by Amy Miles
I lean forward. “How do you know so much about me when we have never met?” I press.
His lower lip begins to tremble and the chair creaks under the pressure of his grip. His mouth parts to speak but an explosion outside this room sends him sprawling to the floor. I cry out as I am thrust back into the table, the hard metal edge slamming into my stomach.
“What was that?” I gasp, pushing back into my seat. Bastien is already rising, his hands flying across the monitor controls in search of an exterior camera. In my peripheral vision I spy the glow of red lasers beginning to fill the palace grounds. Somewhere, somehow our soldiers broke through the fires. Will they arrive soon enough?
“Oh no.” Bastien’s entire body seems to lock down as I turn to look at the large monitor before him. I cry out, my hands covering my mouth as I feel cold dread wash over me.
Four giants stand on the other side of the door, so tall they are forced to stoop in the low hanging hall. Their skin ripples with color, shimmering with scales of reds, oranges and yellows. Their eyes are slitted and their noses absent apart from two thin slits. Their faces are elongated more than a human’s and their mouths appear to be filled with needle-like fangs.
Their chests are broad and bare, boasting intricate patchwork of unusual red patterned scarring. A great silver gun hangs between the four beings; its weight appears greater than any a man could withstand. A large black cannon protrudes from the end. The air seems to shimmer before it.
“I’ve dreamed of these creatures before…” A flashback from a time back on Earth when I had a vision of what I was capable of if I should allow myself to unleash the shadow within flits through my mind. I saw these creatures, saw what horrors they are capable of when they decimated Earth the first time. I can’t let that happen to Calisted. I won’t let it happen!
“Get down!” Bastien throws himself upon me a second before the door bulges. There is a series of taps against the door, small and tiny in sound, almost like a pinging instead of the explosion that I had expected.
“What are they doing?” I gasp as I look toward the door. It no longer resembles solid metal but something closer to a liquid. The surface oozes and distorts, beginning to spiral like a pinwheel.
“I think they are disintegrating the door but I don’t know how they are doing it!” Bastien’s breathy response is filled with terror as he raises his head and looks about us. There is nowhere for us to hide. Nowhere to run. A safe house is meant to be the last resort and our luck has just run out.
“Make us invisible,” he growls in my ear, clasping his hands painfully to my wrists.
I don’t even ask how he knows that I am capable of this as I instantly throw up a veil around us. Within seconds the door implodes. Scolding globs of the metal rain around us. I throw up a force field to protect us from the debris but as the giants step inside the room it falters, sputtering, and then fails me completely.
My vision swims before me and I can see Bastien’s mounting terror. “What are you doing? They can see us!”
I try to respond, to say something as darkness encroaches in but I hardly feel Bastien’s weight lifted from me. I hear his cry of pain as he is thrown against the wall. I roll my head to the side and watch as he leaps to attack but he is caught about the throat in midair with a fist the size of my head. His legs kick wildly as a large metal clamp is placed over his wrists.
A shadow falls over me. I blink and try to see past the haze filling my mind to glimpse my attacker. Two crimson eyes burn brightly before me as something cold clamps around my neck and the darkness takes me.
SIX
The air feels thick in my lungs as I suck in a pain-filled breath. It tastes of something putrid and decaying. My ribs feel as if they have been shattered, the pieces floating aimlessly through my stomach, slicing small nicks in my organs. Perhaps I will die in this place, I muse with only a touch of lucidity. I have been like this for a while now. Sanity returns from time to time only to taunt me, calling out my name.
I have no sense of passage of time, nor movement nor much of anything beyond these walls. The metal bars are too hot to touch, hot enough to melt the prints from the tips of my fingers. I made the mistake of bumping one in my sleep. Now I imagine a great swollen blister has risen on my right leg.
I can see my breath hanging before my face against the dim lighting overhead. Everything appears muted, distorted. A distant clanging captures my attention but when I try to roll my head to the side I find that I can’t move more than an inch to the right. I wince at the sound of heavy metal shifting beside my ear and the throbbing in my head intensifies.
“You’ll get used to the chains and the lack of proper oxygen,” a voice calls from my left. I know better than to look in that direction. I tried that the last time I awoke and a splitting pain stole my vision just before I blacked out again.
“Where am I?” I croak against the near darkness. A droning hum reveals that I am on some sort of a ship, though I have never known of one to exist like this. The heat is sweltering, not all that different from what I’ve been told the rainforests on the emerald moon that orbits Calisted are like. Sweat pools in the creases of my arms and knees. My legs are bent to the side and chained to the wall. I have only a few inches to wiggle before the chains pull taut or I hit the heated cell bars.
“You are aboard a D’Hatil ship. One of the largest I have ever seen. Seems to me they were pretty intent on making sure they got their hands on you, little lady.”
The voice sounds deep, rough around the edges if that were possible. “I am not familiar with the D’Hatil race.”
A throaty laugh leads into a phlegmy cough. I close my eyes and wince as I hear the man spit to the side, praying that it didn’t land anywhere near me. “They are not called D’Hatil. It is the type of ship. A slaving ship.”
