Space Pirate Charlie: The Dragon Mage Book 2 Read online

  He was a trailblazer, and no one back home was any the wiser.

  “They probably all think we’re long dead,” he grumbled.

  “Who thinks you’re dead?”

  Leila had snuck up on him while he was busy with his waste-retrieval duties. A doody duty, he had once said, garnering zero laughs from Tuktuk and Magda. Leila, likewise, failed to see the humor.

  “Oh, just everyone I ever knew back home,” he replied, shoving the hovering waste bin toward an open area away from the animals’ enclosures.

  “I imagine that’s pretty tough,” Leila said. “I was born here, so really, the idea of it is somewhat foreign to me, but I can imagine if everyone I knew was suddenly gone. It would be horrible, actually,” she said, giving Charlie a sympathetic look.

  “Hey, at least I’ve got you guys. I mean, I haven’t been here all that long, but you all have made me feel at home, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”

  “Of course we welcomed you. You’re a good man, Charlie.”

  “You can’t know that.”

  “Oh, but we knew about you long before you even showed up that night, passed out cold. You and the Zomoki, our mysterious arrivals that had the visla so worked up. Tuktuk enjoyed telling stories about the strange man from another galaxy whom he shared a cell with aboard the slave trader’s ship.”

  “Yeah, well, sure. But he might have been exaggerating.”

  “Did you fight to save your human friend?”

  “Well, of course.”

  “And did you defend a Wampeh being attacked, though you didn’t even know the man?”

  “Yes, but that was a mistake.”

  “Perhaps. But your nature is good, Charlie. The details may have changed in the telling of the tale, but the character of the man remained.”

  “Well––”

  “You’re a good man. You try to make things right. Not many do in the circumstances you faced. And unarmed, no less. Why, at that time, you didn’t even know how to wield a konus or a slaap. A babe in the woods, you were.”

  “The woods,” he said, gears turning.

  “What about them?”

  “The other day, when we were chasing down the bundabist, I came across a structure just over the wall and past the low hills right outside the grove of trees over that way. There was something going on. Something bad.”

  “Bad? What do you mean? I’ve been all over the visla’s lands, and I know the place you speak of. It’s been long empty.”

  “Not anymore. It’s being used to manufacture slaaps and konuses by the thousands. It’s a weapons factory, Leila.”

  She snorted a laugh. “A weapons factory? On Visla Maktan’s land? He wouldn’t stand for it. Why, if anyone so much as attempted to do such a thing, he would know and put a stop to it at once.”

  “And what if Maktan is involved? What if it’s his plan?”

  “Now you need to be careful what you say. If he hears of you spreading such lies––”

  “They aren’t lies, Leila. I heard him discussing it with Dinuk. That’s why he wanted the Zomoki. He intends to tap into her power to charge those weapons.”

  “Impossible. He’s a leader of the Council of Twenty. Why would he ever do such a thing?”

  “I can’t say for sure, but on my world, the only time people start stockpiling weapons like that in secret is when they’re planning something big. Something big and bad.”

  She looked shocked. Leila was no clueless slave, but she’d grown up on Maktan’s land, and had never seen any indication that he was capable of such conniving treachery.

  “If this is true, we will need to get word to the others on the Council of Twenty. They must know what he is doing.”

  “The only way to do that is scouting out the weapons factory. I’d take you, but my collar is restricted again, and I can’t cross the wall.”

  “Frustrating, isn’t it? A wall no higher than your waist yet you cannot pass,” she said. “I, however, can. I will go and see if what you tell is true. If it is, we can discuss this further.”

  Charlie didn’t want to put her at risk, but there seemed little other way to bring her around to his side. “I think that’s a great idea, Leila. Go and see. Verify what I told you is true. The visla wants to drain Ara of her power to charge all those weapons, and I fear that would kill her.”

  “Ara?”

  “It’s her name.”

  “You named the Zomoki?”

  “No, I–I’ll explain all of that when you get back, okay? But be careful. It’s dangerous, what you’re about to do.”

  Leila laughed loudly, truly amused by his statement.

  “Charlie, I look after a Zomoki. Compared to that, nothing seems dangerous.”

  She has a point, he had to admit.

  “All right. I’ll be here working on the pens and feeding the animals. We’ll discuss this further when you’re back.”

  Leila trotted off at a casual jog, as she so often did when making rounds of the lands. She would sometimes run for hours on end, her lifetime of activity making it as easy as walking. At the pace she was moving, he estimated she’d be back within the hour.

  When the two-hour mark passed, he began to worry.

  When nightfall arrived without her return, he was in an outright panic.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Leila had been held in a windowless room somewhere in the main estate grounds for the better part of the evening. They had stunned her when she was discovered lurking near the old factory building, but only mildly. She had come to her senses not long after, bound to a chair, her small work konus gone.

  From the few sounds that did manage to filter down to her, she guessed that she was underground. Likely one of the storage areas used by the staff.

  Dinuk had questioned her personally that night, though he had been somewhat gentle about it, given her life-long history on the estate. It could well enough have been an honest mistake. A case of wrong place/wrong time, but too much was at stake for the visla to take any chances.

