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Onnika hefted the heavy pack’s strap higher over her shoulder as she hiked over the never-ending wasteland. There was no life here. Nowhere to run. Only ash and grit and cold, black rock. Yet the planet was rich in minerals—it was the reason she and Caryn had been dragged here.
Scattered sporadically along the ground were sparkling metallic Garlite, some of the stones only mere pebbles, while others were as large as her fist. Garlite was the hardest material within seven galaxies. So rare as to be precious, it could be crafted into nearly impenetrable alloys. Great for constructing a ship’s hull, but mostly used in smaller gadgets or weapons because of its extremely high cost.
A pebble was worth a small fortune. The four burly smugglers practically salivated over the potential windfall. Onnika wouldn’t see a penny of it. Slaves didn’t get compensated for their work.
If they’d asked her, she’d have said the payoff wasn’t worth the risk. Can’t spend your riches if you’re dead. Simply being here was illegal, but no one would bother to prosecute. If spotted, they’d all be executed on the spot. Tag and his crew didn’t care. They lived outside the law, and because she and Caryn were tethered to them, now so did they.
Not that she’d been all that law-abiding before. She wouldn’t be in this predicament if that were the case. Of course, in her humble opinion, a little theft to feed a couple of starving mouths shouldn’t constitute six years of incarceration followed by a prison break and four more years of grueling captivity by Tag and his lackeys: Baker, Ajay, and Rice.
“Well?” Tag grated. He was the man in charge and a real son of a bitch…when Onnika couldn’t manage him, which was most days. She wasn’t sure which race he hailed from. There were ridges along his scalp and temples that resembled a noble race called Estorian, but he also had coarse, fiery hair and an amethyst hue to his skin that spoke of Skantorian lineage. And when wounded, he healed even more swiftly than her own kind, which made him near impossible to kill. Onnika suspected he was of mixed blood, and therefore rejected by both his native races. He’d once admitted, after a gallon of mead, that he’d been exiled at a young age. That was the only thing they had in common, though the circumstances were wildly different.
“Which way should we head,Batta?”Tag continued. In his native language—whatever that was—Battameant something like compass. He was talking to Caryn, Onnika’s younger sister. They hailed from Evlon, a world they’d been forced to flee many years ago.
As Caryn swept a tendril of her tawny, sweat-drenched hair behind her pointed ear, a Faieara trademark, moonlight glittered off the glossy metal cuff locked around her delicate wrist. Onnika sported a matching one.
“I-I’m not sure,” Caryn huffed.
Tag narrowed a hostile gaze. “Better get sure real damn quick.” He tapped the device strapped to his utility belt that boasted a set of faded buttons, always quick to threaten. Always quick to follow through.
Cringing, Caryn looked away.
For some reason, he especially enjoyed tormenting Caryn. Perhaps it was her natural sweetness he disliked. He saw it as weakness. Or perhaps it was really Onnika he enjoyed tormenting. He hated that she wouldn’t accept him, and he knew how much she loved her sister.
Onnika stepped forward, not bothering to check the disdain in her voice. “Give her a second, Tag. She isn’t a fucking robot.” They’d been marching for hours, both she and Caryn helping to carry the heavy stones in overstuffed packs that weighed almost as much as they did. If Onnika was close to exhaustion, Caryn was on the verge of collapse. “We need a break.”
“Oh, come on,” one of the other men complained: Baker. Onnika had dubbed himFaker. He always acted as though he worked harder than the rest, yet he was always the first to bitch and moan.Um, hello! You’re free to leave whenever you choose, dick. Unlike us.She could tell there was room in his pack for heavier stones, but he acted like it weighed twice as much as it did. “I want off this rock already. It’s fucking creepy here.”
Ajay and Rice nodded their blocky heads in agreement.
Onnika glanced around the charred, desolate landscape. Every once in a while, the ground would shake as if a great beast burrowed directly below. She knew it was yet another distant volcanic eruption. Around this world, thousands of volcanoes actively spewed stone, ore, and ash into the air. It was where the precious metals came from, originally buried deep within the core and expelled through the violent blasts of a world in its infancy.
“Besides,” Baker continued, “the longer we stay, the more likely we get dead. If the GMC catches us, they’ll execute us on sight.”
GMC, the Galactic Mining Corporation, owned the rights to everything on and within this planet. Likely the only reason their little group had gotten this far without detection was because the infamous Phase Nine race had snared the attention of half the galaxy. Onnika hoped to watch it later on the small holo-screen Tag allowed them to keep in their quarters. That is, if they survived this outing.
“Which is why we’re going to keep moving,” Tag stressed, eyeing Caryn dangerously.
Caryn swayed on her feet, panic growing behind her crystal-blue eyes. Like most Faieara, without nourishment and rest, it became more difficult to wield magic. It didn’t help that Caryn didn’t entirely believe in her own gift. She doubted herself often, especially when they were as downtrodden as they were now.
Dropping her pack on the ground, Onnika gripped Caryn’s elbow to steady her. “Just a couple minutes of rest won’t hurt.”
Tag’s expression darkened. “Pick up that goddam pack.”
“A minute, Tag. Please.”
When he unhooked that device from his belt, Onnika knew what would happen next. “Last warning.”
Still, she glared up at him. “Don’t be a dick.”
Anger flaring, he pressed the button. The pain of fifty thousand volts sliced like a whip through her spine and she dropped to the ground in burning agony, the metal torques at her wrists driving electricity through her system. Her muscles seized and her lungs fought for oxygen. Caryn screamed for him to stop, but the stabbing pain only continued, on and on, until it felt as though her insides were being flayed raw and coated in acid.
“Batta, I can keep this up all day.”
“That way!” Caryn pointed to the horizon as Onnika continued to writhe. “I think we should go that way.”
“For how long?”
Fire licked Onnika’s every nerve, her muscles straining against the agony. How long since she’d taken a breath? Her mind began to dim. She could only hope she’d pass out soon.
“Until we find what you’re looking for!” Caryn barked, sounding more confident than she probably was.
As quickly as it came, Onnika’s pain evaporated. As she gasped for air, her muscles continued to spasm from the abuse.
Callously, Tag ordered, “Get her up. Let’s go.”
Caryn knelt beside her, sorrow etched in her features. Behind her, Rice and Ajay watched with marked indifference, the two men she and Caryn had once called friends. The two men who had betrayed them in the end.
Now she fantasized about their demise.
