by Dan Oakley
When I slipped inside the dark, dusty shop, I pulled back my hood and looked around. It smelled of pencil shavings and old books.
The bell above the door chimed as I entered, and the old man shuffled towards me from the counter. He blinked blearily at me. “Ah, are you back for more books?”
“Not this time. I’m here to ask for your help.”
His face tightened and his gaze traveled to the door, looking through the window to the street outside. “My help? I’m sure I could assist you in polishing your magical energies. What did you have in mind?”
“Are there any customers in the shop?”
He gave a slight shake of his head, his brows knitting together in a frown. “No, we are alone.”
“I’m very sorry to trouble you with this,” I said. “What I’m about to ask is a difficult question, but I have no choice. My friend is in danger, and I need to contact the resistance. They’re the only ones who can help me.”
The man’s benign expression had now completely disappeared. His eyes grew hard and flint-like. “I’m sure I don’t know how I can be of help.”
“Do you know where I could contact someone from the resistance? Maybe a place where they’re known to frequent: a bar, coffee shop?”
“If I did, why would I tell you?”
It was a good question. I’d bought some tea and a book from his shop, but he didn’t know me. I could be leading him into a trap.
I caught a movement from behind the man and tilted my head just in time to see a shadow move across the doorway behind the counter. The old man had said we were alone, but clearly we weren’t.
“If you don’t know where they are, is there anything you can tell me about them? Anything that might help me?”
The man shook his head.
“Look, I met a man last night; he was from the resistance. But we got separated when the inquisitors started to chase us. His name is Toddo. Have you heard of him?”
The old man began to shake, but it wasn’t through fear; it was anger. “These are dangerous times. You can’t just blurt out names like that. You could get people into serious trouble.”
He was right. I was being reckless and foolish. But I was desperate to get him to trust me. Although his words said one thing, his eyes told me he knew more than he was letting on.
“I just want to help my friend. She’s been arrested and someone in the resistance told me they could help. I just need to find them.”
“I wish you and your friend well. But I’m afraid I know nothing that could help you.”
I stared at him for a long time, sure he wasn’t telling me the truth, but equally sure he wasn’t about to open up. And there was nothing I could do to persuade him.
Reluctantly, I left with a strange hollow feeling in my chest. It felt like our chances of helping Trella were growing more and more distant. As soon as I stepped onto the street, I pulled my hood low, shading my face, and began to walk back towards the market square.
I was tapping on my wrist device, preparing to send a message to Finn asking if he’d had any more luck than me when I got the strange sensation I was being followed.
I turned. The back of my neck prickled but I saw no one out of the ordinary. Stallholders were bartering with customers. A group of men were pulling a canopy over the store closest to me, but no one appeared to be paying me any attention.
It was not a surprise I was on edge after the morning I’d had. I took a deep breath, pulled the hood down even lower, and resumed walking.
I’d only taken another five steps when again a warning prickle traveled along my skin. Now, I was absolutely convinced I was being followed by someone.
I paused beside a shop window, searching the reflections for my pursuer, but saw no one. I paid particular attention to clothing, making sure there were no red cloaks in the vicinity.
Then I began to walk again, but instead of heading to the market square to meet up with Finn, I took the next left along a narrow street. It looked like it led to a residential area and probably through there along to the docks. I kept walking slowly, straining my ears for the sound of footsteps behind me.
Then I heard them. There was someone a short distance behind me.
Near the end of the alley, I ducked into a doorway and waited, holding my breath.
The footsteps grew closer; they were light, delicate.
I waited until the last moment and then sprang from my hiding place. When I stood face-to-face with who’d been following me, I stared in shock.
Chapter 5
I burst out laughing. It was an odd reaction, but the tension I’d felt two seconds ago had dissipated.
Standing in front of me, eyes wide, was a young girl of only eight or nine years. She had long dark hair and shining green eyes. She reminded me of the girl on Terrano who’d warned me when Maureena had been captured.
As I continued to laugh, she watched me, transfixed by my odd behavior.
I rubbed a hand over my face and pushed back my hood. I didn’t want to scare her. “Were you following me?”
“No!” She looked indignant.
I grinned and shook my head to show I didn’t believe her.
After a moment, she smiled. “Maybe I was following you. But there’s no rule against that.”
“No, I suppose there isn’t. But it’s probably not very safe for a little girl to follow men along streets.”
She leaned down to scratch her shin, rolling her eyes on the way. “Now you sound like my grandfather.”
“So it was you in the shop, listening in. Your grandfather is the shopkeeper, Dickens?”
She nodded and gave me a mischievous grin. “Yes, I live with him now. My mum died last year, and my father had to go and get work. We’ve not seen him for six months.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said.
She was open in a way that only young children could be.
Guilt tugged at me, but I pushed it aside. “How much did you hear of my conversation with your grandfather?”
“Nearly all of it,” she said with hesitation. “Do you believe the Mage Queen really exists?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Do you?”
