Mercenary Mage - A Dark Space Fantasy (Star Mage Saga Book 4) Read online

  “Darius,” Carina shouted, “Cloak the ship!” Now the Dirksens knew she and her siblings were aboard there was no point in any further subterfuge. But Cloaking the ship would make it hard for more soldiers to board. And until Castiel could see his brother he wouldn’t be able to use Repulse to cancel Darius’s Casts.

  A helmeted head appeared in the doorway. Carina shot at it but it was gone as soon as she pressed the trigger. Someone had been assessing the situation. Bryce had also fired. He and her siblings had reached the other side of the door and he was holding out an arm, gesturing them to move to the wall.

  With surprise, Carina registered that not all of them were there. What had happened to Darius and Nahla? Then she realized what she was seeing: Darius’s earlier Cloak Cast was still working, and Nahla had to be standing close enough to him to be covered by it. Carina had only been visible to the soldiers because she’d run ahead, out of the Cast’s influence.

  Elation surged within her. If she couldn’t see Darius, neither could anyone else. Carina had to let go of her weapon to gesture to Bryce, trying to convey her message through hand signals. She couldn’t speak to Darius out loud and tell him to stand in the doorway to see the soldiers and Transport them away. If they knew what he was doing they would simply blanket the space with fire.

  A muzzle flashed out. Carina snatched up her weapon. Too late. Parthenia took a hit to her stomach and dropped like a stone. The shot had been aimed at where Bryce had been standing, but he’d moved.

  That was dumb. All the mages were far more dangerous than Bryce, even though he was armed.

  He was feeling along the wall, trying to find Darius by touch. He’d guessed what she’d been trying to convey with hand signals! Bryce disappeared. He’d found the little boy and come within the influence of the Cloak.

  When another soldier darted out to fire, Carina’s finger closed reflexively on her weapon’s trigger. Her round hit the man square in the back. Her gun was not set to stun, and at the short range if he hadn’t been wearing armor he’d be dead. As it was, he only fell and was quickly dragged away by his fellow troops.

  Bryce reappeared. Where was Darius? Bryce’s eyes told Carina he’d understood and done what she’d asked. Now they only had to wait and hope the little boy didn’t get hit by random fire.

  Painful tingles emanated from Carina’s shoulder and arm. The stun was beginning to wear off.

  All of a sudden, soldiers burst from the doorway, spraying fire. Carina rolled but a round hit her unstunned leg, rendering her completely helpless. Her weapon was caught underneath her. Desperately, she willed her unresponsive legs to move.

  Lying on her front, she waited for the coup de grâce.

  It didn’t come.

  Silence fell.

  Carina lifted her head and looked over her shoulder. The soldiers had gone. Darius had Transported them. Bryce lay on his back, motionless. Carina also saw the upturned soles of Oriana and Ferne’s boots. The soldiers had stunned everyone.

  “Where are you?” said a voice. “Where are you, you little shit?”

  Castiel stomped out from the bridge, his head turning from side to side as his gaze swept the corridor. “Come out and face me! We’ll fight it out and I’ll beat you. I’m a much better mage than you!”

  His glare alighted on Carina. His angry expression switched to a smirk. “Not so high and mighty now, are you, sis? I ought to Split you all and have done with it. Except you and that little asshole could be useful to me yet. Never mind. He’s given me my freedom at least.” He swigged from an ornate metal flask and closed his eyes. “See you around.”

  In another second, Castiel was gone.

  Chapter Three

  Carina selected coordinates in an area of deep space and input them into the Zenobia’s navigation system before unfastening her safety harness and slumping in the pilot’s seat. They’d done it. They’d left Pirine and soon they would be out of its system altogether. When they were beyond the heliopause she would input another set of coordinates and, as their journey to Ostillon progressed, several more sets. She would also ask Darius to Cloak the ship regularly so that its trace would be difficult to detect. That, coupled with the arbitrary headings, should make it hard for the Dirksens to follow them.

