The Xillian Trilogy (The Xillian Rebellion)

by Maia Tanith

  And I’m too scared to talk now.

  They told Azr they were going to have fun with me. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to guess where that was going, what they were insinuating.

  I shudder.

  I’d go back to the pits a hundred times over if having fun with these monsters was my only other option.

  They’ve been marching me back towards the pits since they picked me up. I am so stupid. Stupid to leave Azr, when he is the thing on this planet that scares me the least. Stupid to leave him thinking I could find someone that would help. There is no one here that can help me. Or who would help me even if they could.

  The city we’re in is dying. It looks like the worst of the slums I’ve seen in photos of third world countries. There are no trees or plants. Everything is brown and earth reds and covered in a layer of dust. The sun is so large in the sky that everything seems to have an orange tinge to it. It feels like hell.

  And everyone I see has a beat down, hungry look about them. A lot of them seem to be the same kind of—thing—as Azr. Tall, more muscled than humans, with a goldish tinge to their skin. There are other—creatures—ones like the hyena men, ones that stand on two legs but are covered in green scaly skin, like a lizard. They are all so different, yet everyone we pass is dirty, and their clothes are shabby, and the ones like Azr are skinnier than him, even though he’s been sitting in a dirty cell with no food. Some look at me with interest. Others look at me from the overhangs of doorways where they sit crouched, smoking on something out of pipes, their eyes red and glazed over, as if they aren’t really seeing anything in front of them at all.

  When Azr walked off without me, I was too scared to approach any of the men or women with that glazed look in their eyes. Then I saw from the back what looked like a man in a uniform. Finally, a policeman. Or a soldier, maybe.

  I called out, asked him to help me.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid. I should have recognized the hunched over figures from the back. It was the same kind of thing that stole me away in the spaceship. The hyena men. Slavers.

  I can’t get away. All I can do is wait. Wait and hope that Azr really will come back for me.

  He will have to steal the money he needs to buy me back. I know he will.

  It’s wrong of me to want him to steal and get away with it, but what other choice is there for me? Be sent to the pits again for no reason except that I am weaker than the hyena men?

  I got lucky in the games once. I don’t want to try that luck again.

  The sun is hot, and after just a few minutes in the heat, I am dying for a drink.

  And I’m hungry.

  Really hungry.

  A gaggle of dirty-looking children are playing in the roadway. Skinny, with extended bellies. They look as hungry as I am. Hungrier. As if they never ever have a full stomach.

  They are crouched in the dirt, huddled around a small creature that looks a bit like a rabbit. One of them moves aside and lets the rabbit creature run out of the circle until it almost reaches a place to hide. Then they pounce on it and capture it again. They are not gentle, and the rabbit creature is soon bleeding from a number of scratches from their claws. It does not strike me as a kind game.

  No, it looks like a cat playing with a mouse. A whole group of cats, and one very small, frightened mouse.

  I feel rather like that mouse myself.

  Will I ever reach a place to hide? Or will fate, and the nasty hyena men, pluck me back just as I think I have reached a safe haven?

  As the day wears on, I start to doubt that Azr intends to come back for me. I am breathing so fast that I feel lightheaded. My heart is pounding away, double speed. I’m going to have a heart attack; I just know it.

  To calm my mind, I recite a mantra to myself. A therapist I saw long ago taught it to me to anchor myself in the moment and stave off a panic attack.

  Something I see. I see a patch of red dirt.

  Something I hear. The skittering of the small rabbitty creatures and the shrieks of the children as they play their cruel game.

  Something I smell. I smell the wild, gamey stink of the hyena men as they stand beside me, sweating in the hot sun.

  Something I touch. Crumbly red dirt beneath my bare feet.

  Something I taste. Nothing. I haven’t eaten in days. I lick my cracked lips. Salt. There, I can taste salt.

  My mantra doesn’t help me. It just serves to anchor me in a reality that I don’t want to accept.

