The Chosen Spacemage Read online

  The Chosen Spacemage

  Dan Oakley

  Copyright © 2018 Dan Oakley

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author.

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Author’s note

  Newsletter

  Chapter 1

  As soon as I left the safety of the noisy bar, I knew I’d made a mistake. The alcohol sloshing around my system had dulled my senses, but not quite enough to deaden my survival instincts. As we stepped onto the walkway, I took stock of my surroundings.

  The hooded man walked just ahead of me. There was no one lurking on the street, at least no one who looked suspicious. Two women, arm in arm, smiled flirtatiously as they brushed past me and entered the bar I’d just left.

  The main spacestation lights had been dimmed as night had fallen. Checking my wrist device, I saw it was only early evening.

  The man in front of me had promised me information on Trella. He’d said she needed my help, and that was why I was leaving my friends in the bar and naïvely following this man outside.

  “Are you going to tell me your name?” I called out.

  The man didn’t turn around, but paused, his footsteps slowing. “It’s not important, Tomas.”

  Maybe not to him, but if I was going to trust him, I wanted his name. He knew mine.

  As we headed away from the bar, I noticed we were heading to a side street with even dimmer lighting — definitely a quieter area. As we got closer, I saw the street was empty. That didn’t fill me with confidence. My skin prickled, and even through my drunken haze, I sensed danger.

  Halfway down the quiet side street, he turned left into an alleyway. I stopped and peered into the gloom — tall walls on both sides, narrow doorways, and high windows. No lights were on in the buildings. Were they home to Marrachi residents, or were they traders’ offices? If they were offices or storerooms, it meant no one would be there at this time of night.

  No witnesses.

  Maybe I was a simple Terrano peasant, but I wasn’t that stupid. Folding my arms over my chest, I said, “I’m not going any further until you give me more information.”

  He turned, and I saw impatience flash over his face. “It’s not safe to talk here. We need to keep moving.”

  Stubbornly, I shook my head, keeping my arms folded across my chest. The only danger I sensed was from the man standing in front of me. For all I knew, he could be a pirate or a robber who wanted to lure me closer to his gang of thieves.

  The man let out an impatient huff and closed the distance between us with a single stride. “What do you need to know? Your friend is in danger, and you want to help her. I can help you both.”

  I studied his face for signs he was lying, but he appeared earnest. Though, from the beads of sweat forming on his forehead, I guessed he was afraid or maybe paranoid.

  Either way, I couldn’t trust him unless I knew more.

  “First, I want to know who you are and why you think you can help. And second, if Trella needs help, why didn’t she contact me directly?”

  The man pulled his hood further forward, leaving his face in shadow. “She couldn’t contact you directly.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because she was arrested by inquisitors.”

  His words were like a fist to the stomach. The stories of the inquisitors had sparked my childhood nightmares. The baker’s children took delight in telling me one day the inquisitors would come for me and destroy my evil magic.

  My mind was a whirlwind, and seconds passed before I remembered to take a breath.

  My previous meeting with an inquisitor had not been pleasant. He’d tied up and tortured Maureena, the woman who’d been like a grandmother to me.

  Odd that my clash with an inquisitor was how I’d met Trella in the first place. Life worked in strange ways sometimes.

  “But why?” I asked. “Trella worked for the Kingdoms. She was loyal.”

  “The inquisitors don’t care about truth. They simply decided she was guilty and that was enough, no proof required.” His mouth twisted with bitterness. “They arrested her and charged her with high treason.”

  “They can’t do that!”

  “The powerful can do whatever they like, Tomas. But if we act quickly, we can help her.” He grabbed at my sleeve. “We don’t have much time.”

  He was convincing. I had to give him that. But still, I needed to know more.

  “How do you know Trella?” I asked. “Why do you want to help her?”

  Imagining Trella locked up on a prison ship, drugged to a stupor, without legal help or hope of a fair trial, made me feel sick. I wanted to agree to help, but I didn’t know who this man was or whether I could trust him.

  For all I knew, this could be an elaborate trap.

  He didn’t reply to my question, but I stood my ground. I deserved answers. If my suspicions were correct, this man was a member of the resistance, which meant I was risking my life just talking to him.

  “If I can help, I will,” I said, taking a quick look around the deserted alley to make sure we were still alone.

  The lights were even dimmer down here, and the sound of voices and music from the bars and restaurants was very faint. I continued, “But I don’t know if I can trust you. I know nothing about you. Where do you come from? How exactly do you plan to help Trella?”

  “I understand you have questions.” He spoke in a low voice that was almost a whisper. “But we don’t have much time. It’s not safe to be out in the open like this.”

