Flame (Fireborn) (24 page)

The labor is as intense
as it was yesterday, and though I'm better at feeling for the Braxi,
it takes effort to dig, bend, crouch, and repeat. To keep myself
sane- as sane as any crazy person can be- I play a game in my head.
Any crystals found smaller than the nail on my pinky was worth fifty
points, perfect Braxi were worth one hundred, and broken or smaller
crystals were negative thirty five. By the time my day was done, I
was down to negative eighty five.

My math was fast, but
my digging skills were lacking. I did, however, manage to hide
another sledgehammer. It was a small victory, but it gave me a moment
of happiness that I desperately needed.

Everyday it's the same
routine. I wake up in a red filthy dress, and fall asleep dirtier
than before. I forget what pants feel like, and I can barely recall
the motions of chewing.

Every night I sleep
with the depressing knowledge that every moment spent here is a
moment living in hell.

When the alarm sounds,
I jump, panicked. The first things I see are the windowless walls of
my prison. Lifting myself up, I notice something strange. The floor
is burnt.
What the-

"All clear."

The door opens, and
it's my cue to step forward. I can't move, staring at a large black
spot where my face had been. Reaching out, my fingers brush against
the hot surface. I jerk back when I feel the heat. Frantic, I look
around to see if anyone's noticed. I can see scarlet dresses through
the wide crack in the door. I don't have anymore time. Quickly, I
stand, and move to join the group.

My eyes find Chloris.
Maybe she sees something in my face because she gives me a small
smile. I shake my head.

The three men from
yesterday morning are back. The speaker begins the same way. "You
will be fed this morning, and then you will return to the caves to
harvest. Yesterday's batch was pathetic. We are expecting better
today." He pauses, smiling, but it's not really a smile and
everyone is nervous. No one will look at each other. He continues,
"Do as you're told. Escape is an illusion. Should you attempt,
he will find you, and you will be very, very sorry." The last
part is said with such softness it sounds more like breaths than
words.

Chloris looks scared. I
feel sick.

The alien begins to
walk, taking a few steps before stopping before the first prisoner.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see the girl in front of him is
trembling, and his finger gently pushes her chin up. He stares at her
for a long moment, and the tension is unbearable.

"Go," he
finally whispers, and her sigh of relief is palpable.

He walks to the next
prisoner, a man. He repeats the same process, holding his chin
roughly. His red robe covers his body completely, but his arms are
bare. The seconds tick by slowly before he says, "Go."

Another ripple of
relief.

Like the others, the
one after the male is also a human, a girl. His hands go to her neck,
tracing shapes with his thumb. His eyes rake her body, examining for
signs of what? Sickness? Disease? He whispers one word close to her
ear, but says it loud enough so we can all hear. "Stay."

Instantly, her anguish
fills the corridor, and she's begging, "Please! No! Don’t take
me to the crystal. I can do better. I-"

He squeezes her neck,
choking her with force.

She sputters, begging
for air, but it's useless.

"Did I say you can
speak?" he thunders. "Did I?" His face is red with
fury, and I forget to bow my head.

I look up, taking a
step forward, needing to do something.

Chloris' soft squeak
enters my brain at the last second, and her eyes are abnormally wide,
telling me to stay put.

I feel strange. My mind
is humming, buzzing with something strong. I feel it gathering around
me.

Stop.
I'm so
surprised by the voice I
do
stop.
Don't move.

I'm motionless.

Survive. Stay alive,
it continues.

I nearly choke with
shock because the voice is distinctly male with a familiar low
timbre, tickling my mind.
I'm going crazy!
I think with
dizzying fear.

The Saguinox guard
shoves the human girl to the floor, and she's weeping uncontrollably.
She doesn't speak, but she crawls to him, grasping his knees with
pitiful sobs. He looks disgusted and he spits on her. "Lock her
in the cell until they come."

"No! Please!"
She's being dragged back into the room, and when the door shuts, her
screams are no longer heard. There's complete stillness as he
continues the selection. With each passing "go", I become
more nervous, too scared to talk to myself, not wanting the crazy to
come out now, when I need my sanity the most.

The girl chosen to stay
had looked healthy. Anxiety knots are in my stomach because the
selection seems to be random. That knowledge frightens me.

