Stealing the Dragon’s Heart by Kiersten Fay
5
Onnika paid the vendor for the skewers of succulently cooked meat in sweet, sticky sauce and pocketed the remaining chips.
All around the food court, holo-screens blasted information about Phase Nine. As badly as Onnika wanted to watch the happenings, she couldn’t let it distract her. Survival took precedent.
Not bothering to wait till they made it to their table, Caryn claimed a skewer and tore off a large hunk with her teeth. “Mm.” She chewed blissfully. It was their first good meal since arriving at Armina.
Onnika didn’t enjoy having to steal, but mouths gotta eat.
Unfortunately, she only saw more theft in her future. And though she’d love nothing more than to stick around and revel in the pageantry of the coming race, they needed to move on from this place as quickly as possible.
Tag was on their heels.
What she’d thought was a killing blow had apparently only knocked him out for a short time. Luckily, while she and Caryn had been racing for one of the waiting shuttles, the militia had been occupied with chasing down their pursuers, presumably to finish the job she’d failed to complete.
Yet somehow Tag had managed to free himself from the rockslide and get to the other shuttle. He’d followed her and Caryn here, likely tracking their ship’s heat signature. Worse, she thought she spotted Ajay with him. Had Rice survived too? If so, she and Caryn were in more and more danger the longer they stayed.
To their benefit, the crowd here was so dense it was all too easy to get lost, blend in, hide. However, this many people also meant potential problems. Yes, magic comes at a price, and it was always Onnika and Caryn who paid.
They’d managed to procure some remarkable holo-jewelry that cuffed the edge of their ears and visually changed the shape. If anyone knew about their kind and the innate magic they wielded, their distinguishing ears wouldn’t be what gave them away. To unsuspecting onlookers, their ears resembled that of a race called Pakovian, who hailed from the next parsec over.
The craft that had shuttled them here was a total loss. Tag, having likely found it docked, would have eyes on it constantly. If they returned to it, there was no doubt he’d be notified. They couldn’t even sell it, let alone fly it out of here without detection. And even if they could, it was tainted, too easily tracked. They either needed to scrounge up enough money to buy a new shuttle, or purchase a safe ride off this port, both difficult tasks when one had little to no currency.
“What about the Tranzinite?” Caryn asked.
“Shhh.” Onnika glanced around to see if anyone had overheard, then she leaned in and lowered her voice. “Eventually we can sell it, but not here. Too many drecks looking to bilk ignorant tourists. We’d be swindled for sure. Or jacked.”
What a predicament, to have such a windfall and still be as broke as a snapped drumstick. Ironically, they were both the richest and the poorest women here. A stone was just a rock until its value could be verified. Before they could sell the Tranzinite, it would need to be appraised by a reputable source. She wouldn’t count any of the merchants here as reputable—or honest. Grifters, the lot of them. That rat-eared merchant, for example, with his so-called “magic” charms. The only charm he had was sweet-talking gullible tourists out of as much money as he could get in exchange for colored thread woven into useless patterns. Tourists such as that handsome stranger she’d stolen from—and boy, was he rolling. Ten thousand chips, to be exact, though still not near enough for a new shuttle.
She told herself that his money was better spent on feeding two starving Faieara instead of useless knickknacks.
Amazingly, she’d almost fouled up the lift when she’d suddenly gotten the distinct impression he’d wanted to kiss her. He’d caught her off guard with that little surprise. She had to admit, under different circumstances she might have given him a chance to make his move. She’d felt a captivating sort of intensity during their brief exchange. Didn’t hurt that he was a gorgeous beefcake with a side of icing. What would it be like to stop looking over her shoulder, even for a moment, and indulge in an innocent fling? One where she didn’t have to have an agenda?
She tossed the thought away. She didn’t have time for men, even ones with warm chocolate eyes.
A kindly looking older gentleman approached their table. “Hello, ladies. I wonder if I might trouble you for a couple of chips, if you can spare them. I haven’t eaten in a while and am mighty hungry.” He wantonly eyed their food.
Onnika assessed him up and down. He wore a somewhat dusty, soft-brimmed hat atop his head, a nicely tailored coat and pants that were only slightly frayed in spots, and faded scuffed boots. He wasn’t clean-shaven, but his close-cropped gray beard was well kempt. By all appearances, he was a harmless elderly scavenger, but as she well knew, looks could be deceiving.
Without giving her a chance to dismiss the old kook, sweet-hearted Caryn simply smiled up at the man. “Of course we can spare a couple of chips. Right, Onnika?”
