Page 29 of A World Enough

Camber watched as Brogan threw the chain between her cuffs around his neck. Her face shifted, her eyes went yellow, and her strength was immense.

She’d never met a wolf like this. So determined, so strong. Despite the cuffs, could Brogan still have grabbed her and done what she wanted?

“Camber?” Brogan said. Camber shook herself from her thoughts.

“What?”

Brogan was dragging a Drazani body towards her. “Put down that gun before you kill one of us.”

“You should have waited for me. Not tackled them alone,” Camber said.

“Yeah, I’ll wait on the Map Keeper to deal with these soldiers bigger than rhinos.”

“What’s a rhino?” Camber said.

“It doesn’t matter. There’s more than enough for you to do.” Brogan held out her hand and helped Camber up.

Camber put the gun away, and Brogan dragged the bodies back and secured them in the locker.

“Brogan?” Camber said.

“What?”

“Do you want to see what makes the Abnobians so immoral and hated by all who stand against them?”

Camber beckoned her over to the viewscreen at the front of the ship. “What do you see, Wolf?”

She watched as Brogan’s eyes took in the whole of the planet. One part of the globe was dry sand, and no green to be seen, apart from the small blue salt water sea that they had sailed upon.

The other side of the planet was blue, green, and lush.

Brogan had a shocked expression on her face. “There’s green and blue everywhere.”

“Yup, forests, fresh water lakes, farmland full of vegetables and animals.”

Brogan shook her head and sat down. “Everything you could want for a world and its people.”

“Those Oiprians we mixed with and the boatman all have to beg and grovel to their so-called gods for food and water. A lot of the time they go hungry.”

Brogan turned to her. “Why don’t you people tell them it’s all a sham?”

“It’s been tried in the past. Most of them don’t believe us, but some have risen in rebellion, it’s been squashed, and water and food have been shut off. Famine came and ravaged the population, and the Oiprians begged the gods to come back, and in time they did, with an even harsher regime.”

“And you and your friends fight these people?” Brogan asked.

“We do, to the best of our abilities, but we are few in number,” Camber said.

Brogan rubbed her forehead, but it was hard with the cuffs on.

Camber sat at the ship’s controls. “We better get moving before they notice their ship is missing.”

“Well, go—I did the physical stuff, now you’re the pilot,” Brogan said grumpily.

Camber looked at her quickly. “I’m not a pilot. What made you think I was a pilot?”

Brogan looked more than grumpy now—she looked angry. “Well, maybe it was your whole plan to get through to the Abnobian hangar and steal a ship. What did you expect to do once we got hold of this thing?”

“Calm down, Wolf. I know general things, like how to put on the autopilot, and then I have faith I’ll go to the right place. It usually works,” Camber said, running her hands over the buttons.