Trade Circle: A Space Opera Adventure Series (The New Dawn Book 3) Page 25

“Not my only love,” he whispered, realizing how stupid and blind he’d been. For the first time in his life, Sidney felt peace. He leaned his head against Caira’s and he knew he loved her.

  “I tried to kill Adita,” Caira said, squeezing his hand, her voice cracking with guilt. “I tried to smother a defenseless woman tied to a bed.”

  “I stabbed her. I had no way of knowing whether she’d survive. I was so angry at my father, I just—if I couldn’t have her, I didn’t want anyone to have her.” Not even the alcohol could dull that pain.

  “We could coax the spirit out of her and place it in a willing vessel. Then you can have your beloved Adita,” Caira said, her voice falling to a whisper as she forced the words through tears.

  “I would have her body, but not her soul,” Sidney said, shaking at the thought.

  “Of course her soul remains,” Caira said, her voice strengthening with resolve. “The Seer spirit has no regard for the vessel. We are sending one warrior after another in there, and they are not breaking the spirit. They are breaking the vessel.”

  Sidney gaped at Caira. He wanted to believe she was right—that Adita was not beyond help. But there was something else behind her words. “You’re not a willing vessel,” he said, his heart sinking. She would sacrifice herself to give him Adita.

  His jaw dropping, his eyes welling with tears, Sidney pulled Caira into a protective embrace. “You can’t. Caira, you can’t. I can’t lose you, too.”

  Tray petted Laos’ hair, not envying the headache she’d have when she woke up. Danny grumbled, but they couldn’t leave the two fallen scouts in the open.

  “With her in my arms, I can walk right through the front gate,” Tray reasoned, sizing up the crowd. An injured Drava girl was the perfect excuse for showing up in the village after promising to leave. “They’ll take me straight to the medical tent.”

  “No,” Danny said flatly.

  “You think you can stop me,” Tray asked, hoisting Laos in his arms.

  “You’re the one that said it was better if they thought Sky escaped on her own,” Danny pointed out. Danny was right, but Tray’s arms were starting to go numb, and Laos was going to wake up sooner or later.

  “Fine. Then I think Hawk’s plan has merit,” Tray said. “Let’s use Oriana to blow all the tents over and make some chaos. A blast back from the engine would do it.”

  “Let’s call that plan D,” Danny said, leading the way as he crept across the village perimeter, listening next to each tent, trying to source the crying sound.

  “What are plans A, B, and C?” Tray asked, not putting near as much effort into not being seen.

  “Plan A: sneak in, sneak out. Plan B: you create a distraction while Hawk and I rescue Sky.”

  Danny stopped talking, and Tray kept quiet, listening for whatever his brother heard. They moved through two more tents, and Tray lost interest in the wait.

  “And plan C?” Tray prompted.

  “I don’t know, but anything has got to be better than throwing a whole village into chaos,” Danny grumbled. “There are children in these tents.”

  “She’s in there,” Hawk said, pointing to a brown drab tent. His head was cocked, and whatever sense he’d used to make the judgment, it wasn’t obvious. “She’s not alone.”

  The tent was well inside the village perimeter, but separated from the outermost layer of tents by a livestock pen and a wheeled tractor. A group of Drava men clustered outside, laughing raucously, and Tray knew it would be a bad place to leave an unconscious girl. Danny crept to the edge of the tent. Hawk made it as far as the tractor and sat broodingly on top of the wheel well.

  “Hey, alien boy. We didn’t come all this way to stop here,” Tray hissed, nudging Hawk down and into the shadows so he wouldn’t be seen.

  “She’s not hurt,” Hawk snipped. “She stayed behind to have sex with that man.”

  “She sounds hurt,” Danny said, pressing his ear to the side of the tent.

  “And ‘that man’ is over there,” Tray said, pointing toward the center of the road where Kassa sat talking to a slender woman. Hawk grabbed Tray by the wrist, but it was too late. “And he sees me,” Tray murmured, shifting Laos in his arms.

  “Plan B already,” Danny said.

  “Let’s skip to plan D, please,” Tray murmured, keeping his eyes on Kassa so as not to betray Danny’s presence.

  “Go to him,” Danny ordered. “Don’t draw him here.”

