by Ciara Knight
I half chuckled. “You do know him.”
We stared at each other with knowing eyes, like we shared some sort of experience.
“You two have nothing in common. Trick, that’s what it is,” Ryder barked.
“You never no mind.” Dred shot him a glance. “He still be livin’ then?”
“Yeah.”
“How? I gutted him like a sermechtapede f’r breakfast.”
The thought of eating one of those creatures churned my stomach. “So, that’s why he’s got the chest plate. You did that?”
Ryder scowled. “You know it’s a trick.”
Dred ignored Ryder. “Yep.”
“I like your work.” Yards of material swayed as I glided to the cell door.
“Ah, ya flatter me. I should’ve made sure he be dead. How you know the General?”
I froze. Did I tell him the truth and risk our lives. I searched his eyes for an inclination, and saw a man of honor, someone who shared a hatred for the same enemy. “I’m betrothed to him.”
“Ya what?”
“Po ǵavolite.” Ryder ran to the bars. “Nothing, it doesn’t matter.”
“It’s all right, Ryder. I was ordered by my mother to marry him. I chose to run away and join the rebellion instead. Please, you have to help us. The queen has cut off trade, declared you enemies of the council, and enslaved your people. Don’t you want to fight back?”
“You’re the princess.” He stumbled back. “Princess Semara?”
“Sranje!” Ryder grunted. “Dang woman never listens.”
Dred smiled. “Scavengers have ‘eir own way of rebellin’.”
Ryder’s hands froze against the metal. “No. You can’t.”
Dred shot him a sideways glance. “Kill the rulin’ class. Startin’ with the queen and princess.”
“You what?” My hands shook. Raeth hummed and rocked faster with her palms pressed to her ears.
That was why Ryder had warned me to keep my secret no matter what. He knew, but why didn’t he tell me?
Ryder pressed his fingers to his temple and I knew he’d lost control of his powers again. The pain was etched in the blue lines crossing his face like a web.
“Why’d the general give you those wounds if ya gonna marry him?” Dred asked.
Ryder was in no shape to fight. It was up to me. “I’m not like them. I am a Neumarian.”
“How can that be? You be the princess of the Slags. Heartless wench who sacrifices people for the fun of it.”
“No.” I reached through the bars and clutched Dred’s callused brown hand, ignoring Ryder’s groan. I had to maintain control of my own powers and watching him suffer only made it worse.
“I was imprisoned because I wouldn’t sacrifice a Neumarian.” I gestured to Raeth. “The queen ordered total Slag conversion and gave me to the general. The world thought as a wife, but in secret I…I was supposed to be,” my throat burned at the words, “his slave.”
Dred squeezed my hand. He understood. His orange eyes showed compassion.
The ship shifted and he pulled away. His forehead glistened from the gold piercings. “How I know what ya say be true? Ya could be plannin’ on takin’ the ship. How I even know ya have such powers?”
“If you could get the Neumarian not to kill me each time I tried to use my gift, I could show you.”
“Lies. Ya be speakin’ lies to me.” Dred shook his head and the long locks swayed across his muscular back and shoulders.
“We both have his mark, Dred. You know I speak the truth.”
“If ya were imprisoned, how’d ya make it here?”
“Ryder rescued me.” My chest warmed at the sight of the small smile that creased Ryder’s lips. I wanted to hold him in my arms again and make the world go away. Make him understand what I’d done. Maybe if I showed him that the Neumarian really had no choice and I got them out of this mess, he’d forgive me.
Dred glared at Ryder. “Why’d ya do that?”
“Sister demanded I save her. Most likely I wouldn’t have except she told me Semara saved her life. Felt like I owed her for that.”
Owed me? His words made me cringe.
“How’d ya end up here?”
Ryder shifted onto his knees and managed to get to his feet. “Mining Territory was blown to bits. Didn’t have much choice.”
