“There will be a river ahead soon,” said Raquel. “I’d like to break there and top up our canteens, but we’ll have to approach it carefully. It’s the only fresh water for quite a distance, so we’ll need to be careful and not hang around.”
“Are there people out here we need to avoid?” I asked.
“Among other things, yes,” she said.
We walked on for a while longer until she gave the signal to stop. I reached out to place my bare hand on a tree and stretched my mind through it. “I see the river. On the far bank some people are drinking; they look like Zalionians but smaller, closer to human size.”
“How many?” asked Raquel.
“Six, all armed with swords and shields. They don’t appear to be very attentive to the area around them.”
“They aren’t Zalionians, and they are trouble. We’ll head downstream to the bend. That should place us out of sight,” she said.
We turned off the game path she had been leading us down and slowly made our way through the bushes until she felt we had gone far enough and turned back towards the river. “What do you see?” she asked.
Using the trees again, I reached out and looked around. “We are at the bend and just past the bend looks clear, but the trees are uncomfortable, so we’d better be careful.”
“Spread out, but keep visual contact with everyone. If there is a trap, it’s better if at least one of us is far enough away to avoid it,” she said.
“How dangerous is this place?” I asked.
“Dangerous enough,” she said and moved off.
Looking back, I saw Shira shrug. She said, “Really, do we ever go on safe trips?”
I had to concede that point and set off after Raquel. She made it to the river without incident and quickly filled her canteen. I kept Shira back in the woods and waited to see if anything would happen. Just when I assumed I’d misread the trees, several of the miniature Zalionian-looking creatures jumped out of the water and reached for Raquel.
Chapter Nine
“Felix, are you sure about this?” sent Crivreen privately as I packed my gear and headed to the airlock.
“Yeah,” I sent back. “The wizards bought my freedom. I can return to the life I had before all this started.”
“I thought you said, ‘What’s done cannot be undone,’ and all that?” he asked.
“Let’s just say it’s time to test that theory.” The airlock finished its cycle and I walked onto the station. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”
“Then let me come with you,” he sent.
“No, you have a great thing going there. Stick with Zah’rak and you’ll do well,” I sent and then cut off the communication. Sadness set in as I watched them undock and launch. I assumed that meant that they were going to take up Raquel’s offer. I hoped that was true; it was the best thing they could do. Joining the Wizard Kingdom would give them support and a cause to fight for. That’s what they needed more than anything. This wandering around doing the bidding of the government paid well, but it wasn’t a good life; it was too limited, with no opportunity to stretch and grow.
The first order of business was to ditch my Felix identity and return to my real self. I went down to a less respectable section of the station and withdrew all my money as credit sticks. I slipped into a public bathroom which was thankfully empty and changed my clothes, altered my hair and eye color, pulled the fake skin from my hands, and removed the contact lenses that I had been using for years to fool sensors.
After removing all my cosmetics, I looked into the mirror and forced myself to concentrate on what I really looked like. I chanted the slow verse that I used to help focus my mind on the task of picturing my real self. It was hard and a little painful, but slowly my skin darkened to an off-blue shade, my ears grew and changed shape, fanning out, my hair grew darker and longer, and my voice changed slightly. Within moments I looked completely different. Anyone who had seen me walk into the rest room would never recognize me on the way out, even if they used biometric scanners.
I knew from testing that even my DNA shifted slightly when I made these changes. The fake skin on my hands and the contact lenses allowed me the option of altering my appearance without having to go through the ordeal of changing my base identity, but a full change meant that there would be no way to connect Felix to my real self. In any way that mattered he just ceased to exist, and if Lady Luck smiled on me he would never rise again.
I took a few minutes to breathe deeply, steadying myself after the effort. It was painful and tiring, but it was the only way I could walk away from this life. I had considered doing this when I was on the run from the Assassin’s Guild, but Crivreen had needed me. Now that Crivreen was safe I could leave it all behind.
I doubted if Raquel really understood how much the gift had freed me. For the first time in longer than I could remember, I was my own man. All my debts were paid off, and with Felix gone I could finally make a run at the life I had dreamed about since I was a child.
Once I had packed everything used to create Felix’s identity into a separate bag, I left the bathroom and headed for a recycling center. I tossed the whole bag directly into the recycling vat and watched to make sure it had been completely broken down into its raw materials. There would be no undoing that destruction. Farewell, Felix. It’s been fun.
Once I was sure that all connection between myself and Felix was gone, I headed to the travel hub. I needed to find a way off the station without leaving any trace that I’d been here. It would be best if I were far from here before my real ID was scanned for the first time.
The hub was busy with crews refitting ships and various people looking for work. I knew that if I hung around with the rest of the job seekers I would eventually get something, but I was looking for a slightly higher caliber of work than that which the random pool of workers would obtain.
I passed by all the smaller ships; they would have much fewer crew members and it would be harder to blend in and coast out of this region.
