Page 1 of Taken to Kor
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Deena
“Hello?”
“Interesting.”
That’s the reply. The voice is as dark as it is chilling and that chill has nothing at all to do with the frigid temperature down here in Mathilda’s dungeon and everything to do with that impish yet svelte intonation. He didn’t expect me, and I know who he is. He doesn’t know who I am yet, and he has no reason to. I’m nobody.
But he’s curious.
I know I should take the little bead I found out of my ear, but I don’t. I’m too starved for any sort of human interaction at all to care. Well, human or…otherwise.
“Um…hi.”
“Hmm,” he says and it’s almost a sigh. For as gruesome as he’s known to be, he sure has a voice that’s satin-laced sin.Not sin, but another S word. Rhymes with decks.I wince at the thought, but knowing it’s wrong does nothing to help the next thought that comes to me.I want to hear him say something else.“You know who I am.”
What? How does he know that? Can he read my mind through this thing! Shit! I don’t know the technology. This is the first time I’ve ever opened up the communication channel. What if he knows what I’m thinking and he knows that I stole this and what if he tells Mathilda and I get caught?
I laugh at that. It’s more like a snort. What could she do to me that she hasn’t done already? Kill me?
Well, she could do that.
“So um…” I clear my throat because my voice is all gravelly and hoarse. “How do you figure that?”
“You have this device and I can read its identifier. I know who once owned it since I gave it to her, but you aren’t her and, since you haven’t asked me who I am, I have to assume that you know already who I am and that you stole it. Now, why don’t you identify yourself so that we can make this conversation a little less one-sided?”
He sounds so at ease, like nothing in the world could unsettle him. Like he’s planned all this. Like he’s seen every eventuality and in every scenario, he comes out on top.
I swallow hard and stare a hole through the ceiling. I’m lying flat on my cot, but my mouth is dry, so I sit up and grab the bottle of water Mathilda slipped into my cell last night. She hasn’t been by since and it’s been a full solar. I guess she assumed that, with the weight I’m carrying, the one meal she gave me would be enough.
“I um…” am stuttering again. I can’t figure out what to say. I only half expected this to work since I have no idea what I’m doing and only acquired this device ten solars ago. Or has it been twelve? More? Who knows. Down here in this cage, time is irrelevant. “I don’t think you need my name.”
“Fine. Then tell me what you want.”
“I um…”
“Um… I’m beginning to think this is a word of some significance in your language because it doesn’t translate to mine. Either that, or you didn’t expect your communication to be received and now you’re completely stumped.”
Shit. Hecanread my mind. I touch my ear as I chug what’s left in my water bottle. Water dribbles down my chin. I wipe it off with the back of my hand and cross one arm over my stomach.
I should take the earpiece out and smash it into shards, but I don’t do that either. Partly because I’m not sure I’ll be able to smash it, but mostly because if I do, this will be the end of my lifeline. The last being I might have a chance to talk to except for Mathilda.And I’d rather skin her than make conversation.Only that isn’t true, is it? I’m too terrified of her to do anything.
“Yeah, you’re right,” I confess.
He doesn’t respond right away and I find that kind of funny. I chuckle. “What? Are you stumped now?”
“A little.”
I don’t answer. I don’t know what to say. “I…”
“What are you looking at right now?”
The question is unexpected. Unexpected, but smart.
I look through the clear walls of my cell at the rows and rows of food mygrandmotherhas been hiding down here from the rest of the colony. From me. Breaking the lock and coming down here for the first time to discover all this marked my undoing. That was when she locked me up. She couldn’t have me spilling the beans and I would have because the colony hasn’t seen beans in rotations. People are starving topside and my grandmother has been hoarding supplies away for herself this whole time. And that’s among the least troublesome crimes that conniving creature has been committing.No, not creature. Another C-word. One that rhymes with runt.
I could tell him that I’m looking at rows of vegetables growing underneath solar lights, but then he’d know right away where I am and I don’t know what he knows yet. Maybe he’s the one that gave her all of this. Maybe he’s on her side. Maybe he already told her that I have her device and that I’m speaking to him when I shouldn’t be. Maybe they’re in cahoots. Cahoots. That’s a funny word. I always thought so.Rhymes with…actually, I don’t know what it rhymes with… Wait. What are we talking about?
