Page 1 of Synnr's Ride

1

The guard walkedby her cell three minutes past the hour. Hanna listened for the footsteps and counted it off.

Thirty seconds from her door to the bend in the hall. Forty steps at a sedate pace. This one walked a little faster. Thirty-six steps until his echo disappeared.

Hanna had six minutes.

She sat up.

Her wrists were bruised from the restraints they’d decided to use in the last interrogation. It didn’t matter that she’d promised to cooperate, that going back home meant certain death. To these Synnrs, she was worse than a traitor.

She was a spy.

Or she used to be.

And that gave her a specific set of skills.

She had a piece of wire she’d managed to secret away. Whether it was the gods smiling up at her or something else, Hanna didn’t know. But the lock on her door was simple. No need to hack electronics. A pick would do the trick.

The interrogation room was in the same direction the guard had walked, and so were the kitchens. Her second night in custody she’d been taken there and given a meal of Synnr delicacies she’d have paid a fortune for back on Kilrym.

She’d thought it was a preview of things to come. Fine food, nice treatment. All so long as she upheld her end of the deal and gave the Synnrs all the information she had.

Unfortunately, they didn’t believe her when she told them she didn’t know much.

She’d been living on military rations for weeks. Sure, they kept her fed, but the packs of dehydrated food were worse than flavorless. They were little piles of mush that somehow tasted like sweaty socks and dust.

She was pretty sure they were expired, too.

Five minutes.

She was guessing at this point. In the last three weeks, her life had narrowed down to two hallways and a clock set by the guard rotation.

And Jori.

But she wasn’t thinking abouthimright now.

She was almost certain she knew where she was. Right in the heart of Osais, the Synnr capitol of their home moon Aorsa. The Synnrs had rebelled and taken control of the moon centuries ago and sparked the fighting that had plagued almost every generation since. Their military had a training and administration building not far from the palace, the home of the false queen.

Hanna had to be there. It was where she’d been taken the day she’d surrendered herself to Synnr custody, and unless they’d been very clever, she hadn’t been moved.

But she had to sleep sometime. And if the Synnrs had drugged her to move her, she could be anywhere.

No. She saw the same interrogators every couple of days. She sawJorinearly every day. The Synnrs wouldn’t inconvenience themselves. She was in the city.

Four minutes.

There should be another guard. This place wasn’t a high security prison, but she was still a high value detainee. You didn’t put only one guard on duty, not unless you were trying to save money and willing to risk your entire operation.

So, yes, a guard at the next door.

Hanna’s fingers curled into fists. She could take out one guard. Maybe two. Her spark was electric in her veins. She hadn’t accessed her power in days except to let her wings out every so often. It made some of her interrogators uncomfortable. Synnrs were more circumspect with their wings, keeping them contained unless they were using them.

Hanna’s wings were gorgeous, swirling greens and golds with a hint of black the priest at her old temple said was a gift from Braznon himself.

But she couldn’t put them on display if she was escaping from a military facility.

Luckily, she didn’t need them to use her spark.

---