least summon help.
He couldn’t make a sound.
Trying to think brought a confusing avalanche of discordant images: a weeping Dantovonian child with a damaged leg. Adrafs, one with its neck fur shorn. Playing an anti-gravity game with Vax, the two of them flying past Adraf fur gloves that drifted out of reach. Japohn leading him through a crowd, though Bacoj as a Dramok should have been in front. Fog, thick and impenetrable. An injector coming at him.
Had he been drugged? Was that why he couldn’t put his thoughts in order?
He was cold. Naked. A hard, gritty surface rocked beneath him. Or was it dizziness? He attempted to move, but his body was frozen. Or bound—there was pressure around his arms and legs. He’d been tied up, perhaps.
Or maybe it was all in his head. He tried yelling again. Instead of his voice calling out, he heard someone nearby moan.
He sensed a coarse cloth in his mouth. It was rough against his tongue. A slightly oily taste. He struggled to spit it out and discovered his lips were sealed shut. He made another attempt to shout and heard the moan again. It was coming from him. He made the moaning sound, the gag smothering most of his cry. He sounded desperate. Hopeless.
Were his eyes open? Why was it so dark if they were? Nothing made sense. It had to be a nightmare. Mother of All, he wished he could wake up.
* * * *
Vax stuck close to Japohn as they traveled the dilapidated outskirts of Ler, and not just because the Nobek had told him to. The area where he and Bacoj had gone to fetch spices had been seedy and rundown, but where Japohn led was far worse. Vax feared for their lives. He’d never seen such an awful place. It was hard to believe any intelligent being would choose to frequent such an environment.
Some posed no danger. The Dantovonian they passed, its form huddled against an empty storefront, looked dead rather than unconscious or sleeping. The smell emanating from it suggested the same.
Vax wished the fog hadn’t burned off, leaving only wispy tendrils behind as the sun climbed higher and the air heated up. This neighborhood butted right up against the jungle, with its dripping leaves and pods, screeching animals, and fetid scents mixing with the reek of the garbage left to rot in the street. The sizzling-sweetish odor of badly maintained shuttles and unwashed bodies of different species made him glad he’d not had breakfast.
And the residents—there couldn’t be a more pathetic yet dangerous lot, not even in his worst imaginings. Thugs bristling with weapons glared at him, sizing him up like a tasty meal, visibly calculating whether they could take on him and Japohn and win. Drug dealers sneered as he passed, their coughing customers hunched and hiding their faces from him in shame. Filthy prostitutes called to him in dead voices, promising him unparalleled delights. Each, whether male or female, was scarred and missing appendages.
It was a terrifying place to be. Yet even more terrifying was thinking about what might be happening to Bacoj at that very instant. Vax fought off the urge to scream the Dramok’s name in the unlikely prospect he’d hear a reply.
How could this have happened? He had never expected Karil to go after Bacoj for the express purpose of making Vax watch him suffer. The idea his lover might die because of him—
Don’t think about that. It can’t happen. I won’t survive it.
“That asshole’s com generated from somewhere in this five-block section.” Japohn slowed, still glancing from his handheld to his surroundings. In his current mood, the big bruiser looked ready to tear down the graffiti-covered buildings with his bare hands. Even the scariest thugs lost their bravado and skulked away when the glowering Nobek glanced in their direction.
“Five blocks? That’s a lot of ground to cover.” Vax couldn’t keep the desperation out of his tone. Was Karil killing Bacoj as they hesitated? Tears stung Vax’s eyes, but he fought the urge to cry. Instead, he took what little heart he could from Japohn’s determined glare.
If anyone could save Bacoj, it was Japohn. Vax believed that with all his being, and he hung onto the possibility with everything he had.
Japohn assessed the scene with his burning gaze. “Nobody here will interfere or talk without a price. Karil doesn’t know we’re down to a few credits, though. He’ll be afraid we can pay someone off.”
“Okay. So?” Vax shifted from foot to foot, needing