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  Krav’n returned with her sinsabe and she rummaged through it, locating a metal knife she’d made from old excavating parts found in her slave camp. The blade was from a rock-digger tool and she’d tied it to a thick twig handle with vine. She had used a distributor to heat the blade, making the metal pliable enough to mold and rock-hammer into a useful healer’s instrument. The blade had then cooled, becoming a very hard, very sturdy tool again.

  Penny saw the knife and began to cry harder and slide away with fear etching her small face. Janai put it back into her bag, caught the girl by the leg and cradled her onto her lap. At first, Penny struggled and tried to wrench free, but Janai’s soft crooning and rocking soon calmed her. Janai had to calm a patient before she could use her mind gift. She’d learned that from her mother. As soon as Penny stopped fighting, she placed a hand on the child’s forehead and willed her to sleep. Penny’s body went limp and the freckled boy’s mouth dropped.

  “How’d you do that?” He picked up the rock that had dropped from Penny’s hand then glanced back and forth between Janai and the sleeping girl in her arms. He looked very comical.

  Janai had to clench her teeth to keep from chuckling. “It’s my mind gift. Kritine children begin to receive certain talents when we reach our fifteenth cycle.” She gently placed the sleeping girl on the ground and took out the knife. She used a heat distributor on the low setting to sterilize the blade and began carefully removing the thorn from the child’s foot.

  The boy crinkled his dirty nose and leaned in for a better view. “What if she wakes up while you’re doing that?”

  “Don’t worry. She won’t wake until I want her to.” When he looked at her again, she focused on his clear blue eyes. “What’s your name?”

  “Lance,” he said, as the other children moved toward them. “Penny’s my sister. We’re from Earth. But you knew that already. Our parents were killed during the invasion.” His eyes suddenly looked much older.

  Janai offered a sympathetic look as she pulled the thorn free. She then placed a large mender-leaf over the girl’s wound and began bandaging the foot with a strip of cloth. She surveyed the boy and noticed that his hair was the same shade of red as Penny’s, what wasn’t covered in dirt anyway. Both children had freckles covering their faces, arms, and on what she could see of Penny’s exposed legs. Dirt covered most of the freckles, and old scars and new scabs adorned both of their elbows, and probably their knees as well, she guessed. She had scars herself from tunnel crawling.

  “How old are you, Lance?”

  “Eleven. Or twelve. I think.” A frown creased his forehead.

  Janai placed a hand briefly on his shoulder and mentally sent a calming message to him before continuing her wrapping job on Penny’s foot. She didn’t know if she was strong enough to get through to him, but touching was necessary to a Kritine healer’s job. “My parents were separated from me during the invasion. I don’t know what’s happened to them.” She pushed that awful day further back into her memory. Then she tied the ends of the cloth bandage and let out a sigh. “There. All finished. She’ll have some pain, but I have herbs to help with that.” She pinched off several leaves from a small, tied bundle of herbs retrieved from her sinsabe, and handed them to Krav’n. “Have Sarah make some pain tea for Penny.”

  She kept the names of the plants simple and related to their function, making them easier to remember. Some of the plants had been named by others but she found that most had not, and she took that duty upon herself as healer.

  The little Ronarian boy took the leaves from her and scampered away. She had a hard time believing that he would be challenging her authority someday as part of a Ronarian growth stage. He was so devoted to her. As she was to him. The little one had become like a brother to her. But Blal’k had warned her about the growth stages of younger Ronarians, and she had come to trust his advice in the few weeks they’d been together. She was grateful that little Krav’n would be contesting her, and not challenging a Morgee soldier in a camp somewhere.

  The Earth girl, Sarah, seemed content to help with the cooking and medicinal preparations. She was nervous and excitable at times. And whenever she was around Janai, she had a tendency to forget what she was doing. I fluster her for some reason. Sarah was tall for her age and Janai had to keep reminding herself that the girl was only eleven or twelve Earth years old.

  The smell of Blal’k’s food began wafting through the cavern and Janai could hear a few growls from the children’s stomachs, including her own.

