Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 58483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
“You will have miraculous adventures.” She looks at me, eyes intent. Piercing. “During them, you must keep your core hidden.” She puts her hand on my chest. “Do not ever give up that secret part of you. Do not surrender it to any being, at any time, for any reason. Your spark inside is what makes you special, Taisha. You must keep it apart, stubborn, firm. It is yours, and belongs to you alone, and your future. If you give up your heart, you will always be a slave.”
I nod. “Never surrender to another being.”
“And don’t tell them about what happens at the rock, with the young. Not until it’s time. And use the orange. He will, too.”
“The what? I don’t understand. Leylah?”
Leylah wheezes and touches my scratched face. “The scars inside are worse, I know. But when you leave here, you get the chance to heal. Take that chance, for me. For all of us.”
Chapter 3
Present Planet Rotation
Taisha
“So that’s your story?”
The Zandian crosses his arms, and his muscles ripple. My nipples tighten and I dart my eyes away. How is that in the midst of my story, I’m fascinated by his form?
“Do you doubt me?”
“It’s a little far-fetched.” He narrows his eyes. “So your slave-barracks’ mother, Leylah? She fell down in the market, and you used the diversion to accidentally fall into the river and pretend to drown?”
“She didn’t just fall down.” My vision blurs with tears. “She actually—died.” I can see it as clearly as when it happened. “She made a little sound, a sort of hum, then a gasp, and she went down.” It was like a piece of cloth rippling in the wind, and I knew instantly that her essence was gone from her body.
“And then you jumped into the river, and you managed to swim upstream against the current and get out and get that secret pack?” Disbelief rings in his voice. “The only way out of the fenced in slave area, and you managed to escape.”
I nod.
“Then you were attacked by an Ocretion guard, you killed him with this syringe and he died?”
I nod again. I omitted the part about the coin. After all, Leylah said it was for Lamira alone. Plus, I’m not even on Zandia yet.
“And no other being saw you.”
I look away. “No. No being saw me after that.”
This is not quite true.
I made it out of the river and took the pack, changed clothing. I ran back to the market, disguised in a shawl to hide my face. I even made it to the edge of the tarmac where the ships waited, a vast baked expanse of earth with shimmering craft. And after killing the guard, my nerves were shot—it was obvious that if I didn’t get onto a ship now, I’d be dead.
Hiding behind the ever present red boulders, I waited, watching as beings readied pallets of goods for upload onto various craft. Eyeing the one I needed.
But then–
A hurried committee materialized: Master, his visitor, and Rannah, her wrists tied. Face angry, tears staining it.
“I told you, she fell in! She drowned!” Rannah’s voice was shrill and carried the conviction of truth. “She died. I saw it. She went under and was carried away. No being could survive the current.”
And then I saw the little smile across her face, the one that said she was glad. And they all saw it too, and when Master saw it, his face relaxed somewhat.
Not enough, though. Because his visitor—the one who wanted me, who’d touched my face with his disgusting hand—was dissatisfied. He looked all around, as if he might spot me lingering in the area.
“She could have escaped.” He scowled. “Perhaps she is hiding here, trying to get onto a ship. Search the area for her.”
“Impossible.” Master spat. “These ships are too advanced for stowaways, and all the slaves know it means torture and death if they even try.” I don’t think he likes to be challenged, especially by a guest, and in front of others. Hopefully, he’ll disagree just because he’s angry.
All it would take is one finger, though. He needed to lift just his finger and make a command, and then his guards would carry out a search, and I would be found. And this time, the syringe that saved my life earlier, would only mean torture before death—for me and possibly for some of my friends, too.
Rannah twisted her shoulders. “She’s shredded up in the river,” she repeated, and the pleasure in her voice, undisguisable, sends a knife into my heart.
Still, Master wasn’t sure.
And I knew my fate was over when his son, standing to the side as always, looked right at me and spotted me behind the boulder. Our eyes met, just like when he was in the river, dying, and I was on the bank. Those odd eyes, the color brighter than ever, so different from his father’s.