Page 85 of Freedom Mine
With unsteady feet, Kayo stepped forward, pain surging through his back and legs. Alli rushed over to help him, but he shoved her away. He couldn’t be touched right now. It was too soon.
In silence, he followed Jace and Alli out of the Magistrate’s Office. The sun held warmth and hope as a gentle breeze washed over his face. He didn’t know how long he stood in the middle of the street, looking up at the sun with his eyes closed as he enjoyed the simple pleasure of breathing fresh air again.
Jace urged him forward, at least that’s what it sounded like. Kayo fell in step behind Jace, not sure where he was going or why. Alli stood beside Jace, though she continually glanced over her shoulder at him. He couldn’t look at her right now. Maybe soon, but not yet.
He scanned the back of the landglider. He’d been belted in place and they were lifting off. He didn’t remember walking to the glider or climbing in. The voices from the front of the glider spoke in whispers, but they were familiar. He could close his eyes now, and sleep, just for a bit, and maybe when he woke he’d be out of the cage. Or maybe he’d still be trapped in the nightmare.
* * *
ALLI
“You did good, Alli. Really good finding that law,” Jace said as he banked the landglider left, clearing the town limits.
“Fortunately, corruption hasn’t found a foothold here as on some other planets in the Empire. The law is strict on Varkos, which worked in our favor in this case. They had no choice but to investigate once we challenged Tieg’s identity. The coroner dug out Tieg’s chip and an analysis proved that it had been reused. That was all the evidence they needed to know he was a slave. They dropped the charges immediately. Kayo has you to thank.”
She couldn’t fully process everything Jace was saying, not with the condition Kayo was in.
“What’s wrong with him?” she asked, peering into the back. Kayo didn’t speak, he refused to look at her, and he seemed blank at times, as if his mind had found someplace else to go. She’d employed that tactic often enough when her owners had used her, but she always returned to the present when they were done. Kayo seemed more lost, as if he didn’t know how to return to the present.
“Three years,” Jace said.
“What’s three years?” she asked, turning her attention back to the landscape below. They’d be back at Kayo’s property in less than an hour. Then what? How would they help him? Especially when he didn’t want to be touched and he wouldn’t talk.
“Three years is how long he was in a cage,” Jace explained. “Isolated, too, for most of it. At least that’s what I’ve gathered from what he’s said over the years.”
“Three years.” Caging was intended for short-term punishments. Days, maybe a week or two at most to break a slave’s will. Three years in a cramped, cold space with no opportunity for mental or physical stimulation was beyond cruel, it was. . . There were no words for it. Three years…
Alli twisted in her chair so she could see through to the cargo hold. Kayo was lying down. He’d close his eyes. Her sweet Kayo probably hadn’t slept since they’d locked him up. She couldn’t fathom how he’d survived so long in a punishment cage.
The winds tossed the craft violently enough that Jace landed half-way to the gate and drove it the rest of the way. “I’m heading up to Sanctuary as soon as we get back. Can you stay with Kayo? I don’t think he should be alone right now.”
Jace’s frown made her wonder if he thought Kayo would hurt himself. Or maybe that was her own fear.
“What if I make things worse?” she said, softly.
“He shouldn’t be alone,” Jace repeated. He didn’t have an answer either. Kayo had pushed her away in the Magistrate’s office and then refused to look at her on their way to the landglider. But she wouldn’t leave him alone, not until he recovered.
As soon as the glider came to a stop by Kayo’s house, she slipped into the cargo area. Sunlight filled the hold. The back door was wide open and Kayo was nowhere in sight.
It didn’t take long to find his trail, not with the ground so soft from last night’s rain. She followed his boot prints past the lake to a clearing with a single tree and a dozen stone markers, totems actually, under the shade of the tree.
Kayo knelt on the ground, staring at a marker that loomed larger than the others. She’d seen this particular type of grave marker once before. The bottom stone had two names, a female and male, the parents of the departed. The next layer showed the person’s birth date, and the top layer, the date of death. No name of the deceased. It had something to do with guarding the person’s soul by keeping the name hidden. The marker he stared at was dated five years ago.
“Is this Mac’s grave?” she asked.
“I don’t want you here,” Kayo said, the anger in his voice impossible to miss.
“I thought I’d keep you company,” she said, wanting desperately to hold him, to comfort him. The moment she placed her hand on his shoulder, he sprang to his feet and whirled around so fast she stumbled back.
“Go,” he said, pointing toward the path to the house, his entire body tight.
“I’m sorry you were caged because of me.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” he said as he turned his back on her and faced the grave. “But I don’t want you here. Or anywhere near me.”
His words struck hard. Nothing had prepared her for the anger, the coldness coming from Kayo. “Why?” she asked.
“You make it harder.”
