Chapter 6
As Linc watched, Gissandre skipped class another two days. She’d been attempting unsuccessfully to reach her sister, and she’d been arranging travel. That suited him. He could’ve easily infiltrated the school again without detection, but removing her from it without notice would’ve been a challenge. There were at least three sensors per student, including an implanted one.
He’d ordered a removal device from Endricane and had it delivered to the nearest non-federation planet. He’d picked it up, but it had taken time, and he hadn’t been able to intercept her transmissions while off-world, so he knew that there might be pieces of her plan that he wasn’t aware of. For example, would one of her former friends be meeting her on Mondi where she planned to go next? Or would she only be picking up her next tickets and some supplies?
He shook his head at the idea of her traveling alone on Mondi. Between the colonies of former slaves, there were bands of outlaws. There were no precious metals in the ground on Mondi, nor fuel reserves, nor spectacular harvests. The only thing Mondi could claim in abundance were people, so a main source of income for the unsavory element came from the sale of human beings. With her pale-as-milk hair acting like a beacon, she would not last a day before some trafficker captured her.
She did choose a good time to climb through the window behind the food storage tower. It was early morning, so the security team would not be checking the implanted devices for many many hours. They were not in charge of truancy from class, so only checked student locations when the curfew hour began and again partway through the night at random. She’d be able to put quite a distance between herself and the school by then.
He pulled his pack onto his back and watched her through his long lens. As expected, she used a school glider to get to the glider train platform. It was easy to predict her movements. She had no experience evading capture or covering her tracks. Although, to be fair, she might not have any idea she needed to do so.
Linc used an off-road vehicle to cruise down the mountain pass to the glider platform, then he boarded three cars down. He refused the full service shower and meal, though he could’ve benefitted from both. He wouldn’t risk her slipping off the train unexpectedly while he was distracted.
Linc ate from the snack service, monitoring the platform activity at every stop. When they were four towns from the main city, he sat forward in his seat and narrowed his eyes. Boarding a glider car next to hers were what appeared to be a trio of unsavory mercenaries accompanying a man he recognized well. Orium banker-magistrate Urcolin, who’d sentenced Linc to the Wilds, not caring whether the night in the cave had been a misunderstanding or not. The bloodthirsty older man had been driven to be rid of Linc permanently; that was clear in the way he delivered the sentence, with both relish and relief.
Linc found it satisfying that he’d not only survived, but he’d found Gissandre long before Urcolin and had had the girl in his arms as recently as a couple nights before. Giss might be angry at Linc, but she’d never turned away from his touch from lack of attraction. He was sure the magistrate couldn’t claim the same.
Larsinc shouldered his pack, got off the glider car and re-entered the train on her car. He paused, his heart rate revving when he didn’t spot her. No one fitting her physicality had gotten off the glider, and yet… His eyes scanned the seats, coming to rest on a lanky boy slouched against a window. Linc’s eyes narrowed. The baggy clothes were male, as was the light stubble, but the hands gave her away. The sheen of her buffed nails reflected the overhead light. Also he recognized the pretty fingers. She’d tucked her telltale hair under a blue knit skull cap with the symbol of a local minting town on its fold. Smart girl.
He sat in a seat closest to the exit. Would the disguise be enough to get her past Urcolin and his mercs? He’d be interested to see.
Linc ate a handful of salted meat and pulled his own black skull cap lower. He’d stained his beard with kohl so he’d be less conspicuous, but the green eyes would still give him away if anyone looked closely.
He watched Gissandre out of the corner of his eye, knowing what a highly valued prize she was. He’d met the girl’s sister recently, who was desperate to protect her. And this corrupt magistrate, who was willing to let innocent men die just for sleeping near her while sheltering from a deadly storm, had come hundreds of thousands of miles to retrieve her for himself. Did the other man want her more than he did? Perhaps, but Linc doubted it. Every time he closed his eyes, there were three moments he remembered from the night they’d met. First, the plunge into the icy water under Obay Point when he’d been desperate to rescue her. Second, the joy and relief he’d felt when she opened her eyes and spoke to him the first time. And finally, the way she tasted when he’d buried his face between her thighs.
He would have her again, and he wouldn’t feel guilty about that.
She would’ve died in the stormy waters on Orius. And she would’ve died again when the tree she was bracing herself under was struck by lightning. She owed him a debt of gratitude for those things. She’d also lied, leading to what could’ve been a death sentence for him. She owed him a debt for that too. A debt of a different kind.
She was his until he’d collected on those debts. It was just as he’d told his pirate crewman, Tokurn, the last time they’d seen each other.
No one in the universe has a better claim on the girl than I do. Her life belongs to me. If she wants it, she has to earn it back.
* * *
Giss couldn’t breathe. Urcolin stood on the main glider platform at Junistaad in front of the shuttle she needed to board.
She ducked her head and wove through the people.
A little farther. Just a little farther.
She murmured her destination to the driver and sat at the very back of the shuttle in a window seat. Her gaze darted up every few moments.
The magistrate and several other men boarded in the last seconds. They sat in the front and didn’t look in her direction, but they’d obviously learned her plans or else why would they get on the shuttle? They’d clearly been looking for her.
Her heart sank. She’d borrowed money from one of her oldest school friends on Orius, someone whose family she knew opposed Urcolin’s election and leadership. That, of course, didn’t mean that they were completely free of his influence. Had he forced them to give information on her? It would’ve been his strategy…putting pressure on all her closest friends from Orius, anticipating that she might get in contact with someone.
What should she do? If she went to the diamond strip for the spaceship she’d booked passage to Mondi on, they’d be there too. How long could she expect to go undiscovered? But she didn’t have enough money to buy passage on another ship without activating her com and that might give her away too.
What could she do? Stay on the shuttle and return to the platform at Junistaad? Try to melt into the city for a time? She’d heard of students bouncing from place to place, but it was usually when they’d formed contacts in the city by going to local pubs and making friends who housed them when they ran away from school.
She had no one to turn to, unless she counted Larsinc, which she didn’t. She stared out the window, trying to decide what to do next.
She didn’t feel the hand until it was too late. The cap was pulled up and off.
She gasped, turning her head sharply to find Urcolin standing over her.
He lowered his heavy body into the seat next to her, sitting too close. “That’s an interesting outfit,” he said, dropping her hat in her lap.
