The Journey (Sanshlian Series Book 2)

by Dani Hoots

  So I wasn’t going back to the cell. That was a good sign that Neil, or I guess Joss, has started trusting me again. That, or he knew I wouldn’t risk taking over the ship. I had no reason, honestly. I hated my brother and I would never go back there. And besides, I wanted to see Jack, even if I could never truly be with him. At least, not until this was over.

  But that didn’t mean I didn’t have my own agenda. I would have to wait though, it would be a long time before I could do anything to finish the task of finding Sanshli.

  “Okay. But tomorrow you are training me,” I said as I stretched out my arms.

  Dan let out a brief laugh. “That sounded like an order. I didn’t know you outranked me. In fact, I’m pretty sure I outrank you.”

  “Then I will tell Joss to order you to train me. He always wants me to be the strongest, with no weaknesses whatsoever. Looks like you are the only one who can achieve that goal.”

  “Well that’s true. Then your training has already begun.”

  “Good, I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

  “You are definitely everything I imagined you to be.” He turned and led me out of the training room. I watched him closely, not quite sure what he meant by that. Did Joss tell him about me? Why? Maybe it was just to inform him how I acted, how I was to train with him. That would make sense, but I still wasn’t quite sure. I felt as if something more was going on and I had to figure out what exactly that was.

  Dan took me towards my quarters. Strangely enough, even though I knew he was hiding information, something about him made me trust him. I didn’t know what it was but I felt as if I knew him. He couldn’t be Jack or any of the generals, I knew each of their fighting styles. No, this was someone from this time. But something about him was familiar and I wasn’t sure as to what that was.

  We arrived at the quarters that were assigned to me. “Well, here it is. If you need anything, I will be in the lounge.”

  “You aren’t going to stay and guard me?”

  He gave me a puzzled look. “No, why would I do that?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know, just used to it I guess.”

  “Don’t worry, Myra, out of anyone in the galaxy, I trust you won’t do anything stupid.” With that, he left me standing there. I never had someone say that to me, not even Jack. He had just met me and yet he trusted me. This day was simply becoming stranger and stranger indeed.

  I entered my quarters and turned on the shower. I waited for the water to warm up so that I could let it wash away the crusted blood and sweat. I carefully pulled off my clothes. I was definitely going to need new ones, but I had a feeling Joss already provided them in the dresser. He was always prepared like that.

  Pulling out my pocket watch, I was glad that I grabbed it before I left. It was my only connection to my past, to a much simpler time than now. I liked having it tucked away in my pillow on nights that I couldn’t sleep, listening to the predictable ticking as time went on, almost taking me back to somewhere I could be happy. I placed it on the table.

  “Is this where you really want to be right now?” Violet questioned in the bathroom mirror.

  “Better than with Wes,” I answered.

  “You think you can handle them already?” Her eyes looked sincerely worried.

  I sighed as I turned to face her. “You have taught me everything you said you were going to teach me. I figured it was as good time as any to come here.”

  “Now you know what you need to do.”

  I nodded. “I know. Find the clue, solve it, find Sanshli and destroy Nygard once and for all.”

  CHAPTER 8

  The next day, as Dan promised, we began our training. Before I met with him, I felt a bit excited, which was strange since I hadn’t felt this sensation in quite some time. I could barely sit still during breakfast, wanting to pace back and forth as I waited for him to come retrieve me. After about an hour of waiting, he appeared, looking as pathetically content as he did the day before. I didn’t know how he could do it, how he could serve Joss with such a smile. Was Joss nicer now in the past than he was in the future? Or was he just nicer to Dan than he had ever been with me?

  Dan took me to the training room where we began with some stretching and meditation. I had tried meditation before, and found that it worked for my mind, but hardly used it. It took time and I didn’t feel as if I was getting stronger, although it did help me find a little piece of mind when I was with Wes. However, I couldn’t actually fully relax any of these times as I felt Lance was always staring at me. He thought I didn’t notice but I did. I knew he used that time to watch me closely, and probably dream about the things he wanted to do with me. And that was indeed just what they were: dreams.

  After meditation, he started teaching me his ways of fighting. I was lucky I could heal so fast as he dislocated my shoulder a couple of times as he flung me over his back. He was worried that he had hurt me, which he had, but I shrugged it off as I always did. No pain, no gain, right?

  There were no other generals on the ship, which I was rather happy about. I didn’t want to deal with Thomas, Laura, or Peter at the moment, especially Thomas, as I was trying to concentrate on my training. They always got in the way, and Tom would just want to try and prove himself and I didn’t want to deal with that again. It would just make him madder at me and he would, for some reason, think he would have to be more of an ass towards me. It was a never-ending cycle with him.

  Not to mention Tom knew that I was a Kamps child now, though, then again, the reason I was made into the Emperor’s Shadow was because I was a Sanshlian. It had nothing to do with my strength or Neil wanting to save me from the fate of death. All he wanted was to bring Nygard back to rule, as he was his servant, being a Sanshlian as well.

