Sac'a'rith (7 page)

“But that means we have to leave it unlocked to get home?” I asked.

“No, it’s part of a system of interconnected gates.” She pointed to a different rune. “This one is where we’re going. By placing your hand on it and saying the same command word it will unlock the other side and link the gates.”

“So anyone can unlock this gate from a remote location?” I asked.

“No, only natural-born Sac’a’rith who are bound to it,” she said.

“So I’m bound to it, then?” I said.

“Yes. Why don’t you activate that rune and lead us through?”

I wondered how I had become bound to it, but decided to leave that question for another time. At the moment, I was more interested in learning how to use the gate.

I activated the rune she had pointed out. In the center of the ring a small azure dot appeared and grew until it filled the ring. As had happened on the last occasion I used it, when I touched the rune I had a vision of a great forest and wildlife. It was a different forest from the one I had seen in my previous trip. I scooped up my pack and walked through the gate. Shira followed closely behind me, and Raquel came through a few steps behind her.

We stepped out of a rock face into a densely wooded area. There was a small clearing in front of us. I inhaled the fresh air deep into my lungs and could almost taste the life force that was surrounding me. Strength returned to my muscles, and my mind was more alert than it had been in a long while.

My life as commander of a special forces team operating in deep space had brought weariness on me; this lifted and once again I felt I was where I belonged. I wished we could just stay here and forget all the responsibilities we had back in Phareon, but I knew that wasn’t possible at this time.

“Yes,” said Raquel. “Let the power of nature flow through you and restore you.”

I looked back and saw the gate still open behind her. “How do we lock the gate?”

“First you activate the rune where we came from, and then activate the rune where we are,” she said. “Go ahead, you try it.”

I locked the gate as per her instructions and turned to catch a slight smile on Shira’s face as she looked up into the trees. She was lost in the moment, just taking in the air and life around her. She seemed to be as much at home here as I was.

“She feels the same thing you do. Let her enjoy it for a while,”
sent Raquel privately.

The last time I had traveled through the gate, coming out in a lush forest like this, I had felt the same way. There was something about being surrounded by nature that seemed to bring vital energy to me. I could even tap it for healing physical wounds.

I watched Shira for a while as she drank in the life around her. There was a tear in her eye, but her face had a hint of joy in it for the first time since I had met her: real, genuine happiness. It was slight but it was there. It seemed that Raquel was right: Shira did need this.

“These woods won’t be safe after dark, but we should be able to make it to shelter by mid-afternoon,” said Raquel.

I couldn’t see any obvious trails. “Which way?”

“We need to keep the rising sun on our left shoulder. Eventually we’ll hit a roadway, but we won’t be on it for long. Do your best not to leave a trail as we move through the brush,” she said.

“Shira, can you find this place again if we get separated?”
I sent privately.

“Yeah, I’ll mark it so I can gate back if need be,”
she sent.

“Let’s go,” said Raquel. “We can follow the game trails to make movement easier.”

She led us down some very narrow breaks in the bush. We didn’t speak much, and Shira kept me between herself and Raquel the entire time. I still didn’t know why we were here, but I couldn’t deny the uplifting effect the walk was having on Shira. That made it all worthwhile and easily convinced me to stick with whatever plan Raquel had.

It was good for me too. It had been too long since I had breathed fresh air filled with the taste and scent of life. I inhaled deeply as we walked and tried to pick out each variety of life that I scented. There were so many of them and my knowledge of nature was so limited that I didn’t even have enough names to choose from. I wondered if Raquel knew them all.
No, probably not
, I thought to myself. Her nose was too tiny to be of any use, and she couldn’t use her tongue to taste the air properly. Heck, I didn’t think she could get her tongue more than a centimeter past her lips, nowhere near far enough to work properly. I wondered if she could smell much at all.

“There will be a river ahead soon,” said Raquel. “I’d like to break there and top up our canteens, but we’ll have to approach it carefully. It’s the only fresh water for quite a distance, so we’ll need to be careful and not hang around.”

“Are there people out here we need to avoid?” I asked.

“Among other things, yes,” she said.

We walked on for a while longer until she gave the signal to stop. I reached out to place my bare hand on a tree and stretched my mind through it. “I see the river. On the far bank some people are drinking; they look like Zalionians but smaller, closer to human size.”

“How many?” asked Raquel.

“Six, all armed with swords and shields. They don’t appear to be very attentive to the area around them.”

“They aren’t Zalionians, and they are trouble. We’ll head downstream to the bend. That should place us out of sight,” she said.

We turned off the game path she had been leading us down and slowly made our way through the bushes until she felt we had gone far enough and turned back towards the river. “What do you see?” she asked.

Using the trees again, I reached out and looked around. “We are at the bend and just past the bend looks clear, but the trees are uncomfortable, so we’d better be careful.”

“Spread out, but keep visual contact with everyone. If there is a trap, it’s better if at least one of us is far enough away to avoid it,” she said.

“How dangerous is this place?” I asked.

“Dangerous enough,” she said and moved off.

Looking back, I saw Shira shrug. She said, “Really, do we ever go on safe trips?”

I had to concede that point and set off after Raquel. She made it to the river without incident and quickly filled her canteen. I kept Shira back in the woods and waited to see if anything would happen. Just when I assumed I’d misread the trees, several of the miniature Zalionian-looking creatures jumped out of the water and reached for Raquel.

“Felix, are you sure about this?”
sent Crivreen privately as I packed my gear and headed to the airlock.

“Yeah,”
I sent back.
“The wizards bought my freedom. I can return to the life I had before all this started.”

“I thought you said, ‘What’s done cannot be undone,’ and all that?”
he asked.

“Let’s just say it’s time to test that theory.”
The airlock finished its cycle and I walked onto the station.
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

“Then let me come with you,”
he sent.

