Bridgeworlds: Deep Flux by Randy Blackwell Page B

worked! They are
coming to try to force feed me! “Hey,” Myles yelled, “over here!”
    Myles could see a hovering ball of light and then the face of an
un-naturally thin man wearing a lit up uniform. He had a goatee and
dark hollow eyes. A Gauntman? But from what I heard from the Magi
they are not from Soterion but from a world called Gnosis.
    The man looked at a screen attached to his arm and looked back
to Myles in confusion. “You must eat or you will die,” he said in a quick
and tedious accent.
“Let me out, I don’t belong here,” said Myles.
    The guard turned around quickly and ran down the hall.
Myles sighed. I can’t catch a break here . I should have known
better than to go after Haylale by myself. Or with an army for that
matter.
    His body was stiff and weak. He shifted to lean against the wall.
Myles had very little energy left. Time dragged on and he began to fade
out and drifted to sleep. Soon he woke to a small noise in the distance.
With the little power nap and the excitement of catching someone
bringing food he jolted awake with a surge of adrenaline.
    Myles heard footsteps again. The guard was back and there was
another Gauntman with him. He wore a green cape and more
decorative clothing than the guard . This guy must be a leader or some
kind of nobility.
    The noble looked angry. His voice was a higher pitch than what
Myles would consider normal and he spoke quickly, however; Myles still
had the translator that Omar had given him on him allowing him to
understand the guard. “ Fat monkey must eat, why for you don’t eat?
You don’t eat, you die. You die, cause trouble for me. Can you even
understand what I am saying, fat monkey ?”
    Myles cocked his head and looked down at himself . Fat? I don’t
think anyone has ever called me fat. I haven’t eaten in five days! He
looked at the noble and before Myles could speak he cut him off.
“Yes, you… tell me now how you got here,” he snapped. “We
find you here with no way in.”
    Myles shook his head, “Look genius, do you think if I knew how I
got here that I would be sitting behind these bars? I woke up, and I was
here.”
    The noble glared at Myles, “You are an intruder who has walked
where he should not go. I have given you a chance to plead your case.
We need answers. Now you will come with me and answer to the
Pontiff.”
    The man reached his arm through the bars and grabbed Myles,
an electronic device on his wrist began to glow and then suddenly Myles
was on the other side of the bars. Myles blinked. Teleportation! Omar
would kill for one of these!
    From everything Myles had heard from the Magi, the Gauntmen
were hostile toward all other races. A meeting with this Pontiff would
likely go worse than his meeting with King Alagaar. If there was any time
to make a break for it, it was now. Myles followed the noble up the long
tunnel. They passed several other cells such as his own and there were
people of other races in the cells, even a Drakoni. He studied the device
around the noble’s arm and saw what he thought to be a release button
on it. The globe of light they were following was also some kind of
hovering electronic device. Myles would have to move with lightning
speed.
    He would have to rely on his other senses like the blind
swordsman had taught him to do while traveling with the circus. And he
needed to act quickly while the adrenaline was still pumping through his
body. He took one last look to memorize his surroundings. Myles
grabbed the globe and rammed it against the tunnel wall disabling it
and quickly sliding it into one of the pockets of his sleeves. Then he took
one of his knives and used it to switch the release on the teleporters the
noble and the guard had on. The two arm bands fell and Myles collected
them as the men scrambled. He tried to put one on his arm but it was
too small. He could not activate it until it was shut and around his arm.
Myles doubled back to where the two idiots