My hope rose at his words. Ryder was trying to reason with him. This was my chance to show him people could change. “We were on our way to meet a contact for the rebellion. My uncle gave us that gift to offer in exchange for supplies. It’s our only chance to free our people. If we joined forces, we could—”
“I beg ya not to go speakin’ of such things. Malvak will feed ya to the nearest spiderat.”
“But why?”
“Cause, he be responsible for many. Found Oasis and started a life far from the council’s reign. Just wanna live in peace.”
“Peace? If the queen finds you, she’ll strip you of all your resources in the name of the council, then enslave you.”
“That’s why ya never gonna leave Oasis.”
“Then we can’t reach Oasis. Set us free now and we’ll leave without knowing where Oasis is. That way your secret is safe.”
“Can’t do that.” Dred paced the small area outside my cell. His brows furrowed.
“I know you want to help me…us.” I tried to speak in my smoothest, sweetest voice. The one that used to work on my father to get what I wanted as a child. “I promise. I’ll repay the favor someday.”
“I can’t free ya or I’ll be executed. I got family back at Oasis. Can’t be riskin’ their lives.”
My heart fell deep into my belly. All hope drained from my determination.
Dred pressed his lips together and scrubbed his face. “But I’ll talk to the cap’n. Maybe I can convince ‘im to free you before we reach Oasis.”
Ryder shot across his cell and reached for Dred. “You can’t—”
“I won’t. Ya’ve got my promise. Listen here, pretty face. You need to follow his lead. No tellin’ anyone about ya being a princess. I’ll plea for ya release another way.” He turned to face Ryder. “Don’t go doin’ anything stupid now. Ya hear me? If I go beggin’ for ya release and ya shoot a guard, ya be sealing all ya fates.” Dred holstered his gun and stomped up the stairs.
“Do you think he can do it?” I asked.
Raeth stilled, bouncing her ball in a calming rhythm. She was still out of it, but at least she wasn’t agitated anymore.
Ryder leaned his head against the bars. “Didn’t kill you on the spot so I guess that means something.”
I wrapped my fingers around the bars near his head. “I had to try something.”
He looked up at me and covered my hands with his. A spark raced up my arm and I took in a long breath. Sweat dripped down his temple. His eyes penetrated my soul. “I know.”
In spite of the burning temperature, his touch cooled my skin and the weight of the heat lifted.
Ryder inched his face closer to mine. “Do you feel that?”
“But how?” I longed to be closer and pressed my body against the bar. “How can I feel your gifts if our powers are blocked?”
He shook his head. “Don’t rightly know, but I feel stronger with the connection. Your warmth is touching every inch of my body.”
“That’s a good thing in this heat?”
“The gift’s blocking the heat around me. Blocking anxiety, fear, and anger. All I feel is you. As if you are the entire world around me. The sole purpose I breathe.” He panted and leaned closer to me. “It must be different. Not connected to our gifts.”
“How can that be?” I could barely focus on the words. His soft, deep voice begged me to move closer. His full lips parted and I met him between the bars.
The room disappeared around me.
No bars.
No guns.
No Scavengers.
Only lips.
His lips.
“Hey you two. Cut it out.” A guard’s voi
ce broke our connection.
Fire erupted in my core and I collapsed to the floor. “Ahh,” I cried. Loss flooded me. Unwanted tears streamed down my face. Or was it sweat? I couldn’t tell. The heat suffocated me. I clutched my throat.
The guard smacked the bar with a rod. “Pull it together. Cap’n’s on his way down here.”
I forced the emotions into abeyance. Ryder reached out for me, but I moved back, knowing there was no way I could handle losing his touch again. Not right now. It was as if my heart had been full of love and happiness, only to have it ripped down the middle and drained of all hope.
The captain’s sandaled feet descended the metal stairs. I narrowed my eyes to focus as his plump, yet muscular body came into view, followed by his head. No neck, just a head on shoulders.
“What’ve ya got to say about this new weapon?” The captain’s words hung in the air and I looked at Dred for answers.
Dred arched his eyebrows. “Don’t play dumb. I overheard you. You know how to get uranium.”