  I couldn’t believe that this entire time Neil had been a Sanshlian, that all the Emperors were descendants of the Sanshlian race, that they were searching for Sanshli so that they could bring their beloved master back. And they had even found the planet before, Brayen, the guardian of Sanshli, taking care of them, or going insane by touching the doorknob of where Nygard was being held. I knew what that was like, I knew how easy it would have been for them to go insane.

  As I fought against Dan, he tried to do one of his techniques but I blocked him. I grinned. I was one step closer at getting stronger than him.

  “Good job, now block this.” He countered my punch and seconds later I ended up on the ground. I sighed as he helped me up.

  “Again?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Until you can beat me, your training will never be over.”

  “Sounds fair.” I raised my hands in defense, but honestly it was no use. No matter what type of style I used against him, he could take me down in an instant.

  “You really need to keep your guard up. You promise you had training experience?” he asked.

  I gave him a look. “Yes. I have been training all my life, ever since…” I stopped, not wanting to go into the details of my kidnapping. I wanted to forget about the kamps, forget about everything that had happened before. I just wanted to make everything right again, although I knew that was near impossible to achieve.

  “What happened?” Dan asked as he sat down. “If you want to tell someone about it, I am all ears.”

  I stared at him for a moment, wondering why he was so nice to me in this way. It felt nice, yes, but I couldn’t help but be suspicious. No one had ever cared, other than Jack. And honestly, he just wanted to get on my good side so I would come back more. Well, that wasn’t true. I didn’t doubt Jack’s love for me, but in the beginning I was just a fascination to him, nothing more. This guy just honestly wanted to know more about me. As if he truly cared.

  I shrugged it off. “Doesn’t matter. What matters is becoming stronger, being able to defeat anything that comes in my path.”

  “Is that the way you want to run away from your past?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Why do you care? It’s none of your business.”

&n
bsp; “I think if you open up more, you could have a better time learning your strengths. Having just a hard heart will get you nowhere. Believe me.”

  For a moment, I saw something in his eyes. They were no longer cheerful, but dark and miserable, as if he had to face something in his past just as I had. Maybe that was why he wanted to know, because he understood.

  But I didn’t care. My past was my business, not his. I wasn’t going to tell some stranger about it, not after so many people had betrayed me in my past. I didn’t mentally feel I could trust him, but something deep down inside of me wanted to open up to him. I wouldn’t let it take over my common sense, though, but I also wanted to know why that part of me wanted to believe in him.

  “I know my past is what makes me who I am, what makes me strong. But I don’t need to tell some stranger about it. I just need you to make me stronger.”

  He studied me for a moment longer, then smiled. “If that is your wish, then that is what you will receive.” He held up his hand. “Help me up?”

  I grabbed his hand and he pulled me down to the ground as he got up. “Biggest thing you need to learn, never trust anyone else.”

  That was surprising to hear him say, especially when he wanted me to open up to him, unless that was part of the lesson, to see if I would blindly trust him. Well, I wouldn’t, and especially not now. He made that clear.

  Training went on for another few hours when we finally took a break and had something to eat. The food on the ship, as normal, was crap. I couldn’t wait until we got to Anosira where the food would actually have some taste and variety even. But at least it was something, and not David trying to cook. If he could figure a way to do it, he could burn cereal.

  I just grabbed a sandwich, egg salad, which probably isn’t the safest choice but it did look the most appetizing. I then sat down at an empty table. Dan soon joined me.

  “Enjoying yourself so far?” he asked as he took a bite of his sandwich.

  I gave him a look. “Yes, I love getting slammed down over and over again by a pipsqueak like you.”

  He laughed. “You definitely have a tongue on you. That’s exactly what Joss warned me about. He said it surprised even him sometimes, after all the times you have been punched or slapped for talking back.”

  “Yeah, well I was never good at learning those kind of lessons, especially since all those who have hurt me for it are dead now. Except Joss, that is.” I took a bite of my own sandwich. Yup, it was horrible, just as I thought. “How did you get to be working with Joss? Why did you choose the Empire?”

  “I always liked the idea of an Empire, as long as it’s controlled by the right person. So much good can be done with that kind of power,” he explained. I was a bit surprised by his answer, as he seemed like a good guy. Not many good people liked the idea of an Empire, especially since it could be easily corrupted. Then again, Wes had corrupted the Second Republic pretty easily as well. Maybe there was no good way to rule a galaxy. It all just had to do with the people behind it, the system was broken unless good people ruled justly.

  “And you think Joss is the right person?” I asked, because I sure as hell didn’t. Though it was a toss-up between him and Wes.

  “I think, after all is said and done, the right person will be in control. Whether or not that is Joss is still too soon to tell.”

  “And until then you will serve him?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Of course I will, he saved my life.”

  That was surprising to hear. Other than myself, which was for selfish reasons, I never heard of Neil saving someone. “Oh? When was that?”

  “About a year ago now. Some people were trying to kill me and he came out of nowhere and he saved me. Simple as that. Then I swore to serve him and showed him the fighting I could do and he got even more intrigued. Been a trainer ever since.” He took another bite of his sandwich. “Though I have to admit, you are a lot better at fighting than the other generals.”

