Beyond the Shadows

by Jess Granger

  “What do you mean?” Cyn asked.

  “You bought me.” The boy looked at him with a sad resignation in his dark eyes.

  “You’re free. You don’t belong to me.”

  “Where do I go?”

  Cyn looked at Xan, who had busied himself trying to remove the command pin from the band. “Stay here with Xan. He’s a good captain. He’ll teach you well.”

  Cyn heard a snap. “What?” Xan grumbled.

  He shot his friend a quick glare. “I no longer have a ship. I can’t take him on. You have plenty of room. He’s Hannolen.” Cyn pushed the viewer into Xan’s hand. “He needs you.”

  “Hork,” he cursed.

  “Damn it, Xan, you can’t hide forever.”

  “It’s not that.” Xan handed him the band and the viewer. “I think the command pin is broken.”

  “Shit.” Cyn examined the viewer and tried to dislodge the pin, but it was hopelessly stuck in the corroded band. He looked over at Yara. Her brow creased.

  “You can’t get the bands off?” Her eyes widened.

  “You have any microbes?” he asked Xan.

  The pirate shook his head. “We used the last of them when we overtook a large transport.”

  Cyn ran a weary hand over his sore face. “I’ll have to pick them.”

  “Can’t you get another key?” Yara’s voice pitched higher.

  “The key was coded to the trigger programming in the bands for the two of you. Usually these pins are only used to transfer the codes to a master control. But we don’t have any other slaves, so we don’t have a master control, and we can’t go back to the Kronalen and ask for another copy of the code. The only way to get them off now is to pick them.”

  “Can you do that?” Yara kept her expression very still, but Cyn caught the slight tremble in her voice.

  “Yes.” He tried to answer with as much confidence as he could give her.

  “Are you any good?”

  At any other time, he would have teased her. Perhaps he should have, to ease her fear, but he knew just how serious this was. One slip and he’d kill her. This would take all his concentration. “I can do this.”

  She pinched her beautiful lips into a tight line. “Okay.”

  “We’ll take the boy up to quarters to clean him up and find him some clothes,” Xan stated as he pulled the boy to his feet.

  “His name is Ishan,” Yara snapped.

  Ishan looked up at her and blinked his clouded eyes.

  “That’s not a Hannolen name,” Xan commented as one of his brows arched above the rim of his shades.

  “He is the blood of Isa the Bold.” She gave Ishan a slow nod then turned her glare back to Xan.

  “It’s a good name. Come Ishan.” Xan looked as impassive as ever, but his stance shifted. “Good luck. I’ll leave the med alert on.”

  Cyn picked up a charge probe and the nanoscope. He’d need luck. Taking a deep breath, he focused on retrieving the information he needed from his mind. He’d have to delve into his muscle memory, something he didn’t like to do very often. It took him so deep in his mind, he’d be less able to block out old memories.

  The stillness overtook him. He reached a state of concentration so complete he could no longer feel sensation. “I’m going to disable the poison injector first, since it’s the most dangerous, but as soon as the poison one is disabled, the rest get really tricky. You might get injected with a behavior modifier as we do this,” he warned.

  “Okay.” She swallowed.

  “If you get injected, don’t panic. Try to stay calm.” He sat on the bed next to her and lifted her arm as he injected the nanos into the port.

  Her skin blanched. “That’s easy for you to say.”

  She was strong. He knew she could control her fear. “Just stay still and quiet. We can’t afford any distractions. If anything goes off on this band, we’ll have to work quick to get the one on your other arm off before it cycles.” Cyn took a deep breath. “If the injector signals don’t match when it cycles, we’re in trouble.”

  He focused to the point where the only thing in his awareness was the small screen of the viewer. He felt connected to his hands as he fed them direct signals from his memory. He’d only done this three times before, but each was successful, and his hands already knew the path they had to take. He just had to guide them.

  Each careful move of his hands seemed to last an hour as he severed the command paths to the injector. The light within the injector slowly faded, rendering it harmless. He broke his concentration and the rush of pain stabbed through his body from his aching back to his stiff neck.