  “Stew’s ready,” Blal’k announced as he passed the steaming meals out in bowls, which were actually bulb fruit shells they had collected.

  The fruit was always rotten by the time the bulbs fell to the ground. The trees were so tall and flimsy that none of the children could safely reach the good fruit. But the shells were useful.

  Janai was grateful that Blal’k was a decent shot with a sling or they’d probably be eating sour-grass and roots as their meal tonight. Ronarians were renowned for their swimming abilities and they often bragged about how many fish they could catch. But since they weren’t near a stream, yet, the boy had killed a jumper. Jumpers were common to this planet. Sarah had described them as big, bald, Earth rabbits with lots of teeth. Janai thought they resembled kinis. She smiled as she envisioned the gentle, hairless, quick creature of her own world. Jumpers were tasty and Blal’k’s stew was always filling.

  Sarah brought the pain tea to Janai as Krav’n distributed bread. The bread came from the slave rations they’d stolen from food bins during the rescue of Blal’k’s camp. It was very hard and took weeks to go bad, for which Janai was grateful. There had been times when bread and sour-grass were the only food available for days, and she was certain those meals would be a staple at some point in the future too.

  She placed a hand on the sleeping girl’s forehead to awaken her. Kritine healers used the power of sleep sparingly and for short periods. The mind gift that induced sleep could become permanent if the patient stayed under too long.

  “Drink this.” She supported the little Earth girl with one arm and putting a bulb fruit cup of pain tea to her thin lips. “It’ll dull the aching in your foot.” She took in a long breath as Penny’s light and bony body rested against her arm. Her next concern was getting food into the child.

  Penny obeyed and swallowed the bitter liquid. “Yuck.” She offered a disapproving face. Janai smiled at the little scrunched nose. Penny inspected the bandage on her injury, looked up and smiled back. “You fixed it.” She took the rock back from her brother and cradling it gently in her lap.

  “I removed the thorn, but you need to leave the bandage on so your foot can heal.” She brushed a dirty lock of hair from the girl’s face and remembered she would need to treat these children for head bugs. Very common in the camps but luckily easy to treat.

  Penny was satisfied and gave Janai a hug and a kiss on the cheek then began eating her meal. Janai responded with a smile and ruffled the little girl’s hair.

  “You haven’t told us what the plans are,” another of the children stated.

  She swallowed her mouthful of food and began explaining that a runner had delivered directions to the free-zone before he was killed. Children who had escaped volunteered to run messages between the camps in an effort to get others to the free-zone. It was a dangerous job, but many chose to chance death in freedom rather than slavery. And the maps they created were treasured items.

  Janai had heard the runners’ stories that told of a strange, adult race living in the free-zone, but she had her doubts. If there were adults on this planet, they would surely be helping the children, not hiding out somewhere. The stories were passed on from others, so she hadn’t met anyone who’d actually seen these people. Besides, Janai seemed like an adult to some of the younger runners, so there was always the possibility of a skewed perception. Experience was teaching her not to believe everything she heard.

  She focused on the faces looking back. The trust
she caught in their eyes made her nervous, and doubts swelled that she could outwit the Morgee and get them to freedom.

  3 ~ On the Move

  Janai awakened to the familiar sound of heavy, clinking Morgee footsteps. A sound that haunted her dreams. She quietly got up and tiptoed to the cavern entrance to join Sarah who was on watch. Ash, the Kritine boy about her age, watched in silence.

  Must be mid-morning, she thought, as she scanned the sleek cavern walls where shadows danced in the sunlight from the thin cracks above. She couldn’t tell if both suns were in the sky yet, but one was enough to pose a threat of soldiers. With vision greatly reduced in dim light, the Morgee didn’t usually scout after dark. The fact that they never returned last night made Janai think they’d given up. But perhaps they only avoided the darkness. Darkness she planned to use to her advantage. The three moons would provide enough light for her to follow the runner’s map, but not enough, she hoped, for the Morgee to consider following. At least not for any distance.