  After she had left Charlie to go and see if what he had claimed was true, Leila made her way straight to the building he described to her, making sure to use the less-traveled back path leading through the small copse of trees. One, she noted, had mysteriously died, its bark and leaves shriveled and dry.

  “I’ll have to make sure Father knows about this,” she noted as she passed.

  Leila vaulted the low wall easily and jogged into the shallow glen that opened to the abandoned building’s small clearing. Only the building was most certainly not abandoned.

  A sharp smell assaulted her nose.

  “They’re smelting,” she realized, having experienced the noxious odor a few times prior, when her father tooled specialized power-harnessing devices for his arborist work.

  Creeping in close, Leila was shocked to see hundreds of crates being loaded onto a half dozen small craft silently hovering in the clearing. Tslavar mercenaries and their comrades from several other systems were guiding the floating crates into the bellies of the ships, stacking them high.

  The men, one and all, were armed, she noted. Slaaps were on each of their hips, and most wore sturdy combat konuses as well. This was not some casual supply exchange. This was something else. Charlie was right, something big was happening.

  Never one to leave a mystery unsolved, Leila then did the opposite of the wise thing, opting to sneak in closer for a better look, rather than running away at top speed. A visla she did not recognize––but whose rank she immediately noted by not only his attire, but also the raw power he radiated––was forcing that magical energy into a crate full of slaaps.

  “Yes, these are good. They’ll all hold a charge nicely. Load them with the others,” the slender visla said. “Bring the next crate. I want to get this load off to Kentraxiik before the others return. We need to make space for their ships.”

  More crates were brought out of the building, left in a queue for the powerful wizard to i
mbue them with a tiny bit of his power as he ran his functionality check.

  “There have to be thousands of weapons here,” Leila realized. “Tens of thousands, even.”

  A boot crunched in the gravel behind her.

  She had only begun to spin around when the spell hit her and she tumbled to the ground.

  “You need to be careful, Charlie,” Tuktuk said as his friend paced anxiously in the kitchen. “Magda heard from Elianna, who heard from Azkan’s aide that Leila was caught observing something she wasn’t supposed to. They’ve got her in the basement storage area at the far end of the estate.”

  “Then that’s where I’m going,” he replied, heading for the door.

  His blue friend grabbed his shoulder, stopping him with a startlingly firm grip. “You will achieve nothing if you just rush in there, Charlie. What good can you do for her if you’re a captive too?”

  “But it’s my fault she’s there, Tuk. She never would have gone poking around if it weren’t for me.”

  Tuktuk chuckled. “I’ve known her longer than you have, my friend. Believe me, no one can tell her what to do or not to do. If there was even a hint of something odd going on, she’d have gone to investigate on her own, regardless of anything you might have said. So, what is it you think you’ve found out there, Charlie?”

  “Nevermind. I don’t want you at risk too.”

  Charlie had figured she would take it upon herself regardless of what he’d said, but it didn’t ease his guilt over her situation in the slightest.

  “I’m going to see her. Don’t try to stop me, Tuk.”

  “Fine,” his friend said, letting go. “But be smart about it.”

  “I’ll be tactful, I promise. I just have to see if there’s anything I can do.”

  “You’re a slave, Charlie, just like the rest of us. At the end of the day, they do what they like, and we have no say in the matter.”

  Not the words Charlie wanted to hear, but perhaps the words he needed to hear. With a cloud of guilt hovering over him like a circling vulture, he headed out toward the far end of the estate, where Leila was being held.

  He was nearly there when a distraught Hertzall spotted him coming, snapping him from his nervous pacing outside the building.

  “Charlie!”

  “Hey, Hertzall. I hear they locked Leila up for some reason. Any idea what’s going on?”

  “No. They won’t even let me see her. My own daughter. She was born here, Charlie. Raised here. This is the only home she’s ever known. She wouldn’t do anything to harm the visla. She loves it here.”

  “I know,” he replied, the guilty cloud growing slightly darker.

  “If they won’t even let her own father in to see her, what could she have possibly done?”

  Charlie realized the old man had a point. He had as much seniority as anyone on the visla’s staff, and if he couldn’t get in to see a blood relative, there was no way a newcomer already on Maktan’s shit list would.

  “You know what? I may have someone who could help. Let me see what I can do, okay? But you really should eat something and get some rest if you can. If I can get you in to see her, I’ll let you know.”

  “Do you really think you can manage this?”

  “I’m not sure, but I’ve got a pretty good feeling about it.”

  The groundskeeper swept him up in a big hug, the smell of the woods and dirt wafting from him in the comforting manner of a summer’s breeze on a warm day.

  I’ve got to make this right. I just hope I’m worth enough to her that she’ll help.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Denna Maktan, you have a visitor,” Azkan announced over his skree.

  “Who is it, Azkan? You know I do not wish to be disturbed,” she answered over the device.

  “It is the gladiator, Denna. The new addition.”

  “Oh, in that case, send him in,” she said, her tone warming immediately.

  “The denna will see you,” Azkan said, opening the door for Charlie. “Behave appropriately with the visla’s daughter,” he added.