  “Well, this one won’t kill you.” He wiped his brow with the back of his wrist and stretched his shoulders. “Hopefully the other one will go as easily.”

  “Thank the Matriarchs,” Yara sighed. “How many more injectors are there?”

  “Three in this band. I’m not sure what’s in them. Usually they’re loaded with a tranquilizer, some sort of stimulant, a pain inducer, and lately they’ve incorporated a truth serum. Once we’re done here, we get to start all over again with the other arm.” While the poison was the most dangerous, it was fortunately the least tricky. He still had to be careful.

  “Why do they need a truth serum?” Yara asked as he bent over the slave band once more.

  “The Kronalen are starting to have trouble. I think they’re trying to find a way to root out the slaves helping the Union forces.” Cyn carefully extracted the probe from the poison injector and moved on to the next in line.

  Cyn quickly disabled the second injector. He didn’t want to waste time or energy, so he maintained his focus and continued.

  A loud yowl reverberated through the surgery, followed by the frantic screech of cat claws dragging over the door.

  “Tuz!” Yara sat up straighter, and Cyn’s hand slipped.

  “Damn it.” The probe pushed too far into the injector and the light started blinking.

  “I’m sorry,” Yara offered. “Shakt, what is that?”

  “I don’t know.” He grabbed her arm and held it still as he tried to repair the damage. Eventually, he got the light to fade out. “Are you groggy?”

  “No.” She dragged out the word, as if she had had too many cups of nilo.

  “How about jittery?”

  “I feel strange. Why did you trade your ship for me?”

  “What?” Crap. They set off the truth serum. Yara swayed on the table, her expression puzzled.

  “Your ship. Why did you trade it for me? Why did you come?” She shook her head, then rubbed her eyes. “I can’t focus on anything. I want to see Tuz. Is he okay?”

  “We set off the truth serum,” he stated, while trying to keep his exasperation at bay. “I need you to try to stay quiet. The serum inhibits your ability to hold back what you’re thinking.” They didn’t have time for this. At least he hadn’t set off the stimulant. Chatty was better than convulsing.

  “I’ll try.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

  Cyn focused again, even with Tuz growling on the other side of the door. He had to get both bands off immediately.

  He had the last injector’s pins immobilized when Yara started back up again. “Thank you for saving me.”

  He had to ignore her. Responding to her would only keep her talking.

  “There’s nothing to forgive,” she continued.

  A chill ran down his back. There was plenty to forgive. She had no idea what he was involved in. He was her enemy. He couldn’t ever forget that. Why did she have to look so much like Yarlia?

  Focus.

  “You’re sexy,” she whispered.

  “Crap.” He made the final cut and the last light died. “You need to stay quiet, Yara.”

  He cracked open the slave band and pulled out the needles.

  “Why did you come after me?” she asked again. “You barely know me.”

  He couldn’t take it anymore. Every time he looked at her, he saw a reflection of Y
arlia, her terror as she was taken away from him, her broken spirit when he finally freed her, and her despair as she died in his arms after delivering her stillborn child. “I had to, okay? I couldn’t just leave you to them. They’d destroy you.” He threw the band toward the shelves. “I’m not going to be responsible for that again.”

  “Again?”

  Aw, shit. “Look, Yara. I have to disable that other band. As soon as the band cycles, it will take a bio reading and realize that you have serum in your system that isn’t in its programming. That will set off the tampering mechanism, and it will inject you with poison.” He cupped her face in his hands and forced her to look at him. “You have to stay quiet. You have to.”

  Her wide, golden eyes searched his. She swallowed and nodded.

  He moved to her other side. Time was running out. He didn’t have the luxury of coaxing his memory. He had to move quickly. He injected the nanos then set to work.

  He had the probe locked into the injector. Just a slight turn, and she’d be safe.

  “You lost someone to slavers, didn’t you?” Her words were barely a whisper, but Cyn felt like he’d been punched in the gut. He tried to keep his hand still but felt the trembling race through his whole body.

  “You lost someone you loved.” Her voice sounded even quieter this time, but it rang in the empty room.

  “Yes,” he whispered back. He kept his hand still while he tried to steady his racing heart. He was almost there. One more turn.

  Carefully.

