by Maia Tanith
We are nearly at the door when a burning warg rushes us. Crazed by pain, it lunges furiously, as if killing us will take its pain away.
“Run, Faye,” I say, stepping in front of her to take the full force of the impact. “Don’t look back. Don’t wait for me.”
She pushes me aside. “You are what this place needs, not me. The planet needs you. Your people need you. You go.
Just then, the door behind us is flung open. Litha’s lover, Rodan, stands in the doorway, laser in hand. One blast, and the warg is cut neatly in two and falls smoldering to the dirt. “Get back here,” he hisses. “Run.”
With one last look at the chaos in the stadium, we both run.
“Where are we going?” Faye asks breathlessly, after we have raced through the passages and into the open ground.
Rodan huffs with the effort of keeping up. It isn’t easy running in a full guard’s uniform, weapons and all. I remember from my own training when I was young, before my uncle called a halt to it. He’d said it wasn’t necessary for the prince. I know now that strength and fighting were not skills he wanted a potential opponent to have. “The spaceport. We have a ship waiting for you,” Ronan pants.
As we leave the cover of the buildings and head off into the dusty grounds of the spaceport, a hovercraft flies in from the side, heading straight for us. The belly of the craft opens, and I see three or more guards crammed into it, weapons at the ready.
Shit. Shit shit shit. How did the guards catch up with us so quickly when the whole stadium is in an uproar? We’ll never make it.
To my surprise, Rodan changes tack and runs towards it, motioning us to do the same. The guards let down a rope ladder which sways alarming in the wind. “Quick, climb.” he yells over the noise of the engines.
There’s no time to think about it. We have to trust him. I take Faye by the waist and boost her up as high as I can. She grabs on to the ladder and scrambles up as nimble as a monkey.
Then I clamber up rather more awkwardly. My weight makes the rope sway back and forth and sets my stomach churning, but in the end I reach the opening and scramble in with relief.
“Get in,” one of the others calls to Rodan, who still has his feet planted firmly on the ground.
He shakes his head. “I can’t. I won’t. Litha is still there. I won’t leave her.”
“The Emperor will have your head.”
“He’ll have to find me first.” He gestures back at the arena from where flames can be seen shooting into the sky. Small plumes of smoke rise from all around, turning the sky hazy and dull. It seems the raptor has been shedding its burning feathers across the city and everything is burning. “He’ll have bigger things to worry about than finding a single guard who slipped his post.”
He raises a hand in goodbye. “Take care, Khan. I hope to see you again one day. And thank you, Faye, for what you did for Litha. You will always have my gratitude.”
My eyes sting from the smoke as we head off into the sky. I watch as his figure gets smaller and smaller until I cannot see it anymore.
Faye
I sit in the hovercraft holding Khan’s hand and shaking.
I’m alive.
Thanks to Litha and her lover, and all the guards in the hovercraft and probably a million others besides, we have escaped.
It is some minutes before I relax enough to look out of the window. I’ve not been outside the palace walls since I got here, except for those few moments in the pits when I was much more interested in staying alive than looking around at the scenery.
We are skimming over the ground at high speed. We are on the outskirts of the city. Grey building after grey building sitting in the red dust. No grass or trees.
Then comes the farms. Field after field planted in the same small shrub, marching across the landscape in orderly rows. Here and there a harvesting machine trundles through, denuding each shrub of every leaf.
Beside me, Khan is breathing heavily, staring out the window with almost burning intensity. “This is my planet,” he breathes quietly.
“You’re looking at it like you’ve never seen it before,” I say back with a smile.
“I haven’t.” His eyes are fixed on the harvesting machine, and as we fly over and it fades into the distance, he stares after it. “Not for a very long time.”
“You—you’ve never been out of the palace before?” It hadn’t occurred to me until now that even though he’d lived in luxury his whole life, he’d been almost as much of a prisoner as I was.
“Not since I was a child. Before my father died, I went with him to visit other towns, other cities. Sometimes farmlands.” He swallows and shakes his head slightly. “I don’t even remember when I was last out of the palace grounds.” He motions at the land below us, now a forest, with thick dark foliage that blocked any sight of what was underneath the tree branches. “It looks different. Wilder. Rougher.”
“Yeah well, I suspect that as Prince you were only taken to nice areas,” I say back. “You wouldn’t be taken around the slums, would you.”
The president of my country back on earth never visited my village. Even the top drug lords didn’t—they’d send their mercenaries or their foot soldiers to do their dirty work. No one wants to know about you when you’re poor and dirty.
“I should have visited more of my planet,” Khan whispers. “No, I will visit more. When this is over.”
He looks past me at the two soldiers. Neither of them has spoken yet, or barely looked at us except a cursory glance to make sure we weren’t on fire ourselves when we got into the ship. “Where are we going?” His voice is calm but strong and carries the resonance that you only hear from people who are accustomed to being in charge. I haven’t heard him talk like this often. Seeing the support from his people has lit a fire in him that I’d feared was never going to light.
One of them eyes Khan with distrust, “I can’t tell you,” he replies gruffly.
