[Danny]

here's a short chapter to whet your appetite.

in the next chapter, it begins...

CHAPTER 30

To be totally honest, and to my shame, I had completely forgotten about my fellow stowaways, except for Quiss, and felt extremely guilty when I saw Vint, Yan and the others standing in the cell with the other slaves. He seemed a little surprised to see me, which was probably because the other slaves had told him I was dead. Considering what happened later that day, it would probably have been better if I had been.

Quiss, conscious for once, was the first to break the silence. “You’re alive!” He got weakly to his feet, and crossed the room to me, throwing his arms around me. “They said you were done for…”

“Not quite. Not yet anyway.” I set Hap on the floor, and she ran to Laur, who embraced her. “Vint, we need to get out of here. These people said no, but I’m going, and I’m taking Hap and Quiss with me. I think we have a chance; one guard is dead, and I haven’t seen the other since the first hit him. Are you with me?”

Vint smiled emptily. “I’ve spoken to Gil. We’re all going.”

“Really? What did you say?”

“We told them about the real world, and persuaded them that even death is better than this.”

I almost grinned, despite the seriousness of the situation. “We should go now; the other guard might be back any minute.”

Vint nodded. “Come on everyone, let’s get moving. Who knows the city best?”

There was a murmuring, and Gil was pushed reluctantly to the front of the crowd. “I can lead you to the main gate, but we’ll never get out, even if we reach it.”

“Well, we’ll have to take that chance. We’re not backing out before we start.”

I kept one arm around Quiss’s shoulders, and held out the other hand to Hap, who ran up beside me. I looked round at the crowd behind us, seeing blank faces, dead minds, broken by years of slavery. I tried to see some spark of hope there; I saw it in most of them, but some were too far gone. There was little chance of them ever regaining their own self-respect, but then there wasn’t really much chance of anyone surviving this escape attempt. I looked at Yan, Ulp, and Rixx, who were helping to carry Olek with us. This might be the last time I see any of you, I thought. I had faced death before, almost constantly since… since killing Zell. I was sort of prepared for it, although it had never been quite so hopeless before. Okay, so a guard was dead. That maybe meant we could get out of the slave quarters, but how many hundreds of guards would there be in the rest of the city? I got the feeling I had used up my stock of luck already.

I turned, to face Gil, who was preparing to lead us out.

“Come on then, let’s get on with it.”