When the guard is next
to me, I almost stop breathing. "Stay," he announces to the
girl beside me. Her tears sound weak, and heaviness grips my heart.
This close I hear how sick she is, and I know nothing can help her.
She's dragged back inside her cell, but her screams have already
faded to coughs.

He moves like he's
going to go past me, but then his feet hit mine, and I almost kick
myself.
Move back into formation!
my mind screeches. But it's
too late, I've made myself known, and the Saguinox guard is a breath
away from my body. I hear the groan in my brain, and it doesn't come
from me.

His glowing eyes look
down me, slowly coming up. I straighten, trying to look healthy, but
not really sure if that's what he's looking for. I strain to look
submissive. He watches me for a long moment. Eyes downcast, I see his
hands lift up to touch me. When his fingers brush my chin to raise my
eyes, I hear a roar of panic in my head, and-

Static booms over a
speaker, and he drops his hand, covering his ears. The high pitch
sound breaks in and out. "Bloody hell," he snaps, glancing
at the speaker attached to a wall just below the ceiling. Sounds from
the loudspeaker continue to be indiscernible, and he barks, "Go
check what that's about. Damn machines."

One of the men walks
off to obey, and I hold my breath. Squeezing my eyes shut, I stop
breathing. Almost in slow motion, I hear the rustle of clothes
moving, and low cuss words. Then I shake with relief when I hear him
pass.
Close call.

Hardly!
is the
clipped reply inside my head.

Three are chosen to
stay, and the rest of us go. The mood is bleaker than I've ever felt,
and I have no trouble bowing my head, staring with misery at our
shuffling feet. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the hairy ends of
a green tail, and Chloris whispers, "You okay?"

"Yes. Just
traumatized, and afraid of some dumb crystal I know nothing about."
I shake my head.

"You don't want to
know," she tells me. "There are no words."

I don't question her
because she knows more about all of this than I do. I'm moving a
little slower than yesterday due to newfound aches and pains. The
guards watch us coolly, and their stares unnerve me.

Chloris catches me
looking at our captors. "Those are the guards."

"I figured that."

"No," she
shakes her head. "The Saguinox have a hierarchy. The guards are
on the bottom. They do the job no one else wants to do."

We're
the job no one
else wants to do?
I'm angry.

"There is no honor
in watching prisoners," Chloris continues. "That's why
there are so few guards. None of them want to be here, but none of
them have a way out. It's kind of like a caste system. Once they've
been identified as a guard, they will remain a guard forever. To the
Saguinox there is only honor in fighting. They value their warriors
above everyone else."

"Warriors?"

"Killers,"
she clarifies.

My stomach drops.
"Where are the warriors?" Do they kill the people who get
sent to the crystal?

"None of them are
here. At least I've never seen any. They're superior to this place-
and to us."

I don't know what to
say to that. I don't know what to say about a lot of things in this
place, so I bow my head, thinking. We get our food, and I slip on the
handcuffs, as repulsed by the feel of the metal as I was yesterday.

"Chloris," I
force myself not to think about the cold restraint locked on my
wrist. "There has to be at least thirty of us here, and less
than a dozen of them," I nod toward the Saguinox. I want to ask
why we can't do something to escape, but I remember what happened
yesterday and how she ignored me. "Why aren't they afraid of us?
Of the others like you?"

"They've locked
our powers," she answers sadly.

Powers?
I almost
fall off my chair. My mind is racing with half finished thoughts, and
disorganized ideas, so I take a deep breath before continuing, even
though my head is humming with activity. "Does everyone here
have powers?"

I attempt to sound
casual. We're whispering so low it's difficult to hear, but I don't
care because I need answers. Possibilities. Anything.

"Not humans."
Not you.

I look around. There
are only a few non- humans, and they're heavily covered. One looks
like Chloris, but she's blue. Another is small and dwarf -like, with
earlobes reaching past her shoulders. One more looks human, but I
passed by her yesterday and saw hooves where feet are supposed to be.

"Why are they
taking so many of us, and so little of you?" I muse out loud.

"It's harder to
catch us," she whispers. "And your blood tastes better.
Sweeter."

I stare at her in
horror.

