It’s Saturday, and that means it’s time for a snippet. This week, it’s the penultimate offering from my dark space fantasy, Mercenary Mage, which releases on Amazon in less than two weeks. If you missed the first snippet from this book, start reading here.

Chapter Three

Carina selected coordinates in an area of deep space and input them into the Zenobia’s navigation system before unfastening her safety harness and slumping in the pilot’s seat. They’d done it. They’d left Pirine and soon they would be out of its system altogether. When they were beyond the heliopause she would input another set of coordinates and, as their journey to Ostillon progressed, several more sets. She would also ask Darius to Cloak the ship regularly so that its trace would be difficult to detect. That, coupled with the arbitrary headings, should make it hard for the Dirksens to follow them.

Might their pursuers guess they were on their way back to Ostillon? Carina doubted it. As far as she knew, the Dirksens had no idea of the planet’s significance to mages. They had no interest in the local culture. All they wanted was to override it and stamp their own mark on the place. They couldn’t know about the conflict that raged thousands of year previously between mages—the original human inhabitants—and newly arrived colonists.

The Dirksens would never have guessed the importance of the Characters that the newcomers’ religious acolytes now burned. The clan didn’t understand about the Map, which the Ostillonians also burned, or the libation of elixir they poured into the ground.

No. The Dirksens would never in their wildest dreams imagine that Carina and her small family would return to the place they had fought so hard to escape. But if Earth was to be their final destination, Ostillon held the key to the planet’s location, and so to Ostillon they must go.

A pair of hands grasped her shoulders and began to knead.

Carina sighed with satisfaction and relaxed.

“Feeling better?” Bryce asked. “Stun effects worn off?”

“Yes, thanks,” she replied. The painful tingles in her arm and legs had abated while they’d been making their getaway from Pirine. After Darius had evicted the surprise party organizers, flying the Zenobia away from Pirine had been easy. The best gunner in the world couldn’t shoot down an invisible ship, so even if the Dirksens had artillery stationed at the spaceport, preventing the ship’s escape would have been impossible.

The clan had done the right thing by enlisting Castiel to help catch them. Who better to catch a mage than another mage? He must have been alerted to the suspicious sounds of disembodied human voices near the ship and Transported himself and a couple of squads to the bridge. But her eldest brother was no match for…

“Where’s Darius?” Carina asked, turning around.

The little boy was sitting in the captain’s chair, where Bryce had clearly put him. But the honor hadn’t pleased him. He was gripping the seat edge and swinging his legs, looking downcast. Carina got up and walked over to him.

“Can I squeeze in there too?” she asked.

Darius slid from the center to the side of the seat. Carina sat down beside him and wrapped an arm over his narrow shoulders. She was deeply concerned about her little brother. He was a Spirit Mage. His power came from others’ emotional energy, which made him intensely sensitive to the emotions of everyone in his vicinity. The former Spirit Mage had said Carina’s own long-standing sorrow and grief probably caused him distress, and she ached with guilt over the fact.

Darius was possibly the only Spirit in that galactic sector. Maybe the only one in existence. His destiny had been to memorize the lore and history of the mage clan, to Summon young mages to the Matching, and goodness knew what else.

Yet he was also only a boy, far too young for such responsibility.

Bryce joined them and perched on the arm of the captain’s chair.

“How’s our little weapon of mass destruction?” he asked, ruffling Darius’s hair.

“Yeah,” said Ferne, who was squatting down and rooting through his open backpack, “great job, Darius. If it wasn’t for you we would’ve been captured.”

“Please don’t call him that,” said Carina to Bryce. She knew he was only joking, but she’d been forced into being an actual weapon of mass destruction herself. It had been an appalling experience and she didn’t want her brother to think of himself in that way.

“I’m going to investigate the ship,” Oriana announced. “Who’s coming with me? Nahla? Parthenia?”

“Yes, I’ll come,” little Nahla replied.

“I’ll come too,” Parthenia said, “if only to keep you out of trouble, Oriana.”

“Pfft,” Oriana scoffed. “If you’re going to police me you can stay here. Ferne?”

“I’ll be along in a minute,” her twin brother replied. “I just want to check I brought something. I’ll Locate you.”

“Suit yourself,” Oriana said, “but if I find the master suite I’m calling dibs.”

“I think there’s gonna be nice rooms for everyone on this trip,” Bryce said.

