Elemental (8 page)

“Only if they find out.”

Malik pinched his nose and leaned against
the wall. This was the first time I’d seen him break his carefully
cultivated façade. It was almost more terrifying than if he were
screaming at us. “I’ve already told my father.”

Yes, much more terrifying. Somehow I knew
that Pallaton was the last man in the universe who should know that
his friend had tricked him into betraying his god.

Meir confirmed my suspicions with a
groan.

“What did you want me to do, Meir? I
fulfilled my end of the bargain. I got the two of you out of there,
but I couldn’t let my father find out from someone else. I couldn’t
do that to him.”

“Why bother taking us off of Talia if you’re
just going to turn her in anyway?” Meir’s fists clenched at his
sides and his voice turned into a growl. “What? Are you planning to
drop her off at Kalhandthar yourself? Claim some type of
reward?”

Malik’s voice became dead again. “I’m not
turning her in. We’re going to Soltak.”

My heart broke out into a gallop. Malik
couldn’t mean that. He couldn’t possibly be intending to let me go.
He hated me.

“Why?” Apparently, Meir couldn’t believe it,
either.

Malik shrugged. “My father was furious when
I told him, and he reminded me to act with honor. His idea of honor
and mine differ greatly. He ordered me to turn her into the Kofra,
but allowing someone so weak and fragile to become some form of
political device is the height of dishonor. I refused him and
ordered the crew to leave.” He turned to look at me then, his eyes
guarded. “You may annoy the hell out of me, but I won’t take part
in your murder.” He paused to look away for a second before turning
his gaze back to me. “You shouldn’t have to pay for the Kofra’s
greed.”

“Thank you.” I wondered then if Malik would
ever know just how much I meant those two words. My heart felt like
it would burst, it swelled so hard and fast.
Freedom.
I let
the thought play across my mind, reveling in the hope it
brought.

He nodded, and then smirked. “I’m sorry
about earlier. I didn’t have much time to come up with a better
plan.”

I bit my lip. “What happened earlier?”

His smirk fell and he rolled his eyes. I
felt very stupid under his gaze, clearly missing something he felt
should have been obvious.

“When I punched you?” He shook his head.
“You’re bleeding—I can smell it. I didn’t think I hit you that
hard, but then I didn’t know just how weak you were.”

I looked down at my waist. I’d completely
forgotten about that particular incident, which was odd considering
how much I had wanted to kill him because of it. A few other, more
important, things had come up since then. I hadn’t even felt the
pain until he mentioned the blood. Now, it was all I could
feel.

“Oh.” I wrapped my arms around myself and
slid to the floor.

Meir was at my side immediately, tearing the
suit away from me and ordering Malik to bring bandages and
ointment. It was about at that point that my mind and body decided
I’d had too much for the day. Fainting two times in just as many
days? How pathetic.

Chapter Seven
:

Friends and Enemies

Meir’s snores ripped me out of sleep. The
last few minutes of my dream had consisted of me running toward a
group of unnamed—but vaguely familiar—cruisers, come to take me
away, with their engines roaring all around me. When I woke up, the
engines droned on.

I sighed and sat up. My hand instinctively
went to my waist. The black suit had been put back on, so I
couldn’t see if I was bleeding, but the pain had lessened, so I
assumed it had stopped.

I spotted one of the silver containers Malik
had brought in earlier, on the floor next to the cot I was sitting
on. I picked it up and ripped it open. There was food inside.

I moaned and opened the first vacuum-sealed
package I found. It was some kind of sandwich. I didn’t care what
kind. I shoved it into my mouth before I’d even taken it completely
out of its plastic wrapper. I’m sure it tasted good. I didn’t
really notice because by the time I had gotten the whole thing into
my mouth, I was already ripping open the next one. Brown and gooey,
it had a sweet taste that overwhelmed my senses.

By the time I’d shoved the contents of the
last package into my mouth—some type of bitter drink—my stomach had
started protesting. It hit me then. as the acids lurched up into my
throat, that I should’ve taken my first big meal a little slower. I
clamped my mouth shut and swallowed. It burned all the way
down.

