Free Forgotten by Lyn Lowe

making the odor infinitely worse. He couldn’t swallow hard enough to rid his mouth of the bile spilling up from the back of his throat.
    His companions, invisible in the darkness, were utterly silent. His only clue as to the number of them was the sounds of breathing and the close press of bodies against his own. And the smell. Gods above, the smell. Even with his limited perception, Kaie was certain there were more than four people inside.
    The wagon started moving with a lurch that smacked his shoulder into the wooden door and another body into him. Blinking against the pain, he didn’t give any thought to the life he was riding away from. Kaie’s mind was already focused on the new problem of getting away.

Ten
    He expected it to be hard, playing a Hollow. He thought every interaction with the two soldiers dragging them across the country would be a test of his will and self-control, and that the time spent in silence with the other Hollows would be mind-numbing. Kaie was not prepared for the truth.
    There were twenty-seven of them, more than half women, all staring with blank eyes. As Kissa warned, they did nothing without direct instruction from the two men responsible for delivering them. Even when camp was made for the night, no one would put the small bit of food to their mouth until a soldier barked an order at them. Kaie knew they were hungry – he could hear their stomachs rumbling in time with his – but the action didn’t seem to occur to them independently. Nor did emptying their bladders in a decent manner. If the soldiers didn’t instruct them otherwise, the Hollows would simply relieve themselves in their clothing.
    As for the two men themselves, Kaie quickly developed a special sort of hatred for them. At first, aside from their utter control over his life, they seemed neutral enough. He could almost forgive them the thoughtless humiliation of his new existence, up until the night he learned the reason the Urazin military was collecting Hollows.
    It was just over four weeks since Kaie first climbed onto the wagon. The effects of Kissa’s spell were long worn off but he couldn’t find his moment to slip away. The soldiers spoke often of an outpost along their route where they would resupply before braving the mountain pass. From the sound of it, the outpost was his best chance to abandon the Hollows unnoticed, but it was still days away. So he did all he could to lurk near the back of the crowd that shuffled around waiting for commands every night. It was getting more challenging as the green hills turned into sand dunes. The days inside the wagon were scorching, but the nights brought on a chill that sunk deep into his bones. Avoiding the soldiers put him far from the fire. The other Hollows didn’t care if they shivered all night, once they were told to sleep they did.
    So, when the two men decided to drink their fill of the wineskins sharing the wagon with him and the rest of the Hollows, Kaie was prepared to be relieved. It seemed harmless, even preferable. Certainly, he was less likely to be noticed, if he slipped up, by two drunks than if they were sober. And their conversation about the trip was illuminating.
    From their talk, Kaie learned that Jorander was easily the only remaining nation that could rival Urazin in military prowess. With all the others fallen, the Empress was eager to extend her reach from one end of the continent to the other. They took a rather sizable chunk of Jorander years ago. But when they reached a great range of mountains, with an endless expanse of desert on the other side, they were stalled. The older man was an old hand at the empire’s wars. He rattled off more than a couple names with the dismissiveness of the winning side. The younger man was newly recruited, which was why he was here, collecting Hollows under the watchful eye of a seasoned – and Kaie suspected, disgraced – soldier instead of on the front lines.
    He listened attentively as the grizzled