“Slave?” My head jerks around to try to look at the man but something unforgiving clamps my neck in place. I can feel the skin about my neck has grown raw. A fresh patch of aggravated flesh stings as I still my movements. “I am no slave.”
“None of us are.” The way his voice trails off makes me wonder if there is any more to his statement. A moment passes without another word.
“Who are you?” I ask, staring up at the ceiling above. It is not made of metal as I would have assumed, but instead of a glass-like material. If I do not close my eyes I will be ill from the sight of bright flashing lights speeding past. Stars, I muse as I cast my gaze aside and stare at the cell room bars instead: solid, firm and not moving a single inch.
“A name no longer matters where we are going.”
His response sends a ripple of apprehension down my spine. I fight to suppress it. “All the same, we have not yet arrived so I assume that you do still have a name.”
His laugh comes again and I guess that he sits less than ten feet from me, possibly with his back turned in my direction. “My name is Vondran Sterling.”
“It is nice to meet you, Vondran...sort of.” I bite on my lower lip as I shift and feel pain lance through my side once more. “My name is Illyria.”
I hear an intake of breath but Vondran says nothing more. I lay in silence as seconds turn into minutes. I begin to wonder if he has somehow left or fallen asleep.
“I suppose I know now why they made a pit stop for you then,” he finally mutters. I hear the clanking of chains and realize that he must be caged as well. Like me. A slave.
“You shouldn’t be speaking to her,” a second male voice calls from somewhere near my feet. I stiffen, surprised to realize that I am not alone in my cell. I had assumed that I might be in a room with rows of cages, small and confining but by my best guess now I would say that I am in some sort of large and obviously crowded space. This voice sounds slightly younger though hardly any more kind.
“Who is there?” I call out, shifting my legs closer toward me. My dress is torn into tatters, that much I can tell by the way heat seeps through the large tears in the fabric. How much of my skin ha
s been exposed to this man’s eyes?
“The name’s Hyde. Wish I could say that it’s nice to meet you, Queeny, but that would be a bald faced lie.”
“Oh, come off it, Hyde,” a higher pitched voice pipes up from my right.
How many people are in this place? I begin to feel exceedingly self-conscious, but even as this emotion begins to overwhelm me, one with far greater potency slips in to takes its place: anger.
“Can we do a head count here? I don’t know if all of you can see me but I sure as heck can’t see you and it’s getting on my nerves.”
“She feisty,” a gravelly voice calls from my left though I can’t tell if it is a male or female. “I like.”
I clench my fists, ignoring the pain of the clamps digging into my wrists. “You’re all enjoying this.”
“Of course we are.” I hear the clanking of chains being shifted and a shadow covers my face. All I can see is a mass of snarled red hair and pale skin, two brilliant green eyes and a splash of freckles over a small nose. On Earth and with a proper bath this girl would be cute, perhaps even beautiful, but here on this ship she looks washed out. “You’re the only entertainment we’ve had for nearly a week.”
“A week?” My voice cracks as terror eats away at my anger. “Have I been here that long?”
Her smile almost seems genuine apart from the fact that her gaze hardens into something calculating. I will have to watch my back around this one. “Yes. They caught all of us before you though. Made the full rounds.”
“They?” It is infuriating to be the only one in the dark, figuratively speaking. “Who are these...creatures.” I draw out the final word, knowing without a doubt that the towering giants resembled more of a snake than a human.
“We call them Roamers. They search the stars for slaves and transport them back to their home world to be sold. I’m not really sure you would be able to pronounce their real name.”
“Why not?” I ask.
She shrugs and I realize that I can see a large portion of her fair skin exposed at her shoulder when she does. “You’ll figure it out when you hear them speak for the first time.”
I blow out a slow unsteady breath and nod as well as my neck clamp allows. “Fair enough. You haven’t given me your name yet.”
“I’m Callisto Cervantes, or at least I used to be. That gruff guy over there by Vondran is Satal. I’d stay away from him if I were you. His eyes really freak me out.”
“Why?” I can’t help but ask. My agitation begins to grow with the inability to see my companions. I need to asses if they are potential allies or enemies.
Her grin broadens as she leans in close. “He’s an Aeondaemon. A shape shifter. I’m not even really sure if the guy over there is really who he says he is.”
I open my mouth to speak but realize that I haven’t quite figured out the words to express my confusion. “I’ve never met a shape shifter before.”
“That you know of,” Vondran mutters.
I ignore his quip, through the goosebumps rising on my arms are a telltale sign of my discomfort. If such a creature does exist, anyone could have been replaced in my security detail. Someone could have easily lowered our defenses in the night to allow these Roamers to slip in.
Could Bastien have been the one to betray me? I know nothing of him apart from my dreams, and how much can I really trust those? Perhaps they were implanted in my mind when my guard was lowered by sleep?
“Was I brought in alone?” My voice wavers dangerously and I see Callisto’s gaze sharpen.
“Do you care for the man?”
I struggle against the chains holding me down. “Bastien? Is he here?” She nods but gives nothing away. “Please tell me. I need to know that he is safe.”