  When the other waking children rustled, she motioned for quiet. Then she beckoned the Aknidean girl, Vala, to join her. Blal’k quietly slipped to Janai’s side and adjusted his jumpsuit leggings. They were snug on his thighs. Much the way hers were becoming. The additional food he’d been eating the past week or so would probably make the fit even more uncomfortable for him. They would have to look into getting alternate clothing for their growing bodies.

  A scraping sounded near the entrance and Janai held her breath. Her head throbbed in unison with her pounding heart. A Morgee voice was very faint and she couldn’t tell what was said. Just as terror began to grip Janai, the voices faded and soon there was silence.

  She let out her breath. “That was too close.” She secured her white curls behind her head with a piece of vine. Her head itched and she scratched. “Vala, could you make out what they were saying?”

  “Most of it.” The Aknidean girl focused yellow eyes on her. “I heard one say the search on the other side of the hill turned up nothing. Then the overseer ordered them to begin a new search down by the abandoned pit.”

  The silent Earth girl, Tish, clung to Vala. The little one hadn’t spoken a word since her capture. Old scars stood out on her cheeks, pink against her dark skin. One braid moved between her teeth as she chewed on it. Fearful eyes glanced up.

  Janai’s heart skipped a beat and she began to sweat. “Start packing,” she ordered, trying to ignore the tightening in her stomach. “We can’t wait another day. We’ll have to leave at dark.”

  The pit was a very large space to cover and far enough away, that she hoped they could get out of the area and cover their tracks before the Morgee returned. They would return here. She had no doubts about that. But she would have to wait for the suns to set. She silently cursed herself for not continuing on last night, after the Morgee gave up their search. One glance at Penny stayed her cursing. The newer children still weren’t strong enough. Not yet. They needed more time. Time they didn’t have.

  “What about Penny?” Lance’s words mimicked Janai’s thoughts. He helped his sister roll up her sleeping skins. “She’s a maiden in distress.” Janai shot an inquiring look at the boy’s last comment. He blushed. “It’s a game we play.” He picked up a nearby stick and swinging arches in front of him. “I’m a knight in shining armor, and Penny’s the lady in distress I have to save from the terrible dragon.”

  Janai smiled at the Earth boy. “We’ll just have to help her.” She picked up her healer’s sinsabe and made her way to the little girl’s side. “I want to have a look at that foot, Penny. We don’t want any infection to get in there and make you sick.”

  “I can make her some crutches,” Lance chimed, plunging his stick into some invisible enemy. “All I need are some long sturdy sticks, a couple of skins, and some vine to tie them together.”

  “That’s a good idea. The skins Blal’k hung by the heat rocks should be ready. If not, you can use some of the sleeping materials. Sarah knows where everything is.”

  “I’ll help him make them,” Vala said. Her earflaps were relaxed against her head now. “We’ll have to tie some of the wood together to support her weight but we have plenty of vine.”

  “You two get started then.” Janai rummaged through her sinsabe for the small bundle of herbs. “Sarah, will you make some pain tea for Penny before I clean her wound?”

  The nervous, Earth girl took the bundle and started back to the cooking area. She was quiet around Janai most of the time, but would talk endlessly over meal preparations with Blal’k. The two had known each other before Janai rescued them, and they obviously had a special friendship.

  “Will it hurt?” Penny asked meekly. Her freckles stood out now that she was cleaner.

  “Not if you drink the tea Sarah’s making.” She gave the girl a sideways look. “Or I can put you to sleep again.”

  Penny thought a moment then took in a deep breath. “The tea,” she said quickly, scrunching her freckled face.

  “That’s a good girl.” Janai ruffled the child’s red locks.

  ****

  Once darkness fell on the Morgee world, they tied dried jumper skins on to protect feet and each carried assigned items. Food, water, weapons, cloth scraps, utensils, and anything else they could manage. They wrapped these items in sleep skins secured with vine to create packs they could sling on their backs, leaving their hands free.