As I continued through the hubs, I finally came across what looked like the perfect opportunity: a large luxury liner which was being loaded with supplies. The crew near one end was yelling back and forth, trying to get some robotic equipment to work and failing miserably. It was the perfect setup for me to step in and be the hero they didn’t know they were looking for and didn’t particularly want.
“Need a hand?” I asked as I walked over. I knew they’d say ‘no,’ and had already planned not to accept that answer. I had already been covertly looking over their machines and selecting one that looked easy to repair so that I could impress them by walking up and fixing one, seemingly at random.
“We’re busy, move along,” said one of them.
I ignored them and moved to the robot that I figured was the best target for my plan. I knew I was pushing my luck. Workers like these could be a rough lot, and I wasn’t a match for them physically. “Mark III? Not exactly the quality of machine I would expect.”
They looked at each other and one said, “Perhaps you didn’t hear –”
“Looks like the secondary servo under the left tire is dragging on the belt. That’s causing it to heat up and fail,” I said.
“You know how to fix it?” a smaller man said as he pushed to the front.
“I’m a certified level three technician, but have done my share of level four,” I said. That was not entirely true: Felix was certified, I was not, but I didn’t figure that really mattered. If all went well they wouldn’t ask for any proof. I would have to recertify myself as soon as I could manage it if I really wanted to make my dream happen. This time, I wouldn’t skimp on the prep and would go for my master repair certification.
“Yeah, right!” said one of the men. Several of the others laughed or made similar comments. Some of them noted my race and made rude comments about my ears. I had forgotten how much prejudice I used to face. My people were not known for being smart, but
it was a reputation unfairly earned.
“He’s just wasting our time,” said another.
“You weren’t exactly making any progress before I arrived.” I grabbed some of their tools and went to work on the unit in question. The men started to move to stop me, but the smaller man gestured for them to step back. It took about twenty minutes but I soon had the problem fixed. My original diagnosis was correct, so all I really had to do was take the drive train apart and put it back together properly. The repair was simple but looked impressive.
“There,” I said. “It needs some more work before I could call it ‘good as new,’ but it should get you through loading now.”
One of the men activated the robot worker’s control interface and gave it commands. It efficiently went about its work as designed.
“What’s your name, mister?” asked the small man.
I caught myself just in time before I said ‘Felix’ and told him, “Purwryn.”
“Can you service all of these?” he asked, waving his hand towards a pile of disabled machines.
“Yes, for a price,” I said.
“And that would be?” he asked.
“Food and passage out of here, with no questions,” I said. Ships like this liner needed large crews and were away from their homeport for many years at a time. They often picked up strays and discarded them along the way. It kept costs down and kept their crew fresh. Very few would be permanent members and most would come and go from port to port. This was of course illegal, but the law was rarely enforced. The government was more concerned with the tax money coming from these cruise liners than with tracking down drifters.
He stuck out his hand and said, “Deal.”
I shook his hand and went to work on the remaining robots. The rest of the crew was skeptical for a while, but as more and more of their robots returned to functional status they warmed up to me. It was as I had expected. These were working men and women; they cared little for talking or boasting and were more convinced by actions than words.
It took several days to get the liner loaded with gear and to perform the maintenance that the massive vessel needed, during which time I lived on the vessel and worked on all of the ship’s robotics. They had a virtual army of robots to maintain the large vessel and it seemed that some were always breaking down. There would be no shortage of work for me on this trip.
On the fourth day since leaving Zah’rak’s team, I finally left the station on the liner. It was a Resden-chartered vacation cruise liner headed to the Phineary region, which was perfect. I could finally start over with no ties to my past. I dreamed of setting up a small robotics repair shop in a high-class town where fine dining and entertainment were readily available. After years of living in the underground, I wanted out and I wanted it badly.
The trip through the first jump was uneventful. Thanks to my skill at robotics, I was becoming well-liked by more and more crew members as time went on. I bartered priority order on my repair list for favors and special treatment. The kitchen staff let me eat the food that was normally reserved for the paying customers, and in general the staff treated me like royalty. It felt good to be wanted and liked. All I had to do was stay out of trouble for a few months and I was home free. That should be easy; the Paradise was, after all, a high-class vacation cruise liner and not a war ship or pirate vessel like so many of my previous stations.
The liner was massive and could cover great distances in a single jump, but took days between jumps to recharge the drives. During one of these recharge times, I was relaxing in my quarters looking at a movie on my computer terminal when a man appeared in my room.
Instinctively I sprang to my feet and jumped away from him. He was dressed in body armor which appeared almost liquid in texture. The armor moved with him as if it were a second skin. His steel-grey eyes seemed to bore right through me and threatened to drain my will even to stay upright.
“Who are you?” I demanded.
“Come with me,” he said.
“No!” I said. “Get out of my room!” There was something about him that sent icy fear through my veins. It wasn’t logical, but I had no time to question that feeling just then. My mind searched frantically for options. All of my weapons were securely hidden, so there was no way to retrieve them without giving him plenty of time to stop me.
