Oh, how I loved that bossy little Zarthian.
So I relayed our botched grocery run in detail. When I got to the part where I identified the attackers as inquisitors, Amara had the same sharp reaction as Jax, El, and Jinx. Well, not quite the same as Jinx. She still hadn’t said a word.
“So yeah, that’s what happened,” I said, shrugging. I sighed. Felt the weight of having to protect my growing crew on my shoulders again. “Any theories?”
Pivek stepped forward.
‘None of us are wanted in Torgoran space,’ he signed, since his people communicated at a frequency that we others couldn’t hear. ‘Unless someone has a secret life we don’t know about.’
I translated for those who didn’t know Galactic Standard Sign Language—namely our resident Elarri El and Ravyan, who’d never so much as left the capital city let alone the planet until we came around.
K, who didn’t speak much on principle, shook his head. “Torgoran inquisitors wouldn’t come after someone with a simple bounty. They only go after direct threats to the monarchy.”
Amara’s eyes briefly found mine. I put my hands up. “Don’t look at me. I cheat and steal from mob bosses and corrupt noblemen, but I draw the line at tyrannical kings that control whole armadas.”
“I don’t think you have a line, Yan.”
I shrugged. “Let’s not find out, love.”
El stepped forward, her eyes on Jax, eyebrow raised. “Weren’t you part of the Torgoran Resistance, Jax? Maybe they were after you.”
He sat at the central table, chin on his folded hands as he stared at the table in silence. It took him a moment before he answered. He clearly had a lot on his mind. This affected him and Jinx greatly.
“I was,” he said. “But I’m not one of the generals. I’m a field operative mostly in charge of acquiring assets, as well as hurting money lines to the crown, like the Elexaes.”
I crossed my arms and kicked my feet up. “But they could be after you, right? You were in Elexae custody, and you just said that Xarren had dealings with Tarvath, so he could have figured out who you were and reported you.”
He shrugged. “It’s possible, yes. Still, I wouldn’t consider myself a big enough fish to fry for a squad of inquisitors.”
“Well, still,” Amara added, “You seem to be the primary target if we had to guess.”
‘What about you, Amara?’ Pivek asked. ‘You were part of resistance groups in the past, amongst several of the Free Systems.’
She nodded. “I was, but I was never directly involved with the Torgoran Resistance, though I have a couple of old contacts inside it. Doubt it’s me.”
I sat back and frowned, puzzling over this situation. This was a real jam. It was bad enough that several of us were wanted by a lot of governments for theft, resisting arrest, and a laundry list of other things, but we were still hunted by the Elexaes, and now the Torgoran Inquisitors. Saints, could we catch a break?
Rayvan cleared her throat. “What about Jinx? She’s Torgoran, could they have a reason to target her?”
Jinx said nothing to this, though she did look up at us for a second. It looked like she was seeing ghosts. Jax jumped to her defense very fast.
“No!” He cleared his throat. “She’s not a part of the resistance. She’s a runaway slave, but that’s ancient history, and they wouldn’t send inquisitors after her. She wasn’t the target.”
My eyes narrowed as I watched him. He’d come to her aid fast, and he sounded defensive. Like he knew something. He was probably telling the truth, as I couldn’t imagine why they would be after Jinx, but still, it was rather suspicious. I had the feeling that our friend wasn’t telling us something.
Before I could call him out on it, K asked a very important question. “Something bothers me. How did they find us?”
That sucked the air out of the room. It was something I hadn’t even thought of yet, but he was right. It couldn’t have been a coincidence. Had they tracked us? Followed us? Did someone sell us out? We’d swept the Diego and Sanara several times for trackers, so I doubted it. And we’d been here for over a month, so why now? They’d had so many opportunities to catch us earlier. Something didn’t add up.
This was just as important as who they were targeting. If they knew we were here, then we’d have to leave. And after I worked so hard to put up the perimeter sensors.