  The slavers who have captured me clearly share my doubts about Azr. They begin to get restless.

  One of them scratches irritably at his armpit. “Let’s sell her and be done with her. That Kargan ain’t coming back.”

  The other frowns and kicks idly at a stone in the roadway. “If he does, he’ll give us triple what anyone else will. She’s too scrawny to be worth more than a single credit at the pits. There’s not enough fight in her.”

  “I’ve had enough of waiting around. I say sell her now. Someone will want her.” He grabs at my arm and tries to pull me away.

  I scream in pain as the other one holds tight to my other arm and barks his displeasure at his companion. “I said to wait.”

  I’m about to faint from the pain when Azr comes into view, strolling down the road, whistling jauntily. “Oh, good, you kept the little Earthling for me,” he says casually. “How much did you want for her again? One credit? Expensive, but I’ll take her.”

  There is a low hiss. “Three,” one of my captors says angrily.

  “Let’s split the difference and make it two, shall we?” He reaches into his pocket and tosses a couple of coins on to the ground at my captors’ feet.

  As quick as lightning, one of the street urchins darts in to try to grab one. My captors drop my arms and dive for the coins, knocking the little urchin to the side.

  Azr takes hold of me with a surprisingly strong grip and pulls me away. I struggle after him, running as fast as I can on terrified legs and an empty stomach.

  We are halfway down the road before the hyena men notice I am gone.

  One of them starts to lope after us, but Azr hisses at them and extends his claws. “You’ve got more than she’s worth already. Don’t push your luck.”

  He thinks better of it, and lopes away again, his whole body radiating his fury.

  I shiver. I hope I never see another one of those disgusting creatures ever again.

  Azr

  The little Earthling is delighted to see me when I rock up.

  Funny that.

  Her face lights up with relief when she sees me walking down the street towards her, almost as if she doesn’t expect me to come back for her.

  I am a man of my word. Even if I may regret giving it later on, when cool reflection tells me that I have let my enthusiasm run away with me again. If I can’t rely on my promises, I can’t rely on anything.

  I hope rescuing her will make her less grumpy with me.

  Because nothing about our situation has changed. I still have to steal a ship before I can do anything, go anywhere.

  Certainly before I have a hope of being able to take her back to Earth. Which is not going to be an easy task.

  Which brings another thought to mind. The pits. The rabid wargs.

  The pits are designed to provide entertainment to the masses. Entertainment means fighting and blood. It means slashed limbs and broken heads and guts spilling out into the sand. It means the groans of the dying.

  Our win in the pits was, as such things go, easy. Way too easy for my liking. A game is meant to be a battle to the death, and it isn’t unusual for every combatant to wind up dying in the dirt.

  When it came to my fight, though, the wargs came out strongly enough, but the longer they were in there with us, the sicker they got until even their snapping was half-hearted. The one that jumped over me was terrifying, yes, but I was weak and slow, and I still took it out.

  They were foaming at the mouth, too.

  Almost as if they were drug
ged.

  Almost as if someone had intended us to win. As if someone had made sure we would win.

  The thought gives me an uncomfortable prickling down my spine.

  The more I think about it, the surer I am that we have been let go. For a purpose that I don’t know.

  I can guess, though.

  The international anti-smuggling task force leader who had betrayed me, Lila, was furious that she had only captured me, the poor sap who had fallen in love with her. She wanted to use my infatuation with her to capture an entire fleet of freebooters, and the network of various resellers that supported us. She’d been visibly disappointed when she’d realized I was on my own.

  I ruined her plans. She’d had her eye on a career that would take her to the top, to the closest circle of the emperor's advisors. She’d wanted to make her mark on the galaxy.

  Instead, she’d only captured one lonely pirate.

  And she wasn’t happy about it.

  Maybe she had a word in the ears of the guards and instructed them to let us off easily and to make sure that we win.