“I don’t want you going anywhere except the passenger deck,” said Carina. “And be careful. Until we search the ship top to bottom we can’t be sure we’re the only ones aboard. Take plenty of elixir and you take one of the weapons, Parthenia. Whatever you do, don’t go into the hold. We have no idea what’s down there.”

Carina resolved to take a look at the mysterious packages later. She had a suspicion the Zenobia held secrets it would be wise to know.

The three girls left.

“Ugh,” said Ferne. “Why did I have to be the one to bring the dirt? It’s gotten over everything.” He pulled out an item of underwear and shook it, scattering earth on the deck.

“Don’t do that,” said Bryce. “We don’t want to see your drawers, do we, Darius?”

The little boy giggled.

Carina rolled her eyes. “Put them away, Ferne. And clean up that soil and put it back in your bag. Then find a safe place to stow it. We’ll make a good supply of elixir before we go to sleep.”

“But we have loads already,” Ferne protested.

Carina had made sure every mage had a full canister before they made the attempt to steal a ship. “We can’t ever have too much,” she replied. “And stop whining. I don’t want to spend the next few weeks with a bunch of bratty kids.”

Ferne scowled, shoved his underwear into his backpack and stalked off the bridge.

As the door closed behind him, Carina sighed and rubbed her temples. “Whoops. I didn’t handle that too well, did I?”

“To be fair,” said Bryce, “he was being bratty. But there are probably better ways of stating it.”

Out of all Carina’s mage siblings, Oriana and Ferne seemed to be having the hardest time adapting to their new life. Carina sometimes wondered if the twins took turns at being petulant. They’d grown up surrounded by luxury, and though their monster of a father had been harsh with them, Carina guessed that Ma had overcompensated with well-meant kindness and attention.

“I’m not being bratty, am I?” asked Darius.

“No,” Carina replied, hugging him. “You couldn’t be bratty if you tried. How are you feeling?”

“Okay,” he replied. But his eyelids hung low and his little face was pale and shadowy. He was clearly on the edge of exhaustion.

“Would you like something to eat before you go to bed?” asked Carina.

“Uh huh.”

“What do you say I take you to look for food?” Bryce said. “A ship like this is bound to be well stocked. And then we can find a cabin for you. Maybe we’ll beat the girls to the master suite.”

“I want to sleep in Carina’s room,” said Darius. “Can I?”

“Of course you can,” Carina said. “You, me, and Bryce. How does that sound?”

“Good. I’d like that.”

Bryce took Darius’s hand and helped him down from the chair.

“Are you going to be all right here alone for a while?” he asked Carina.

“Yes, I’ll be fine. Please be careful. I know it’s unlikely, but I meant what I said to the girls. There’s a chance we could have unwanted passengers.”

“What’ll we do with them if we have?” Bryce asked.

“Stars, I don’t know. Lock them in a cabin, I guess. We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.”

Bryce led Darius out, and Carina rested her face in her hands. The elation she’d felt when they’d successfully stolen the Zenobia was melting away and being replaced by worry. Her sharp remark to Ferne had been borne from anxiety and guilt.

Disaster threatened their quest—her quest—to find Earth, the birthplace of humanity and mages. They could be captured by the Dirksens, become lost in deep space, or attacked by outlaws.

It would be safer to find an out-of-the-way planet, well away from the Dirksen- and Sherrerr-controlled areas, and live out their lives in safety and peace. That had been the mage way for thousands of years: hiding their abilities from non-mages, living simple, isolated existences, and quietly passing on their traditions to their children.

But for what? Mere survival? Mages had to hide in the shadows simply to exist? What kind of a life was that? It was not one that Carina wanted, or one that she felt she deserved. She was not like Castiel, yearning for everyone to bow down around him, but neither was she prepared to hide what she was any longer. She wanted to live somewhere she could walk down the street without fear of public attack or ambush.

Would she find that on Earth? It seemed unlikely, considering that mages had been persecuted and forced to leave it. But that had been thousands of years ago. Perhaps things were different there now. Whatever she found on her clan’s origin planet, Carina wanted to lay her eyes on the mountain home of her ancestors and breathe the air they had breathed.

She yawned as exhaustion suddenly swept over her. She wondered where the others were and if Bryce had found food for Darius. They all needed to rest, but she would stay awake for a few hours while Bryce slept. Then he could take the second watch. Until they were positive they were alone, she didn’t want to risk having everyone asleep at once.

When she’d rested, she would go and check out their cargo.

Next week, the fourth and final Mercenary Mage snippet. Missed chapter two? Go here.