Blue Fire

“Found you before lunch,” she said. “Stewwig owes me ten oppas.”

“You must have me confused with someone else,” I said, trying to hold her attention while Aylin and Danello crept up behind her.

“I don’t think so.”

Danello dived at the tracker, sending her flying forward and into a pain merchant’s window. The glass cracked, but didn’t break. Folks turned, their hands covering worried frowns.

“Run!” I yelled. Two of the three men closing on us blocked my way. Another was coming up behind them. Huge, with thick arms, his sleeves rolled up like a man who was there to do a hard day’s work.

I shoved Tali away from the approaching men. She stumbled a few steps then stopped, her expression waffling between fear and anger. The Taker and her brother fled for the canals.

“Tali, go,” I cried.

“Not without you!” She darted over and grabbed my hand, trying to pull me away. Aylin was running at us, her hand outstretched as if she planned to grab me too.

The tracker was on her feet again. She whipped out another pynvium rod and aimed it at Tali and Aylin.

Whoomp.

A strange tingle ran down my arm. Aylin screamed and collapsed to the street. Tali didn’t, but she should have.

We gaped at each other longer than was wise. She’d resisted the flash! She’d never done that before. I’d seen flashed pain hurt her. She wasn’t immune like I was. How had she done it?

Two of the tracker’s men tackled us. I dropped and landed hard on the street next to an unconscious Aylin. I grabbed her ankles and drew.

Tingling pain ran up my arm, not nearly as sharp as real pain would have been, and it wouldn’t last long. The tracker’s men grabbed me. I struggled to turn and grab their exposed flesh, but couldn’t reach them.

Danello leaped on the big man from behind. He spun and punched Danello in the face. Danello snapped back and went down.

I kicked the shins of one of the men holding me. He cried out and loosened his grip on my arm. I yanked hard, sliding my wrist out enough to get my hand on him.

I pushed.

He hissed and let go, shaking his arm like something had stung him. I reached for the man holding Tali a heartbeat before thick arms wrapped around my shoulders. I reached up, barely able to get my fingers on his forearm. I shifted the last of what I’d taken from Aylin into him. He grunted softly but didn’t let go.

Tali’s arms were pinned now, and another man was tying her hands. She tried to bite him and he slapped her.

“Hey!” I kicked out at him, but missed.

A few fishermen scowled and started forward, but the tracker stepped up and held something out.

“This is a legal bounty warrant on the Duke’s orders.” She smiled briefly, satisfied as a cat. “Any interference in this claim is punishable by conscription.”

That stopped the fishermen. They might risk prison to help me, but no one wanted to fight for the Duke. The crowd that had gathered grumbled and moved away.

“You’ve given us quite the chase,” she said.

“Who are you?” I asked, shaking as a soldier bound my hands with rope. Aylin and Danello lay on the street, softly moaning.

“Most call me Vyand.” She stepped forward and held the reward poster next to my face. “Good likeness, except for the hair. That was smart.” Vyand grinned at the big man. “Look at that, Stewwig, two Takers for the work of one. Not bad.”

“Let her go!”

Vyand stayed just out of kicking distance. “Merlaina Oskov,” she said, using the name I’d given to so many who now wanted me captured. “On the order of Duke Verraad, I hereby bind you for the murder of Luminary Duis Steek.”

She leaned in closer and whispered into my ear. “But we both know that’s not why he really wants you.”

Ropes bound my wrists together, same as Tali. Vyand had thrown us into a prisoner transport waiting in the rear courtyard of the Healers’ League. High stone walls and wrought-iron gates I recognised well fenced us in even more.

The courtyard gate clanged open and Vyand entered, followed by four armed men. Tali slid closer and grabbed my hand.

“Listen up,” Vyand called, walking over to us. “You have been extremely annoying. If you give me any more hassles, you’ll spend your nights in a box below decks, where it’s hot. Behave yourselves and you’ll get to sleep in a cage on deck, where it’s cool.”

She flicked a hand in the air. “Mount up.”

The cage dipped to one side as men climbed on to the driver’s bench. Seconds later the transport lurched forward and rolled on to Grand Canal Street. I frowned. Vyand was going to parade us through the streets, as if proving to Geveg that I was caught.

Crowds of Baseeri gathered and watched the transport pass. I’d never been booed before. Yelled at, spat on, beaten, yes – but not booed.

“Abomination!”

“Murderer!”

“I bet I’ve healed some of those people,” Tali muttered, dodging a rotten orange.

“Tali, about that. What did you do when Vyand flashed us?”

“Nothing.”

“You had to do something. The flash didn’t hurt you.”

“It burned a little, but that was it. Think I’m immune like you?”

“You weren’t before.”

She shrugged. “I was trying to get you to leave. I wasn’t thinking about anything but dragging you out of there.”

Wait… Dragging. She’d been touching me. I closed my eyes, pictured us standing there. I’d felt something just before Vyand flashed us. A tingle, like she was pulling something from me. What if it had been my flashing immunity? Did she borrow it?

“Put your hands over mine,” I said. “See if you can shift into me.”

“What? I can’t do that.”

“Just try.”

She put her hands over mine and…

“Nothing.”