As I expected based on my previous visit, two guards were stationed at the site. This time they were standing together—probably to keep each other awake—back-to-back and facing opposite directions. I had my ruse prepared. I took a deep breath, then nudged them with Charm to convince them my presence was nothing out of the ordinary. I pretended to be distraught and kept glancing over my shoulder.
“What’s the matter, Cadet?” one of the guards asked.
I drew harder on Charm to increase their anxiety. “I saw someone acting strangely down the corridor. One of the privates—a short woman. She had some power tools. I was afraid to stop her because she looked dangerous. Please, you’ve got to go after her. . . .”
If the guards hadn’t been under the influence of magic, they would have called in the incident instead of looking at each other and then breaking into a run. Their footsteps sounded unnaturally loud as they dashed off, and I couldn’t help wincing at the racket. Still, I had bought myself a little time while they pursued a false lead.
Time for some real sabotage. My stomach ached as I ducked under the tape and tried to sense the damage to the invisible meridian. It looked like the recent battle hadn’t done this area any favors. The floor tiles had warped further. Some wiring spilled out from a panel in the wall. It was black with corrosion, making it resemble the tormented branches of a diseased shrub.
Had the original sabotage been Jang’s doing, however unintentional? I still didn’t know, and now, when I needed his help, it certainly wasn’t the right time to ask him.
I had no idea how the exposed wiring was related to the meridian, but it made a good target, in any case. I backed up, almost twisting my ankle in the process, and drew out the blaster. I aimed it squarely at the wires. The pistol writhed in my hands like a living creature, and I tightened my grip and shifted my stance, taking slow, deep breaths.
I squeezed the trigger. Red fire splashed the wires and the recess beneath the warped tiles. Sparks sputtered as the wires melted, and a noxious vapor rose from them. I gagged and stumbled away, gasping for untainted air, then quickly replaced the blaster in its holster to avoid accidentally frying my own feet.
Good thing the ship is already undergoing repairs, I thought. They can just add this to the list.
The pain in my gut intensified. Time for me to get out of there. I headed in the opposite direction from the guards and made my way to the elevator.
By the time I arrived on the brig level, I had a ferocious headache. I wasn’t sure whether it was a side effect of what I’d done to the ship, or a result of nerves. Probably both. I should have grabbed some painkillers on my way out of the bunk. Too late now.
This time, I used shape-shifting to imitate Captain Hwan’s form. I wasn’t used to being so tall, and it took an effort to imitate his confident gait. But I figured the guards would be less inclined to stop the captain, especially if I used Charm to dampen their suspicions.
“Sir!” The guards snapped to attention in a way that would have been funny if the situation hadn’t been so fraught with danger. If only they knew who I really was! Of course, if they guessed, this would end messily.
“I’m here to see the prisoners,” I said, discomfited by the low growl of the captain’s voice emerging from my throat. I couldn’t let that show, though. I almost blurted that I had some additional questions for the captives, then thought better of it. The captain wouldn’t owe anyone explanations, after all. Too bad I hadn’t had the chance to impersonate him before this. It would have made my life easier.
“Of course, sir,” said the guard in charge, a burly man. “Right this way, Captain.”
It was bizarre to be addressed as “Captain,” as if I were a real officer. Then again, Captain was just as much a fiction as Cadet. I couldn’t let a fake rank go to my head.
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak, and followed the guard to where the three captives were being held. “Open the cells,” I ordered, “then leave us.” I leaned hard on Charm for this one.
Even so, the guard hesitated. “Sir—”
I decided a bluff was in order. “What’s the matter, you don’t think I can handle them?” I caught and held his gaze in a way I never would’ve dared to as Jang.
The color drained from the guard’s face. “Of course not, sir.”
Did he think I was going to eat the prisoners? I’d never heard anyone so much as breathe the suggestion that Captain Hwan followed such ancient practices. But then again, who would, and risk offending a tiger?
Just out of curiosity, I smiled, letting just a hint of my teeth show. They weren’t sharp fangs, though it would have been easy to conjure some—and that kind of shape-shifting was something even a tiger could do. I thought it might be overkill.