As distressing a thought as it was, silence hung over us as we came to the realization that we probably needed to leave now. Sure, I hadn’t expected to stay here forever. I wanted to eventually go see where Rago had moved my family, and if Jinx still had her goal of being a slave-freeing pirate, then I’d gladly follow her on that mission. That being said, I’d hoped we could enjoy this vacation a little while longer.
But good things never lasted, did they?
Jinx got up abruptly and walked out of the room. There was a tension about her, an aura of pain that radiated off her. This whole ordeal weighed heavily on her. We didn’t talk much about her past as a slave, for obvious reasons, but we talked even less about her people, her family and loved ones. If she had relatives out there, she didn’t let it be known.
We all looked after her as the door shut behind her. Jax looked stricken, as if he knew exactly what she was going through. I supposed that he did. They’d been slaves together, grew up together, endured the same pains, the same hardships, before he was taken away from her and sold to another.
If I hadn’t been caught by Xarren, betrayed by one of my best friends, I never would have met Jax. And Jinx never would have got her friend back. That whole series of events was emotionally and physically draining, but silver lining and whatnot. Some good came out of it.
Jinx needed me, needed us, to help her through this. The king was either after her or Jax, though if it was her, I had no idea why. Jax still seemed like he knew something he wasn’t sharing, but if Jinx knew, she’d tell me.
I got up and followed her out. If anyone could make her feel better, it was me.
4
Jinx
I rushed out of the building and into the cool evening. The air kissed my skin and was soothing compared to the heat of midday. And the heat of battle. I sat on a bench right outside and looked at my hands. They shook, had been shaking all day. I killed that man. Killed him. And a Torgoran!
Tears came to my eyes.
Life was supposed to get easier. We’d escaped Xarren. Friends all together, alive and well. Yan’s family, safe and sound and out of the Elexaes’ clutches. Our futures bright and laid out before us. I was going to be a pirate, freeing slaves across the stars. I didn’t know how, how I would start and what I would do, but that was the plan. Yan would be by my side and Materelle willing, Jax and Amara and all the others.
But that was all wrecked now, because we were the hunted again. True, Xarren Elexae was likely still out there, and he’d be after us, but it was entirely a different matter to be hunted by King Tarvath and his inquisitors.
When I was a slave, the older slaves would tell stories of the coup and of what Tarvath would do. Some of them had lived under his reign as free Torgorans for a few years before they became shackled. The things they told of, the public executions and the tortures, the screams that could be heard nightly, the floggings and all the other terrible things. He was a monster, a devil, and he had absolute power over the Torgoran people.
Somehow, there were plenty of my people who loved him—because he brought back Torgoran military might, a callback to our ancient roots as a warrior people. That was millennia ago. As a part of the galactic community, we’d mostly been a peaceful people, open to all, friendly to all. But some didn’t like that. Tarvath didn’t like that, didn’t like the treaties the previous king and queen had signed, so he took over, killed the royal family, and executed many throughout the old regime. People who dissented were executed or sold as slaves. The poorest who couldn’t pay off their taxes were sold into slavery as well, which were many.
That was my story, or so
I assumed. All my memories, aside from a few snippets of my parents, were of slavery. I was born free, but since the age of three, I’d been in bondage. I was raised by my fellow slaves, not by my parents. If they were even alive out there, I didn’t know.
This tyrant, this monster that destroyed my people, was after us, after me or Jax or Yan or who knew why or who, but we were in his crosshairs, and that was terrifying.
A small part of me knew that we would cross swords eventually, that I would catch the ire of the tyrant of Torgor. If I did indeed go on to free slaves, it was inevitable that I’d run afoul of Torgoran slavers. This was an inevitability really, but I’d hoped by then I would be prepared, seasoned as a fighter and a leader. Now? That wasn’t the case.
I could barely manage to be in a firefight without shaking.
I could hardly kill without wanting to cry, even if my victim deserved it, even if it was just self-defense.
“Hey, Jinx,” said a voice behind me. I jolted. They chuckled. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Yan. I tried to smile and laugh off my fear.