I caught on quick. We had information that could help us, but why uranium? “Yeah, um—”
Ryder stood but still clutched the bars. “No. Not saying until you promise to let us go.”
“Ya tell me first,” the captain ordered.
“Tell you and I’ve got no leverage.”
The captain smiled with his golden toothed grin. “So ya ain’t so stupid.”
Ryder jetted his chin out. “No, I assure you I’m not.”
“We’ll promise to tell you where to get the uranium,” I offered. “Although, I’m not sure why you want it so badly.”
“To pilot me ship.”
I glanced around but couldn’t determine the energy source for the ship. “This ship has a reactor? But it’s too small. The queen managed a reactor small enough for her ship only a few years ago.”
“She managed it? That what she be tellin’ everyone? Ha. She stole the technology from us. Glad to know she ain’t got the new stuff though.” The captain’s brows furrowed. “How ya know so much about the queen’s ship?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Ryder interrupted. “Want the uranium or not?”
A speaker crackled overhead. “Cap’n, Oasis straight ahead.”
“Think ya smart? Well, ya take it up with Malvak once we get there.”
My stomach flopped.
“But once we’re in the Oasis, he’ll never let us go even if we tell him where the uranium is.” The ship came to a stuttering halt and I knew it was too late. We’d reached Oasis.
“No need to fret, lady. We’ll find out what ya know. You just might not live through our…questioning.”
Chapter Eighteen
I shielded my eyes from the burning sun and tried to look out over the land, but only saw a blur of orange. Stumbling toward the gangway, I clung to Raeth, keeping her close.
The captain handed ropes to a guard. “Don’t want ya gettin’ any ideas.”
The guard wrapped them around Ryder’s wrists.
One of the men pulled me and Raeth apart, and bound my hands so tightly the rope cut into my skin. Then he shoved us single file down the narrow metal plank. Once half way up the narrow walkway, leading to the top of the city wall, I saw Oasis.
A labyrinth of boardwalks and skyways, twisting silver tunnels supported by wood beams circling around buildings, and small wooden houses formed a massive town. People hustled through the streets. Black smoke plumed from a far off greenish-brown building and I wondered if it was made of copper. I’d never seen so many resources in one place. Not even in Acadia.
They were somewhere in the Wasteland, yet had managed to build a thriving town. Animals were penned in stables and loaded wagons were pulled by horses.
Then I realized why no one ever escaped the town. Tall walls lined with barbed wire secured the perimeter. Heads impaled on spikes above the wire stood every few meters as a constant reminder of what would happen if someone managed to scale a wall. An execution stand rested in the center of the town. Blood stains etched in the lines of the wood.
The captain shoved a gun in Ryder’s back. “Move it.”
We reached the bottom of the gangway where we were met by ten inhumanly large men. They were the size of assassins Mother sent to murder escapees, and as ugly, with their scarred, pierced, and tattooed bodies. The place reeked of oil, rancid body odor, and manure.
Ryder gestured to Raeth and me. “What you planning on doing with them?”
The captain lifted one eyebrow. “Got plans for the pretty one over there.”
I tensed against my bound wrists. Scanning the men leaving the ship, I wondered who the Neumarian was that prevented the use of our gifts. I had to figure it out and find a way to escape. If not, Ryder would be executed, Raeth would be scrapped and enslaved, and I would be used and abused by the captain.
The captain stepped to my side and pulled my hair to his nose. “Ya smell sweet, too.”
Ryder shook the guard off and charged for the captain. A guard lifted his gun to Raeth’s head and he stopped in his tracks at her whimpers.
“Cap’n, I be thinkin’ Malvak would be disappointed if you took her for yourself. He prefers ’em fresh.”
Ryder turned on him. Dred gave a warning stare and Ryder remembered the gun pointing at Raeth.
A young man, in what appeared to be sack cloth, ran across the street and stopped before the captain panting. “Cap’n, sir—” he huffed. “Dred be ordered to Malvak. These three be placed in holding cell.”