I threw the empty packages to the floor and
lay back down on the cot, clutching my very angry stomach. I
should’ve known something as simple as eating would end badly. I
lived in Opposite World. When I expected bad, good happened. When I
thought nothing but good could come from something, that’s when
fate decided to kick me in the butt.

I groaned. My food wanted to come up again—I
could feel it—but I refused to let it win. If I couldn’t control my
own body, how could I possibly control the outside influences of
the world around me? No, my body
would
bend to my will. I’d
rather suffer than lose this battle.

I groaned again. It seemed my stomach was
more than willing to make me suffer. I started concentrating on the
purr of the engines and the whoosh of the fans as they recycled the
air throughout the ship. And of course, Meir’s steady snores were
easy to focus on. It helped a little, but my stomach refused to be
completely ignored. When it thought it was losing, it enlisted the
help of my muscles, which started twisting and pushing at my
abdomen to force the food up. When that didn’t work, it tried to
reason with me.

Just let it out. You’ll feel better when you
do.

Somehow, I had a feeling this was a typical
war tactic: when violence doesn’t work, send ambassadors to
negotiate terms of surrender. But I wasn’t about to succumb. I had
earned the nutrients my body now needed to function, and I
certainly wasn’t about to lie next to my own vomit.

Nope. My stomach would just have to give in
and do its job.

I breathed in and out slowly. Meir’s snoring
aside, sleep had now become utterly impossible for me.

There was a very subtle change in the air
pressure around me, and the ship felt like it was slowing down. The
little movement, though I might not have detected it otherwise, now
made my stomach lurch. I almost lost the war.

The feeling became much more distinct and I
was sure we had come to a stop. I remembered Malik mentioning
something about a checkpoint to Meir in the conversation I was not
supposed to have heard. Perhaps this was it.

My heart started pounding as I also
remembered Malik had said we might find trouble here—something
about unknown battleships and precautions being doubled. I held my
breath and waited. Surely this wouldn’t take long. They would
confirm that the
Meridian
was scheduled to go to Soltak and
let us be on our way, nothing more.

A deep boom shuddered throughout the ship.
My quivering stomach rejoiced at its impending success, while my
heart skipped a beat and I broke out into an icy sweat.

I fought the urge to run and hide. Instead,
I rose slowly with my hand on my waist to shake Meir’s
shoulder.

“Meir, wake up.”

He didn’t budge.

I leaned closer and pressed my lips against
his ear. “Meir!”

He bolted up then, and nearly sent me flying
backwards. “What?” He rubbed his eyes, disoriented. “What
happened?”

“I think we’re being boarded.”

“Boarded? How?” He yawned. “We’re in
hyperspace.” No, he was definitely not all there. I suppressed the
urge to shake him. My weak little arms probably wouldn’t have done
much anyway.

“No, Meir.” I shook my head. “We’re at the
checkpoint.”

Another boom resonated throughout the ship.
Meir’s eyes narrowed as understanding replaced the vagueness of
sleep. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. I felt the ship stop and then
there was a loud noise, like something was grabbing onto it.”

“Hmm…” His eyes grew dark and brooding, but
he shook his head and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, leaning
me in to press his lips against my head. “We’ll be all right.”

I didn’t know if I could believe that. This
wasn’t right. I could tell Meir was trying to hide something from
me. There was no reason for us to be stopped so long. I didn’t dare
move as we waited what seemed like hours. Instead, I stayed tight
against his chest, feeling his hot, unsteady breath pour across my
scalp, saturating my hair.

More time passed… slowly. Too slowly.
Eventually, my knees began to shake and I leaned my full weight
against Meir, letting him support me. His arms tightened around me
in response.

The ship wobbled for a couple beats, and
then steadied. I dug my head into Meir’s chest to keep from
screaming.

He stroked my hair. “It’s okay. We’ll be all
right,” he repeated.