  So that’s what it was, Joss probably could read his mind and see that he was a good fighter. It was all to make his generals even stronger. Now that I thought about it, that must have been why he picked the generals he did, because he could see in their minds what they were capable of. So truly everything he did was for his own selfishness. I should have figured that was his motive behind everything.

  “What about you?” Dan asked. “What brought you here?”

  “You mean other than Joss’ men kidnapping me?”

  He shrugged. “It was apparent you wanted to be here, otherwise you wouldn’t have let yourself be captured in the first place. I see how you fight, you could have easily taken them all out. No, you wanted to be here, but whether or not it was because you wanted to pledge your loyalty to the Empire is another story.”

  He was smarter than I gave him credit for. “Fine. Yes, I wanted to be captured. I was working for the Republic and I didn’t like what they were doing. There was too much corruption, too much chaos. Wes is not doing what he is supposed to be doing, not following the laws. It might as well be an Emperor the way he is treating everyone. That is why I came here, because I knew that if I joined the Empire, then I could escape his tyranny.” And that wasn’t completely a lie, I really did hate how my brother was operating things, but that didn’t mean I liked how Joss did things either. Both of them were way past just being mildly corrupt.

  “Interesting.” He took another bite. “That is quite interesting actually. That you would serve another just because of one bad egg.”

  “It’s not just Wes, it is his generals as well. They will not stand up to him.”

  “Did you try and stand up against him?”

  I nodded. “Many times, Came close to killing him, actually, but someone always walked in and stopped me.”

  “And you weren’t tried for treason?” he asked.

  I shook my head. I should have been more careful as to what I was saying. Usually when one tried to kill an official, especially the Chancellor himself, they would be arrested. I couldn’t really explain to him that he was my brother, that I was a Sanshlian and we were from the future.

  “No, Wes and I go way back. He wouldn’t do that to me. Besides, he knew I would never go through with it. Though, I think that is unwise on his part. If Joss ordered me to, I would kill him without a second thought,” I explained, hoping that was enough.

  “That’s good to hear, I suppose. But what if he told you to kill me?”

  I gave him a look. This conversation took a surprising turn. It almost felt like talking to Lance. We were open with each other, jesting almost with our words. “Why would Joss order me to do that?”

  “Just answer the question.”

  I stared at him a moment longer. He was serious. I shrugged. “You’re the one person I can’t kill. At least not yet anyway. If you fear he will order your death, then you should probably stop training me. Because if he gave the orders, and I was able to succeed, I wouldn’t hesitate. He is my Emperor after all, I take orders from him and never look back.”

  Dan let out a laugh. “You are definitely an interesting character. I can’t wait to see what else you have in store for me.”

  I had no idea what he meant by that. I just admitted that I would kill him if it was ordered of me and he simply laughed it off. I wanted to know who this man was and why he was so keen on figuring me out.

  ***

  “What do you think of your trainer?” Joss asked as he had ordered me to his room. It was simple, as it was just one of many ship quarters. I had honestly thought it would be a little bigger, but this was the start of the Empire after all.

  I shrugged. “What about him? His training or him personally?”

  “How about both?” Joss said, feeling a bit amused.

  “His training is extraordinary, I have never met anyone with such power. He is strong to say the least. He has beat me countless times without breaking a sweat. As you know, that is not an easy feat.”

  “And?” he asked, wanting me to go
further.

  I sighed. Talking about Dan felt complicated, even though it truly wasn’t. He was just different and I couldn’t quite place my finger on it.

  “And he is a strange man. He keeps wanting to know more about me. I don’t trust him, yet something inside me wants to. I don’t understand who he is or what he wants, but I want to learn from him and that is all I know,” I answered. There was no point in lying, it would achieve nothing with Joss. He could read minds after all, and knew that I would feel this way about him. Joss knew me all too well unfortunately.

  Joss tapped his desk. “Interesting.”

  “How did you even come across him?” I asked. Because it really wasn’t like Joss to just pick up some random person. He must have had a reason. He was a good trainer, yes, but to have him as close as this, training me of all people. There was an ulterior motive behind it, something that I couldn’t quite piece together.

  Joss stood up and looked out on the space-shield. “Random luck, I supposed. Stumbled across him because of one of the generals. He pointed out how excellent Dan was at fighting and I decided he would make a great trainer. That really is it.”

  “Okay,” I said, but honestly didn’t believe him. I wouldn’t press further on the subject though, if Joss wasn’t going to tell me anything. “I also told him I would kill him if ordered and he didn’t even care. He just laughed. I found that to be odd. Usually when I tell a person that I would kill them without thought they fear me or at least get mad. Dan did neither of those things, then again he knows how to take me down if need be.”

  “Which is why you are training with him.” Joss turned back to me and smiled. “Speaking of which, what did Jack think when you were about to put a bullet in his head all those years ago?”

  I narrowed my eyes. Why was he bringing that up now? I cleared my throat. “You already know. He was about to kill me if I didn’t lower the gun, there were snipers all around. He never trusted me in the slightest. He knew I was an Imperial.”