7. Agatha

Ithought I was going to fall.

Hell, I was falling.

Only my left foot was attached to the flimsy-looking drone.

I twisted and swung and feared the device would lose its grip on me and I would sail unimpeded to the ground below.

I screamed and flailed my arms.

"Oh my God!" I wailed. "Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!"

The drone's high-pitched buzzing engines dropped an octave as it struggled to maintain its hold.

I was too heavy for it and we dropped at a terrifying speed.

The wind whipped at my hair, stinging my face.

From "Put me down!" to "Don't drop me!" in less than a second.

The tiny prison guard figures swelled into view as I returned to a safer height.

A second drone joined me and took up my other leg.

I was eager for it to do so.

My arms flopped down and almost dragged along the sand.

My heart thumped hard and my blood flooded my face, for the moment relieved.

I hadn't felt a rush like that since I took the Demon's Chase rollercoaster.

I was still a little breathless.

The prison guards opened fire on the merchant's vehicle as it tilted toward a dune and kicked out great plumes of sand as it disappeared into the side of a mountain.

The guards' shock rifle fire did nothing to slow it.

A pair of guards approached.

I could only make out their boots and peered up at them.

"What do we have here?" one of the guards said.

"Prize number 3214," the drone's electronic speaker said, distorted due to having been damaged at some point.

"A Prize?" the guard said, turning his nose up. "I didn't even know we were missing one."

"I doubt anyone misses a Prize when they can always bring in more," the second guard said.

That was just how low on the pecking order I was.

They hadn't even noticed I was missing.

"Still, she's a deserter," the first guard said. "Put her in the truck. We'll get the story out of her later. The supervisor can decide what to do with her."

The scuffed boots turned to the drone.

"Take her to the truck," he ordered.

A light blinked on the drones' underside and they whirred as they carried me toward a small but growing mass of prison guards.

I peered up at the sky and looked for the little shuttlecraft Egara was riding right now, whizzing away to freedom and safety.

I was glad for him.

At least one of us deserved to get away from here.

Still, I was sad.

I wanted to be with him.

To think we came so close to being free together in the vast and limitless expanse of space…

Only for it to be snatched from me at the last moment.

My nose clogged up and my eyes stung.

Don't cry, I told myself. Don't cry. Not here.

I lacked the same level of control I had if I was upright.

I could blink the tears back and force them not to fall.

But I was upside down and the tears seeped not just from the corners of my eyes but between my eyelashes.

They trailed down my forehead and into my hair.

I didn't want to be here on my own.

I didn't want to be surrounded by these prison guards.

I didn't want to go back to Ikmal and take up my previous occupation.

That was, if they even let me return.

They might think I'd tasted the forbidden fruit of freedom and might infect the other Prizes.

It was a very real fear, I realized.

My time outside the prison walls had changed me.

He had changed me.

I wasn't the same person I had been before we escaped.

I knew that.

I wondered if Egara was the same prisoner he'd been.

I didn't think so.

"Let's load up and get out of here," a tall figure said.

It was difficult to distinguish the guards from each other as they all wore the same uniform and were of a similar height.

But one stood out, and it was the guard that just spoke.

He was taller than the others, broader too.

Were they assigned their rank by size? I wondered.

The guards climbed into the back of the van and took a seat on the benches that ran down either side.

It reminded me of typical military transport ships for US soldiers.

One guard pressed a hand to my back and pushed me forward.

The drones rose automatically so my head didn't hit the side panel.

I was small enough to fit in the back, still hanging upside down.

I took a moment to peer up at the sky and noticed no metal lump, no sign of Egara anywhere.

The last guard climbed on board and sat opposite me.

He slammed the back door shut.

I wondered where Egara would go now he was free.

I imagined him in his pirate ship, taking command of his men and raising hell.

It brought a smile to my lips.

Maybe he would find someone to love, a girl who wasn't a damn Prize and had more value.

Okay, so maybe I was saying these things to make myself cry.

I'd been separated from the kindest prisoner I'd met and he'd been stripped from me.

If there was a reason to cry, it was now.

A slat at the front of the truck slid aside revealing the oversized leader of the team.

He leaned an arm through the window and peered back at the others.

The prison guards focused on their gloved hands and feet.

If I had to guess, I would have said they were forlorn.

"Will the warden launch a search party for him?" the guard closest to the leader said.

"I don't know," the leader said. "Probably not. Better to sweep it under the rug than let it be known a prisoner escaped Ikmal."

Aprisoner.

One.

That meant they had caught other escapees.

And they were letting him go without even chasing him.

Not that he would know that.

He would spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder.

I snorted, realizing that wasn't much of a change of pace for a pirate.

"The warden's not going to be happy all we caught was his stinking Prize," the agitated guard said, leaning back, folding his arms, and kicking at the truck wall.

A couple of the guards glanced in my direction.

I might not be able to read their expressions but their body language was clear enough.

They were pissed.

And I was the object of their disgust.

"Maybe the prisoner didn't escape," a guard halfway along the bench said. "Maybe we found him in the desert and we buried his body."

The suggestion hung heavy over the assembled.

The leader shook his head.

"It's bad enough he got away," he said. "What do you think the supervisor will do to us if he discovers we lied to him?"

"I don't know," the guard said. "But I know what he'll do to us if we tell the truth."

What did these guys have to worry about? I thought. Their lives actually meant something.

They weren't going to be tossed to the wolves the way I was.