She thought for a moment, and then nodded. “Yes, I think so. I think she’s a good queen, and one day she’s going to come back to the Kingdoms and help the mages regain their power.”
“I don’t think your grandfather would like you talking like that. It’s dangerous.”
Her face fell. “I thought you were one of us,” she said quietly.
“I am, I mean, I’m on your side. But you need to be careful who you say that sort of thing to. Some people may try to trick you so you think they’re on your side when they’re actually not.”
She frowned. “I’m not a baby. I know the difference.”
“Of course, you’re not a baby. You seem to know quite a lot for a girl your age.”
“I do,” she said proudly. “I know all sorts of things.”
“Do you know where I can find members of the resistance on Marrachi?” I asked, keeping my tone light and casual.
I felt a bit foolish asking a nine-year-old-girl for help locating a resistance member, but I didn’t have much else to go on.
She nodded and gave me a smug smile. “Of course, I do.”
I hesitated, studying her young face for any sign of deception. “Where?”
Her smile spread from ear to ear. “Well, I don’t know if I should tell you. I need to be careful about the people I talk to.”
I couldn’t help laughing at the way she used my words against me. “That’s a good point.” I leaned back against the wall beside us and looked up at the narrow sliver of fake blue sky between the buildings around us. “Maybe you could make an exception for me.”
She laughed. “I know they get together in a restaurant called the Marrachi Pearl. They operate out of the basement. It’s near the atrium on this level.”
My pulse spiked. This could be it. Our route into the
resistance.
“How do you know that?” I asked with amazement.
She pulled an expression that made her look far older than her years. “People talk. They don’t worry about a nine-year-old-girl. They think I’m too busy playing with my dolls or deciding what ribbon to put in my hair.” Her eyes gleamed as she spoke. “But I do listen. I hear everything.”
Her words gave me chills, and I wondered how much this young girl knew and whether her grandfather had any idea she was so knowledgable. I didn’t like to think of this information getting into the wrong hands.
I crouched down, so I was eye level with the girl. “What’s your name?”
“Eileen,” she said. “After my mother.”
“Well, Eileen. Thank you very much for helping me. I think one day soon you’ll be a great help to your grandfather. But be careful who you trust.”
She nodded solemnly.
I tapped out a quick message on my comms device to Finn and another one to Kira, explaining I had a lead and was going on to the atrium.
“I accept your advice,” the girl said formally. “I’d like to offer some of my own.”
My fingers paused above the screen and I nodded. “What’s your advice?”
“Don’t use the comms device to talk about locations or people. It’s monitored by the inquisitors.”
I canceled the messages. She made a good point. I would have to meet Finn in person, but that would take more time.
“Would you like me to take a message?” she asked brightly, seemingly eager to be part of something exciting.
I thought for a moment then nodded and showed her the image of Finn connected to his comms link on my wrist device.
“I need you to find this man. We have arranged to meet outside a coffee shop called Alonzo’s in the market square. Tell him I’ve gone to the Marrachi Pearl to find out what I can about the resistance and ask him to tell our friend back at the boardinghouse.”
She nodded. “I can do that.”
We set off in the same direction and then she stopped. “If you want to go directly to the Marrachi Pearl, you should really go that way. If you travel to the end of the alley, take the first right and then the first left, that will lead you directly onto the atrium. There’s less people and you have less chance of being spotted.” Eileen gave me a sly smile. “I’m not supposed to watch the news reports either, but I do.”
Could this child surprise me any more? I didn’t think it was possible. I held out my hand, shook hers formally with a bow, and thanked her for her help.
Then she walked towards the light at the end of the alley and the main market square, and I walked back towards the darkness and twisting, winding alleyways that should take me to the atrium.
I followed Eileen’s instructions, and guessed I was pretty close to the atrium when I heard a noise behind me.
When I turned, I saw it was just a young woman and small child. The woman was hanging out some clothes on a drooping washing line outside her home, while the child was pulling on her mother’s long skirts.
Sensing no danger, I continued to walk, but then I heard the scuff of a boot on the ground behind me. I turned and saw a short man with a tattoo in the center of his forehead.
He wore a weapons belt, and his smile widened as he peered at my face. “It’s him!” he shouted.
I didn’t know who he was talking to. I looked around wildly but couldn’t see anyone.
“Now come quietly, and it’ll be a whole lot less painful,” the tattooed man said, grinning and showing off his missing teeth. “It’s nothing personal, but you have a bounty on your head.”
Great. Bounty hunters. Just when I thought I was getting somewhere.
Surely it couldn’t be too hard to deal with them. I’d dispatched two inquisitors on my own, hadn’t I? So I was more than a match for a few bounty hunters.
I threw an energy bolt at the man’s arm. I was impressed with my self-control. It didn’t take his arm off, just singed it a little. He screamed with pain and dropped his laser weapon, giving me a chance to run.
But as I pivoted, ready to dart along the alleyway to safety, I saw his companion just ahead of me. My stomach churned at the sight.
Energy bolts wouldn’t get me out of this one.