  Might their pursuers guess they were on their way back to Ostillon? Carina doubted it. As far as she knew, the Dirksens had no idea of the planet’s significance to mages. They had no interest in the local culture. All they wanted was to override it and stamp their own mark on the place. They couldn’t know about the conflict that raged thousands of years previously between mages—the original human inhabitants—and newly arrived colonists.

  The Dirksens would never have guessed the importance of the Characters that the newcomers’ religious acolytes now burned. The clan didn’t understand about the Map, which the Ostillonians also burned, or the libation of elixir they poured into the ground.

  No. The Dirksens would never in their wildest dreams imagine that Carina and her small family would return to the place they had fought so hard to escape. But if Earth was to be their final destination, Ostillon held the key to the planet’s location, and so to Ostillon they must go.

  A pair of hands grasped her shoulders and began to knead.

  Carina sighed with satisfaction and relaxed.

  “Feeling better?” Bryce asked. “Stun effects worn off?”

  “Yes, thanks,” she replied. The painful tingles in her arm and legs had abated while they’d been making their getaway from Pirine. After Darius had evicted the surprise party organizers, flying the Zenobia away from Pirine had been easy. The best gunner in the world couldn’t shoot down an invisible ship, so even if the Dirksens had artillery stationed at the spaceport, preventing the ship’s escape would have been impossible.

  The clan had done the right thing by enlisting Castiel to help catch them. Who better to catch a mage than another mage? He must have been alerted to the suspicious sounds of disembodied human voices near the ship and Transported himself and a couple of squads to the bridge. But her eldest brother was no match for…

  “Where’s Darius?” Carina asked, turning around.

  The little boy was sitting in the captain’s chair, where Bryce had clearly put him. But the honor hadn’t pleased him. He was gripping the seat edge and swinging his legs, looking downcast. Carina got up and walked over to him.

  “Can I squeeze in there too?” she asked.

  Darius slid from the center to the side of the seat. Carina sat down beside him and wrapped an arm over his narrow shoulders. She was deeply concerned about her little brother. He was a Spirit Mage. His power came from others’ emotional energy, which made him intensely sensitive to the emotions of everyone in his vicinity. The former Spirit Mage had said Carina’s own long-standing sorrow and grief probably caused him distress, and she ached with guilt over the fact.

  Darius was possibly the only Spirit in that galactic sector. Maybe the only one in existence. His destiny had been to memorize the lore and history of the mage clan, to Summon young mages to the Matching, and goodness knew what else.

  Yet he was also only a boy, far too young for such responsibility.

  Bryce joined them and perched on the arm of the captain’s chair.

  “How’s our little weapon of mass destruction?” he asked, ruffling Darius’s hair.

  “Yeah,” said Ferne, who was squatting down and rooting through his open backpack, “great job, Darius. If it wasn’t for you we would’ve been captured.”

  “Please don’t call him that,” said Carina to Bryce. She knew he was only joking, but she’d been forced into being an actual weapon of mass destruction herself. It had been an appalling experience and she didn’t want her brother to think of himself in that way.

  “I’m going to investigate the ship,” Oriana announced. “Who’s coming with me? Nahla? Parthenia?”

  “Yes, I’ll come,” little Nahla replied.

  “I’ll come too,” Parthenia said, �
��if only to keep you out of trouble, Oriana.”

  “Pfft,” Oriana scoffed. “If you’re going to police me you can stay here. Ferne?”

  “I’ll be along in a minute,” her twin brother replied. “I just want to check I brought something. I’ll Locate you.”

  “Suit yourself,” Oriana said, “but if I find the master suite I’m calling dibs.”

  “I think there’s gonna be nice rooms for everyone on this trip,” Bryce said.

  “I don’t want you going anywhere except the passenger deck,” said Carina. “And be careful. Until we search the ship top to bottom we can’t be sure we’re the only ones aboard. Take plenty of elixir and you take one of the weapons, Parthenia. Whatever you do, don’t go into the hold. We have no idea what’s down there.”

