“You were going to tell me what you did to get in here, Zaya?” I said, settling back on one of the cushions, plotting my escape at the same time.
Zaya leaned forward again. “No, Cartari Charzbos. I was not.”
I smiled at her and winked. “But I bet you were innocent right?”
She smiled, a surprising flash of soothing beauty in the dank cell. “Aren’t we all?”
I nodded and imagined my weapons in their wrongful hands. “Except, sometimes, we don’t deserve to be…”
Two
Zaya
I watched the charzbos ease back into the cushions, clasping his hands behind his head in a restful position, and close his eyes, taking deep breaths, as if he were relaxed, but I knew better. He was just preparing himself for something bigger. He was plotting. He was planning an escape. And, very likely, he was figuring out how he could use me in that escape. That just meant I had to figure out a way how to use him, first.
He was a charzbos, so he probably had more ability to use me than I did to use
him... I hugged my knees beneath the blanket, feeling my rather large breasts press into my body. I hid my smile. Maybe, in some ways he was more skilled, if he really could direct people and things with his mind. I could direct people, too. I had always been skilled in that way. I was quite beautiful. It was one reason I was in this mess. If I didn’t manage to escape this time, I would just run again. And again. And again. I would keep finding ways to escape from him. I would never give in. I would never give in. I just couldn’t. I would never give up. I couldn’t. That would be like giving up my soul and saying I was just the expensive piece of property he assumed he had bought. I was more than that.
I had to be, right…? I had to believe that… I had to hold to that truth, or else… What was it worth living for…?
The Curan barbarian cleared his throat and opened his eyes, focusing on me.
“So, Zaya… Why are you in here?” His eyes were green, like mine, but not the enigmatic turquoise pools that I knew enraptured men, his were a soft grass green, pale in the dim light of the cell. He had freckles across his nose, a charming, boyish look that was irresistible. His hair was dark brown, barely revealed beneath his fur trapper’s hat. He had a finely trimmed beard, just the barest scruff of the man who hadn’t shaved in a few days of space travel, but still kept it neat. Even though he was wearing a thick winter coat that didn’t define his body that well, I could tell it was lean and athletic, muscular and chiseled. He was tall, with a triangular shaped chest, as if he were a swimmer, or maybe a climber. If he was Curan, maybe he was from one of the water areas. I had heard there was a large ocean on that planet. I sighed dreamily… an ocean that was warm, with beautiful sealife with whom you could swim and and play and sail. Where sunsets didn’t mean icing over the entire tidal pool shores and sunrises didn’t bear witness to the frothy ice of waters that you could never set foot in.
“Zaya?”
I shook myself from my dreams of palm trees and dolphin dragons and bare shoulders in the sun. Things I would never see. I pulled the blanket closer to my body.
“I am not going to tell you why I am in here.”
“Oh, come on, that’s part of the fun.”
“There is nothing fun about this.”
“The way I see it, life is only tolerable if you make fun out of every situation,” Catari said. He sat up and flicked his fingers. Two blankets stirred in the pile just outside the cell and hovered in the air. They floated toward us, magically, shook themselves out so they were long and skinny, then slid between the cell bars, until they came to hang in the air in front of me, waiting for me to take them. Cartari remained with his fingers up, looking at me. He smiled. “Well? Aren’t you cold?”
My heart was pounding, but I was cold. I was also exhilarated. That was amazing! It was terrifying. But, it was alarmingly beautiful, too. Oh, to have that type of power…
I reached out and snagged first one and then the other blanket from the air. There was nothing special about them. No electric shock rippled through me. They were normal blankets. I wrapped them around me and was immediately soothed.
“Thank you…” I whispered to the charzbos.
“You are welcome.”
“So…” He clapped his hands together. “How are we going to get out of here?”
I frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
“Surely you have been considering a way out.”
Had he been reading my mind? They could, I think. I had heard they could do all sorts of stuff with mental powers… I peered through the light at him as he rubbed his hands together and held himself tightly, a rush of cool air coming down the hallway from an opened doorway. Loud voices echoed down the hall. We couldn’t make out what they were saying, but there was shouting. Someone was in trouble for something… Was it regarding one of us?
“I sure wish I could teleport out of here.”
I looked at him, startled. “Is that a magic you have?”
“Usually. But, for some reason, I can’t. It’s restrained in here. I just can’t summon the ability. I can do other things, like moving the blanket, but I can’t teleport…” He pursed his lips and furrowed his brow, concentrating… Then breathed out hard, looking disappointed. He sighed and shrugged. “Oh well. We will find another way.”
What was this we? Was he thinking I would