Khan opens his mouth to object, but the soldier cuts him off. “Your Highness, I can’t tell you what I don’t know myself.” He motions behind him at the pilot. “He’ll send out a signal at a certain location, then we’ll get a code with a new location signaled back to us. We go there, then we do it all over again until they are sure we are not being followed. Least, that’s what I’ve been told.”
A smile spreads over Khan’s face. “We’re going to join Hathik, aren’t we?”
The soldier nods.
I punch the air with delight. “We’re out of the palace and joining the rebellion. Khan, we’re really doing this,” I throw my arms around Khan and hug him tightly. Tears of joy prick at my eyes.
“Caidgrath gave me information about you,” Khan says to the soldier. “But it had few details. No names. No locations. But he said there were thousands of you. Along with hundreds of thousands of sympathizers. All over the planet.”
The soldier nods. “May his bones lay silent and still, and may his mind live on in the trees and the earth.”
Khan, the pilot and the soldier bow their heads, so I follow. It must be their version of rest in peace.
Khan clears his throat. “I should have reached out to Caidgrath sooner. He was one of the few I trusted.”
The soldier meets his eye. “I’ve been risking my life for the rebellion as a spy in the palace for a year. I thought I would have been caught and killed by now.” He wipes a dirty hand across his face. “Hell, I’ve got wrinkles from this shit. It’s not easy. None of us thought you had it in you. Except Caidgrath. He insisted we just had to wait a bit longer, and you’d come to us. All I can say is, I’m damned glad to be out of there. Your uncle is one sick bastard.”
Khan nods. There’s an accusation in the soldier’s words, even if he is too polite to voice it outright. I can feel how tense he is. I know Khan can feel it too. We both owe our lives to this group of rebels now. We need them to know they haven’t risked everything to save us for nothing.
Khan pauses for a long time before replying. “I
should have made it clearer to the palace that I stood against him. I was scared to act. I’m not scared to act anymore. Thank you for taking me out of there. I promise on the bones of my mother that I will do everything in my power to do better for this planet, whatever that might entail.”
The soldier’s expression doesn’t change. “Words are easy to speak.” His tone has softened though.
“Words are easy, and actions are hard,” Khan replies amicably. “I know words are easy to say and easier to forget about. I suspect that I will have to prove myself to you all. But know that I am ready to. For the sake of Caidgrath. And all the others my uncle has hurt.”
The soldier nods and I grip Khan’s hand tight. The soldier looks at me, his eyes boring a hole into my head. “You’re a human.”
I roll my eyes. “No shit, Sherlock.”
He doesn’t react. “You’re a human and a slave. And yet you travel with the Prince.” He has an annoying way of stating something that makes you feel like he’s asking a question.
I bristle and sit up slightly. “And do you have a problem with that?” I hiss back.
Before he can reply, Khan interrupts. “She’s a human, but she’s not a slave.”
The soldier raises an eyebrow. Khan continues. “My uncle called her slave and gave her to me. I call her my mate. Not my slave. And when he is gone, there will be no one under that roof who is called slave anymore. No one on the whole planet.”
I grin from ear to ear.
Khan leans over and kisses me gently on my forehead. “No one is ever going to call you a slave again, I promise.”
I’m too distracted by the warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach to notice what the soldier says in reply. It’s only a few minutes later that I catch him looking at us out of the corner of his eye, his expression softened, and a hint of a smile on his face.
The hovercraft heads towards a tiny patch of ground surrounded by trees in what looks like the middle of nowhere. When we get there, I see that it’s actually a tiny space port, camouflaged from above by painting the towers in patterned green and brown to break up the light and make them look like the trees that surround them.
We land as gently as a feather.
As the engine noises whine to a stop, a crowd of Kargans gathers round. The guards thrown open the door and climb down to the ground. We follow them.
The sight of Khan’s face sends a ripple through the waiting crowd. No, not a ripple. A tsunami. There is shouting and cheers all around us
A tall man Kargan strides towards us. “Caidgrath got a message to us before he was executed. I hardly dared to believe him.” He clasps Khan’s hand and draws him in for a hug. “I am glad to see you, Prince. You are exactly what we need—a beacon of hope for people to rally around. Your uncle cannot even pretend he has right on his side when you are no longer with him.”
“I have never been with him, Hathik. Just too afraid to put a step wrong and make things worse.”
“You still freed my kits under your uncle’s nose. That took courage. And I thank you for it, from the bottom of my heart.”
Khan’s face is drawn and tense at these words of praise. “They are doing okay?”
“Their bodies have healed, but my daughter’s spirit still suffers. She has nightmares.”
“I wish only that I could have freed them sooner.”
“So do we all. We had people all over the palace searching for them, trying to free them, but they were unable to. There is no reason to think you could have done any better.”
He turns to me then. “And you, human. We have a few others like you in our camp. You can come meet them. We shall talk while we eat.”
Food. Great. I am always ready to eat, and anyone who offers to feed me is my friend.
Underground. That is where they all live. It explains why we didn’t see anything from the air. Smart.
Hathik leads the way into a passage that looks like it was formed naturally by the passage an underground river. The floor has been ground smooth, but great stalactites hang from the ceiling far above my head.