  Taking a deep breath, Tray walked straight up to Sidney Kassa, then a few paces past him, so that Kassa was no longer looking toward the tent.

  “What have you done to my daughter?” Kassa demanded, snatching Laos from Tray’s arms. He reeked of alcohol, worse than Hawk, and he wobbled with Laos. The woman Kassa was with looked like the mother and she had dagger drawn. Tray held up his hands in surrender.

  “She came to Oriana for help. I’ve brought her back to you, and in return, I demand you return Sky.”

  “You must leave before the Judge sees you,” Kassa hissed, stumbling back.

  “I came for Sky. She is our guide.” Tray smoothed his jacket, feeling the stunner concealed beneath his clothing.

  “Untamed, she is nothing but a beast,” Kassa said.

  Tray had no idea what that meant, but he’d learned the lessons of possessiveness and jealousy from his father, and he would not be deterred. “She’s my beast and I will tame her in my own time.”

  Douglas knelt next to Danny and pulled the knife he’d been given. It went against everything that was in him to cut a perfectly good piece of canvas, but Tray could only draw Kassa so far away from the tent, and given the crowd, going in through the front was not an option.

  “Something is wrong,” Danny said, putting a hand on Douglas’ arm to stop him.

  “Yeah, we’re sitting here when we should be rescuing Sky. He’s creating a distraction like you asked,” Douglas said, slapping Danny to get him to focus. Douglas could barely focus himself. He’d eaten as much of Amanda’s chili as he could stomach, and still he was starving and woozy. Half his energy had gone into dragging Danny here, and the thought of carrying Sky home only made him dizzier.

  “Tray,” Danny whispered, standing up, and wobbling under his own weight.

  “Kerf you,” Douglas griped, pulling Danny to his knees and pressing the knife into Danny’s hand. “You get Sky. I’ll do the fighting.”

  “No, Hawk!” Danny started. It was too late. With an angry battle cry, Douglas jumped to his feet and charged to Tray’s rescue, knocking Kassa and Laos flat on the ground. Kassa shouted and the crowd of men in front of the tent mobilized. Now, all the attention was on Douglas.

  34

  Danny was weak and dizzy. He was pretty sure walking was a bad idea, but since Sky had stuck her neck out to save his life, he owed her. As soon as everyone was good and rescued, Danny planned to sleep for a long time.

  When Hawk let loose his battle cry, Danny ducked behind the tent, hiding as best he could. Inside the tent, the voices went quiet. There was at least one man in there with Sky. Her voice was unmistakable now—her tone cutting, the pain he’d heard before barely registering.

  “You can’t even finish,” she taunted. “You can tell them you grew bored of me, but they’ll know the truth. You ruin their fun because you can’t finish the job.”

  The man that answered spoke with an accent too thick for Danny to make sense of, but Sky’s muffled squeal of pain spoke volumes as to the sentiment. Summoning his strength, he made a long slit up the side of the tent and slipped inside. The sight was appalling enough to freeze him in his tracks.

  Sky was bound to a bed, hogtied with her hands over her head. Her naked body was smeared with blood that oozed from a soaked bandage over her belly. The half-naked man on top of her had one hand clamped over her mouth and a scalpel to her temple. Despite the loincloth masking the point of connection between their bodies, there was no hiding the fact that this was rape.

  The man sneered and nicked her ey
e socket with the scalpel. “I will be the last person you see!” the man seethed.

  Danny raised his stunner, but he couldn’t fire. An energy blast would electrocute them both, and the scalpel would take out Sky’s eye. His hesitation cost him the element of surprise.

  Hearing the disturbance, the Drava man leapt from the bed and shouted in alarm. But before either man knew what was happening, Sky sat up and twisted the man’s head, breaking his neck. The man’s body went limp and Sky fell back to the bed. Her face was pale, her breathing shallow, and her eyes glazed. Blood dripped down her torso from the wound on her side.

  “I guess you don’t need a rescue,” Danny quipped, rushing to the bed and getting winded from even that small amount of exertion. He rolled the body off of Sky and untied her legs.

  “The medicine worked,” she panted, tears streaming down her face.

  “More or less. Can you walk?” he asked, peeking under her bandage. The stitches looked crude and the wound deep.

