Mercenary Mage, Star Mage Saga book 4
If you’re a fan of Carina Lin you’ll be glad to know she’ll soon be back in the fourth book of the Star Mage Saga, Mercenary Mage. At the end of book three, Wildfire and Steel, Carina and her siblings had saved their fellows mages from a massacre on the planet Pirine. Sable Dirksen, leader of the Dirksen clan, and her commander, Kee, had planned the slaughter, fearful of the mages’ powers. Now Carina’s group is faced with escaping from Pirine and returning to Ostillon, which may hold the secrets of mage ancestry and the route to their ancient home world, Earth.
Chapter One
Carina Lin crouched at the corner of a stack of crates and peeked out of the cargo bay. Her gaze was fixed on a domestic starship that had just finished refueling. The ship was probably privately owned by a local magnate but it looked like business hadn’t been going well lately. The vessel was overdue a paint job. Its name, Zenobia, was barely visible emblazoned on the side and in some places metal gleamed dully through the carmine coating. Passages through planetary atmospheres and interstellar space had taken their toll.Carina felt Bryce ease up close beside her and slip an arm around her waist. She didn’t object.
“Is that the one?” he asked, following the direction of her gaze with his own.
“Fits the brief,” she replied. “What do you think?”
“It’ll do, I guess.”
Carina scanned the bay. Portage bots trundled along the aisles, transporting freight onto and off of storage shelves. Not a single human figure could be seen, though that didn’t mean a thing. Security surveillance cameras would cover the place, even on a poor, backwater planet like Pirine. And the portage bots would be recording everything that occurred within their vicinity.
Carina wasn’t too worried about being captured by the Pirinian authorities—a quick Enthrall Cast would soon ensure their release. What did concern her was the Dirksens. The clan’s military remained on the planet, searching for mages, and showed no signs of leaving.
If the Dirksens caught Carina and her siblings escape would not be easy. It could even prove impossible.
Looking back over her shoulder, she said, “All set?” The five children nodded.
She had rehearsed the operation with them many times. Stealing the Zenobia should go like clockwork, but Carina knew from her days as a merc that reality usually inserted at least one surprise to upset even the best laid plans. She wondered what it would be this time.
She took another quick scan of the bay. Most of the bots were in the farther reaches of the place, out of sight. She wouldn’t get a better chance.
“Darius,” said Carina, “Cloak us.”
Her youngest brother’s big brown eyes were grave as he sipped elixir from a metal flask. Then he closed them to concentrate on making the Cast. A moment later his eyelids lifted again. “I did it.”
“Great,” Carina said. “Let’s go. Remember, everyone stick together.”
She stood up and lifted her stolen Dirksen pulse rifle to her shoulder. Bryce did the same. Behind him Carina’s brothers and sisters formed a tight knot. Time to move.
As always, it was impossible to tell if Darius’s Cast had taken effect. If it was working, they should be invisible to all human and electronic onlookers. However, to the Cloaked, everything looked the same, which made stepping out into the open unnerving.
Carina led the group along the aisle between boxes of freight toward the Zenobia. Beyond the wide entrance to the cargo bay, directly ahead, the sun was setting. Carina squinted to see better and wished for a light-reactive helmet visor. Long, black shadows ran out from the Zenobia.
The refueling crew had departed and the immediate area around the ship was empty. Carina doubted the vessel was locked but even if it was a quick Cast would solve the problem. With any luck the pilot and air crew wouldn’t have boarded yet.
Carina reached the open doors. It was just another thirty meters or so to the ship. Once they were aboard Darius would Cast again to Cloak it, she would hopefully figure out the controls, and then they would be gone. Two long weeks of dodging Dirksen guards would be over and they would be on their way back to Ostillon. From there they would begin the long journey home.
“What’s that?” Bryce asked.
Beyond the long lines of shuttlecraft and starships, a vehicle was approaching, fast. A military vehicle. Even at the distance Carina could see the occupants’ uniforms were not the dark green of Pirinian troops. The figures were clad in deep gray.
