His lips were soft, the warmth of him making heat rise in her. She moved closer, pressing herself against him, sliding her arms around his neck and pulling him tighter. When he remained frozen, she pulled away to see his eyes. He was staring at her, blushing, body stiff. She raised her eyebrows. “If you’re not interested, you can say so. I won’t be offended.”
He went redder, if that were possible. “I-I... That is... I was...”
She didn’t hear a refusal in there, just more awkwardness. That she could handle. She leaned in again, hovering her lips over his. “Follow my lead.” Each word caused her mouth to brush feather-like against his. This close, she could hear him swallow.
When she kissed him again, he kissed her back. Or at least tried to. She wanted to chuckle, appreciating his enthusiasm, but knew anything that could be taken as mockery would cut his confidence. Instead she led by example. She moved her lips gently against his, teasing him a little. He mimicked her movements. When he was relaxed, she slid her tongue into his mouth.
Jin tensed again, but relaxed when she flicked the end of his tongue with hers, before setting out to explore his mouth. Cautiously at first, he met her tongue with his own, and when he was brave enough to dart it into her mouth, she ran her tongue along the length of his before sucking the tip of it.
The little sound he made in his throat told her he appreciated the move. She chuckled silently and decided it was time to move things up a step. She slid one hand down his back until she reached his hips, stroking along the bone and down close enough to where his leg met his pelvis that she could feel him stiffen. And in more than one place.
Which was exactly what she wanted. Her hand drifted lower, ready to check the size of him, when Jin pulled away from her lips. Her heavy-lidded eyes opened as she frowned, noting the redness of his lips and the eyes as equally full of desire as hers. Which only added to her confusion.
Jin reached out with both hands to cup her face, licking his lips. “Azara.” His voice was rough, the sound of it like this bringing more heat out of her veins. “This isn’t something we should do at this time.”
She leaned forward so her breath would run beside his cheek and ear. “And why not?” she practically purred.
He shifted, swallowing hard. “This isn’t a good place nor is it the right time. We...we don’t know what will happen tonight. And this place is not...suitable for that kind of activity.”
“It can be. I’ve done it outside before.”
His one hand twitched against her cheek. “That...that may be, but I don’t...you deserve better than this and I... Right now our emotions are high because of what we face. It wouldn’t be fair to take advantage of them.” She wanted to protest, but couldn’t help the niggling little doubt that maybe that was true on his end, if not necessarily hers. “After this, if you’re still interested, I... I would very much like to continue this.”
Azara finally met his eyes, noting the steadiness of his gaze. He was serious. Which wasn’t a surprise, she’d hoped she’d be able to convince him otherwise. In many ways he was a victim of his palace upbringing. He probably was thinking a proper bed was necessary, but if he wanted to wait, she would do so. Even if she needed release now. “If that’s what you want...”
Jin relaxed. “It is.”
She nodded. “We’ll leave it for now. If you change your mind...” The smile she turned on him made him shiver, as she’d intended it to. She doubted he would, but planting the seed was enough. And he was right. They did have a lot ahead of them to focus on.
* * *
In the evening’s blue light, Jin and Azara paused at the edge of the clear area around the fence. Azara silently counted to ten before she hurried across, keeping her body low. The first patrol wouldn’t start until after the torches were lit, and they started out from the gate for that. Two soldiers were already working their way around. They had a very short window to get through.
Jin was close behind her and when they reached the wall, they pressed themselves against it, looking in both directions. No one came and no alarm sounded. Azara let out her breath in a long stream before turning her attention to the next problem. The hole in the wood wasn’t large, more like a natural aberration in one of the boards that made up the barricade. It was wide enough that she could slide her crystal in with a thickness that wouldn’t shatter.
With the sharpest edge she could get the crystal to hold, she slowly and carefully slid it upwards, expanding the hole enough that they could fit through, ensuring she cut all the way to the bottom. The crystal got stuck for a moment and she felt a faint surge of panic before she got a hold of herself. Changing its shape so it had more teeth, she sawed through the problem piece before switching back to the sharp blade.
A gentle push was all it took for the board to fall inward. They were greeted by the blank rear of one of the wooden sheds. They slipped through the hole. Azara turned after they were in and fit the piece into place. It wobbled until she pushed it down, so it sank into the ground. It left a small gap at the top, but she trusted to the darkness and relative complacency of the guards to hide it.
Finished, Azara met Jin’s eyes. He jerked his head towards the side of the shed. She nodded. They peered around different sides of the shed, their heads low. From Azara’s spot she saw the door to the first of the long wooden buildings, the main part of the camp lit only sporadically by torches outside various doors. The fire mages’ buildings were not in that group.
Azara wasn’t about to argue with that piece of luck. She didn’t see anyone moving and hoped they were all at their dinner if not on duty. Such had been the case for breakfast and lunch.
Pulling back behind the shed, she met Jin’s gaze as he rejoined her. She raised her eyebrows in the direction he’d looked. He shook his head. No danger. She waved him forward, pointing at the nearest of the buildings that held fire mages. It was his turn to nod. Azara took the chance for one last deep breath before she moved.