The bounty hunter’s friend had long greasy hair that reached his collar, and he wore a leather jacket with long tassels. He was holding his laser weapon to the head of the toddler I’d seen with her mother just a moment ago.
Any energy bolts I threw could kill him, but would I kill him quickly enough? Would his trigger finger be faster?
I looked down at the little girl’s face. She couldn’t have been more than two or three and tears trickled down her cheeks as she sniffed. There was no sign of the girl’s mother.
I desperately try to think of a way out of this mess, but I’d hesitated too long. The man with the singed arm behind me had recovered enough to get to his feet and throw something at me.
It was a rope, and the coils tightened around my arms, trapping them against my torso. The rope was blue and glowed with an energy I recognized.
It was the same one the inquisitors had used on Maureena to block energy and magic transmission. Now I was unarmed, stripped of magic, and at the mercy of two very ugly bounty hunters.
Chapter 6
I was frozen in place, unable to do anything as the greasy-haired bounty hunter gave the small child a hard shove and sent her tumbling to the ground.
It made her cry harder, and when she stood up, blood oozed from her scraped knees.
“Go on,” the bounty hunter shouted in a harsh voice. “Go back to your mother.”
The child didn’t need to be told twice. She ran as fast as her small legs could carry her along the alleyway, back to the safety of her mother.
I quickly assessed my chances. There were two bounty hunters. I didn’t know which one was in charge, but neither of them looked strong or magical. However, they were heavily armed, and as I had just seen, they weren’t above threatening children to get what they wanted. Bounty hunters weren’t known in the Kingdoms for their high morals, and these two fitted the caricature well.
The greasy haired one came towards me. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
He began to rifle through my pockets, pulling at my clothing. His eyes widened, and he grinned as his fingers clasped the pouch of money attached to my belt.
“This should do nicely,” he said.
“You’re thieves as well as bounty hunters then!” I spat.
“It’s not stealing,” the other bounty hunter said. He was standing behind me, still cradling his burned arm. “I’ll need the money for doctors’ fees to repair my injury.”
He had the cheek to glare at me.
“I was just minding my own business,” I said. “You’re the ones who came after me.”
“You’re a criminal. It says so on the news reports, and there’s a bounty offered for your capture. We plan to collect,” the man with the tattoo said, then nodded at my wrist. “We’ll take that too, for our trouble.”
The other bounty hunter did as his friend said and removed the newly repaired comms device from my wrist.
I gritted my teeth. It was small consolation to think that most of my money was still back at the boardinghouse.
“I haven’t done anything wrong,” I said, trying to reason with them. “You must have the wrong man. You’re going to be in a lot of trouble when people find out.”
The greasy haired man cackled. “Oh, I’m trembling in my boots,” he said sarcastically, shoving me on the shoulder. “Less talking, more walking. Let’s go. We’ve had quite a successful day. Not one, but two, catches. We’ll be celebrating tonight.”
The man with the tattoo on his forehead didn’t look as enthusiastic. I guessed his wound was causing him pain. Good. I only regretted I hadn’t managed to injure the other bounty hunter as well.
It was surprisingly hard to walk with my arms clenched at my sides by the bl
ue, glowing rope.
“I could heal that for you,” I said, nodding at the burn on the man’s forearm. “You just have to remove the rope temporarily and—”
The greasy haired man howled with laughter. “Do we look like a pair of fools?”
I decided it would be prudent not to answer that question. “What am I going to do? You both have weapons. I’m unarmed.”
“Maybe, but there was a warning on your bounty report. You’re a powerful mage, and we know you mage types can be tricky scoundrels. So we will not be removing the magic suppressor until the inquisitors arrive to collect you and we get our money.”
“How much is the bounty? Maybe I could pay more?”
That aroused some interest in both men.
“How much have you got?” the man behind me said, his tattoo wrinkling as his eyebrows rose.
“Tell me the bounty, and I’ll tell you if I can beat it.” I didn’t want to pay more than I had to, so I wasn’t about to name a price.
“One thousand international credits,” Tattoo Head said, with a nasty smile as he scratched the bridge of his nose.
I swallowed my disappointment. There was no way I could afford to pay that kind of bounty, let alone beat it.
“Awww, he’s fallen quiet now,” Greasy Hair said to Tattoo Head. “I guess he’s not quite as much of a big shot as he thought.”
I felt another shove in my back, and as my temper heated up, a tremble of energy passed through my arms.
I pushed back against the restraint, but it seemed to make the rope dig in deeper.
They led me to the back of a transporter. It was a mechanical vehicle, which had seen better days. The rear section was covered with material. That was good. It would be easier to break free. I stood back as they released the flaps on the side of the transporter.
They gestured for me to climb into the back.
It wasn’t easy without the use of my arms, and they didn’t help with their shoves and prods as I tried to scramble inside. I made it inside eventually after an undignified shove from one of the men below and sprawled flat on my face in the back of the wagon. I rolled over onto my back and blinked up into the dim light.