Free Satan's Forge (Star Sojourner Book 5) by Jean Kilczer Page B

escaped.”
    “You would've stayed and tried to start a revolution, wouldn't you?” she said angrily, then began to cry.
    I hugged her close.
    “And we would've never had this time together.” She held me tighter.
    “At what cost, Sophia? How many more will he kill?”"
    “Then I'm coming with you.”
    “That's
crazy
. What will it prove?”
    She let go of me and wiped her eyes. “With a resident of Wydemont there at the mine.” She paused and sobbed. “Slade wouldn't
dare
mistreat the slaves.” She ran a hand across my cheek and I saw the deep sadness in her eyes. “Or you.”
    “You underestimate him. He's terrified of open rebellion. He'd lose his position at the mine, and the creds that go with it. That's why he wanted a tel working for him in the first place.”
    “To spy on the slaves?”
    I nodded. “I knew life was getting too good. Why should it last?”
    She fondled my hair. “For me too.” Tears slid down her cheeks. “When will you leave?” she asked dully.
    Slade said he whipped the slaves at sunrise." I bit my lip as I unstrapped my stingler and handed it to her. “Take this.” I handed her the holster. “It's a good weapon.”
    She tried to answer, but got choked up and just took it and nodded.
    A bird called out the morning and the first light rimmed tall trees as I went to Copper and mounted. Sophia stood silently, her tears unwiped.
    I walked Copper close to her, bent down in the saddle and we kissed, gently, without desperation. I wiped her tears with my thumb, turned Copper down the twisted trail, off the mountain and toward the mine.

Chapter Ten
    I glanced up as a hovair with Lithium Love Mine written across the hull swung low and cruised by. They were tracking me as I approached the compound, making sure I didn't change my mind.
    Copper's shoulders were already lathered as I led him down a rocky trail. The long shadows of dawn striped the narrow path. The sun pressed my back like a hot iron. I wiped my forehead and felt sweat trickle down my sides.
    I reined in on a promontory, dismounted, and surveyed the mining site below. The mounted lookouts hadn't spotted me yet and I could have still turned away from that death camp and lost the hovair in the wilds. I thought of a poem I'd once recited to Althea while we were still married. “I could not love thee dear so much, loved I not honor more.” Appropriate. The tag in the poem was going off to war, and I had my own war to fight. I mounted and continued down the road.
    When I reached the broad, electrified gate of the mine, a guard shouted something in alienese to another Altairian and the gate swung open. I bit my lip as I entered. The audience was in place. Work had stopped and the slaves were gathered in rows. Armed guards patrolled on horseback. I squinted up at Slade's office window and saw him there, behind the black bars of window blinds.
    The stage is set,
I thought. It needs only the martyr to complete the play. That would be me. I was flanked by mounted guards who crowded Copper and turned him toward the whipping post.
    I froze. Copper felt my fear. He threw up his head and pranced sideways. A guard reached out and grabbed his reins. “Get down,” he ordered me.
    I dismounted and walked toward the post, hoping my knees wouldn't buckle. Did they intend to lash me until dead? I scanned the empty sky. All that this scenario lacked was a cross for me to drag along.
    The slaves watched silently as I pulled my shirt over my head and threw it at an approaching guard. He caught it and looked at the other guard. If this were to be my last act in this lifebind, I would leave the slaves with a belief in their capacity to defy the brutal, mindless power that knows nothing beyond greed.
    My shoulders trembled as I walked to the flogging post. “What are you waiting for?” I threw at the guards. “You're not afraid of me, are you?”
    I heard a murmur and the shuffling of feet among the crowd. The guards came forward quickly then,