Page 100 of Freedom Mine
The men standing around them, parted. Kayo kissed her cheek as his lips slid to her ear. “I love you,” he whispered.
He pulled away before she could say or do anything. It was like a nightmare, watching everything happen in slow motion as he walked up to the official. The official took out a datapad.
“I’m Officer Gadlo from the Office of Financial Affairs.” Kayo stood there, his eyes focused on Alli as the Officer ran the scanner over his chip and performed a retina scan. “Identity confirmed. Variz, this is your final notice for debt in the sum of seven thousand, two hundred and sixty-one parchas.” He handed the datapad to Kayo who waved it off without looking at it. “Your debt has been consolidated and purchased by one creditor who has agreed to take slaves in place of payment. Do you agree?”
“I have no slaves to my name,” Kayo said, finally tearing his gaze from Alli.
The Officer tapped the datapad a few more times. “Ah, yes, I see they’ve been sold to one Jace Raulin. Very well then. Let’s see about your other assets.” A few more taps and the balding man looked up. “You have nothing to your name, Variz?”
“Correct.”
He made a few more clicks to the datapad, then motioned the two guards forward. “For failure to pay off his debt to his creditor, Kayo Variz is surrendered in lieu of said debt.” One guard pulled Kayo’s arms behind him and slapped on a pair of shock cuffs.
“What does that mean?” Masher asked the men around him.
“He’s a slave now,” Ranth said, his voice as hollow as the sound of the cuffs clicking into place.
His words struck Alli so hard she couldn’t breathe. She pushed her way past the men and ran over to Kayo as the guard bound his legs. “Sell the mines, Kayo!” she pleaded.
“Mines and property are not currency, slave,” the Official said, before waving a loose hand at her as if shooing an insect away. “Remove the slave, Raulin, or I’ll take her as well.”
Kayo’s eyes went wide and he lunged forward, throwing himself against the Official. Jace pulled Alli away as the guards pulled Kayo off Gadlo and started beating him.
Her eyes clouded over with tears as the guards kicked Kayo’s prone form on the ground. She was passed from man to man, not sure who even, as they hustled her behind a wall of men, away from what was happening. The sound of the landglider taking off drew her attention to the sky, and she screamed Kayo’s name.
“He’s gone, Blue,” Ranth said, giving her shoulder a slight squeeze.
There were other words, whispers around her that she couldn’t make out. The glider was getting smaller and then finally disappeared from sight. She looked at the men for a sign that this was another nightmare and someone would wake her soon. Masher, Diggs, Runner, and Liet all turned away. There was nothing they or anyone could do.
Something soft rubbed against the palm of her hand. She looked down at Kayo’s shirt. He hadn’t even finished dressing. It was a strange thought to have, to worry that he’d left without a shirt. A shirt and a knife, that was all she had left of him.
* * *
The days were long,the nights even longer without Kayo. One very long week had already passed since he’d been taken, and still, they had no idea who owned him. Owned. Gods, even thinking of him as a slave turned her stomach.
At first, no one felt motivated to work, even when Jace reminded them that Kayo wouldn’t want them to give up. One by one, the men returned to the mine. Alli puttered about from chore to chore, trying to tire herself out so she wouldn’t think about Kayo. Half the time she didn’t even know what she’d done during the day, only that she was tired and Kayo was gone.
She’d cried herself to sleep the first night, in his bed. His scent was too strong, making any attempt at real sleep futile. The next night she moved back into the attic, but the vase, the soaps, the rocks, even making a simple cup of laja. . . Everything in the house reminded her of Kayo.
The men started settling back into their old routine, with some adjustments since Kayo wasn’t there to repair the machinery or do all the odd jobs he’d taken care of before.
Alli no longer felt like an outsider, but she felt empty. She cooked the evening meal for the men, helped Ranth with the harkifa, and even tinkered with some of the repairs. She discovered she had a knack for finding solutions just by improvising with materials on hand, but every little triumph was hollow without Kayo to share it.
For the most part, Jace avoided her. This morning, she spotted him heading into the stables. She followed, cornering him in one of the stalls where he’d gone to check on an injured harkifa.
“You knew,” she said. She didn’t know what had triggered her need to lash out at him, but she couldn’t contain her words or her anger any longer. “For days, you knew what he planned.”
“I fought against it, but he’d made up his mind. He knew what would happen when he sold everyone to me. He never questioned whether he should do it. He wouldn’t let anyone get thrown back into that life, especially you.”
“You should have told me,” she said, slumping against the gate.
“He said he wanted his last days with you to be normal.”
She gave a half-laugh. “Normal. He was heading into slavery. I could have. . .”
“No, you couldn’t. Nothing would have changed his mind. I tried. This was his decision, not the men, not mine, not yours. His. The last act of a freeman was to save those he cared about. Would you have denied him that?”
Alli slumped to the floor next to the sick harkifa. Jace held out a bundle of fresh grass for the animal, but it refused to eat. She knew how the harkifa felt. She didn’t feel like eating or even breathing. “We have to do something.”