I’ve never been a fan of caves. I look up at them nervously, hoping none of them fall on my head.
Khan likes caves even less than I do. He is sweating. His steps falter and his hand clasps mine so hard that it hurts.
Hathik gives him a reassuring glance as we go deeper into the earth. “It gets easier, these caves, once you’ve been in and out of them a few times. And it’s safe enough. The Emperor has not found us. As far as I know, he has never thought of looking for us here.”
He leads us into a large open underground room, bigger even that the Emperor’s great hall, but made comfortable with rugs on the floor. It’s set out with dozens of tables and chairs. “Let’s eat. I know first-hand how the Emperor treats those who have been condemned to die. You must be hungry.”
I look around for the food. And for the other humans that he promised are here. Then I hear my name called from across the room. “Faye? Faye, is it really you?”
It’s ridiculous. Not possible.
But there they are. Hannah and Delia both. Hannah is looking relaxed and happy and Delia is no longer a frightened mouse. They rush up to me with a squeal and hug me so hard that I think I am going to burst.
I step back and look at them again. Then pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming. “What happened to you? How did you get here?”
“Tossed into the Games and saved by a warrior. Taark, my mate,” Hannah says.
“I got sold to a pirate,” Delia butts in. “He’s not such a bad sort, for a pirate, that is.”
“Get off,” Hannah says with a laugh. “You adore him.”
Delia reddens a little. “Well, maybe. But don’t tell him that. I like to keep him on his toes. But what about you, Faye? How did you get here? And who is that yummy Kargan who is watching you out of the corner of his eye and pretending he isn’t.”
“Khan,” I say simply.
Hannah breathes in sharply. “You came in with Prince Khan? That Khan?”
I turn to smile at him. As Delia said, he is looking at me warily. “He’s not so bad for a prince. Considering.”
“Considering that his uncle is a psychopathic megalomaniac,” Hannah adds. “But let’s go join the others. Taark has been a ball of excitement ever since he heard the prince was coming. He wants to rush out of here and take on the Emperor single-handedly.”
“We brought plenty of weapons on our last run,” Delia says, as we make our way over to a large table. ‘Tell him to arm himself properly first.”
It seems everyone wants to talk to Khan. They push a second large table over to join the first, and then a third.
Dishes of food are passed around and I help myself to a generous portion and start eating. Hannah and Delia follow my example.
The Kargans are too busy talking to pay the food much attention.
“We have the prince. We should strike now and let our enthusiasm carry us through.”
“We don’t have the supplies in place. How long could we maintain a full-frontal attack? If we lose now, we lose everything.”
“I can run backup for supplies. No government ship will have a hope of catching me.” That’s Delia’s Azr talking. He’s comparatively slight for a Kargan, with thick black hair and a cheeky smile. I can see why she fell for him.
An older female Kargan pipes up, her face lined with worry. “We would have to leave the children behind. Unguarded. What if one of the Emperor’s scouts finds them while we are gone. We all saw what happened to Hathik’s kits when they fell into his hands.”
Her words are met with a murmur of agreement.
On and on they argue, until finally Khan stands. The others fall silent as he begins to speak. “The Emperor holds on to power with a stranglehold, but there are many who oppose him, and many more who would oppose him if they dared. If we take the palace, few of his guard will fight against us. Even fewer if we go in strong and look like we have a chance of winning.
&n
bsp; “Most of the standing army is stationed off-planet, keeping peace in the mines. They will be no threat to us. Not immediately. And if we have the Emperor and a half-dozen of his most powerful councilors in our hands, we can take control. We will control all the weapons he has stockpiled. We will control his wealth, both here and off-planet. That is all we will need to take over.
His words are met by murmurings from all those around the table. I can’t tell if they support him or not.
“The arena is burning. They set an ahlakaraptor on us in the Games, and we set fire to her to escape her claws. She flew off, shedding burning feathers as she went. By now the arena will be past saving. Who knows what else the raptor set fire to in her desperate flight?
“The time to strike is now. Now, while the Emperor is demoralized by his failure to execute me as he intended. Now, while the guards are distracted with the fire. Now, while our blood is hot, and our courage is at its peak.
“For every day that we delay, we allow the Emperor to tighten his stranglehold on the planet and drive his people further into poverty and despair. For every day that we delay, more innocents suffer. I say, we arm ourselves and go. Tonight.”
Silence.
I cross my fingers in my lap and hope.
Then Taark speaks, his words measured and strong. “We would be well advised to take advantage of the Prince’s escape and the fire. Act now, before the Emperor can prepare for the fight he must know is coming. We are ready. He is not. It makes good sense to strike now.”
Hathik stands by the Prince. “We have waited for months, some of us for years, for this day to arrive. We hoped, sometimes against hope itself, that Prince Khan who stands beside me now, would join us. We are right to fear now that this day has finally come. But we are also right to take advantage of this opportunity we have been given. Prince Khan only just escaped with his life today. The Emperor will not expect him to put his head into the jaws of the gatorgill again so soon. But if Prince Khan is ready to return, to fight for a better future for us all, I will not stand aside. I will fight at his side until the end.”