Renegade Magic (Star Renegades Book 1) Page 16

  Amelia flashed a dazzling smile. She’d always had a sweet spot for Ty. “Then we must start making some cakes. I will make double, and you bring them back to Alanna and Ethan for me. Yes?”

  Ty beamed. “I would jump off a ship in the middle of space to get to one of your cakes, Mel.”

  She ruffled his hair. “Then I will get baking while you boys play.”

  Stanley pulled Cal away from the others. “Please tell me that’s not a real enforcer.”

  “She’s promised not to kill anyone.” Today, but Cal decided to leave that part out. “Ty is pretty certain this one is different.”

  Stanley considered Dania. “She looks like the ones the slavers take. The ones who are beaten and broken.” He motioned around his head with his hands. “The hair is not alive.”

  Yeah. Cal needed to talk to Doc about that. Hopefully that didn’t mean she was even closer to death that they’d thought.

  Cal tapped his friend’s back. “Let’s not worry about that right now. I have a few tons of merchandise hanging up there that I know you’ll be excited to see.”

  Stanley grinned through his thick beard. “We are always excited when our Calvin comes home with gifts.” The older man put his arm around Cal’s shoulder and pulled him farther toward the building. “We need to talk.”

  Yeah, Cal bet he did. He turned to Ty and called, “Your job is to make sure she keeps her promise.”

  Ty put his arm around Dania’s waist. “Anytime I get to spend with my good buddy Dania is like a bonus.”

  She scowled at him. Good. If she was fending off Ty, maybe she wouldn’t notice they were about to stroll into a den of sin.

  Stanley folded his hands as he walked with Cal. “They called me, told me about a beautiful woman floating in the sky, giving children fruit.” He stopped walking. “I’d hoped they were joking.”

  “I can explain.”

  “I very much hope you can.”

  Cal dragged his fingernails through his hair. Sand had caked against his scalp, as it did every time he’d come here since the rain machines had stopped cycling. He desperately needed a shower.

  He looked back, where Dania stared at Ty indignantly as he pointed to the side of the building. Knowing Ty, he was probably trying to tell her it was priceless art.

  “Ty did something stupid,” Cal began.

  “As Tyler always does. He’s impulsive, that one. I warned you.”

  Yes, he had. “He’s also a damn good pilot. Better than me.”

  “But his piloting is not the issue.”

  Cal wished it was that simple. “Ty got wrapped up with Dania. I was trying to untie the knot when a ring of slavers dropped down on us.” Cal licked his lips against the dry air. They instantly caked, worse than before. “I should have left her there. I just couldn’t.”

  Stanley tapped Cal’s back. “Chivalry is not dead for Calvin Espinoza.”

  Cal laughed halfheartedly. “She threatens to kill me every ten minutes.”

  “Yet you are not dead.”

  Behind them, Doc was now pointing at the same wall. Dania folded her arms, glaring at them.

  “I’m not really sure why we’re not all dead yet.”

  Stanley grinned as Doc burst into laughter. “Maybe she likes you?”

  Cal guffawed. “That monster is not capable of liking anyone.”

  Although the tears for the child and her apparent fondness for Alanna made him wonder…

  “Don’t be so sure.” Stanley started walking again. “Slavers break enforcers. I have no idea how, but I have seen the aftermath. They’re a fraction of the beings they once were—meek and shattered.” He pointed back at Dania. “The hair on the broken ones looks like that. Like the silver dye has worn away. She may still be able to fly through the air, but she is still weakened. You probably saved her life.”

  “I don’t think she looks at it that way.”

  He rubbed his beard, watching the spectacle near the wall. “Maybe in time, she will. After all, she hasn’t killed those two yet.”

  Cal would take even those little wins, at the moment.

  The cylinders moved overhead, disappearing behind the mortared fence. “Time to go to work.”

  Stanley grimaced. “Do you have a way to contain your new friend, should things go bad?”

  Cal felt for the small gun Doc had given him. “Yeah. I just hope I don’t have to use it.”

  “That makes two of us, my boy.”

  They followed the cases into the center courtyard of the U-shaped building Cal used to call home. Cal felt for the weapon again as Ty and Doc followed them in, Dania walking between them. Scattered around the compound, workers bent down over their tasks, many working on machinery lining the walls.

  Dania’s eyes widened as workers used blast torches to remove serial numbers, while another group repainted several land vehicles a different color. Her hands clenched and unclenched before Ty distracted her by starting one of his classic senseless babble routines. Cal had seen the most focused people in the galaxy fall victim to his first mate’s silver tongue. Hopefully, this time would be no different.

  Ty pulled Dania over to the people painting the all-terrain vehicles, of all places. Cal had no idea how he would sugarcoat that obvious sign of a cover-up.

  Dania looked over her shoulder at Cal. Her lips pressed to a thin line.

  His heartbeat quickened and he checked the gun one more time. These people were friends. Family. He’d protect them if he had to. The trick was not dying in the process.

  22

  Dania

  Ty pulled Dania toward five men and one woman changing the color of three vehicles from white to black. The identification plates were worn clean, except for the first, which a second woman was etching new numbers onto. Dania’s skin prickled with the need to stop her.