She sinks back onto her knees. I can hear the rattling of chains when she moves but I can’t see where they are attached to her. Probably at her ankle which would make sense why she is able to move around. Are all of the others chained in the same way? If so, why am I the only one who is restricted so much?
You know why and so do they. With my abilities I should be able to break free with hardly a thought but no matter how I try, I am helpless to escape. The wide clamp around my neck bites into my flesh. I long to be free of its hold.
I shift my gaze as Callisto crosses her leg and sits near me. She draws her hands toward her face, flicking one nail under the other at the grime packed beneath chipped nails. I can tell at one time they were most likely long. “You called out for him in your sleep. I think that made it worse for him. He tried not to cry but the fever took him.”
“Fever? What fever? What do you mean it took him?” I can feel my anxiety rising far too quickly but the idea of being completely alone with these strangers, bound for a place of obvious hopelessness brings me to the brink of terror. Bastien can’t be gone!
She waves her hand at me and returns her focus on her task. “He had a burn on his hand that became infected. Kinda surprised they didn't just chop off his hand. It looked pretty gnarly.”
“Bastien!” I croak, straining against my restraints until blood begins to seep from beneath my manacles. “Bastien, answer me!”
“Now look what you’ve gone and done,” a male voice chides as he shifts into view. He has skin of ebony and a wild mane of coarse black hair that sticks out in all directions from his head. Though his gaze is intense, his smile seems genuine enough. “Be calm, child. That boy be fine. They fixed him up real good.”
“Who…” I clear my throat when it gives out on me. “Who are you?”
“Name’s Marius. Don’t reckon I know my real name anymore. People who found me told me I was a Talbot due to the name stitched on the pocket of my shirt but I don’t right remember anything before the explosion.”
I swallow, gritting my teeth against the pain as I slowly ease my spine back to the floor and the clamps at my neck, arms and ankles release a bit. “How do you know your name is Marius then?”
His teeth look brilliantly white against his dark skin in the dim light as he smiles. “Don’t you think I look like a good Marius?”
Despite myself I laugh. That single laugh expands into what I can only think to be hysterical laughter because soon tears stream from my face. Marius’ grin only seems to grow wider, though I don’t see how he can manage much more. “See there, laughter is the best medicine during god awful times like these.”
I lift my hand to dry my cheek but am instantly reminded of my confinement. Marius senses my panic returning and reaches out to gently wipe my cheek. His touch is soft, but his hands are deeply calloused. I can’t help but wonder what sort of life this man led before he lost his memories.
It is not wise to take this man at his word, I can hear spoken in my thoughts in Kyan’s voice. He may simply be trying to hide something. Do not trust him or anyone else.
I bite down on my lower lip, wishing with all my might that I really could hear Kyan. I’ve tried calling out to him each time I wake but all I hear is nothingness. I know that his voice in my head is nothing more than my own thoughts converted into his previous teachings.
“Thank you for your kindness.” I smile up at Marius.
“You two make me sick.” Marius turns but before he does I can see the shift in his expression. His smile tightens and his jaw clenches.
“This ain’t none of your concern, Hyde.”
I can hear a gruff snort and the rattling of chains. “I’m just saying it’s not a good idea to make friends, is all.”
“Why you say that?” Marius turns fully away from me and I can’t see the expression to match his rigid posture.
“Cause when the time comes you’re gonna have to choose whether you value your own life or hers, cause I guarantee you that girl right there is gonna kill us all when she gets the chance.”
SEVEN
I try to tell myself that Hyde’s callous remark doesn’t bother me, but it does. Very much so. What does he think he knows about me? Vondran obviously knows of me but do the o
thers? Have they talked about me while I was in a less than lucid state over the past few days?
Marius did not respond to Hyde’s statement. No one did. They all just went deadly quiet and moved back to their places, well out of my line of sight.
Bastien?
I call out for him over and over again with my mind but I never get a response. More worrisome than that, I can’t even feel him. It is as if he isn’t even here.
I lay there for what feels like hours before I speak again. “I am not a threat to you. I don’t know what you think you know but I guarantee you it’s not the truth.”
Holding my breath, I wait to see who and if any will respond. This time I am surprised by a new voice. It is a girl, younger than myself by the sounds of it. “I saw you once, back on Earth before I was shipped off to Calisted. I was there when you decimated Drakon’s city. I cowered in fear when the spiraling winds came and ate away at the city. My brother did not die from a soldier’s laser. The ground opened up beneath his feet and swallowed him whole. I tried to save him but he was too heavy. After that I was forced to return to Calisted. No brother. No parents. I’m an orphan.”
The girl’s voice cracks and I know that she is crying. I close my eyes as guilt washes over me in relentless waves. I did this. I took her brother from her...all because I couldn’t control my powers.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I whisper, knowing that no amount of heartfelt apologies could ever make up for her brother’s death.
“Wait a sec,” Marius calls out. “You saying that girl over there did all of that?”
Hyde snorts. I’d like to say that despite only having met him a short time ago that I could be mistaken about his snort but sadly, Hyde’s cynicism is hard to miss. “You’re not from around these parts, are you Marius?”