It wasn’t too bad, I thought. So long as I kept it clean, it shouldn’t get infected.
“What made you come out here with the prisoner in the first place?” the leader said.
“Because I wanted to escape,” I almost said before catching myself.
I recalled the story Egara had told me that night he thought his crew had abandoned him with no shuttlecraft.
They were good excuses, even if he had said it while he was in a dark place.
“I didn’t choose to come out,” I said. “Egara—that’s the name of the prisoner— he made me go with him.”
“Is that so?”
Damn, I wish I could see his expression.
It was hard to gauge what someone really meant when you couldn’t see their face.
“Yes,” I said. “You don’t honestly think I would come out here by choice, did you?”
“The thought had crossed my mind.”
“Why would I do something so stupid as that?”
“I’ve seen some funny things in the prison. Sometimes the Prizes develop… feelings for those they shouldn’t.”
“They do?”
I snorted but even to me it sounded forced.
“It’s the first rule we have in the Prize Pool,” I said.
“What’s that?”
“Never fall in love with the prisoners.”
“So why didn’t you refuse to leave when he took you?”
“Have you seen how big he is? He could crush me like a twig.”
“I often wonder about that. Some of these prisoners are real monsters. How were you able to… deal with them?”
Despite myself, I blushed.
“It’s… difficult sometimes,” I admitted. “But when you have no other road, what can you do?”
“But you did have a choice.”
“What choice? I either did what I was told or I would have been sold to God knows who. I don’t know about you but I prefer the devil I know than the one I don’t.”
The leader’s mouth curled beneath the visor.
I turned my head to one side, peering at the smile closer.
It wasn’t that it was an ugly smile that got my attention.
Far from it.
There was something about it I recognized.
I’d seen it before, I realized.
And not beneath a visor.
Somewhere else…
“I was kidnapped and forced to go with him,” I said, recalling where I was and what I was doing there.
It might not seem like it at first glance beneath the broad open sky and rolling sand dunes that echoed into the far distance, but I was every bit as much a prisoner here as I was inside.
“When the alarm went off, I knew I had to get somewhere safe,” I said. “I was trapped in Egara’s room and if I didn’t do what he said, I feared what he would do. We were in the middle of a riot. A girl does what she has to. The same way a guard must do his duty.”
“The two of you were out here a long time. You sure nothing happened between you two?”
I looked at him coolly.
“Nothing that didn’t happen in his cell,” I said, raising my chin.
That smile curled his cheek once more and memories stabbed at me from the darkness.
That smile rang alarm bells but I couldn’t identify their source.
“With the romantic atmosphere I thought something might develop between you,” the leader said.
“Nothing but open animosity. And if you must know, he sold me to the merchant back there. He wanted to exchange me for the shuttlecraft. He gave me to the merchant so he could escape. He got what he wanted. He’s probably halfway across the galaxy by now.”
The leader stared at me for a moment.
What was he looking for? I wondered. A sign I was lying?
I wanted to lick my lips but refrained from doing so.
I hated that visor he was wearing.
Understanding a man was hard enough without a shield in the way.
“Yes, I suppose he is,” he said, dropping his gaze to the sand. “Did he mention where he might go?”
I pinched my lips and peered upwards as if trying hard to remember.
“Not that I can recall. We didn’t talk much.”
I finished applying the cream to my injuries and extended the vial back to him.
“Keep it,” he said. “You might need it when you return to your… duties.”
And with that, he stood up, turned on his heel, and approached his men.
He slapped one on the back and issued an order.
The leader wasn’t stupid, that much was obvious.
But had I helped Egara?
Or had I told him too much?
In truth, I really didn’t know what Egara might do next.
Oh, I knew he would head back to the ship, would pick up the pieces of his old life, but I had no idea where that life existed.
I barely even knew where mine existed now.
Would he think of me? I wondered. Would he think of me in his quieter moments?
I thought so.
There was nothing worse than being forgotten.
Something nettled me about the leader’s tone of words.
They made me think he knew more about the relationship between a victor and his Prize than he was letting on.
I wondered what it was.
The prison guards carried armloads of poles that they stabbed into the sand at random intervals.
An opaque wall formed between them before turning milk-white and solidifying.
They were temporary structures of some kind.
I guess we would be staying here for the night.
Egara
The shuttlecraft breached the atmosphere with ease.
There was always the fear machinery would seize up when it was left lying around.
The shuttlecraft took the turbulence well and held itself together with strong resolve.
Better than I was, anyway.
Six times already I’d made to turn the shuttlecraft around and head back, to dive headlong into an attempt to rescue Agatha.
Maybe if I moved fast enough, attacked silently and without warning, I could rescue her without the prison guards knowing.
Yeah, right.
The guards had made a mistake in allowing me to escape once and they weren’t about to repeat it a second time.
The shuttlecraft shuddered as she broke through the outer atmosphere and the navy blue of deep space faded into darkness.
The noises and gyrations gave way, leaving me adrift and alone and