  Ty held out his hands. “Look at this authentic outer-rim colony craftsmanship.”

  She nearly spat at him. “I’m not a fool. These people are trying to conceal stolen goods.”

  He waved his finger at her. “Careful there. Less than an hour ago, I believe you were seen by several hundred people helping to distribute said stolen goods.”

  She spoke through clenched teeth, doing her best to keep her promise not to slice this smuggler in two. “I had a good reason.”

  Ty grabbed her by the shoulders. She flinched, stunned.

  He looked deep into her eyes. “Maybe, just maybe, these people have just as good a reason as you did.”

  “I find that highly unlikely.”

  “But can you say it’s impossible?”

  Impossible, no. But she wasn’t a criminal. Criminals worked for themselves. For profit. They preyed on others for their own gain. Dania was sure these people were no different. There was never a reason to break a law.

  She flinched. Almost never.

  “Ty! Doc!” Espinoza called them from across the yard. Dania followed to where the cylinders of stolen goods were lined up in the center of the courtyard.

  Espinoza looked her up and down as she approached. “You can either help or stand back and keep out of the way.”

  Dania swallowed the bile building in her throat as the last of the containers drifted to the surface, kicking up dust as they hit the ground. Espinoza was the worst kind of criminal, milking the poor who had nothing, all to line his pockets with cash, probably to spend on useless trinkets and whores.

  Several citizens wearing the soiled rags she’d seen on so many of the townspeople when the Star Renegade had landed approached with small woven bags. Espinoza smiled, shook their hands, and placed several fruits and an assortment of other foodstuffs from multiple containers into each sack. More people approached, including several children…all with bags.

  A line formed as more colonists arrived. Ty, Doc, Stanley, and Amelia joined Espinoza, working like a practiced unit, filling bags expediently as more people piled into the square. A crowd formed, but none pushed. It was all so…orderly, as if they’d done th
is hundreds of times.

  Dania moved closer. Each bag got a bottle of pills—maybe medicine or supplements of some kind—and several pieces of fruit. Everyone got oranges. One container had bags of grain. One had contraband even worse than the oranges: spot-frozen beef and chicken, one of the most expensive food products available. Her hands trembled. That meat needed to be taken back to the food stores where it could be distributed where needed!

  Ty gathered several handfuls of the meat and placed it into a child’s sack. “Say hi to your dad for me.”

  The girl curtsied, holding out her tattered dress. “I will. Thank you, sir.”

  Espinoza shook a man’s hand before giving him a bag. A woman hugged him, thanking him and telling him what a good person he was. The next woman in line received two bags, and none of the others complained that she’d received more.

  Dania blinked as those who received the food left the square.

  There was no one collecting their coin. No one was even making note of who had been given what.

  A deep ache formed in her chest. She stood frozen as more and more people filed in. She rubbed her chest, but nothing would thwart the ache until the last bags had been handed out.

  As Espinoza closed the container nearest him, Dania stumbled forward, her knees weak.

  She pointed to the people leaving. “You just gave all that food away?”

  He tapped the lid of the container. “Pretty much.”

  “But you risked your life and the lives of your crew to get it. That food was worth a small fortune.”

  Espinoza straightened, pushing out his broad chest. “As we’ve been trying to tell you, there are certain things that are worth breaking the law for.”

  Dania stared at him, gaping. The world spun around her, and she fought to steady herself.

  Espinoza pushed away from the container. “About three years ago, the royal family called this colony a loss. They left these people here to die.”

  Dania startled. “That’s not possible. The Banes protect everyone in their domain. They don’t pick and choose.”

  Espinoza looked over his shoulder. “Stanley, when was the last time you had a royal tradesman here?”

  The merchant tapped his lips. “About two years ago.”

  Dania’s chest tightened. Could it be true?

  No. Certainly, Prince Geron has no idea this had happened. He was many of the things people said he was, but he’d never allow his people to suffer.

  She straightened, shaking off the doubt and facing Stanley. “This has to be a mistake. When I return, I will inform the royal family of your plight.”

  Espinoza scoffed. “The royal family doesn’t give a shooting star about the people out here, and I’m not sure they ever have.”

  Dania’s chest seized. Acid shot into her throat, and she nearly dropped to her knees, retching. She shook her head. “No, I-I can’t believe that.” But she’d seen it with her own eyes. This planet was in ruins.

  “Believe it.” Espinoza turned from her and called to Stanley. “Let’s bring the people back.”

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  Espinoza opened the containers back up. “We have plenty more. We ration at first to make sure everyone gets something, and now anyone who needs more can come back and get it.”

  “Nothing goes to waste.” Ty filled bags with oranges and set them to the side.

  And nothing should. Food was a basic of life. The king deemed it necessary, and starvation was illegal. No one was supposed to go hungry in his domain. Ever.

  Dania picked up a bag. “Can we give more to the family of the girl who has scurvy?”

  Doc held up two overflowing bags. “Already on it.”

  A little girl walked up and opened up her bag to Dania. Dirt stained the child’s skin gray and matted down her hair. Dania grabbed three oranges and placed them in her bag.