  “Danny, if I could walk I would’ve snapped his neck an hour ago,” she gasped, pointing across the room and snapping her fingers. “My satchel. I have a knitter.”

  Danny stood to get the satchel and was rewarded with a wave of vertigo. He didn’t have the strength to carry her, and she needed more than a knitter to close that wound.

  “Need more time,” she groaned, screeching in pain as she rolled onto her side. Her bag was heavier than Danny would have thought, and she snatched it from him. The skin on her wrists and fingers was raw, but she gritted her teeth and tried to sit. Finding a rod-like device in her satchel, she gave it a cursory wave over her abdomen. Blood squelched out of the soaked bandage. Danny helped her redress, then picked up a blanket from the floor, shook out the dust, and wrapped it around her shoulders.

  “We don’t have time,” he said, leaning his head against hers, hoping to regain some of his own balance.

  “Bandit!” someone cried, leaping through the hole Danny had made in the back of the tent and tackling him to the ground. His stunner skidded under the bed, but a moment later, Danny recognized him as one of the scouts who had come to the ship. Sky reached for her grav-gun, then screeched in pain.

  “Shray,” Danny hissed, struggling for the upper hand. Once the boy had taken stock of the situation, he backed off of Danny, taking his stunner and tucking it into his belt.

  “Arrogant Drava,” he cackled, pointing and laughing at the fallen Drava man. “Come fast!”

  “She can’t walk,” Danny panted, taking Sky’s grav-gun, motioning Shray to help.

  When Shray snickered, Danny caught the red glisten of a gem piercing on his nose. Tightening the blanket around Sky, Shray pulled her across his shoulders, and slipped into the darkness.

  The shouts died down as the Drava subdued the Oriana ambassador, but Sidney stayed down, cocooning his body around his unconscious daughter to keep her from being trampled. An armored shin-guard impacted his ribs and someone tripped over him. Another body was thrown against Sidney’s legs, crushing him against his daughter. The pile of bodies grew larger, and the air became so humid, Sidney could barely breathe. He tried to lift his head and see if his daughter was still breathing. It was like being buried alive.

  “To rank!” he heard a man shout over the crowd. The weight on Sidney’s back lessened.

  “Sidney!” Caira’s cold hands clamped over Sidney’s cheeks and she lifted his face, letting him taste the air.

  “Oriana?” he asked weakly, shifting his weight off of his daughter, hoping he hadn’t crushed her.

  “Captured and taken to the Judge,” she said. “Can you move?”

  “Laos,” Sidney said, pushing up on his elbows. His left arm trembled and gave out, but Caira caught his shoulder and held him upright. His breathing labored, Sidney slumped against Caira and closed his eyes.

  “Let’s get you inside,” Caira said, coaxing him onto his knees.

  “Laos,” Sidney said again. His mind was fuzzy, but he knew he couldn’t leave his daughter again.

  “Brishen will carry her,” Caira assured.

  Sidney stuttered and blinked, not sure when the other man had appeared, but grateful all the same. Sidney needed to speak to Laos about what she’d seen among the Oriana. If they had found cause to knock her out, then she must have been close enough to witness something important.

  “Quickly, Sidney,” Caira said. “They’ve summoned the hunters to fight. I must go.”

  She tugged his arm, and Sidney’s vision blurred from pain. If he was this broken, he feared what damage Laos may have suffered. “They have come for Adita,” he told Caira, leaning heavily on her, not paying attention to what tent she led him into. It was a stranger’s tent, but it had a bed. Brishen set Laos down and covered her with a blanket.

  “And they will succeed,” she said flatly, grunting when he stumbled. She set him on the floor and motioned for Brishen to toss her a pillow. This was Brishen’s home. The boy was such a constant in Caira’s tent that Sidney had never considered the fact that he had a place of his own. At least Laos would know where she was when she woke.

  “Do you see what these Oriana did to our daughter?” Sidney moaned angrily.

  “They are taking their trouble with them. All we have to do is let them go,” Caira said, glancing over her shoulder. Sidney cocked his head and stared at her, wondering if she’d already stolen the Seer spirit from Adita. He clasped Caira’s hand, and she looked at him in surprise.