They weren't going to be forced to dress up in lingerie and paraded in front of ogling and howling dangerous prisoners.

They weren't going to be handed over to a random alien fighter to be used as he wished.

I shook my head of the steaming hot tears threatening to spill down my cheeks once more.

I had just begun to get used to my place inside the prison when I escaped.

Now I had to get used to it all over again.

Only this time, it was worse.

I wished Egara had never rescued me.

I wished I'd never laid eyes on him.

I wished I'd never chosen that dress with the pendant he liked.

I wished…

I wished…

Oh, I didn't know what I wished for!

I didn't regret meeting him.

I didn't regret sleeping with him.

And I definitely didn't regret escaping with him.

It was the best thing that'd happened to me during my entire time at Ikmal.

I wouldn't let my own selfish self-pity get in the way of that.

I would push through this setback the way I pressed through everything else.

I was a survivor, a fighter.

Just like Egara.

Crunk!

The van came to an immediate halt and tossed the guards forward, sliding along the benches and crashing into each other.

The van sat twisted at an unnatural angle having face-planted in a sandy ravine.

Odd, I thought, considering the truck didn't have wheels.

It floated.

"All right," the leader said. "Everybody out."

The guards groaned as they shoved me out the back.

The drones caught me before my head hit the ground.

They drifted to one side, taking me a safe distance.

My back was to the vehicle and it was difficult to make out what'd happened.

I twisted in an attempt to get the drones to turn with me but they were at the wrong angle.

I growled, wishing I'd kept up with yoga classes.

Then I realized something.

Just because my legs were attached to the drones didn't mean I couldn't bend my knees and shift my weight.

I flexed one knee and used the extra leverage to peer over my shoulder at the vehicle.

The front corner lay partially buried in the sand and one of the glowing blue engines fizzled with sparks.

Looked like a malfunction, much like getting a flat.

I guess even futuristic technology failed from time to time.

"Can you fix it?" the leader said to the guard probing at it with his tools.

"I can," he said. "But it's going to take time."

"How much time?"

Please say years,I thought.

"About five or six hours," he said.

Hours didn't feel like enough.

Enough for what? I wondered.

Enough to escape and get out of here.

I didn't know how I could think that was a possibility but a spark burst into life in my heart.

It was a chance.

And a chance, no matter how slim, was always better than having none at all.

The prison guardsset up camp in the middle of the desert.

The moons took turns in peeking out from behind their curtains of clouds.

A prison guard removed the metal manacles attached to my ankles.

It was an awkward and uncomfortable maneuver as he released first one leg, which I could barely bring to the desert floor, and then the other.

The drones took off immediately and swung in wide arcs around the camp.

The prison guard clapped off his hands and marched away to deal with something else.

None of the guards paid much attention to me and were busy carrying out their own tasks.

I peered into the darkness surrounding us and wondered if I could sneak into the night without them noticing.

"I wouldn't if I were you," a deep voice said.

I turned to find the leader crouched beside a hole in the desert.

He snapped something in his hands that immediately burst into flames and he dropped it in the hole where the fire grew larger.

He poked it with a knife to encourage further growth.

The leader hadn't raised his eyes and might not have been speaking with me.

But with how the other guards paid him no attention, there couldn't be anyone else he was talking to.

"The desert is a dangerous place at the best of times," he said. "Even worse at night when you can't see much beyond the end of your nose."

He prodded the fire one last time and it belched like a baby cupped over its mother's shoulder.

The leader's armor was strewn with dents from the myriad of fights he must have been through in his day.

His features were covered by his helmet but I felt his eyes on me through his visor.

"I wasn't going to run," I said defensively.

"No?" he said. "If I were in your situation, I would have thought about it at least. I doubt there's a prisoner who wouldn't."

"Well, I'm not a prisoner," I said without much conviction.

Not a prisoner technically but what else did you call it when you were locked up in a room and not allowed to leave?

The leader's head dropped to my legs and I shied away, nervous to be surrounded by so many men.

I'd gotten used to having eyes on me during the past year but these men were guards.

They had protected me in the past and I thought of them as nothing more than robots going about their business.

To see them surrounding me now when no one would get in the way if they decided to have their way with me, was disconcerting to say the least.

Strange, that they should be my protectors one day and potential villains in the next.

He nodded to my ankles.

"You're hurt. I have to apologize for my men. They can be a little rough in pursuing their duties."

He was motioning to the marks on my shins from where the drones had fastened their clasps.

"It wasn't your men that did it," I said. "It was the drones."

He crouched beside me and I shied back.

He reached into his pocket and came out with a small pastel blue vial the shape of a smooth clamshell.

The leader cracked it open and dipped a finger inside it.

He reached for the marks on my legs and I pulled away again.

"It's a cream for friction burns," he said. "It's nothing dangerous."

He rubbed it over his own skin to demonstrate.

"Sometimes the helmet or armor rubs and it can be sore something fierce."

I still didn't like the idea of him touching me, so I extended my hand.

He gave the vial to me and smiled.

"You have nothing to fear from us. We won't harm you. It's our duty to protect the Prizes. One of them, anyway."

"Sometimes you don't do such a good job," I snapped.

"Not when you're in the cells, maybe. But we do a good enough job the rest of the time."

I sniffed the cream and slipped my finger into it.

It was cool and pleasant to the touch, like moisturizer.

I applied it to my skin and hissed through my teeth at the sting it produced.

The manacles had rubbed the top layer of my skin off and left it open to the elements.

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.