got in the front, and Cordray and I sat in the back.
When the machine started, there was a gentle hum, and it felt like we were floating on air as Mandelson maneuvered the vehicle along the street.
We’d been driving for a few minutes before I began to breathe normally again. Luck had certainly been on my side today.
“I should be honest with you,” I said to Cordray. I’d been feeling guilty about accepting his offer to pay my bounty under f
alse pretenses. “There were no rats. It must have been some kind of hallucination, a reaction to whatever you’d taken.”
Cordray chuckled. “I realize that, but at the time, they seemed very real. Magic or not, you made them disappear. For that, Tomas, you have my gratitude.”
Chapter 8
Mandelson and Cordray dropped me off at the boardinghouse. After thanking them, I ran inside.
Once in the reception area, I called out a quick greeting to Madame Loren, who was sitting downstairs in front of the synthetic fire, watching a video screen. It looked like some kind of play. But I didn’t wait around. I needed to find Kira.
I took the stairs two at a time and found Kira just leaving her room.
“Tomas! I thought you’d been captured. I was just about to leave with Finn. He’s arranged for everyone to meet us at the Marrachi Pearl.”
So young Eileen had delivered my message as I’d asked. I had a lot to thank her for.
“Finn got my message then?”
Kira nodded, linked her arm through mine, and pulled me into her room.
“Just in case anyone is listening,” she said urgently. “I thought you might have gone there alone. Finn was eager to get us all together to make sure you were all right. He didn’t think we could trust the resistance.”
“I was delayed,” I said. I didn’t really want to get into it now, but figured she deserved an explanation. “I didn’t get to the Marrachi Pearl. I was waylaid by bounty hunters.”
“Bounty hunters? How did you get away?”
“My fellow prisoner was rich and kind enough to pay my bounty before the inquisitors got there. But it was a close call.”
Kira nodded thoughtfully. “It’s getting dangerous. I think Draylan was right. You need to lie low for a while. We can’t risk losing you too.”
I had no intention of lying low, but I didn’t want to upset Kira. So instead, I changed the subject. “What time are you meeting Finn?”
She tapped her comms device. “He’s arriving any minute. He said he’d borrow his father’s motorized vehicle. He’ll be glad to see you’re okay. We thought perhaps the resistance had lured you into a trap.” She frowned. “Have you considered why they want to help Trella? What’s in it for them?”
