The doors to the ship open with a hiss and the soldiers unstrap themselves. I follow suite, peering out of the hatchway as it opens to try and get a view of my surroundings.
I barely get a glance before troops file out. I can at least tell we must have landed somewhere near Lord Aeron, for he’s the one the captain serves.
Even thinking of that infuriates me. Captain Arnold should pledge his allegiance to the good of Independence, as a leader of our defensive forces. Instead, he’s spurned that duty in exchange for the coin and favors of the corrupt Lord Aeron.
I’m still considering this as I follow the sound of the booted feet echoing against the steel of the ship. I follow the troops as we leave the jarring confines of the transport.
I tread carefully – wincing as I take each step, ready to feel the crunch of the precious vial of liquid Mercy breaking in my sock. It’s a reckless move to steal it – but against huge, powerful soldiers, my best weapon will be surprise and subterfuge.
I step out of the claustrophobic heli-ship and find myself stepping into the most ostentatious display of luxury I could have ever imagined.
The view that greets me is nothing like the poverty-stricken streets of Barl. A vast estate looms ahead – with lush, green vines wrapped around towering trellises, all lining a hand-laid cobblestone pathway towards the gorgeous house.
I say house, but the mansion ahead of me is far larger than an entire apartment low-rise back in Barl. It’s more of a castle than a house - like something out of the foolish fairy-tales my father would read me as a little girl.
Stacy, Tod, Tyler and Runner are herded forward in front of me.
“Where are you taking them?” I demand, snapping at Captain Arnold.
“They’ll be taken to the medical bay for examination. Lord Aeron’s wives have many children, and they’ll be allowed to play with them once the children are sufficiently vetted.”
Arnold’s eyes narrow, as he glances at the med-kit satchel I have hanging over my shoulder.
“That’s an impressive medical kit you have there, Tammy. It’s of the type not often seen outside of the Capital.”
I feel a knot of panic, as I remember that it’s stolen from the Capital’s own hospital.
Yet, Arnold seems unconcerned. Instead, he boasts: “It still can’t possibly compare to the medical services we have here.”
I swallow hard, wondering if he knows the contents of the kit were stolen. Even worse – maybe he’s testing me. Does he know that there was supposed to be a vial of liquid Mercy in this kit? Could he possibly suspect my plan?
If he searches the kit and asks why the vial of Mercy is missing, I’ll have to come up with some kind of story – maybe a sad tale of how I had to use it in Barl on a poor, dying street kid. He’ll be fooled. He has to be.
I worry about the four orphans’ distrust of doctors and authority figures. If they’re taken to be ‘examined’ then the experience is going to be frightening and painful for them. But I remind myself that I have to trust that the children can handle it.
Back in Barl, there were never enough doctors. The ones that did practice mostly tended to the richer segments of Barl society; rather than slum it treating patients from the fringes of the city.
To the likes of them, people like me were the closest they’d come to a medical professional.
I pull my med-kit satchel a little closer around me.
You should be happy, Tammy. This is what you wanted for the orphans: A better life. They’ll get that here, in the Capital.
But then I check myself.
How can I let them grow up amidst all this corruption? How can I let them grow in such a den of sin?
There are so many things whirling through my mind that it is impossible to concentrate on all of them. Instead, I look behind me and see the cargo bay of the heli-ship open. I watch with a knot in my stomach as Forn, Hadone, and Darok are roughly pulled out. Their weapons are held, deactivated, by soldiers nearby, while the three Aurelians are cuffed and marched forward.
“Lord Aeron is a man of means,” Captain Arnold’s voice interrupts me. He’s just stepped up alongside. “He could make your life very good.”
I know there’s an unspoken end to that sentence without even hearing it.
Lord Aeron can make your life very good…
…or he can make it very bad, and very short.
I try not to look too closely at the three Aurelians as I walk up the cobblestone pathway towards the immense house, with Captain Arnold ever-present as my shadow.
The burly man is not young. He’s seen decades of battle, and I know that breeds a certain pragmatism which has shape the decisions he’s made in his life. Namely, how his loyalty is to Lord Aeron, and not to the government of the Capital.
If Lord Aeron commands such loyalty among soldiers like Captain Arnold, all the rumors and gossip are true. He truly is the true power behind the throne.
The Aurelians may be restrained, but Captain Arnold is taking no risks. He has ten men aiming the scopes of their rifles right at the alien’s backs. One pull of those triggers and the lives of the three Aurelians will instantly be over. I barely known them, and yet I already know that the loss of those huge, honorable warrior-aliens would tear my fragile heart into pieces.
The Aurelians came to my city from Gods-know-where, and they’re the only reason the orphans and I escaped Barl alive – instead of being torn asunder by Scorp claws or broiled alive by the Capital’s napalm.
I will get them out alive – no matter what the cost.
13
Forn
My wounds are more severe than I thought. I heard nothing, not even a footstep, before we were ambushed in our makeshift shelter. I was trussed up and