  We all know that the games are rigged. It’s a foolish man who bets on them as if they were fair.

  Maybe she was considering me going free as her second bite of the apple, her second chance at a prize worth winning.

  Rounding up an entire interstellar smuggling ring would surely gain her that much-desired promotion.

  Maybe she knew I was holding something back in my interrogation.

  Still, it would be a risk to gamble her career on me for a second time.

  If she has organized my release, she still wants something from me. And she has no doubt made sure that she can get it from me.

  I scratch the back of my neck where some insect has bitten me. If I’m right, there’ll be a tracker on me somewhere. I just have to find it and send her off on a wild goose chase to another planet. Preferably to the other end of the universe.

  Delia

  My stomach is so empty that it hurts, and I would give my right arm for a drink of water.

  Azr is striding away quickly, and I have to almost run to keep up.

  After a while, I can’t keep up any longer and I stumble. Only my grip on his arm keeps me upright. “I’m very grateful and everything, that you came back to save me. But can you slow down for one second?”

  He looks back at me. Having been at his side for the past few days I know exactly how much food he’s eaten—or not eaten. I know how little sleep he’s had. I know he’s not washed with anything other than the dirty water I also used. Yet he looks so damn put together. Humans could learn a thing or two from these aliens.

  I’m well aware that in comparison I look like a cadaver that’s been dug out of a medical science experiment and rolled in the dirt, then dressed in a sack that apparently is called a dress here and thrown into a Paris runway show. And he’s the runway model.

  He quirks an eyebrow at me. “You should be grateful. I had to steal off a very pretty young woman to get the credits for your release. I’m afraid I disappointed her, in a few ways.”

  I look at him, unsure of what he means.

  “As in, she’s probably not had a customer as good looking as me before. And not only did I have to desert her before the dead was done, but I robbed her.” He shakes his head sadly.

  My mouth hangs open. “While I was stuck there with two hyena-looking monsters deciding who to sell me to, you were with a prostitute? Unbelievable.”

  Less than a day free from imprisonment and he finds himself a prostitute. Not that I’m a judgmental person usually. She’s probably only trying to survive here. From what I’ve seen, it’s a tough place to live.

  “Correction. I was entertaining the advances of a prostitute. I wasn’t with her. And I might remind you that this was all done on your behalf, to get you out of the hands of the Hyaks. After you wandered off on your own. Against my advice.”

  I look down at the ground. “I didn’t want you to rob someone to get me free.”

  He crosses his arms and looks at me in amusement. “Ah, yes, I’m aware of that. However, I don’t see you throwing the credits back at me and deciding to stay with your new friends.”

  “No,” I say in a small voice. “I suppose my ethics only stretch so far.”

  “And here I was thinking we had nothing in common.” He grins. “If you’ve had enough of a rest, I think it’s high time to get some food in our stomachs.”

  “But we have no mon-” I stop as he pats his pocket and winks.

  “Always take only what you need. No more, but more importantly, no less.” Then he turns on his heel and strides off, and I have to scramble again to catch up.

  Thankfully we don’t walk far. It’s hot, and I think I’m sunburnt, when Azr points out what he says is a bar and we head inside. The building reminds me of old cowboy movies, with uneven wooden planks, dirt floors, and a general feeling of rowdiness and testosterone. Although, I’m not sure if these aliens have testosterone. Maybe it’s called something different.

  I look around the room.

  Or maybe they just have bucketloads of the stuff.

  Every man in here looks similar to Azr, in that they are tall, muscled, with shoulders wider than my University team’s star quarterback. If I wasn’t drooling over the smell of food, I might just be drooling over the alien men.

  In the corner is a particularly rowdy table. They look as though they are playing a card game of sorts. I see coins put on the table by one player, then quickly snatched up by another. They’re gambling.

  One of the males looks up and meets my eyes from underneath a mane of yellow hair. His eyes are yellow too, with pupils like cats. Like Azr’s pupils. But not as friendly. I repress a shudder and step closer to Azr’s back.