  Janai secured her sinsabe around her waist with her vine rope, along with a weapon, and led the others from the cave. The two large moons displayed their waning crescents high in the night sky and the smaller moon was just peeking above the horizon. She looked once more at the crude, animal skin map the runner had given her before securing it in her jumpsuit pocket.

  From the outside, they pushed a large stone in front of the cave entrance then placed branches around the opening to disguise the hideout. It looked very much as it did before. Hopefully the Morgee wouldn’t notice any difference. Some future rescuer might need the place.

  In spite of Janai’s worries, Penny had been practicing on her new crutches and kept up quite well. Janai set a pace she hoped wouldn’t tire the girl out too quickly but would get them safely away from the Morgee before morning. Occasionally, whoever was last in their small group would brush away any signs of footprints with a leafy branch.

  The night air was warm. The heavy scent of moist dirt and living greenery hung in the air and only the sounds of night insects could be heard among the soft steps of the children. On occasions when the insects suddenly went quiet, the group would freeze in their tracks so Vala could listen for soldiers. So far, they hadn’t been followed. They plodded on as the crescent moons inched their way across the starry sky. The rough terrain of rock and brush gave off eerie shadows in the reflected light.

  Vala suddenly stopped and cocked an earflap toward the sky. The rest waited.

  Janai studied the girl’s posture. “What is it? What do you hear?”

  “Sounds like thunder. It’s very far away, so I can’t be sure.” Vala looked at Janai. “But it’s definitely a rumbling.”

  “If there’s a storm coming, we’ll have to find shelter before we’re caught in the middle of it. The Morgee won’t search in the rain.” She remembered the Morgee herding her group into the slave cavern whenever the rains came. Janai had never seen the Morgee run and wasn’t sure they could, but they were sturdy, strong and relentless. Nevertheless, rains on this world came down in such torrents that even the Morgee shied away from the stuff.

  Janai clenched her teeth, searched the distant skies, and studied the vast numbers of stars that loomed from horizon to horizon. Her own world had many stars at night, like this one, but clouds and fog often obscured them. The wide openness of the Morgee skies made her shiver and she forced her mind on her duties. No clouds meant no rain. Yet. But once they spotted clouds, they would have to run for shelter. It didn’t matter now. They needed to get farther from the Morgee camp. Stopping here could be a slave sentence
for them all.

  “We have time to travel a ways before we make camp,” she said in her most confident voice. “Come on.” She led the small group through the thick brush. “Watch out for glassbush thorns. And stay close. I don’t want anyone losing their way.” She grimaced as her foot encountered a sharp rock, then she picked up the culprit and tossed it toward a clump of bushes to her left. The insects abruptly stopped all sounds for a moment before continuing their soft chirping and buzzing.

  The children followed quietly and closely behind one another for another hour. Weariness began to take its toll on the younger ones and they stumbled, only to be caught and helped by the others.

  “We need to stop,” Lance called from the rear of the line.

  “We can’t,” Janai called back to the Earth boy. The thought of a storm made her nervous. There was never just a little rain on this planet. If they were out in the open when the rains began, someone could be badly hurt. And if a storm didn’t get them, the Morgee certainly would. No, they had to keep moving.

  “Penny’s having trouble keeping up.”

  “She doesn’t have a choice,” Janai answered sharply. “None of us do,” she added, almost inaudibly, though she was certain Vala heard. Penny started to cry and Sarah mumbled something. Janai turned on Sarah. “What was that?”

  “She’s just a little kid,” the nervous, Earth girl said in a challenging tone.

  “I can carry her,” Lance said.

  Vala adjusted the bow that hung over her shoulder. “We can all help.”

  Janai halted the group with a barely visible upraised arm and studied the stiffened postures of the older members. The last thing she needed right now was a fight. “All right. But when you get tired, pass her to someone else. I don’t want any more injuries.” She turned to Sarah, who was sucking on her lip and grinding something into the dirt with her toe. “I’m sorry, Sarah. I shouldn’t have snapped at you.”