The guard swallowed visibly. “As you say, sir.” He hastened to unlock the cells. I nodded at him, and he fled.
The three prisoners stared at me, frozen. The air was thick with the scent of their terror. It made me uncomfortable, but if it kept them from rushing me, it wasn’t all bad.
I’d already gotten a chance to study the scholar, so this time I took a closer look at the other two. The man had a dour, unshaven face and the breadth of a bear. I made a note not to get close to him in a fight. As for the woman, stringy hair almost concealed her eyes, and her thin, scarred hands twitched nervously. I couldn’t afford to discount her as a threat, either.
I reached for my blaster, and the smell intensified. “Keep your distance,” I said, training the blaster on the scholar, and stepped back. “Out.”
“You’re executing us?” the woman prisoner demanded. She sounded more outraged than afraid. “An honorable captain of the Space Forces?”
You did attack us, I thought, remembering Sujin’s burns. But this wasn’t the time to seek revenge. “I said out.” I narrowed my eyes, directing Charm at her to make her more willing to obey. “I have a bargain for you.”
The weasel-faced scholar made a calm down gesture at his comrade. Then to me he said, “Fine,” in a weary tone. He emerged from his cell, and the other two followed suit. “What do you mean, ‘bargain’?”
This was going to be the dicey part. I concentrated, making sure to keep my blaster trained on the scholar, and shifted back into my cousin Bora’s shape. (If Bora ever made it out into space, she was going to have a certain reputation and it was going to be my fault. I wasn’t really sorry, though.)
The scholar’s eyes widened. “Gumiho,” he breathed. “I thought your kind was extinct.”
The other two were gaping at me as if I’d sprouted fox ears. When I was younger, I would have been tempted to make that actually happen, but I didn’t think it would improve my bargaining position. I wanted to keep the scholar’s attention on my blaster.
“I’m going to make you a deal,” I said. Another bluff: “I’ll take you to your captive ship and get you out of here. In exchange, you’ll take me to the Fourth Colony. That’s where you were going originally, wasn’t it?”
The scholar drew a shaky breath, his mouth tightening. After a moment, he said, “I don’t see that we have much choice at this point. But I have bad news for you. I can’t wield protective magic, and the shaman we hired to exorcise the ghosts was a casualty of the fighting.”
“I can deal with that,” I said, more boldly than I felt. “I have ways to persuade them to listen. Ghosts are still people”—even if they were dead—“and fox magic should work on them. I’ll be able to calm them down so we can negotiate.”
The scholar considered it. “I suppose it could work . . .” he said, his fear subsiding a little.
“If that thing is really a fox, it might be preparing to eat us,” the woman said in an undertone, although I could hear her perfectly well.
I couldn’t help feeling nettled. I was standing there with a blaster and she thought I was going to use my teeth? Besides—and it’s not like I would ever do such a thing—I bet she’d taste revolting. “If you really don’t want to be eaten,” I said flatly, “maybe you should get moving like I told you to.”
The woman began to protest, but the scholar made another placating gesture and she shut her mouth. The other man, his face pale, remained silent—too dumbfounded to speak, I guessed—but nodded at the scholar.
I changed back into Captain Hwan’s shape. Borrowing the captain’s authority would help us get by the guards more easily. Once again, the smell of fear wafted from the scholar and his comrades. Fear—and hope.
They didn’t have to trust me, exactly, but I needed them as badly as they needed me. I just hoped they didn’t catch on to that. In the captain’s voice, I growled, “Forward.”
When we reached them, the guards startled. “Sir,” one of them said hesitantly, “I’m not sure this is the best—”
“Did I ask your opinion?” I said pointedly.
This, plus another dose of Charm, did the trick. The guard subsided. I pushed harder to convince them to skip the usual step of signing out the prisoners. Not only would that slow us down, I didn’t want to leave any record of what had occurred.
The female prisoner coughed to catch my attention. “Maybe we should . . .” She jerked her head toward the guards, who were smiling blankly at an empty stretch of the wall. “You know . . .” She made a throat-slitting gesture.