  “Not safe? There’s no one else here.” I gestured at the dark alley around us. “No one is watching or listening in.”

  He pulled a face and scoffed. “There are always people listening and watching.”

  I nervously looked over my shoulder, expecting to see someone creeping up on us. From where we stood, I couldn’t see any security cameras. It was possible there were listening devices around, but I couldn’t understand why anyone would choose to position them in a deserted alley in the middle of the Marrachi space station.

  I opened my mouth to ask another question when the man suddenly put a finger to his lips and pushed himself back against the wall. Thanks to his dark hooded cloak, he blended into the shadows, and even though I was only a short distance away, it was hard to make out his figure against the dark wall.

  I mirrored his movements, my ears straining to hear the danger he’d sensed. It didn’t take long to realize he was right. We weren’t alone. The heavy tread of marching boots caught my attention first, followed by the whispered curses and mutterings of at least two men.

  We stood there, froze
n in position, as the sound of their footfalls got closer.

  “Who are they?” I hissed at the man beside me.

  “I don’t know.”

  Should I stay where I was, hidden in the darkness, or should I make a run for it and head back to the populated area of the bars and restaurants? I had no reason to trust this man. The approaching footsteps could belong to his companions. I had no way of knowing whether this was part of some scheme to rob me, or perhaps even a friend of the commander’s, come to get revenge.

  I swallowed hard and leaned closer to the hooded man. “If this is some sort of trap, you’ll regret it.”

  The man turned and gave me a sharp look. “Don’t be stupid.”

  “Are you denying this is a trap?” I demanded, still keeping my voice low.

  “No, it’s a trap all right, but it’s not one of my making.”

  Before he finished his sentence, I saw the swish of a red cloak at the end of the alleyway. I tried to swallow past the lump in my throat. Memories of the terrifying tales I’d grown up with filtered through my mind. I felt just like I had when they’d come for Maureena and me. Terrified.

  The man beside me was a still as a statue. Perhaps he was genuine. Maybe he hated them too. If so, we had some common ground.

  I’d grown up believing magic was outlawed in the Kingdoms, only to find out it was permitted, and even exploited in service of the Kingdoms. As I learned more about the mages and their service, I realized they were not given the same freedom as everyday folk. It was understandable then that the mage rebellion had risen.

  At first, they’d merely wanted equal rights for mages. They’d wanted to choose their own employment and to decide with their own free will whether to fight or serve the Kingdoms, but things had escalated and were far more complicated now.

  The more powerful the resistance became, the more viciously the Kingdoms security forces pursued them.

  Trella’s sister had been accused of working for the resistance, and if the man beside me was to be believed, it seemed the Kingdoms now thought Trella was working for the resistance too. Was it a false accusation or was Trella one of the rebels?

  If she was part of this movement, why had she never mentioned it?

  I pressed my back hard against the wall, wishing to make myself invisible. The marching feet paused at the entrance to the alley, and I could hear the man beside me breathing hard. Neither of us spoke again, not wanting to risk drawing the attention of the inquisitors.

  There were only two of them I could see from this distance. Maybe there were more behind them. Were they looking for us? Or were they searching for some other poor mage?

  It felt like an eternity, but eventually, they pressed on, leaving us in the dark alley.

  The man spoke first. He held out a hand to me, and I detected a slight tremor. The presence of the inquisitors had shaken him up badly. It looked like this wasn’t part of his trap after all.

  “Let’s start again,” he said. “I’m Toddo. And yes, before you ask, I’m part of the mage resistance, a proud member. Your friend Trella is one of us. I’m not sure how much she told you about that.” He paused as I processed the information. Of course, Trella had told me about her sister, but she hadn’t told me her own beliefs and sympathies lay with the resistance. Had she not trusted me enough to tell me?

  I said nothing.

  “I guess she didn’t mention the fact she was a member of the rebellion?”

  I shook my head. “No. It seems like I didn’t know very much about her at all.” My voice was cold, but I couldn’t help feeling hurt that she hadn’t confided in me.

  He reached out again, touching my shoulder briefly before letting his arm fall back to his side. “Don’t feel bad. It isn’t really something you’d broadcast.”

  Maybe not. But after all the time we spent together on Tor…

  Not wanting Toddo to see my disappointment, I looked at the ground and gathered my thoughts. It was a secret that could get her killed. Maybe it wasn’t such a surprise she’d kept this to herself.

  “Regardless of what she told you,” Toddo said, “she still needs your help. Are you coming?”

  “Where are we going?”

  “To the docks. We need to meet up with the others.”

  I nodded. I had to make a decision one way or the other and decided to trust my gut instincts. “Lead the way.”