“My master wants to speak with you,” he said emotionlessly. “You will come with me.”
I decided I had to risk blowing my cover and exposing myself as a magus. As fast as I could, I cast my mage bolts, sending fire towards him. He didn’t even flinch as the bolts came his way but to my horror he seemed to absorb them, completely and effortlessly.
“Very well,” he said, raising his hands and pointing at me.
I threw a shield wall between us just as a beam of energy left his hands and headed towards me. The wall held, but I knew it couldn’t take much more. I wrapped myself in as much protection as I could and teleported behind him.
Before he could turn I cast a mage bolt again, this time aiming at his back, but he absorbed this also. He turned to fire his beam weapon again, but I switched tactics and used telekinesis to throw a table at him. It caught him off guard and sent him flying into the wall.
While he was still down, I ran out the door into the hallway where several crew members were talking. Before I could shout at them to run, the stranger came out of my room and fired another bolt at me.
This one hit me square in the back and my shielding absorbed most of the energy, but the force of the impact knocked me down. I hit the deck hard. Yelling in pain, I started to get up and saw the men running for cover. Then another bolt hit me, and my world faded from red to black.
Chapter Ten
“Zah’rak, wait!” sent Shira as I started to get up and run to Raquel’s aid.
Down by the river, the lizard creatures were about to grab Raquel when she disappeared.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Look across the river, up on the bank,” sent Shira. There was Raquel, just where Shira had indicated. “She’s a traveler, like myself. They’ll never catch her.”
“Zah’rak, Shira, head downstream until you find a place to cross unseen, then turn back so that the setting sun is behind your right shoulder. I’ll catch you up soon, after I’ve led these away,” sent Raquel.
The lizards had swum back across the river and were heading up the bank towards her. They were not much bigger than humans and looked no more dangerous. I couldn’t see why Raquel was so worried. “But there are only three of them,” I protested.
“Go,” she sent. “This is their woods and soon we will be vastly outnumbered.”
“Okay,” I replied.
Shira and I fell back a bit deeper into the woods and slowly made our way downstream. “Do you think she’ll be okay?” I sent.
“Yes, she’s a traveler,” Shira sent. She said that as if I should know what she meant and be comforted by it. I decided not to question it right then, as it was good to keep a positive tone. Besides, if Raquel was lost there was nothing to do but go home, and I didn’t want to do that just then.
We stopped and I made use of the trees to see the river. “Looks clear here. Let’s take some water and cross quickly.” We turned toward the river and as we came out I sent, “You top up the canteens, and I’ll keep watch.”
She moved to the riverbank and I followed her, tasting the air with my tongue and sweeping the vicinity with my eyes. The river was deep and appeared to have a strong current. Tree limbs, leaves and other forest debris went floating by at a good speed, but there was no sign of trouble.
The strength of the current made it unlikely that there would be anyone hiding in the river, but if the small lizards were amphibious they might be able to arrive quickly, using the current to cover their movements. That was probably how they’d surprised Raquel earlier.
“Okay, that’s done,” she sent and then teleported across the river.
>
I joined her on the other side and we slipped back into the woods. “What do you mean by: ‘she’s a traveler’?”
“It appears that her primary spell line, the one we’ve seen her use, is dimensional, just like mine,” she sent.
“Okay, but what does that mean?” I sent.
“Well, as an elite traveler she can always get away,” she sent.
“You weren’t able to get away from us,” I sent. When she was still a slave to the necromancer and under his complete control, we had trapped and captured her. Ragnar had used some of his runes to put her to sleep, and we kept her in stasis until we could remove her slave implants. It was a gamble; she might have run right back to her old master, but it had paid off.
“I’d hardly call myself an elite magus,” she sent.
I suspected she was underestimating herself quite a bit, but I didn’t know what justified the title ‘elite.’ Raquel was by far the most powerful magus among us, but I suspected Shira could easily take the number two spot if put to the test.
We traveled on for a while without talking, using the sun as our guide. Eventually we came out of the forest into a large clearing. This stretched out for quite a distance, but in the direction we were heading it slowly turned into rolling hills.
I had started to speak when I heard something behind us. I turned and saw a green hand emerging from some bushes, reaching for Shira.
I caught that hand, pulled it out of the bushes and threw it to the side. It belonged to one of those small Zalionian-looking creatures. He went tumbling and sliding across the ground, too surprised by my action to catch himself.
Shira teleported away from the forest into the clearing as another one of those creatures came out of the forest. This one had a sword and came at me. I drew my own swords and easily parried his first attack.
“Behind you!” yelled Shira.
The lizard I had thrown was charging towards me with his own weapons. I couldn’t disengage from the lizard who was pressing his attack in front of me, so I let the one behind me get close, then used my tail as a whip and spun around quickly.
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