I wanted to believe he was right, but…

The intercom crackled to life. “This is
Inter-Planetary Escort Malik Abad-i. Submit your code,
Tarmean.”

Meir set me on my cot and went over to the
keypad. The door slid open and Malik walked through. I stifled a
whimper when I saw his ashen face.

Malik looked back and forth between the two
of us before finally resting his gaze on Meir. He nodded toward the
far corner of the room and walked away. As we followed him, I noted
with some satisfaction that my stomach had decided to give me a
break. My racing heart, on the other hand, was a different story.
The blood it sent rushing to my head made me dizzy and I leaned on
Meir’s arm for support as we wove our way through the labyrinth of
crates.

When we had reached the back wall, Malik
turned to face us and leaned in to whisper, “Not good.”

My heart decided to use my stomach as a
springboard as it jumped into my throat.

“What’s wrong?” Meir remained composed. That
was good. Someone needed to.

“Do you remember what I told you earlier?
About… ships?” He raised one eyebrow.

Meir nodded.

“They’re following us.”

“Why?” He said it slowly, drawing it out.
“The Luminarium?”

“We’re not sure. Maybe, but it seems
unlikely. From what our sensors can pick up, their propulsion
systems are not Luminarium-based.” He paused, likely pondering how
much information he was willing to disclose in front of me. “This
freighter is as fast as any Mamood Star Class warship, but they’re
gaining on us.”

Meir murmured something underneath his
breath.

I looked up to read his face. He was pulling
at his beard and the crease between his brows had returned. The
gesture surprised me, actually. I had expected much worse news.
Already, I could detect the acceleration of the ship. We were
leaving.

Honestly, who cared if we were being
followed? My concern was the Mamood, not a couple mystery
ships.

But Meir seemed worried, and that was enough
to keep me from breathing a sigh of relief. Malik, too, was very
much on edge. His eyes were restless as they shifted from Meir and
me to the open door at the front of the cargo hold. Even after all
that we’d gone through, I’d never seen him this upset. He couldn’t
seem to stop fidgeting. It was like he couldn’t decide if he should
stay with us or leave.

“As worrisome as all that is,” Malik said,
“we’ve actually got bigger problems.”

I should’ve known. I dropped my head against
Meir’s arm and sighed.

Malik ignored my little theatrics, and
continued, “The spaceport’s Delsa-Prime is on the
Meridian
with us. He insisted on accompanying us with two of his fighters.
‘Protection,’ as he called it.”

When I looked up again, Meir’s lips were
drawn into a tight line. “Not good.”

“I’ll think of something. The man’s not all
that bright.” He smirked. “Money only bought him the position, not
the know-how to wield it.”

He started walking back to the door, leaving
Meir and me alone and dumbstruck. Before he got halfway through the
room, Malik turned around and whispered, “I won’t come back here
again until we dock. Don’t worry about anything until then. Like I
said, I’ll think of something.” His dark robes swirled around his
ankles as he turned and left us. The door slid closed, and the
sudden quiet in the room became oppressive.

Someone really didn’t want me to have a
life—of that I was very sure. Malik had tried to act like the
change in our circumstances hadn’t bothered him, but I could detect
the panic seething underneath. Not worry? Impossible.

I crumpled to the floor and let my cheek
rest against the cold metal. It felt soothing against my hot,
clammy skin—familiar. I groaned. The thought that a cold, metal
floor should comfort me with its familiarity absolutely revolted
me. Never in my wildest imaginings had I thought I would look back
at any part of my time on
Sho’ful
with longing.

Meir’s broad arms wrapped around me as he
lifted me up and carried me back to my cot. My body draped like
some kind of rag doll. I wanted to tell him to put me down so that
I could walk, but I couldn’t find my voice. He rested me on my cot
and backed away to sit on his own.

Time passed steadily, though I don’t know
how. It was hard to think past my own frozen body, hard to imagine
that the universe hadn’t frozen with me. But pass it did, and
eventually my mind began to thaw. I was able to think again. I
forced myself to think of the impossible—the undoable.