Darren grabbed his sword and raised it, ready to finish the commander off, but hands grabbed him and pulled him back. A taloned hand snatched the pommel out of his hand, and his weapon fell to the ground, landing with a clang.
Darren stood restrained by six Ohirin fighting men. They were too strong for him.
Two Crukugs’ lackeys helped the commander to his feetand brushed him down. Darren steeled himself as Crukugs approached.
“She,” he rasped, “is not yours.” The commander’s spittle landed on Darren’s chin. He took one step back. “Lock him up,” he roared.
Darren’s hands were manacled behind his back, and two Ohirin warriors took him away.
He let them. He couldn’t fight them. They were too many and too strong.
Chapter 25
Banged Up
The cell block wasn’t too bad. Darren had never been in the building before now, and it was clean, functional, and cool, in the temperature sense. His cell contained a low bunk with a thin mattress and a blanket on it, a toilet and small washbasin and that was it. The other three cells were empty.
What was bad that he wasn’t allowed visitors and Ohirin warriors, the same two that had forced marched him to the cells had worked him over, the jailer turning a blind eye. He wasn’t allowed medical treatment either. He thanked his gods that the thugs hadn’t broken bones. He didn’t know how long he’d be locked up for; the jailer refused to answer his questions.
The food was edible but meals consisted of mostly thin vegetable soup and breadcrumbs. There were no meat or fish, an absence of the protein Dheltans needed; the Ohirins were herbivore.
After a few days, perhaps a week (he wasn’t sure; they’d stripped him of devices, and he was isolated), one morning, he was visited by a Dheltan. He didn’t know him. The warrior had the same blue skin tone as Pilot Joel, but he was too small to be the pilot, and he couldn’t possibly be a Dheltan warrior. Yet, here he was, in full uniform, white hair neatly done in a braid down his back, cap pulled over his eyes. The small anonymous warrior seemed to know him, so Darren decided to go with it. He needed all the help he could get.
The jailer showed the visitor to Darren’s cell, but hedidn’t open the door. The warrior stood on the flagstones, holding on to the bars.
Darren approached the small figure, looking down at him.
“Forgive me, have we met? I can’t seem to place you,” he said.
They both turned their heads at a commotion at the entrance, and the jailer exited fast to sort it out.
The stranger looked up at Darren and their eyes met; his light blue ones with hers the color of the summer sky. “Aelanna,” he gasped.
Her eyes widened with alarm at his black eye and split lip, and she pressed a finger to her lips.
“We don’t have long. Joel helped me and he’s caused a distraction outside,” she whispered. “He and your brothers are trying to get you out of here. What do you need?”
“A doctor and a lawyer.”
She frowned and studied him more closely. “They hurt you.” A range of emotions crossed her face: worry, frustration and anger, then she pulled herself together. She reached into a pocket and folded something in his hand through the bars. Her hands were small enough to reach through them.
“I must go.” She looked up into his eyes, hers softening. “Don’t forget, I love you, Darren. If they force me to go with the lizard to save you, then I’ll go, but I will always love you.”
She reached up and touched his cheek, then she fled before he could respond. Tears in his eyes, he opened his fist to see what she had given him. They were two wrapped nutrition bars from the canteen. He hid them behind the toilet before the jailer returned.
Darren was sitting on the bunk when the man did come back. He patted Darren down and ordered him to shake out the blanket and lift his mattress off. It lay on a wire frame, and the floor was visible through it.
Satisfied the visitor hadn’t slipped the prisoner anything, the jailer left the cell.
Neither had spoken a word.
The next day, an Ohirin medical officer visited. Before the jailer admitted him into Darren’s cell, he told the medic a bunch of lies: how Darren had resisted arrest and three of them had had to subdue him to get him into the cell.
Darren sat on the bed while the man opened his bag of instruments. He didn’t bother to protest.What was the point?It was his word against the jailer’s and the other too. Anyway, the man was here to check him over for damage to his person. He’d tell the lawyer — if he ever got one. Still, at least he had friends who were trying to get him out, and Aelanna must have risked a lot coming to the jail disguised as a warrior and tell him he was not forgotten.
The medic’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. He had a hand scanner to scan Darren's heart and lungs. “Take off your shirt.”
The officer was a lizard, but he was courteous and professional, and Darren cautiously trusted him, and the doctor didn’t do anything to break that fragile trust. Darren did so, and the doctor let the scanner fall on the bed.