  “Be safe . . . my love,” he said, his voice quaking at that last word. Caira smiled and nuzzled him tenderly, as if she knew he was saying goodbye. Whether Adita had a spirit or not, Caira intended to help Adita escape, and if Adita was to live, then Sidney would live with her.

  Tray sneered as the burly Drava soldier forced him to his knees. His kneecaps smacked against the packed dirt floor of the Judge’s tent and the only lantern in the room cast his captors in a silhouette. Only rarely did a business deal land Tray in a situation like this. Surliness bought him nothing from his captor that pleas for mercy did not, but it did make him feel better. Hopefully Hawk would follow his lead. At least Hawk was vaguely sane this time. The only thing causing Tray’s confidence to falter today was the fact that his brother could barely walk, let alone mount a rescue.

  “I told you to leave,” Marius said, coming out of the shadows, leaving the other two soldiers in silhouette.

  “I misunderstood. It’s the accent,” Tray said cheekily. The rough rope grated against his wrists, agitating his old injuries. Tray sat back on his heels, indicating that he had no intention of running.

  Marius’ lip curled and he raised a metal and wood projectile weapon to Tray’s cheek. Hawk gasped, but Tray raised his chin, looking Marius square in the eye.

  “I’m doing what you asked,” Tray said haughtily. “You said to take my people and go. Sky—Adita—she is mine.”

  “The Seer is not a person!” Marius shouted.

  “Then you have not paid for her,” Tray sneered. “We only agreed to trade a solar panel for medicine. We never agreed to trade a person, and we certainly never agreed to trade a Seer.”

  “Why are you provoking him?” Hawk asked in Trade. Tray pursed his lips. They really needed to teach Hawk Lanvarian.

  “We keep talking until Danny comes to rescue us,” Tray explained, hoping Marius wouldn’t take offense to the language switch.

  “Why do we need to keep him talking?” Hawk asked.

  “Because when he’s finished talking, he’ll start beating. Possibly killing.”

  Marius grabbed Hawk by the jaw, forcing their eyes to meet.

  “He speaks only Trade,” Tray said, throwing his body sideways so that he bumped Hawk out of Marius’ arms. One of the soldier’s grabbed Tray by the leg, and Tray resisted the urge to kick free. They needed to wait for Danny’s signal.

  35

  With every step Danny felt weaker. His legs went numb and he dropped to his knees. Two other scouts joined Shray in the woods,
one of them dragging Danny, the other guarding their path. Sky twitched and writhed in Shray’s arms. Once they made it past the outermost tent of the Drava village, she started whining softly, and she didn’t try to hide the tears streaming down her cheeks.

  When they reached the forest, Shray set her down against a tree trunk, and the other scout with them pushed Danny next to her. Sky bit the blood-soaked blanket to muffle her pained wail.

  “I will see,” a female scout said, dropping from the tree to join them. She pulled Sky’s blanket aside and lifted her shirt to address the wound. “Myra of Chanti,” she said, touching her chest when Sky resisted.

  “He shot Laos. So funny,” Shray cackled, relaying the story to one of the other scouts. Danny was glad he was so amused by the act of betrayal. Danny could only catch every few words because their Lanvarian dialect was so different.

  “You shot her?” Lakshya exclaimed in Trade, pushing past Shray and his friend to confront Danny. “You killed her?”

  “No,” Danny panted. His tongue felt dry. “She’s fine. She’s probably awake and on her feet by now.”

  “I’m sorry about your brother,” Sky said, her head lolling against his shoulder, her body quivering under the blanket. She squeezed Danny’s hand while Myra worked a weird, trident-shaped medical device over the knife wound in her belly.

  “We’ll rescue him next,” Danny assured.

  “He died,” Sky said, looking moon-eyed and frightened. Her eyes were glassy and her pupils dark. “I did everything I could to save him.”

  “Tray is fine,” Danny assured, using the corner of the blanket to wipe her face. The material was rough, but it was cleaner than anything he was wearing. “He’s with Hawk. They’re both fine.”

  “Where is Hawk?” Sky asked, looking back toward the camp, a hint of lucidity returning.

  “Creating a distraction,” Danny answered.

  “Why did you need a distraction?”