She raced across the distance, head swivelling to look for anyone. For a second her heart sped up as she saw one figure, but it strolled inside a building without turning towards them. She ignored the fizz of energy that spiked within her, focusing instead on the door she approached. She didn’t stop until she was in front of it.
Jin pressed up to the other side of it, eyes going to her. He shook his head and tapped the handle of the door. So no magic on that either. Good. Azara tried the handle and was unsurprised to find it locked. There was also a slide lock higher up. That was the work of a moment to open. The handle took a few moments more, as she shifted the crystal into the right form, filling the keyhole and getting it to turn. The lock clicked softly open. Azara opened the door and slipped inside, Jin right behind her. She didn’t turn to glance around until she’d shut the door behind them.
The first thing she noticed was the darkness in the room. There appeared to be no source of lighting other than the high, darkened windows. The second she noticed was the smell. Unwashed bodies mixed with the smell of urine and feces, the scent making her choke a little. Jin made a little gagging noise but otherwise, remained silent.
There was the faint rustling of cloth that indicated movement, but Azara could only make out dim shapes. “Who’s there?” The woman’s voice was resigned, almost disinterested. It was the sound of someone broken.
Azara held up one hand, not bothering to fight the crystal as she summoned up a small flame. It didn’t matter, and actually, reflected the light better than she could do with just the plain fire. She swallowed at the scene in front of her.
Dressed in rough cotton clothing that in some places was singed, without a single blanket between them and the dirt floor, were dozens of people, all blinking in the sudden light. Men and woman of varying ages were sitting or lying on the ground, only a few standing. The women tended to be younger than the men from what she could see in the limite
d light of her makeshift lamp, though every face was lined with emotions she could only guess at.
Her chest squeezed at the thought of what could have happened to Anali and Aviur, and she swallowed back emotions that made speaking difficult. Pitching her voice low, but loud enough to carry, she swept them with her gaze. “My name is Azara. My family are fire mages. I—We’re here to help you. To free you. I know you may find this hard to believe, but I’ve fre—”
Azara was cut off when a man stepped forward. Black hair shot with white, a scruffy beard hiding the wide mouth and lessening the prominence of his nose, his dark brown eyes were wet when they looked at her. She didn’t need to hear her name from his lips, instead launching herself across the distance and straight into his opened arms. She clung tightly to her father and began to sob.
* * *
Jin blinked in the sudden darkness of Azara’s spell winking out. He’d only got a moment to look at the older man before she’d thrown herself at him. Having seen this reaction once before, Jin didn’t need to ask who it was. The sobs of relief only added to his certainty.
He moved forward, cognizant of the fact his eyes hadn’t fully adjusted to the darkness. It wasn’t hard to find Azara. Jin reached out and patted what he thought was her shoulder, but instead was the back of her head. Not about to try again, he gently stroked her hair for a few moments while she cried. He hated that he had to do this, but they had very limited time.
“Azara,” he said quietly. “We need to get to work. We only have until dawn, and night is short at this time of year.”
Her tears slowed, with her nodding, the movement felt by the hand he hadn’t moved. Her father seemed equally reluctant, his arms slowly withdrawing. Jin pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and pressed it into her hand, squeezing it as he did so. She squeezed back and offered him a smile that he could only just see in the dim light.
She dabbed at her eyes and held up her hand to reignite it so a circle of light spread out from her. Her father reached out and stroked her cheek. “We didn’t know if you survived or not.”
Azara offered him a soft smile. “I did. I hadn’t dared hope I’d find you here. Is mother here as well?”
The older man’s face went grave, losing the light, the lines around his eyes and mouth deepening. “Azara... Your mother...she was too old for the program, they decided. They needed people to try powering their new steam ships, to make them go faster, but they needed to experiment first. The engine blew up and...and...”
Jin swallowed hard and immediately looked to Azara. The fire in her hand dimmed as her face went pale. Tears welled up into her eyes, but didn’t fall. Both Jin and her father reached out at the same time, each claiming one hand. “I’m so sorry,” her father whispered. “I wished I could have saved her, but the collars...”
Squeezing her hand, Jin found himself again faced with having to pull her out of emotions she had every right to feel. But they were emotions that could cripple her, and right now, he needed the hard mercenary-like woman he’d first met at the Palace City. “Azara, I know this...this isn’t what you’d hoped for, that you’re in pain, that it hurts so much I’m sure you’re breaking, but the people here need you. Your father needs you. I can’t save anyone by myself. So please, if you can hold it back until we’re all safe again, I’ll hold you for as long as you want and let you cry everything out later, no matter how long that takes.” He tried to put into his words his empathy, how he knew the feeling of losing your family, and that he sincerely wished things could be different. They didn’t have the luxury of letting her work things out.
Azara turned her too-bright eyes on him. And as much as he wanted to pull her into his arms, to hold her and let her sob, any offering of comfort would only make her break down. So he held her gaze. Her eyes wavered before she tensed her jaw and nodded.
“How many fire mages are here?” she asked her father.