  Yarlia’s screams rip through the still air. She reaches out for him as they carry her away. The pain of each blow to his head, his ribs, courses through his body.

  The hot, ripping pain of the blade cuts into his chest above his heart as he makes his first kill. He bleeds as he watches the life fade from her flesh-master. He’d freed her, but he can’t save her. The damage has been done.

  A sharp steady beep broke into the fog of his memories.

  “Cyrus?” Yarlia’s eyes were so wide, so afraid. No, not Yarlia. Yara.

  What was happening?

  The lights on the band began to blink.

  Shakt!

  Cyn’s panic grabbed his throat and stole the strength from his hands. He grabbed a med strip and firmly tied it around her arm above the band.

  “Xan! Launch! Set coordinates for Oriana. We need the Touscari now!” The race of healers on Oriana were the only ones capable of neutralizing the poison.

  “Cyrus?” Yara grasped his hand as the med-alert sirens blared through the ship. He laid her back on the table and smoothed a shaking hand over her hair as she looked at him with panic in her bright gold eyes.

  “Stay calm.” His heart raced, wild and frantic, as his blood rushed like a flooded river in his veins.

  “I don’t want to die.” She grasped his hand tighter as Tuz yowled and screeched on the other side of the door.

  “I won’t let you,” he promised, squeezing her hand. The ship rumbled to life as he heard Xan’s crew racing through the corridors. “Don’t you dare give in.”

  12

  “WHAT HAPPENED?” XAN DEMANDED. THE SHIP LURCHED, SENDING AN UNSECURED instrument tray clattering to the floor. Cyn braced himself against the bed even as he helped Yara lay her head down. She closed her eyes and moaned.

  “It hurts.” She coughed.

  “Pain?” Xan grabbed her wrist, feeling for a pulse, gave up and put his hand to her neck, cursed, then grabbed heart-charges.

  “Poison.” Cyn could barely force the word out. His mind was spinning in dark memories. He could barely see, barely think. He tried so hard not to lose himself in the hard fist of terror that had clenched around his heart. “Are there any Touscari-Orianalen on board?” The healers had the rare ability to heal through powerful psychic powers and special glands in the skin of their hands.

  They also had a strange culture based entirely on a barter system, and he had nothing left to trade for her life.

  “I don’t have any Touscari on board.” Xan slapped a reader on Yara’s chest. “We’ll get her to Oriana as fast as we can.”

  “Bug, medical emergency,” Cyn barked at him. His aura flared as he zoomed over Yara. “Contact the Touscari-Orianalen as soon as we are out of macrospace and negotiate with the healing sanctuary at Rastos for a purging on my behalf.”

  Bug squeaked a series of questions.

  “I don’t care what parameters you use. Get creative. We no longer have the ship.”

  Bug let out a shrill alarm.

  “I’ll explain later. Just do it.” Cyn snatched the viewer. He still had to get the band off. Yara started to shiver. She wouldn’t open her eyes, and she had pulled her legs up into the fetal position. They didn’t have much time.

  Bug shot out of the room as Tuz and one of the ship’s medics charged in through the door.

  “Javin,” Xan commanded. “She’s been injected. Get over here now.”

  “Do whatever you can to keep the poison from the heart and brain. Anything will help,” Cyn stated.

  The petite medic took a place at the head of the table as Tuz jumped on Yara’s chest and yowled.

  “Get that cat out of here!” Xan demanded.

  Cyn ignored him as the ship shook and yawed to the right. They seemed to push through the launch for an eternity before the ship finally settled into macrospace.

  Each second ticked by with the oppressive weight of an eon. Cyn watched the beads of sweat form on Yara’s forehead, dampening her short hair. He wiped her sallow brow, trying to comfort her as he waged a painful war with his own mind. For years he had immersed himself in learning and pleasure, trying to drown his mind in information and pleasant stimulation to keep the terrible horrors of his life from overwhelming him.

  Now none of it mattered. His agony was driving him mad. The medic tried to say something to him, but he didn’t hear it. All he could hear was Yarlia’s screams. All he could see was her pale face, her life gone. Her eyes were closed, so peaceful, so much like Yara’s. Yara’s skin paled further, her life ebbing.

