Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 58483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
I’m horrified and fascinated at once. “In their cruelty, they gave us the very thing we need to destroy them.” I reach out but don’t touch the bottle. “They would kill us all if they knew.”
“They will not know.” She sounds absolutely certain. In the moment, I believe her.
“Is that why you haven’t told the others?” I pause. “Or have you?” Leylah has a different bond with all of us. It’s not clear what she tells to whom. “You’ll tell Keerah… right?”
Leylah’s quiet for a second. “Something came to me in a dream, about you and the toxin.”
I nod. Leylah has dreams regularly that mean things to her. If the rest of us think some of them sound like nonsense, we don’t tell her, because the truth is that we all want to believe there is something bigger than this world we inhabit. We want to believe in a future beyond slavery.
“And in this dream, what did I do with the toxin?” I smile, like it’s a story, a joke.
But Leylah doesn’t smile.
She puts down her tools and looks at me. “Tomorrow afternoon,” she says, her voice soft and earnest, “I am going to die.”
I gasp, horrified, but she’s still talking. “In the middle of the market I am going to die, right near the river, when you and Rannah are with me to gather supplies for barracks. The Ocretion visitors are here, and so are other traders. When I fall, you are going to slip away and hide on a trade ship. You will use the venom as you need to fell anyone who stops you. No Ocretions know this poison exists, and they will think the being died from a heart attack. Nobody will suspect poison.”
I stare at her, hand over my mouth, eyes wide. Heart frantic. “I-I…”
“You will hide on a specific ship, and once you are out in free air space, you will come out and petition for asylum.”
“I…” I shake my head. “Leylah.”
“And they will take you, and they will say yes, because the ship you get on”—she picks up the syringe and slides it into a protective tube—“is a ship of Zandians. They take humans to breed, to mate, even. It is said their queen is human, though some say she is just a slave. My dreams show me she is far more. And she has the sight, like me.”
“But an escaped slave—”
“No.” She shakes her head. “You will be a dead slave. You will fall into the river and drown. Rannah will see it and tell everyone. She will be happy about it.”
“I don’t understand. You just said I was going to get onto a ship.”
She puts the syringes back into the silver box and closes the clasp. “I will fall down and die in the market, in the stall closest to the river. You will scream and be upset, will lose your footing in your grief, and will fall into the river and be drawn away. Once you swim upstream, you come up and get out of the water, retrieve the clothing and pack you will stash, and get onto the Zandian ship.”
I shake my head. “You mean you’re going to pretend to die, right?” I stand up and take her hands in mine. “Right, Leylah?”
She meets my eyes. “No, lei. It’s my time.”
“It isn’t.” Anger and fear twist in my gut. “Nobody knows when their time is. You can’t say that.”
She coughs. “Last planet rotation, I overheard Master talking with his visitor. The visitor is quite taken with you and your skin, your hair. Your face. He wants you for himself. He spoke of incredible amounts of stein. They are going to trade for you.”
I suck in air, dizzy. “Oh, no. No.” The visitor inspected me today, just before the young fell in the river. I think of that warted hand, those rheumy eyes. The promise of pain and torture. Mating with that disgusting being. “I cannot.”
“No, you cannot. So I must get you to safety. I had thought to wait another solar cycle, until you were stronger. But we must do this now.”
“But you can’t die to do it.”
She gets up and hobbles to the corner. “Here is a pack with your new clothing, which you will stash at the corner of the fencing. After you come out of the water, you run here, fetch it, change and then head for the ships. I have loaded the syringes for you to use. And the rest of what you will take is in here.”
She comes back and touches my head. “You will take those stories and legends and ideas back to Zandia, to the beings there. Their noble king. Oh, Mother Earth, I just wish I could send you all.”
Her eyes flood with tears. “But at least I can send one. And some planet rotation one will lead to a million. You will be that leader. You will tell them what they need to know, and it will be helpful. More helpful than you even know.”