Chapter 28
Twenty Eight
Jin
The argument taking place a few feet away was quite entertaining. The pirates were unhappy. They hadn’t meant to take Jin, and now they didn’t know what to do.
“The boss is expecting a bunch of wizards. Not another child. I told you we should have waited,” a female pirate with hair dyed the color of a belladonna flower said.
Yes, that would have been smart, Jin agreed silently.
“Our informant said they’d be there,” their leader snapped.
“Obviously, they were wrong,” the woman yelled.
Very wrong.
“What do we do now?”
The pirates all looked at each other.
Jin found it amusing that members of a bloodthirsty organization such as Belladonna were so bumbling and inept.
Most of them anyway, Jin thought, his gaze drifting to the man seated on the pallet across from him.
The flame haired man who’d given Kira her black eye stood out among all these others. A diamond mixed in with a bunch of pebbles.
He played with his knife. His expression bored as he listened.
Abruptly, he pocketed his knife and rose. “We hand him over to the powers that be.”
Flame walked over to grab Jin’s chin. As rough as it looked to others, his grip was unexpectedly gentle as he turned Jin’s face to the side to expose the pointed tips of his ears.
Someone cursed.
“A wizard.”
“Ah, man. Another one?”
“Paul is still laid up from what the last brat did to him.”
Flame’s gaze was inscrutable as he let Jin go. “I’ve only been part of this operation for a few weeks but even I know how much a wizard fetches on the black market. And that’s for an adult. I can’t imagine how much more you could make with a child.”
Yes, that was Jin. A pure, innocent, defenseless child. Ripe for the auctioning.
He shivered just thinking of all the fun he could have destroying whatever poor sap bought him. Maybe he could get himself resold a couple of times.
Organizations like this couldn’t operate if there was no market for them. A few dozen dead bodies and that should teach people a lesson.
“He’s right,” Purple Hair said. “They’ll want the child. It should be enough to save our asses. We can worry about the woman and her friends later.”
They kept referring to Kira as “the woman”.
Not “the Phoenix” or “the Reaper” as most did once they learned who she was.
There was also a distinct lack of concern when they spoke of capturing her.
No pirate in this sector worth their salt would be so sanguine about going up against her.
Not after what they did to Red Hand and Drake.
It was almost like they didn’t know who she was.
Flame recognized her after their fight though. Did he not tell his friends? But why would he do that?
The questions made Jin’s brain itch with the need for answers.
Gator rapped on the cargo bay hatch. “The pilot says we’ve entered the debris field. We’ll be there soon.”
The leader dismissed the group. “We can deal with this later.”
When Flame would have followed the others out of the bay, Gator stopped him with a hand on his chest. “Not you. You stay here.”
Oh ho. What was this? Trouble in paradise?
Flame looked down at the hand touching them. “You don’t trust me?”
“There’s no such thing as trust, boy. Just people waiting for a chance to stab you in the back.”
“Quite the pessimistic outlook you have there,” Flame murmured.
“Call it what you like, but I know the way of things.”
Gator reached behind him, hauling a woman out from where she was hiding and shoving her forward.
“Here—watch her too.”
She staggered, nearly falling. Flame caught her before she could.
“Careful there,” Flame warned.
“Ain’t that sweet. Instant lust,” Gator sneered.
Jin perked up once he got a good look at the woman’s face. Even covered in bruises as it was, he’d know those angry eyes anywhere.
“Maggie!”
Flame glanced curiously at Jin as Gator withdrew, slamming the hatch shut and locking it. “You know each other?”
Maggie shoved out of his arms, her features creased by lines of angry confusion. “Never met him before.”
Ah, that’s right. She wasn’t familiar with this form. She wouldn’t know who he was.
That might not necessarily be a bad thing.
For the first time since he’d woken up in this body, Jin enjoyed the anonymity of his new face.
“Don’t touch me,” Maggie snapped when Flame tried to steady her when she wobbled again. Gingerly, she hobbled over to the wall, putting her back to it before sliding down into a seated position.
“Are you okay?” Flame asked, watching her carefully.
“She’s fine,” Jin said airily. “Aren’t you, Maggie?”
Maggie glared. “Who are you?”
“Someone familiar enough with your mode of operation to not be deceived into feelings of sympathy. What’s the matter? Did they metaphorically stab you before you could them?”