  “Is there some reason for this warning?” Charlie asked.

  “Just a word of advice. You will not receive a second one.”

  The door closed behind him, and he found himself alone in the young woman’s outer chambers.

  “Hello? Malalia?”

  “Just a moment,” she called from her bedroom.

  Charlie took the moment to better examine the visla’s daughter’s living space. It was clean, as would be expected, and free of clutter. The decorations were expensive, yet tasteful, with a few pieces of art on the walls and a sculpture of a woman wrestling a serpent on a pedestal against the far wall. On a small table sat an ornate konus. Charlie could almost feel the power she had fed into it from across the room, her personal energy signature tangible in the air.

  The denna, it seemed, was more powerful than she let on.

  Malalia swept into the room wearing a thin nightgown and nothing more.

  “Ah, Charlie. What a pleasant surprise,” she said, pulling him in for a warm hug. He could feel her body through the material, pressed against him, and found it more than a little distracting.

  “Malalia, it’s really good to see you,” he said, stepping back slightly, hoping the slight bulge that had formed in his pants would recede before she noticed.

  “And it is good to see you too. But it’s rather late. What brings you to my chambers at such an hour? You know, people might start to talk,” she teased with a sly grin.

  “Well, I actually have a favor to ask, if I may.”

  “I cannot retrieve any more materials from your crashed vessel, if that is what you wish. Father would be very cross if he learned what I already procured for you.”

  “No, nothing like that. Something here at home, actually.”

  “Oh, in that case, of course. What do you need?”

  “It’s not for me, actually,” he said. “It’s Hertzall.”

  “The old groundskeeper?”

  “Yes.”

  “But what could he possibly need? I’m sure my father would gladly provide him with new trees and whatever manner of castings he might need to work in the woods.”

  “It’s nothing like that. It’s Leila.”

  At her name, Malalia’s grin faltered, but only for a second.

  “Yes, his daughter. The one who works in the dirt with the animals,” she said with mocking cheer. “What of her?

  “She seems to have been detained by Dinuk for some reason, and is being held in the basement at the far end of the estate. No one knows why, and they won’t let poor Hertzall see his own daughter. I hate to ask, and I really don’t want to put you out with this request, but they’re friends of mine. Do you think you could see about having them let him visit her?”

  A glimpse of something not entirely pleasant flashed across Malalia’s face. It was gone in an instant, her smile never faltering. But he saw it.

  “Of course, Charlie. Let me see what I can do.”

  “Thank you, Malalia. You don’t know how much this means to me.”

  “Quite a lot, I’m sure. But you’ll have to excuse me now. I was just preparing for bed, and I really must get my beauty sleep.”

  “Of course,” he said, heading for the door. “And, Malalia, thank you again for your help.”

  “It is my pleasure, Charlie. Now, good night.”

  “Good night,” he replied, stepping out and closing the door behind him, an uneasy feeling growing in his gut.

  Charlie was distracted as he walked toward the animal pens. Had he not been, perhaps he would have seen Malalia Maktan striding from the main estate in a rush, heading straight for the distant edge of the buildings. He might even have assumed she was hurrying to put in a good word for poor old Hertzall with the guards.

  He would have been mistaken.

  “Hello, Leila,” the visla’s daughter said as she entered the subterranean chamber.

  “Denna,” the bound wom
an replied.

  “Oh, please, we’ve known one another since we were girls. Call me Malalia.”

  “Very well, Malalia,” she replied, not liking the look in the woman’s eyes one bit.

  “There, that’s better,” the woman said.

  Leila noted she was wearing a robe over her nightgown. Something had caused her to make this visit her unprepared. With a woman of Malalia Maktan’s temperament, that could be dangerous.

  “Why have you come, Malalia?”

  “Because your ruffian friend came to see me,” she replied, waiting to see what sort of response she would draw from the captive. “He said you were taken here and wanted to know what he could do to help you. He was very willing to do whatever it took,” she said.

  “It’s good to have friends,” Leila replied, unfazed.

  Her lack of reaction drew the woman’s ire. That was when Leila noticed the ornamental konus on her wrist. The one that was beginning to glow.

  “We’re going to have a little chat, you and I. And when we’re done, you’ll tell me all you know about your little gladiator pal, as well as what you were doing lurking around my father’s business.”

  The soundproofing of the underground room was only moderate, and had he been nearer, Charlie might have heard his friend’s cries.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The visla’s smaller ships sat idly in the open area adjacent to the residence, Charlie noticed, as he made his way to talk the situation through with Ara. The important detail was, this time they seemed to be unattended.

  He couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps this seemingly cushy living situation wasn’t finally proving too good to be true. Things certainly had been taking a turn for the worse, and if they continued to deteriorate, maybe escape from servitude actually could become an option.

  Shit. I don’t know even know how to fly one of these, he realized. And I don’t have any magic to power it even if I did.

  It was a grim realization. Any attempt to flee with one of the visla’s ships would amount to what was effectively no more than an ill-advised joyride around the parking lot, if he could even manage that much. No, he would need to find another way.