Page 21 of Rescued

14

HEROD

I found my ship exactly as I had left it, but as I sprinted toward it, I spotted something that made my stomach clench with unease. A note, posted on the door. Someone had been here. I slowed my pace, looking around cautiously for anyone who might be waiting for my return. I had never been ambushed on a run, but there were plenty of stories of other smugglers getting caught out by rival teams. I had no intention of being their next target, especially if word had gotten out that Adreax and I were no longer working together.

I yanked the note down and pulled it close enough to read in the dim overhead light.

It looks like we missed you this time, but don’t worry. We’ll be back.

The note was short and sweet, straight to the point. I crumpled it in my fist and roared a challenge into the open air. I didn’t know who left that note for me, but there were only a handful of possibilities, and none of them made me feel very optimistic. This had not been a friendly visit.

Scowling, I unlocked the outer door and pulled it shut behind me, locking it from the inside and narrowing my eyes as I scanned the interior of my ship. All was quiet. Eerily quiet. I waited with my back pressed against the wall, expecting an ambush from some kind of assassin, but nothing moved, and eventually I was forced to peel myself away and do some investigating on my own.

“Caimbrie?” I called quietly into the back of the ship, hoping that she was still soundly asleep back there. Perhaps my visitors hadn’t woken her. But when there was no answer, I knew my luck had run out. “Caimbrie?” I tried again, a little louder this time. I could hear the frantic worry just beneath my words.

Forgetting my caution, I trotted down the short hall to the sleeping area and flipped on all the lights. Caimbrie’s bunk was empty. There was no trace of her. I started to panic, but a closer look around gave me some hope. Nothing had been disturbed. There had not been a struggle in here, and if I knew anything at all about Caimbrie, it was that she wouldn’t have gone anywhere without a struggle.

So if she hadn’t been taken, then was it possible she had left of her own accord? Had they offered her something to lure her out? I doubted she would have answered the door on her own and had a discussion with my visitors, but I couldn’t rule out any possibilities. Not until I found some sign of where she had gone.

I went back to the door and looked out through the port hole, scanning the surrounding ships for any sign of movement. Had she gone out for a walk?

“Caimbrie!” I called intermittently, waiting only a few moments for a response before jumping back into trying to solve the puzzle of her disappearance.

I paced back and forth in the cabin, trying to think. The main door was still locked when I got here, so she hadn’t gone out that way. She would’ve needed a key to relock it from the outside. I rubbed at my head in frustration, trying to settle my nerves and focus. There had to be a simpler explanation.

The longer I waited, the more my heart sank. The feeling of frenzied terror was slowly being replaced by a heavy sense of dread.

A dull thumping interrupted my self-reproach. At first, I thought my visitors were back, and I ran to the door, ready for a fight. I flung it open, eyes wild and breath coming hot through my nostrils as I prepared to take on however many of them might be waiting for me. But as the door slammed open against the hull of the ship, I saw that there was no one out there. Suspicious, I waited another second, still prepared for the ambush, but when it didn’t come, I peeked my head outside and looked around. The area was abandoned, and still that thumping came to me.

It sounded like it was coming from inside my ship. The cargo bay. Caimbrie might be hiding in there. I dropped down to the ground, rushing to open the cavity in the hull. But once again, the space was empty.

However, this time I could hear the thumping from higher up, and the sound of Caimbrie’s distressed voice calling to me.

“Caimbrie?” I called back, only loud enough for her to hear me without alerting anyone else. “Where are you?”

There was another round of thumps, and then a weary cry for help.

“Herod! Under the floor. I’m in some kind of duct or something. I can’t get out.”

My heart leapt up into my throat, and I clapped the cargo bay shut before darting back inside the ship, stopping only long enough to lock the main door again. Immediately, I dropped to hands and knees, pulling up each maintenance hatch as I went, hungry to find the place where she was trapped. I knew I was getting close when I could just catch the faint scent of her perfume and sweat emanating from the hidden cavity.

At last, I found Caimbrie, dirty and inconsolable, lying flat between the inner workings of the ship’s mechanics. I reached in and pulled her up by the shoulders, as if she had been drowning and I was there to save her, and before I could stop myself, I was pulling her into a tight hug. Her arms looped around my neck as I dragged her out of the space and pulled her up into my lap. Leaning back against the bunk and holding her close, I finally felt my heartbeat returning to a normal pace. She was okay. She was still here, with me.

“You came back,” she muttered into my chest, wiping away the tears that now left streaks on her face.

“Of course I did,” I remarked. “You didn’t think I’d leave you my ship, did you?”

She let out a tense chuckle.

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