  Carina resolved to take a look at the mysterious packages later. She had a suspicion the Zenobia held secrets it would be wise to know.

  The three girls left.

  “Ugh,” said Ferne. “Why did I have to be the one to bring the dirt? It’s gotten over everything.” He pulled out an item of underwear and shook it, scattering earth on the deck.

  “Don’t do that,” said Bryce. “We don’t want to see your drawers, do we, Darius?”

  The little boy giggled.

  Carina rolled her eyes. “Put them away, Ferne. And clean up that soil and put it back in your bag. Then find a safe place to stow it. We’ll make a good supply of elixir before we go to sleep.”

  “But we have loads already,” Ferne protested.

  Carina had made sure every mage had a full canister before they made the attempt to steal a ship. “We can’t ever have too much,” she replied. “And stop whining. I don’t want to spend the next few weeks with a bunch of bratty kids.”

  Ferne scowled, shoved his underwear into his backpack and stalked off the bridge.

  As the door closed behind him, Carina sighed and rubbed her temples. “Whoops. I didn’t handle that too well, did I?”

  “To be fair,” said Bryce, “he was being bratty. But there are probably better ways of stating it.”

  Out of all Carina’s mage siblings, Oriana and Ferne seemed to be having the hardest time adapting to their new life. Carina sometimes wondered if the twins took turns at being petulant. They’d grown up surrounded by luxury, and though their monster of a father had been harsh with them, Carina guessed that Ma had overcompensated with well-meant kindness and attention.

  “I’m not being bratty, am I?” asked Darius.

  “No,” Carina replied, hugging him. “You couldn’t be bratty if you tried. How are you feeling?”

  “Okay,” he replied. But his eyelids hung low and his little face was pale and shadowy. He was clearly on the edge of exhaustion.

  “Would you like something to eat before you go to bed?” asked Carina.

  “Uh huh.”

  “What do you say I take you to look for food?” Bryce said. “A ship like this is bound to be well stocked. And then we can find a cabin for you. Maybe we’ll beat the girls to the master suite.”

  “I want to sleep in Carina’s room,” said Darius. “Can I?”

  “Of course you can,” Carina said. “You, me, and Bryce. How does that sound?”

  “Good. I’d like that.”

  Bryce took Darius’s hand and helped him down from the chair.

  “Are you going to be all right here alone for a while?” he asked Carina.

  “Yes, I’ll be fine. Please be careful. I know it’s unlikely, but I meant what I said to the girls. There’s a chance we could have unwanted passengers.”

  “What’ll we do with them if we have?” Bryce asked.

  “Stars, I don’t know. Lock them in a cabin, I guess. We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.”

  Bryce led Darius out, and Carina rested her face in her hands. The elation she’d felt when they’d successfully stolen the Zenobia was melting away and being replaced by worry. Her sharp remark to Ferne had been borne from anxiety and guilt.

  Disaster threatened their quest—her quest—to find Earth, the birthplace of humanity and mages. They could be captured by the Dirksens, become lost in deep space, or attacked by outlaws.

  It would be safer to find an out-of-the-way planet, well away from the Dirksen- and Sherrerr-controlled areas, and live out their lives in safety and peace. That had been the mage way for thousands of years: hiding their abilities from non-mages, living simple, isolated existences, and quietly passing on their traditions to their children.

  But for what? Mere survival? Mages had to hide in the shadows simply to exist? What kind of a life was that? It was not one that Carina wanted, or one that she felt she deserved. She was not like Castiel, yearning for everyone to bow down around him, but neither was she prepared to hide what she was any longer. She wanted to live somewhere she could walk down the street without fear of public attack or ambush.

  Would she find that on Earth? It seemed unlikely, considering that mages had been persecuted and forced to leave it. But that had been thousands of years ago. Perhaps things were different there now. Whatever she found on her clan’s origin planet, Carina wanted to lay her eyes on the mountain home of her ancestors and breathe the air they had breathed.