  I fell into step behind him, my mind full of half-formed ideas of how we could get Trella out of this predicament. I hoped the people we were meeting would have better plans than me because the ideas I’d come up with weren’t promising.

  We passed under one of the dim lights when I heard a noise behind.

  I turned quickly and saw we were no longer alone in the alley.

  Behind us were two inquisitors.

  Their red cloaks touched the floor. Their hoods were pushed back. The man on the left had a shaved head, and the one on the right had curly brown hair; both had dark eyes that fixed on Toddo and me.

  “We’ve got company,” I said, pointlessly, because Toddo was already turning around and about to see them for himself.

  I was considering a way to talk myself out of trouble when Toddo suddenly shouted, “Run.”

  He pushed me onwards. Luckily, there was another exit just at the end of the alleyway. We barreled down the narrow gap between rows of houses.

  Perhaps I would have had a chance of outrunning the inquisitors, especially after my enforced low-oxygen training on Tor, but I didn’t think we could outrun their weapons.

  A flash of blue light smashed into the base of one of the houses just ahead of me.

  I skidded to a halt and quickly altered my direction, not that there was anywhere else to go. We were trapped in a long, narrow alleyway. Even if their aim was terrible, eventually, they would get a direct hit.

  I turned, generating an energy bolt in my right hand and flinging it at the center point between the two inquisitors. I didn’t intend to kill or even hurt them, just slow them down enough so we could get away.

  Unfortunately, the energy bolts seemed to bounce back, landing only a few feet from me.

  I stared in puzzled amazement for a split second before resuming my running.

  “It’s no good. The Inquisitors’ weapons have magic deflectors. A kind of energy deflection. So as long as they’re holding those, they’re practically immune from our magic.”

  Magic deflectors? That certainly reduced our chances of escaping unhurt.

  The end of the alley was still a good hundred paces away. There was no way we’d get out before they blasted us with their weapons. A little way ahead of us, I saw a fire escape, an open stairway leading up to the roof and the second floor. “We should go up there?”

  “No chance,” Toddo said, breathing heavily. “I can’t stand heights.”

  He carried on running, but I yanked myself up using the ladder. It was a good idea for us to split up anyway. It might distract the inquisitors for long enough so at least one of us could escape.

  It didn’t take them long to reach the base of the ladder. I made it to the top of the roof just in time, ducking down, hoping I was out of their firing range.

  To stop them following me up to the roof, I pressed my hand against the cold metal ladder and focused on directing my energy through the molecules, making them vibrate slightly and generate heat. I knew it was working when I heard a cry of pain from below from one of the inquisitors.

  “The dirtwipe scorched my hand!” one of the inquisitors said. I wasn’t sure which one, as I didn’t dare look over the edge of the roof.

  “Well, he has to come down sometime,” the other inquisitor replied.

  Were they going to wait all night? Had Toddo escaped?

  I leaned back to get my bearings. The roof was flat with a slight lip that offered me some protection for now. But if they were going to wait down there, I was in trouble.

  They were right. I would need to come down eventually. I needed another way of
f this roof.

  From my prone position, I scanned the area. The houses either side were very close, and with a running jump, I’d be able to get from roof to roof, but doing that would mean standing up and being directly in the line of fire.

  I looked around for something I could use as a weapon. Something non-magical. That’s when it occurred to me. I couldn’t send magical energy bolts their way, but I could hurt them indirectly as I had with the metal staircase. If my magic was applied to something else, something physical, then that thing could still hurt them.

  My gaze locked onto a large water tank on top of the roof. Whether it was used for cooling or as hot water storage for the house below, I didn’t know and didn’t much care. All I cared about was that it looked very heavy, and if it fell from a height, it could do some considerable damage to the inquisitors below.

  I focused on the cylindrical object, forcing myself to relax and access the votoom zone. It was a large, heavy object, and although I’d lifted things like that before in practice sessions, this was more important; this was no practice session.

  The container was bolted to the floor, and it took considerable concentration and energy to lift it and break those bonds. There was a loud snapping sound as the container broke free of its fastenings.

  Below me, the inquisitors were muttering to each other and calling up insults.

  I didn’t pay them any attention. I needed all my focus on the water tank.

  Slowly and steadily, I moved it inch by inch across the roof. Once it was at the edge, I paused, took a deep breath, and dared to peer over the side so I could see where they stood. They were directly below me.

  Unfortunately, one of the inquisitors spotted me and fired. The blue flash was instantly followed by a searing pain along my right temple. Dazed, I slumped back on the roof. I touched the side of my face as warm blood trickled down my cheek.