  Azr strides through the crowded room and pulls up a stool at the bar. We’re much too close to the gambling table for me to feel comfortable but my stomach chooses that moment to growl in earnest and throw in a few excruciatingly painful hunger pangs, so I sit down and don’t complain. At least we’re seated so my back is to the group. I don’t have to meet the eyes of the scary claw man again.

  He’s saved me, and now he’s feeding me. He’s my one lifeline in this crazy planet. I can’t exactly complain about the seating arrangements.

  “A bowl of thick soup and bread for two, and a pint of your good stuff,” Azr calls out to the male behind the bar, slapping a coin down on the bench.

  The male ambles over and slides the coin up and nods. Not much of a talking type.

  I slump over the table, barely able to stay awake, but I daren’t close my eyes to rest even for a moment. Even with Azr here, I don’t feel safe.

  Azr meanwhile looks positively perky. He is quietly whistling a tune while he looks around the bar. He throws a casual arm around me. “Keep awake and keep your wits about you,” he mutters out of the corner of his mouth. “You’ll be able to rest soon. Try to look relaxed. Try to look like we haven’t just escaped from the games.”

  I sit up and rub my eyes. At this rate I’ll be physically holding them open with the cutlery on the table soon.

  It strikes me then how strange it is that their cutlery is so similar to that of Earth. It grounds me, gives me a sense of comfort in this strange place. If some things are similar, I can figure out the rest.

  When the food arrives my self-control is thrown out the window. I dig in without pause, barely taking the time to chew before I swallow each delicious mouthful. Bread never tasted this good. And the soup is hot and hearty and thick, with bits of meat and vegetables and a sort of spicy flavor I’ve never had before and can’t describe.

  As I near the end of the soup, I dip my bread in and soak up the last few drops, wiping the bowl clean. I have a stitch in my side from eating so fast. I lean back from the table and hold my side.

  “Ow. I ate too fast.”

  I look up to see Azr barely containing his mirth. He is only halfway through his own bowl and taking delicate sips from his s
poon as though he’s on a lunch date with the queen.

  If he wasn’t so damn attractive, he’d look ridiculous, eating with pristine table manners in a dirty bar, barefoot, shirtless, and smeared with dried blood and wearing rags that barely pass as pants.

  “No kidding,” he replies. “I didn’t think it was possible something of your size to inhale its weight in food in approximately seven seconds. Although on the planet of Cer there is a mammal that can stretch its stomach to be able to contain ten times its own body weight.” He sips a mouthful of soup from his spoon and considers me. “Although once it’s done that, it can’t move for a full turn while it digests, and it becomes easy for trappers to capture it. It’s a rare delicacy, or so I’ve heard. I hope you don’t need to sit here for a week while you digest your own meal.”

  Is he making fun of me?

  I don’t even care right now. I feel the best I’ve felt since I woke up in that horrible spaceship.

  I cover my mouth as I let out a small burp. “Not a week, but I could easily sleep for a whole day now.”

  “With any luck, we’ll get a spot on a ship leaving soon and you’ll be able to sleep to your heart’s content until I can drop you home.”

  I nod. Now that the food has hit my stomach and my most pressing need has been met, I can’t help thinking of what’s to come.

  He speaks so casually about taking me back to Earth, like I’m a hitchhiker for whom he needs to make a small detour. I don’t want to think about it. I’m tired, and even thinking about a way to get home seems impossible right now.

  Behind me, the card game seems to have heated up. I can hear an argument as two players vehemently discuss the order of a set of cards. “You mongrel. That’s a clearly marked deck. That card shouldn’t have been played,” one player screeches at the other.

  “Nonsense, old friend. You think I’d try something like that on an old pal? I’m wounded.” This voice is calmer, and cooler. I know without turning around that it’s the voice of the yellow eyed man, the one who scares me.