  She yawned as exhaustion suddenly swept over her. She wondered where the others were and if Bryce had found food for Darius. They all needed to rest, but she would stay awake for a few hours while Bryce slept. Then he could take the second watch. Until they were positive they were alone, she didn’t want to risk having everyone asleep at once.

  When she’d rested, she would go and check out their cargo.

  Chapter Four

  Carina woke to the sensation of limbs pressing against her. She turned over. Darius was starfishing again. With his arms and legs spread out, somehow his small body managed to take up most of a bed large enough for two or three people.

  She stretched and sat up. Bryce was gone. She’d woken him after four hours, as they’d agreed, so he could take over patrolling the ship while she slept. She’d spent her watch searching every level for stowaways, but the place seemed empty.

  How long had she been asleep? She turned and activated the screen set into the wall next to the bed. Six and a half hours? She hadn’t meant to sleep so long. And that meant Darius had been asleep for over ten hours. He clearly needed a long rest.

  Carina used the screen to turn on the light at a low level and climbed out of bed. She hadn’t had much of a chance to look at the room Bryce had found for them. Now that she had time for closer scrutiny, she found it was luxurious and decadent.

  Curtains hung from the ceiling at the corners of the bed where Darius lay sleeping. As Carina looked upward, she noticed the screen above the bed for the first time. It was as large as the bed itself, and she could take a good guess as to its purpose. She cringed as she wondered what had gone on in the spot where her brother currently rested.

  Similar curtains swathed the walls, giving the room the appearance of the interior of a huge tent. The rug she was standing on was so thick her bare feet sank into it. A musky but not unpleasant scent hung in the air, supplied by invisible means. The place seemed bare of everything except the bed, but Bryce had told her before he left that the room had an en suite.

  Carina walked to the curtained wall and felt for a parting in the fabric. She found a gap and pulled the material apart to reveal a door. When she opened the door, however, she discovered it didn’t lead to the en suite. She was facing a closet filled with racks of clothes and stacks of shoes.

  It was a handy find. Clothes had been the last of her worries while they were trying to escape from Pirine. None of them had brought along any more than the clothes they stood up in. Carina ran a hand along one of the lines of hanging clothes. It didn’t take much further investigation to realize the garments were expensive. The fabrics were sumptuous and richly textured.

  She began to feel a weird disconnect between her first impressions of the Zenobia compared to what she was findin
g in this cabin. The ship appeared to belong to someone with cash flow problems, yet this wardrobe would cost years of a regular worker’s salary, and it was only for the owners’ use while they were away from home.

  Carina inspected the clothes more closely. Men’s clothing hung on one side of the closet and women’s on the other. She tried to find something she could wear, pulling out items to look at them. The women’s clothes seemed totally unsuitable: floor-length dresses and long over jackets in sizes that would look ridiculous on Carina as well as hamper her movement. Then she found a pair of wide pants, a tunic, and a belt. These would do, with some adjustment.

  A second attempt to find the en suite met with success. The room was almost as large as the bedroom and held a shower, tub, massage table, and sauna. Here, the scented air smelled floral and fresh. Carina showered, washing away the grime that had built up while they’d been sleeping rough on Pirine. Then she put on her new clothes, rolling up the pants legs and tying the belt to both hold up the pants and pull in the baggy tunic. None of the shoes had fit her so she put on her old boots.

  By the time she emerged, the bed was empty and the door to the corridor was open. Darius had woken up and wandered off. Carina stuck her head out of the door.

  The corridor was empty. The tension that had dissipated during her shower returned.

  She picked up her elixir, intending to ask Bryce if he knew where Darius was. Then she remembered that Bryce wasn’t a mage and couldn’t be contacted via a Cast.

  She wasn’t thinking straight. Carina took a deep breath and exhaled.

  She could Send to Parthenia instead, but she didn’t have anything of her sister’s to use to Locate her. Finally, the answer hit and Carina slapped her forehead. She was aboard a starship. With a comm system.

  She strode to the interface next to the bed and figured out how to comm the bridge.