Dark Age (Red Rising Saga 5)

“Republic and Alltribe are a finger’s twitch from all-out war,” I say. “They’ll both think this is some sort of trap. Not to mention if they find out you two are on my ship, then we’re in the crosshairs of every mercenary band looking for a payday.”

“Then who’s left?” Electra asks.

“Mars,” Pax says. Electra and I look at him for some semblance of clarification. “We need to boost Lyria’s signal.”

FRECKLES STAGGERS UNDER THE enormous weight of the Gold breastplate as we make our way down the hall toward the jail. I lead with my pistol out, trying to make the parasite work again. I can’t tell where anyone is.

Everything echoes in the metal halls. Men shout in the distance. Boots hammer stairs. Doors slam. Freckles and I creep behind three men who stand inside some sort of transparent coms room, washed pale by the light of holograms. Maybe they didn’t notice my signal go out. Maybe it didn’t go out. Most of the security globes are dark, but enough are alive to show the slaves unlocking themselves in the mines around the bodies of their overlords. A group of them gather around Volga. Blood drips from her head as she cradles a rifle and shouts at them.

There you go, big girl.

Then one of the men leans over his screen and goes stiff. My voice fills their room. We’re stuck halfway down the hall. They know. Freckles looks at me in fear and I shove her into a maintenance closet. “Wait here for me.”

“Where are you going?”

“Just wait here with the weapons. I’ll be right back. Do not come out if you hear me scream.” I shut the door as she nods. I grip my pistol. Men are coming from both directions. I drop my pistol and get on my knees.

“There’s the bitch.”

They bowl around the corner with rifles drawn, and I say the only thing I can think up with enraged psychos running toward me: “I’m with the Gold. I have information to sell Harmony.”

I barely duck a boot aimed at my mouth. I catch it on the head instead and tip sideways. Someone’s grabbing my hair. “What information?”

“I know where Julii’s other daughters are.”

* * *

—

The day my clan saw the sky for the first time, we toured the Can. Pa saw how unimpressive I found its jail. He told me it’s a little jail for little crimes; anyone guilty of a big crime got the lash or the gallows. The jail was meant for loudmouth drunks, disobedient miners to cool their heads, and sometimes rats to spill their clan’s secrets for a little cheese.

I don’t know why, but I asked him if he ever turned rat, and he just grew quiet.

This mine’s jail is as small as ours was. But instead of drunks or miners, it is stuffed a dozen to a cell with starving Obsidians and Reds. The smell as they throw me into a cell is tremendous.

Like I hoped they would, they’ll lock me up until Harmony can come up from the chaos below. Things sound like they’re settling down. I hope Lion is still hidden.

There is only one other prisoner in my cell, but her long legs take up most of it. Victra sits hunched on the floor. She doesn’t move as I sit up from where the guards threw

me. She wears tattered pants that barely reach her calves. Her shirt is torn and bloodied over her muscular shoulders. A wound oozes blood from her head.

She doesn’t even look at me. I can’t imagine the pain inside.

“Victra…” I say. She doesn’t reply. “Victra, I’m here to—”

The jail door slams open. A dozen sets of boots come our way. Harmony leads a pack of her nastiest-looking men. “I thought I left you downstairs. Does anyone have my saw?”

A man pales. “I thought you wanted to use the hammer.”

“Yes, but I also left my hammer downstairs.”

Another man darts behind the corner and comes back with a saw crusted in old blood. Harmony smiles at him, glares at the first man, and kicks the cell door. “What’s this bullshit about her other girls?” She spits. “Like the Julii would risk telling someone like you. How did you get the acid in?” She kicks the door again. “Where is it hidden?”

“Up your cootch,” I say.

She points the saw at me. Then there’s a shout. “Got one of them.”

They drag a dead girl in. Harmony pushes through her men as they lay her out on a table at the far side of the room. Their backs are turned. I snap my fingers at Victra until she looks at me.