  The child licked her lips, looking at the protein bars. Dania added those as well.

  “Thank you,” the little girl said before backing away.

  A strand of hair flew into Dania’s face, and she tucked it back. She couldn’t remember anyone thanking her for anything before. She’d seen people thank Alexander for healing, but when Dania left a colony, people were usually wailing and crying.

  The child turned at the gate and waved at her. Dania warmed inside—a not-all-that-unpleasant feeling—and waved back.

  When the last of the extra food had been handed out, Stanley reached for the bags of oranges Doc had set aside. “I will get these to Katie’s mother.”

  “Wait.” Dania held out her hand. Those oranges were worth more than one of those vehicles they were painting. She couldn’t trust them with just anyone.

  Cal gently put down her hands. “We can trust Stanley.”

  The merchant backed away from the fruit and smiled, placing his hands on Dania’s shoulders. “I understand trust is hard to earn. Out here, especially, we learn to look into people’s hearts.” He pointed to her chest. “I can see you have a good heart, and I hope you can see the goodness in mine.”

  A lump grew in her throat, making it hard to swallow.

  Was she sick? She massaged her neck, but it wouldn’t go away. She found that she did trust this man, and she barely knew him.

  What she’d seen told her he was a criminal. She should be executing him, but for some reason, she didn’t care about the automated vehicles, or any of the other illicit items scattered around the square. All she could see were the people smiling and hugging each other as they left with basic necessities that her king had denied them.

  She sniffed and blinked back tears she hoped no one noticed. Maybe there wasn’t such a clean line between right and wrong. If called to judge this man, or any of them, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to find them guilty, even though they’d plainly broken the law.

  Espinoza placed his hand gently on her back. “Let’s go.”

  She held her head, the world spinning as he led her back to the ship.

  23

  Cal

  Ty pointed out the crumbling terracotta-like planters lining the streets, explaining how lush and beautiful the plants that once grew along the sidewalks used to be. Unlike Cal, who’d only hidden here for a short time while trying to figure out how to remain invisible in a galaxy when there was a price on his head big enough to buy a small moon, Ty had grown up here.

  He was one of the many kids trained to run goods to the merchant ships in orbit, back when all the dealings on this planet had been legal, and profits were good. Now, most of those kids, like Ty, had fled for new lives. Cal wished he could have done better by Ty, but the kid—now a man, he guessed—knew he’d been signing on as the pilot for a convicted murderer.

  Doc tugged Cal’s sleeve, slowing his gait as they walked back to the Star Renegade. Ty and Dania continued ahead.

  “Is the plan still to dump the enforcer here? Because now might be the time to do it,” Doc said.

  Cal shook his head. “I’m not sure anymore.”

  Ahead of them, Ty stopped, showing Dania a painting on the wall that looked like it had been created by children. The colors had faded over the last few years, but Cal remembered delivering those paints. They’d cost him nearly a month’s worth of wages, but the smiles on those kids’ faces had been worth ten times the weight of the paint in gold.

  Dania reached out, tentatively touching the artwork. Cal wished he could see her face.

  “Her hair is even more blonde now than it was this morning,” Doc said.

  “Yeah. We also noticed it doesn’t move like a million crazed moonworms anymore. Do you know why?”

  “Theories only. Like I said, there is no medical history on enforcers.” Doc wiped the sweat from his forehead. “I took another reading on her this morning while she was still asleep. She had about half the pathogens in her blood as in the first sample I took. They’re dying off exponentially.”

  “Is that good or bad?”

  Doc shrugged. “I
’m seeing a direct relationship between the decrease in pathogens and her not only looking more human, but acting more human.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He pointed back to the square. “When was the last time you ever saw an enforcer stand there and watch people distribute stolen goods without blowing a gasket? Let alone help them with their own hands?” He looked back to Dania and Ty. “She’s changing right before our eyes, and I’m starting to wonder if those pathogens are some sort of biological hypnotic.”

  Cal leaned back. “Do you actually think all of the enforcers have been hypnotized?”

  “I don’t know. It’s a long shot, but I remember working the underground on Kemper Station when a princess showed up in full battle armor with about three dozen enforcers in tow.” He shivered. “At one point, she turned her head to the right quickly, and all the enforcers did, too, at the exact same time. When she started walking, they all did, too. And they started on the same foot. It was like they were robots or something.” His lips thinned. “At a bare minimum, it might be a form of mind control.”

  Hypnotics, mind control—it all seemed crazy, but no more crazy than finding out that an elite alien enforcer was devolving back into a human.

  Were all the enforcers human? If so, that meant they weren’t their own race at all, but something manufactured by the royal family.

  Ahead of them, Ty held his hands out to the side, and Dania laughed.

  Dania.

  The enforcer.

  Laughed.

  Ty said something else, and she laughed again, holding her hand to her chest. It all looked so normal, so human.

  Could Doc be right?

  More importantly, could Ty have been right? If they’d broken this woman out of her fog, would she be able to see the Star Renegade’s crew as people with purpose, and not just criminals? But did that even matter? If the Banes really were monsters, would sending her back with this new information even make a difference? It still could work, if she ranked as highly as Doc said she did. Maybe she could make them listen.