He looked like he wanted to protest, but didn’t. “There are fifty-eight adults and we think another twenty to twenty-five children. We don’t have an exact number, and we’re not sure how many people remain in the other building. We’re kept separated based on what they want from us.”
Jin frowned at that, Azara’s face mirroring his. Jin glanced at her father. “Different purposes? I was under the impression that most used fire mage slaves for battle and nothing else.”
None of the other fire mages would look at them, and even Azara’s father wouldn’t quite meet his gaze. “That is what they want to use us for, yes, though they have been experimenting with other uses. Finding fire mages has always been hard, because people enslave us and use us until we die for the most part. There are too few of us spread out over large areas to be easily found and most of us hide what we are. So the people here settled on a way to solve that problem.”
His words brought a chill to Jin. He could feel his arm hair rise, and something about the uncertainty about the number of children here told him what the answer was before he heard it. His gorge rose. “They’ve instituted a breeding program here. We, in this building, are those chosen to be that stock.”
Jin wanted to be sick. This was worse than he’d thought. Using slaves until death was bad enough, but to force them to create more slaves, and from the bruises, half-healed scars and other signs of abuse, he was sure they’d fought it as much as they could. But they’d been pushed into it. This was a crime on a level against humanity itself.
Azara trembled, her whole body tense, her hands fists, every bit of her screaming the war she was fighting against a fresh surge of emotions. Jin had nothing to say to her. What could he say? This was so much worse than either of them had expected, and he had no words to help her, to tell her things would be all right. Because this was so far from all right as to make that idea ludicrous. And her father was here, which would tell her more than she probably wanted to know.
She inhaled and exhaled, the shivers of her body slowly fading. Only then did Azara speak. “We need to get everyone out of here. Everyone. I won’t leave anyone behind nor are we leaving any of the guards or the rest of the bastards who helped with this level of inhuman atrocity live. Will you help with that?”
Her father sighed. “We would. All of us would rise against them now, if it weren’t for the collars.” He tapped the metal and leather circlet around his neck, a match for the one all the others wore. “There’s magic on these that forces us to obey the orders we’re given.”
Azara leaned forward to study it, moving around so she could check the back of it. “There’s a keyhole. I can open that easily.”
“Don’t!” Her father held up his hands and she froze in place. “These are set up with a double protection. There is a spell on them, that if not released, will cause pain so severe it will paralyze the wearer if the collar is unlocked. And if the spell is released without the collar being unlocked, our slavery remains for all to see.”
Jin stepped forward, eyeing the collar. Azara glanced at him, but he didn’t say anything until he could examine the spell more deeply. Layers upon layers woven within it, a complicated spell that would have taken a long cast time and much preparation. There was a release and that meant it had to be written into the spell itself.
“I’ll need something to write with. It’s a complicated spell, but by no means the worst I’ve had to decipher. Given enough time, I can discover the keyword.” I hope, he thought.
But the bright eyes and brighter smile that Azara turned on him warmed him in a way that he knew he wouldn’t be able to give up. “Thank you.” Two words that held a world of emotions and a sincerity he rarely heard in others.
He nodded once, before turning his attention to the spell. This was going to take a while.
* * *
Azara watched Jin continue his study of the slave collar on her father. There was no paper in the room, but they’d made do with his finger an
d the dirt of the floor. Even now, Jin wrote something down, the script of the Empire unknown to her except for a handful of useful symbols she’d memorized. The complicated figures Jin drew were beyond her. As was what he was doing.
He would stare at the collar, his dark eyes steady, sometimes turning his head this way and that, and would periodically write something down only to go back to staring at the collar again. He had been at it for what felt like an eternity, but it was still full night. They’d gathered an audience of fire mages in the process. One or two were actually reading what Jin had written with no comprehension on their faces.
She kept the light in her hand steady but low, both because Jin had said it made seeing the magic easier but also to avoid detection. The fire mages had been forbidden from using their power outside of specific orders, so any unusual light would bring the guards on to them.
And they couldn’t risk discovery. One hand clenched into a shaking fist, which she forced herself to relax when she noticed. She shoved her emotions back down. It was a confusing mix that Jin had been right in saying she didn’t have time for. Once everyone was safe she could work through them.
Finally, Jin sat on his heels and blinked rapidly. “Thank you,” he said to her father before he turned his attention to what he’d written down. His lips moved as he ran down the symbols, connecting some and crossing out others. In the end, he connected two symbols, then drew one that had something of both before looking up and grinning. “I have the release word. It takes that and a touch of magic to break.”
Whispers sprang up among the fire mages, several of them exchanging glances that held hope, pain, suspicion, apathy or a combination of all of them. Her father squared his shoulders. “Try it on me first.”
Jin reached out a finger to touch the collar. “Alinne,” he whispered. Azara saw nothing but Jin’s shoulder slumped immediately and he grinned at her. She felt hope rise painfully in her chest.
Azara moved up behind her father next, drawing the crystal out and feeding it into the collar. A quick twist and the lock and the collar opened, allowing it to fall away. Her father looked down as it dropped in front of him. He glanced at his hands and, with them trembling, made fire bloom into each palm.
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