“Dred? Why?” The captain looked at Dred with a furrowed brow. He puffed his chest out. “Ya mean he wants to be speakin’ to me.”
“No, sir.” The boy shuffled back a few paces. “He be waitin’ on Dred.”
“Be off with ya then.”
Dred pushed past.
There was nothing I could say in front of the captain and his men. I had to trust Dred, and hope for the best. He was our only hope. I saw our gift hanging from his belt, and hoped it would straighten all this out.
Dred continued across the street.
Ryder stuck close to us while the mutant humans escorted us to holding cells. It was no more than a small wooden building with a few metal cells. If we could use our powers, there wouldn’t be a problem escaping.
We were each shoved into a separate cell.
Raeth squatted down in the corner. “W-we need a p-plan,” she whispered.
“Oh good, Raeth, you’re with us.”
Ryder’s face lit up at the sound of his sister’s few words. Of course, the minute things got tough she’d check out again.
The world sped by outside with the sound of machine gears clanking, animals barking and mooing, and heavy wagon wheels crunching through the sand.
Ryder scrubbed his chin. “Raeth, stay with us. Need your help.”
“Y-yes?” Raeth smiled like a child full of mischief and spunk.
He cleared his throat. “Listen, there’s a chance I can incapacitate the Neumarian who is holding us if we discover who he is.”
“How?” I knelt near his cell, my hands clasped in my lap. Exhaustion had to be setting in. My calves were cramping and I knew if we didn’t get water and rest soon we’d be in no condition to fight.
“Think the reason we haven’t seen him is because they need to keep him hidden.”
“Yes, so?” I leaned toward the bars.
“So, that must mean he can’t protect himself.”
“I g-get it.” Raeth clapped her hands and stood on her knees. “He c-can keep you f-from using powers b-but not against him.”
“You mean if you direct your powers at him, he can’t use his?” I asked.
“That’s the theory, but the only way it’ll work is if I hit him without warning. Duel-like attack to the death. I’ve gotta zap him quick and hard before he zaps me.”
“That’s great. If we knew who the Neumarian was.”
His muscles tensed at my sarcastic tone. “You got a better idea?”
“No
, it’s…how can we figure out who it is?”
“M-maybe you can ask D-Dred. He l-likes you, Semara.”
“What?” Ryder cracked his knuckles.
“S-semara could f-flirt with—”
“No, too dangerous. I’ll figure it out,” he said.
I took a deep breath. “She’s right.”
Ryder froze. “They’re a bunch of ugly monsters. You want to get close enough to find out?”
I smiled at him. “He’s not that bad. Actually, he’s kind of sweet.”
“You like that freak? He’s gotta be ten years older than you.” Ryder paced the small cell and looked out a half-circle iron barred window. “You know what he would do to you?” His body visibly shook and his hands changed to a pearl skin tone.
“Ryder?”
“What?”
“Your hands.”
“What about them?” He looked down.
Raeth breathed out and giggled at the sight of the puff of smoke. The room had dropped at least ten degrees.
“It’s Dred. He’s the one who’s been with us since we were captured.”
I stood up and spun around, my hand pressed to my forehead. “No, it couldn’t be.”
“What? You trust this guy? Seriously? He’s a traitor to his own people. Don’t you see? He’s not out there negotiating our release. He’s insuring his own life.”
My mind whirled at his words. “No, it’s not true. I won’t believe it.”
“Why would you protect him? Can’t you see? People will betray and murder the ones you love to save their own skins. Are you that naive?”
“No, it’s just that…” I faced him, wanting to scream and make him see things didn’t always happen the way it seemed. “Never mind. You’d never understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Nothing.” My voice cracked.
“Fine, stay here and be his mate. I don’t care.” He stomped to the window.
Was he jealous? Upset? “No, it’s not that.”
“Do what you want, but I’m getting my sister out of here.” He marched to the bars. Steam rose and his fingers cracked when he closed them around the bars.
“N-no!” Raeth screamed at him.
Alarms clanged and men raced in through the far corridor, guns drawn, tamer collar in hand.