Her truculent expression made Jin throw his head back on a laugh. “They did. That’s priceless.”
“Again, who the hell are you?” Maggie demanded.
“I think I’ll let you figure that out for yourself,” Jin answered.
It’d be more fun that way.
“Now, moving on to something more interesting.” Jin gave his attention to Flame. “You’re not like these others, are you?”
Belladonna had let a snake into its flower garden. And it was clear they had no clue.
“Something tells me neither are you.” Flame lowered his voice to a register Jin’s spawn had to pick up. “J1N.”
Jin’s expression changed. No normal human would have made such an outlandish leap of logic. No matter how obvious it should have been.
The look in Flame’s eyes was sly as he tapped Jin’s forehead. “Those in glass houses, my friend.”
Maggie’s gaze flitted between the two of them as her forehead creased.
Flame sauntered to his pallet and went back to playing with his knife. “We’ll be there soon. Until then, I suggest you behave yourselves. You’ll have a longer life expectancy that way.”
Kira – Tuann ship
Kira silently contemplated the garden below. The lush green framed against the deep black of space. The meandering paths that snaked through its heart. Plants and trees existing in harmony with the universe.
“Reviewing all the mistakes you made and what you could have done differently?” Raider asked, joining her.
Kira hummed noncommittally, not even sure herself whether that meant yes or no. “What about you?”
Raider shook his head, his gaze fixed on the narrow slice of visible space and the cloud of debris that obscured the black.
“Maksym’s not dead. That means there’s nothing to review.”
Kira leaned against the railing and rested her chin on her folded arms. “I wish I had your optimism.”
Shortly after they’d separated from the station, the section Maksym was in suffered a catastrophic decompression.
Graydon and others assured her something like that wasn’t necessarily lethal to someone with synth armor.
Kira wasn’t so sure. Maybe she’d hung around humans for too long, but that sounded like a death sentence to her.
“Save your anger for the enemy, Phoenix,” Raider advised, turning away from the garden. “Now, let’s go. Graydon says we’re close, and you’re the only one who knows anything about this place.”
Kira straightened, trailing behind Raider as he led her to the bridge.
Graydon looked up as she entered, his features holding a question. Tucking her hands in her pocket, Kira found a spot along the wall to stand.
No matter how many times she saw them, she always thought Tuann ships were a fascinating combination of highly advanced technology and an almost spiritual existence.
They lacked the controls necessary on a human vessel, relying on the soul’s breath of their crew to operate.
As a result, their interior was as svelte and streamlined as their exterior.
The captain was a man Kira had encountered once before. In spirit anyway. Not so much in person. Over Ta Da’an when the Tsavitee tried invading her cousin’s planet.
As was the case during their last encounter, he was cool under pressure, showing no signs of strain despite being asked to navigate his ship into a section of space so dangerous that only the craziest of humans ever attempted it.
The minutes ticked by as the Tuann crew guided the ship through the debris field, communicating with each other often.
Their instruments proved more powerful than those Kira was used to, picking up microscopic pieces of debris that the Wanderer would have missed.
Helpfully enough, someone seemed to have cleared a narrow lane through the wreckage, allowing them to slip past without much trouble.
Jin’s scorpion also played a role, fine tuning their navigation whenever they strayed from the path Jin had traveled.
“We’re here,” the captain announced a short time later. He nodded at the screen. “I’m pretty sure that’s what you’re looking for.”
Kira straightened at the sight of a massive Tsavitee structure that humans not so affectionately referred to as a honeycomb.
Unsurprisingly, given its name, it resembled a beehive.
The hexagonal openings along its exterior acting as easy points of egress when the inhabitants wanted to swarm a target.
“You’re right,” Kira confirmed.
During the battle, the honeycomb had lost one of its aft engines. Along with a good amount of the lower hive. The top half was still intact though. Traces of the clumsy repairs someone had attempted were visible in places.
The clincher though was the bright pink ship resting just inside one of the hexagons.
“How are we getting inside?” Raider asked.
His concern held merit. Their ship had disguised itself by mirroring the flight path of the wreckage around them, but flying closer would allow those inside the honeycomb to detect their presence. Especially if there were Tuann rebel forces in there with access to advanced technology of their own.
Graydon’s oshota all smirked at each other.
“We may have a way,” Graydon said with a look that said Kira and Raider weren’t going to like it.