He looked around. Someone was hurrying away’t from him, down the stone hallway outside the cell. How had he ended up in a cell? Was he still in Luba?“So…” The voice was that of a guard who wore black, except for thin and bright blue piping on his tunic sleeves and cuffs. “How is our would-be mage tonight?” Blacktop said nothing. II ‘Too bad Kacet can’t help you now. No one can.“ The guard laughed. ”Maybe the engineers can, but I wouldn’t count on it. No, I wouldn’t.“ Then he turned and walked away.Blacktop’s fingers tightened around the bars, as darkness—hot darkness—rose around him.Abruptly, he was somewhere else, lying on his back, breathing rapidly. His body was damp with sweat, and heat radiated from him. An involuntary groan escaped him.“Quiet!” hissed someone.He closed his mouth. He .was in the bunk room. He’d been dreaming, but the guard in the dream had called him a would-be mage, and said that someone couldn’t help him. The name should have been familiar, but it hadn’t been, and it had slipped away as he had awakened.Had he once been a mage?