Onnika inwardly groaned. “Uh, sure,” she muttered, shooting Caryn a scolding look before handing over enough chips for the man to purchase a meal from any vendor he might choose. Although she was a bit skeptical of what he’d actually use the money for, she scoured his intentions for signs of trickery or ill will and was satisfied that he had no desire to wrong them in any way.
The man glanced down at his score with something like surprise. “This is very generous of you. I thank you kindly.” He tipped his hat.
“It’s not a problem,” Caryn declared with that sugary smile of hers that often mesmerized whomever she unleashed it upon. “We know what it’s like to be down and out.”
“Good karma be upon you.” The man tipped his hat again and headed toward the food vendors. Perhaps he really was just a hungry old man with no credits. Or a panhandler by trade, making his way by begging for handouts.
Onnika was about to admonish Caryn for her misplaced generosity when Caryn cried out, “Oh, look.” She pointed to a nearby holo-screen. “They’re naming all the Captains. Ooh, that one’s cute.”
Onnika sighed. “Caryn, focus. It’s your turn to work. What’s our next move?”
Caryn’s shoulder sank, instantly self-conscious about her gift. “I wish you’d stop doing that. I can’t pick the right path, I don’t know why you still think that I can after the mess I’ve gotten us into.”
“Just playing the odds.”
Caryn scoffed. “The odds? How many times did I nearly get us captured, or killed? That cliff? It’s a miracle we even survived.”
Onnika bit into her skewered meat and ripped off a juicy chunk. As she chewed, she pointed the tip of her skewer at Caryn. “Or it was our only chance to escape. It’s not like we had a lot of options. And if we’d been the only two to survive, I would say it was a miracle. As it is, I’m wondering if the only one to have perished on that planet was Baker the Faker because he didn’t follow you.”
Caryn sighed, shaking her head. “It was my fault Tag and his crew learned of my supposed power in the first place. It’s my fault they took us to begin with.”
“And if I hadn’t wanted to purchase that ship,” Onnika countered, “we wouldn’t have been swindled out of all our money and been forced to steal to survive, thus getting us arrested and sentenced to the same prison as them.”
“Don’t you think I should have known stealing would put us on the wrong path, and that befriending Ajay was a terrible idea, let alone confiding in him? Clearly your theory about me is incorrect, yet I keep letting you convince me otherwise.”
“Your direction has saved us countless times. Like on that planet that time with those things that wanted to eat us.”
Caryn shuddered at the memory. Then she shrugged, probably not linking their survival that day with the fact that she’d steered them in the exact direction of a small, nearly concealed cave that had only been wide enough for the two of them to crawl through, narrowly saving them from those very same carnivorous creatures.
Onnika sat back, tired of debating this yet again. “The only thing I know is I have no idea where to go from here. Maybe there isn’t a right path. Maybe there’s just a path that doesn’t get us killed. Maybe that’s all we’ve ever had.”
Running her hand through her wavy russet hair, Caryn gazed down at what was left of her meal. “The only thing I know is that I want to go home.”
Onnika’s spine straightened. “Home? As in Evlon?” They had no other home to which she could be referring, but Caryn had never broached the subject before. They hadn’t been home in what Onnika estimated to be roughly four hundred years, give or take. They’d been very young when they’d been exiled for their own safety. Too young to understand how to possibly return.
And though Onnika had searched for Evlon many times, she’d never been able to find its location. The Faieara had always been reclusive people, isolating themselves from the rest of the universe, keeping not only their location but their magic a secret…even from many of their own allies. It was an undeniable law of the universe: people coveted power; Faieara had power.
With freedom so easily snatched away, survival meant keeping their secrets. Tag and his crew were only the most recent ones to remind them of that.
Caryn nodded. “I miss home. Don’t you?”
“You think it’s time?” Finally? Does this mean there’s a way? She didn’t dare ask.
Lips pursed, Caryn sighed. “Ever since we docked, I just keep picturing it, how beautiful it used to be…” She trailed off, eying Onnika’s slowly widening grin. “You think this is my magic talking, don’t you?”
Planting her forearm on the table, Onnika leaned forward. “Let me put it to you this way: While scouting for a mark, I overheard some fan-boys speculating about the schematics sent exclusively to racers at the starting line. They theorized that these schematics represent the largest collection of maps in the known universe. If we’re going to rediscover the location of Evlon, getting our hands on those maps is likely the best chance we’re ever going to get.”