"That's what I
hear anyway," she finishes quickly, trying to assure me she
wouldn't know firsthand.

I swallow, my mouth dry
as if someone has forced sand down my throat. "What the hell is
going on?" I breathe, trying hard to take it all in.

"The same that
goes on everywhere," she answers bitterly. "Power. It's not
just a human trait. It's an
everything
trait."

"Does all of your
kind know about the Saguinox and what they are doing?" I ask.

She shakes her head.
"There are things you know nothing about, Kenna. There are whole
worlds hidden from you. The Saguinox aren't the only bad guys out
there. Ever since the Elemental witches fell, our universe has been
in chaos. No one is safe anymore."

"We have to get
out," I blurt out the thought before I can stop myself.

She shakes her head,
almost angry. "Impossible.
He
will find us."

"Who is this 'he'
person everyone is referring to? What does 'he' do that we're all so
afraid of?" I snap back.

"He kills."

"We'll die if we
stay here anyway!" I almost shriek.

Her eyes widen in fear,
and we both glance at the guards still marching around us. One
glances our way, and Chloris's throat bobs from her nervous
swallowing. We continue to sip the tasteless liquid for a few moments
longer until he passes, the butt of his gun gently nudging my neck.

"He doesn't just
kill
you, Kenna," she hisses. "He digs into your
mind, and pulls out your darkest fears, then he makes them come to
life. Your heart, your mind, your body,
your soul
, dies.
Every
part of you dies."

I absorb her words,
scared, but not so scared I ask, "What's your power?"

"It won't help us
anyway. Can't use it." She sounds sad again.

"You're a shape
shifter," I say, ignoring her comment. "What do you shift
into?"

Her lips are clenched
tight. "This and that."

"Chloris! This is
important. What do you shift into?"

She shakes her head,
stubborn, refusing to tell me.

"Chloris," I
growl in warning, forcing her to look at me. "I will scream
right now if you don't tell me. You know I will, too," I'm not
sure if I would. She doesn't know me enough to call my bluff though.
I can see her thinking, and her eyes are blinking rapidly as she
decides.

"Fine," she
almost snarls. "It won't help us much anyway."

"What do you shift
into?" I ask for the third time.

"Plants."

"
What?
"
I jerk up.

"Shh! Quiet down!"
she cautions in an annoyed voice, bowing her head lower. "I can
shift into plants okay?" She glowers at me from the corner of
her eye.

"Like flowers and
stuff?" I ask in disbelief.

She turns a full glare
toward me. "I'm sorry I don't have these cool powers like your
dumb spandex wearing superheroes do, but my powers definitely come in
handy when the rest of you carnivorous creatures are half starved and
dying!"

Her voice ends in a
shrill, and the two girls next to us look curious before glancing
away. The small movement is enough to set Chloris off, and she's
doing something funny with her head. She's glaring and avoiding my
gaze at the same time. I can tell she's too mad to talk. I've hit a
sore spot somewhere, but for the life of me I can't tell what it is.

The guards make their
usual rounds, unlocking the cuffs from our hands. When the bell
rings, signaling the end of breakfast, we stand, and begin walking,
almost marching to dispose of our silverware.

The early sun is out in
full force this morning, and it taunts us with a taste of freedom we
can't have. I never considered myself a rebel before, but I'm having
a really hard time keeping a low profile. Physically, it's painful,
but mentally it's driving me crazy- literally. Involuntarily, my mind
searches for the other voice in my head. I feel myself drifting
around, but nothing's there. I'm relieved.

I glance at Chloris
again, but her eyes are downcast, and she personifies surrender. I
don't want to, but a part of me is thinking I need to search for
another ally- one who is less content with the state of her
incarceration. My eyes move casually around. I don't dare look behind
because that would stand out as an anomaly to our perfect lines. It
takes a few minutes but I catch a fleeting glimpse of blue skin when
a nasty blast of wind pushes the side of her robe back. It's quick,
but it's enough, and I make up my mind to zero in on her. She has
similar features to Chloris, with the exception of blue skin so dark
it could be black.
Please let her shift into something terrifying
and poisonous,
I pray silently. Then I sigh because with the way
my luck is going, I wouldn't be surprised if she told me she shifts
into water.