“Shit,” said Carina. “Dirksens.”
“Are they coming for us?” Parthenia, Carina’s eldest sister asked.
“I don’t see how they could know we’re here,” Carina replied. Infiltrating the spaceport had gone smoothly. They hadn’t triggered any alarms. On the other hand the Dirksens were all over every spaceport on the planet, like scalobites on a nest of kruekins, determined to block all avenues of escape. The soldiers were there for the mages. The only question was, were they there for Carina and her family in particular?
“Hurry up,” said Carina. The sooner they were aboard the ship and out of potential sight of the Dirksen guards the better.
They reached the Zenobia as the upper rim of the setting sun disappeared. Though the starship was small, compared to most of the vessels at the spaceport it was huge. The engines took up two-thirds of the ship, bulking out each side. And, unlike most interstellar craft, the Zenobia was streamlined. A slim nose poked out in front then the vessel flared, rounding out over its engines, in order to smooth its passage through atmospheres.
Carina and her companions passed into the darkness under the massive engines. Meanwhile, the military vehicle sped closer, its headlights blaring bright light and the guards sweeping the spaceport’s standing area with their gazes, weapons at the ready. It neared the ship.
Then it stopped and stood beyond the Zenobia’s engines.
“What the hell?” Bryce muttered. “Why’s it stopped just there? They can’t see us, can they?”
“Not unless Darius’s Cast didn’t work,” Carina softly replied. It was unlikely. Her brother was the most powerful mage among them—possibly the most powerful in the sector, now that the old Spirit Mage had died. Yet the fact that the Dirksen soldiers had chosen exactly that spot to stop seemed too much of a coincidence.
“Stay cool, everyone,” Carina said. “Carry on with the plan as if they weren’t there.”
The soldiers were climbing out of the vehicle.
“Just be careful not to bump into any of them,” she added.
Her little troop emerged from underneath the Zenobia into the dusky light. Suddenly, the spaceport’s floodlights snapped on. Oriana gave a small scream.
A soldier’s head swiveled in the direction of the sound.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Oriana whispered, her voice high with regret and fear.
“Never mind,” Carina muttered. “Stay close.”
The soldier began to walk toward them.
Carina turned to look up at the Zenobia.
“Shit.” All the vessel’s doors were shut tight, there was no way to board it. No regular way at least.
“We’ll have to Transport aboard, guys,” said Carina. She would have preferred to walk onto the craft so they knew where they were going.
The Dirksen soldier was directly approaching them.
“Under the engines again,” Carina said. “Now.”
“No,” said Bryce. “Look.”
In the shadow of the enormous ship, the other soldiers could be seen scouting the area.
“Can they smell us or something?” asked Carina.
“Well,” Bryce said, “I hate to mention it, but…”
Carina stuck an elbow in his side. “We’ll just have to Transport from here. Darius, can you move all of us together and put us in the…” She had no idea about the interior layout of the ship. From what she knew, the Transport Cast somehow avoided moving an object inside another object, but she didn’t want to take any chances. She needed a wide space. “Into the hold.”
“Where’s that?” asked Darius. He spoke at his normal volume, which, while he didn’t have a loud voice, was loud enough for the approaching guard to hear. The man’s body stiffened as he registered the sound. He halted. Probably because he was alerting his CO.
“Uh, about there,” Carina replied, pointing to an area at the bottom of the ship near the front. It was a guess, based on the doors she’d spotted in the hull.
The guard was only five meters distant, but Darius wouldn’t be able to Transport them if they moved to get away.
“Do it,” Carina told her brother, who was frowning as he tried to figure out where she wanted him to send them.
The little boy dutifully took a swallow of elixir.
The guard strode toward them. Another two steps and he would crash into Parthenia.
Darius’s eyes closed.
“Quick, Darius!” Oriana squeaked.
Mercenary Mage appears at Amazon on 26/03/20. Chapter two here!