“Sorry,” I said, wiping my tears. “I was deep in thought. I’m a— I’m a little shook-up right now.”
“Yeah, I bet.” Yan came and sat beside me. There wasn’t a lot of room on the bench, so we were pressed together, shoulder to shoulder, leg to leg. He radiated warmth, and it made me smile.
“Do you wanna talk about it?”
I wiped the rest of my tears and swallowed hard. “Not particularly.”
He nodded. “I’m sorry about all of this. I… I thought we were safe.”
“Don’t be. It isn’t your fault.” I looked at him and snaked my fingers through his. “You make me feel safer than any remote homestead ever could.”
He smiled, his cheeks flushing noticeably. “I’m… I’m glad you feel that way.”
It was the truth. The amount of pain we’d both been through was more than most people could bear. There weren’t many points in my life that I was happy, but my years with Yan had been the happiest times of my life, filled with true joy, love, and friendship. Could Yan protect me physically from all the horrors of the galaxy? Probably not, but he made everything better, and that was all that really mattered.
He succeeded in making me feel a bit better, but being the talky idiot that he was, he had to ruin it with his next question.
“Do you know why King Tarvath could be after you? It’s obvious why he may be after Jax, but for you, it makes no sense.”
I sighed and hugged my knees to my chest, resting my chin on top. “I don’t know, Yan. Maybe he’s trying to catch every slave that’s ever escaped? Seems like a daunting task, but he’s mad enough to try it. Otherwise, I have no idea. I’m nothing special.” It was a fair question, one that we desperately needed an answer for, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. I would like to have been able to crawl in a hole and hide from this nonsense, but that wasn’t going to happen.
Yan smirked. “Well, that’s not entirely true.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere, sir.”
“It seems to get me a lot of places, actually.” He turned to me, his eyes alight and warm. He put his forehead against mine. He closed his eyes and breathed me in. I did the same, my cheeks turning a furious shade of red.
“I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise. Tarvath will not have you.”
Though I appreciated the sentiment, some things were beyond his control.
“Don’t make promises you cannot keep,” I whispered back.
“Maybe you’re right, but I will keep this one.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay.”
He smiled and looked off at the sky. The sun had set, but the horizon was still painted in a brilliant and blazing orange, though it would soon plunge into darkness. This was a beautiful, serene planet, one that I would have loved to stay on longer, but given the events of the day, we’d have to leave soon.
Yan stood and stretched. “I’m gonna head back in, help with dinner, maybe start making plans to leave. You coming?”
“No, I’m going to stay out for a while. I want to think.”
He nodded, understanding. “Okay. Well, you know where to find me.” With that, he disappeared inside.
I stayed out there for hours after. I didn’t go in for dinner because my appetite was shot. Yan and a few others came to check on me, but I was fine and honestly just wanted to be alone. They could all appreciate that.
When the moons were high in the sky and bugs chirped loudly, a din across the savannah, the door whooshed open behind me.
“I’ll come in in a bit, Yan,” I called without looking back.
“I’ll be sure to let him know,” said Jax in response.
I turned around to face him, my cheeks a tad red from embarrassment.
“Hey, what do you want?” I tucked a loose strand of my hair behind my ears, trying to cover my face. Though it was dark and he probably wouldn’t notice anyway, there was enough light outside to see by, and the moons glowed gold above.
“Just checking on you,” he replied. “I know you’ve heard the stories about Tarvath. Wanted to make sure you weren’t spooked.” He came and stood before me with his arms crossed.
“Should I be spooked?”
“Yes,” he said bluntly. “He’s everything you’ve heard and worse. I’ve gone on missions to retrieve some of our agents from prisons and work camps.” Jax pursed his lips and shook his head. “It’s horrific what he does to people. He has no concern for sapient life. Everything and everyone are just pawns, a tool for him to get what he wants. He’d destroy whole worlds if he could.”