  No!

  Cyn shook with agony as he tried to swallow the lump in his throat. He shut his eyes against the pain, trying to stay in the present. He felt himself slipping. He’d pass out cold if he wasn’t careful and end up in a coma in the healing sanctuary for the next couple of days. Then he’d be no good to her.

  He wouldn’t fail again.

  Cyn clenched her hand tight then picked up the tools. He had to get the band off her, before it did any more damage.

  Immersing himself in his task, he ignored the medic’s movements, ignored Tuz pushing his hard face up against his shoulder. His whole world became the tiny screen and his hands. He eliminated the last of the lights and pulled the band out of her arm. The thick needles slid out of her flesh, leaving welling pools of blood on her bicep. One of the needles still dripped poison as he tossed it back toward a deep basin.

  Yara’s skin felt so cold, not like the hot fire that had burned beneath his hands not even an hour earlier.

  He couldn’t lose her.

  Tuz mewed at him, a soft plaintive sound so at odds with the cat’s personality.

  “I’m doing all I can,” he offered as he rubbed one of Tuz’s thick ears. He purred and pushed into Cyn’s hand.

  The ship slowed. They’d be docking soon. Xan stood. “Hang on.” He left the room, jogging out the door and down the corridor.

  Bug bulleted into the room, pinging off a wall before flying into the center of Cyn’s chest.

  Bug rattled off a long string of his click code so fast Cyn could barely process it. He said something about living kiltii vines and Tola.

  Cyn’s gut felt like it hit the floor.

  “Tola is here?” He hadn’t spoken to the Union medic since the man served as his sister’s second in command. This could get nasty. According to Tola, they had an unfinished debt.

  Xan’s medic looked up. “Tola Pinaro-Trabal? He’s got the best hands on Oriana. The man can work mi
racles. I didn’t know he was back from his tour with the Union forces.”

  “I didn’t either.” He’d worry about how to get back into the healer’s good graces later. Yara’s life was on the line.

  The ship shuddered as it came to a rest on the docking platforms. Cyn lifted Yara in his arms as he ran down the corridor to the lift platform. Once on the base level, he ran toward the crew ramp. The light from Oriana’s tropical sun burned through the dim interior, searing his eyes.

  The great estuaries and wetlands of Oriana stretched out before him like a quilt of light and bright green life.

  Giant flocks of white-winged birds took flight over the city of Rastos as a herd of stacarns lifted their crested heads and watched him run down the ramp onto the docks.

  The relatives of Earth’s long-extinct corythosaurus chewed thoughtfully on reeds as the hot wind from the engines whipped the dripping branches of the cypress trees.

  Two women with the thick black hair, dark skin, and sharp expression of the Touscari marched toward him without so much as a hello. Cyn didn’t worry about niceties. During an emergency, he knew the Touscari were all business. One of the women removed her gloves and placed her deep bronze hand on Yara’s pale shoulder.

  “She’s bad. Alert the sanctuary,” the healer told the other girl. “You”—the healer’s slanted eyes narrowed as she pointed at Cyn—“follow me.”

  Yara’s head lolled against his shoulder as her hair tickled his neck just beneath his ear. With his heart pounding, he prayed that this time it would be different, that this time he wouldn’t lose her.

  With the strength of a full-grown man, but the fear of the lost young boy he’d been, he carried her out of the docks. As soon as he set foot in the marketplace, a Touscari man took her from him and placed her on a stretcher carried by four others. He didn’t have time to think as he watched them hurry her away.

  Tuz jumped out of the ship, followed by Bug.

  Cyn broke into a run, chasing the Touscari down the wood-planked street with Tuz at his heels. He’d been here many times before to trade in crocodile leather, spices, and stacarn oil. This time, the crowded marketplace only got in his way.

  People parted for the healers but closed in on him again. He ducked to the side to avoid getting clocked by a man carrying long wooden pikes on his shoulder, only to fall dangerously close to the jaws of a monster crocodile skull. The two boys playing hop-stones inside the jaws looked at him with disapproving glares as he accidentally kicked one of their stones into the street.