“No, you have a great thing going there. Stick with Zah’rak and you’ll do well,”
I sent and then cut off the communication. Sadness set in as I watched them undock and launch. I assumed that meant that they were going to take up Raquel’s offer. I hoped that was true; it was the best thing they could do. Joining the Wizard Kingdom would give them support and a cause to fight for. That’s what they needed more than anything. This wandering around doing the bidding of the government paid well, but it wasn’t a good life; it was too limited, with no opportunity to stretch and grow.

The first order of business was to ditch my Felix identity and return to my real self. I went down to a less respectable section of the station and withdrew all my money as credit sticks. I slipped into a public bathroom which was thankfully empty and changed my clothes, altered my hair and eye color, pulled the fake skin from my hands, and removed the contact lenses that I had been using for years to fool sensors.

After removing all my cosmetics, I looked into the mirror and forced myself to concentrate on what I really looked like. I chanted the slow verse that I used to help focus my mind on the task of picturing my real self. It was hard and a little painful, but slowly my skin darkened to an off-blue shade, my ears grew and changed shape, fanning out, my hair grew darker and longer, and my voice changed slightly. Within moments I looked completely different. Anyone who had seen me walk into the rest room would never recognize me on the way out, even if they used biometric scanners.

I knew from testing that even my DNA shifted slightly when I made these changes. The fake skin on my hands and the contact lenses allowed me the option of altering my appearance without having to go through the ordeal of changing my base identity, but a full change meant that there would be no way to connect Felix to my real self. In any way that mattered he just ceased to exist, and if Lady Luck smiled on me he would never rise again.

I took a few minutes to breathe deeply, steadying myself after the effort. It was painful and tiring, but it was the only way I could walk away from this life. I had considered doing this when I was on the run from the Assassin’s Guild, but Crivreen had needed me. Now that Crivreen was safe I could leave it all behind.

I doubted if Raquel really understood how much the gift had freed me. For the first time in longer than I could remember, I was my own man. All my debts were paid off, and with Felix gone I could finally make a run at the life I had dreamed about since I was a child.

Once I had packed everything used to create Felix’s identity into a separate bag, I left the bathroom and headed for a recycling center. I tossed the whole bag directly into the recycling vat and watched to make sure it had been completely broken down into its raw materials. There would be no undoing that destruction.
Farewell, Felix. It’s been fun.

Once I was sure that all connection between myself and Felix was gone, I headed to the travel hub. I needed to find a way off the station without leaving any trace that I’d been here. It would be best if I were far from here before my real ID was scanned for the first time.

The hub was busy with crews refitting ships and various people looking for work. I knew that if I hung around with the rest of the job seekers I would eventually get something, but I was looking for a slightly higher caliber of work than that which the random pool of workers would obtain.

I passed by all the smaller ships; they would have much fewer crew members and it would be harder to blend in and coast out of this region.

As I continued through the hubs, I finally came across what looked like the perfect opportunity: a large luxury liner which was being loaded with supplies. The crew near one end was yelling back and forth, trying to get some robotic equipment to work and failing miserably. It was the perfect setup for me to step in and be the hero they didn’t know they were looking for and didn’t particularly want.

“Need a hand?” I asked as I walked over. I knew they’d say ‘no,’ and had already planned not to accept that answer. I had already been covertly looking over their machines and selecting one that looked easy to repair so that I could impress them by walking up and fixing one, seemingly at random.

“We’re busy, move along,” said one of them.

I ignored them and moved to the robot that I figured was the best target for my plan. I knew I was pushing my luck. Workers like these could be a rough lot, and I wasn’t a match for them physically. “Mark III? Not exactly the quality of machine I would expect.”

They looked at each other and one said, “Perhaps you didn’t hear –”

“Looks like the secondary servo under the left tire is dragging on the belt. That’s causing it to heat up and fail,” I said.

“You know how to fix it?” a smaller man said as he pushed to the front.

“I’m a certified level three technician, but have done my share of level four,” I said. That was not entirely true: Felix was certified, I was not, but I didn’t figure that really mattered. If all went well they wouldn’t ask for any proof. I would have to recertify myself as soon as I could manage it if I really wanted to make my dream happen. This time, I wouldn’t skimp on the prep and would go for my master repair certification.

“Yeah, right!” said one of the men. Several of the others laughed or made similar comments. Some of them noted my race and made rude comments about my ears. I had forgotten how much prejudice I used to face. My people were not known for being smart, but it was a reputation unfairly earned.

“He’s just wasting our time,” said another.

“You weren’t exactly making any progress before I arrived.” I grabbed some of their tools and went to work on the unit in question. The men started to move to stop me, but the smaller man gestured for them to step back. It took about twenty minutes but I soon had the problem fixed. My original diagnosis was correct, so all I really had to do was take the drive train apart and put it back together properly. The repair was simple but looked impressive.

“There,” I said. “It needs some more work before I could call it ‘good as new,’ but it should get you through loading now.”

One of the men activated the robot worker’s control interface and gave it commands. It efficiently went about its work as designed.

“What’s your name, mister?” asked the small man.

I caught myself just in time before I said ‘Felix’ and told him, “Purwryn.”

“Can you service all of these?” he asked, waving his hand towards a pile of disabled machines.

“Yes, for a price,” I said.

“And that would be?” he asked.

“Food and passage out of here, with no questions,” I said. Ships like this liner needed large crews and were away from their homeport for many years at a time. They often picked up strays and discarded them along the way. It kept costs down and kept their crew fresh. Very few would be permanent members and most would come and go from port to port. This was of course illegal, but the law was rarely enforced. The government was more concerned with the tax money coming from these cruise liners than with tracking down drifters.