I gulped. “Materelle preserve us. Let’s pray that he doesn’t have that capability.”
“Well, if he did, he’d have a lot more than the resistance to contend with. The Free Systems, the Elarri, the Hegemony, they’d all go after him.”
“In that case, maybe we should leak to them some information that he does have it. Maybe they’ll take him out for us.”
Jax laughed. “If only it were that simple.”
Yeah. If only.
We stayed silent for a minute as we watched the stars. Occasionally, lights streaked across the sky, ships coming in and out of orbit, some using solar slings and boom tubes to get around the planet and to other extrasolar bodies. The skies were like this on most habited worlds, though on a remote world like this, it was a lot more muted.
“I think I’m going to have to leave soon, Jinx,” Jax said suddenly.
My eyes snapped to his. He was still looking at the stars. “What? Why?”
“This whole thing with Tarvath and the inquisitors, it’s reminded me that I have a fight to fight. I’ve been MIA for too long.”
I stood. “So, what? You just show up back in my life and then leave? So you can go get killed fighting a tyrant that can’t be beat?”
He chuckled at that. “He’s not invincible.” He put his arms behind his head. “I was always going to leave. I was only with you because Yan and I were both captured by the Elexaes. I’m grateful to have been able to see you again, but I do have a life to get back to.”
I knew he was right. It was unfair of me to expect any different. Same with Rayvan and Beleak and some of the others. They all had lives, pasts, loved ones, goals. We might all go our separate ways. But I would still be mad about it. I crossed my arms and turned my back on him, trying to keep my emotions in check.
“Fine. Good luck with everything.”
“Jinx.” I didn’t answer. He came behind me and turned me to face him. “It doesn’t have to be good-bye.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Come with me. Help me fight. You shouldn’t stay here. It isn’t safe and you could do so much more with your life.”
That was not the answer I was expecting. My mouth fell open, but I couldn’t find anything to say. I appreciated the thought of what he was saying, but that life wasn’t for me. Being a revolutionary wasn’t what I wanted.
Yes. This was going against the devil of Torgor. I couldn’t risk my friends with that. And if they didn’t want to come, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to leave them so easily.
“I’m sorry. I can’t. I couldn’t leave my friends or ask them to join in such an endeavor.”
He grimaced and looked to the ground. He looked utterly defeated, and I hated to see him in such a state. Jax was someone who was always strong and defiant, even when we were slaves. I had no doubt that he would put up the best fight against Tarvath, but that wasn’t what I wanted. At least, not yet. Maybe I’d get there one day, and when I did, I would reach out for him. I hoped that then he would take it.
“I’m sorry, Jinx,” he said suddenly.
I frowned. “W-why? You didn’t do—”
And then Jax came upon me, arms wrapped around me violently. One forearm around my throat and collar, keeping me still. I struggled, confused and hurt by this sudden attack. What was happening?! Before I could truly fight back and comprehend what was happening, his other hand brought a small black vial to my nose. An acrid odor spewed forth, filling my nose and choking me.
It took seconds for the effects to kick in. I saw black and fell into an abyss, a silent scream escaping my throat.
5
Jinx
My mind was a dizzy haze when I came to. I didn’t remember going to bed. In fact, I didn’t remember anything after I went outside and Jax came and…and…
Alarm bells went off in my head.
I focused. I was in a dark room, but the light was dim enough to see that it was probably a ship of some kind. Low angled metal walls and ceiling. Wiring above me. A soft whirring in the distance that told me we’d gone to jump.
Only problem, this wasn’t the Sanara or the Diego.
I was on my back, arms flat at my side. I tried to move, but I couldn’t. My heart raced and my chest constricted. Something held me down. Straps at my ankles, thighs, waist, chest, and neck. Tied down completely. Which just made me panic even more and made me gasp for air. I didn’t like this…this trapped feeling. Never had. Being confined set me off. Took my breath away and made me want to die.
The Torgoran Revolt (Plundering the Stars Book 3) Page 3
