Dream Unchained by Kate Douglas

went? He was here a minute ago.”
    â€œI’m here, Mac.”
    Cam pushed open the door into the lodge. Mir slipped past and held it for him while Cam backed in, hanging on to one end of a huge canvas with Niah holding the other end. They carried it across the dining room and the two of them carefully leaned it against a table about ten feet away.
    Frowning, Mac stared at the dark and dramatic painting. This was nothing like Cam’s usual mystical, fantastical, dreamlike art. He glanced at the one over the fireplace that Cam had done after his first night—a painting of Nyria as the Nyrians remembered their planet. Nyria before the Gar attacked. The work was bright and beautiful, a memory of a world that only existed in the minds of the few remaining Nyrians.
    Not this new painting. It was all dark energy and anger, and it spoke of endings, not beginnings. Still, there was something vaguely familiar about the scene. Mac stepped around the Nyrians and walked closer, still frowning. He squatted down in front of the canvas, though this close it was hard to tell exactly what he was looking at. Broad strokes, dark colors, a bright slash here and there. An overall sense of darkness and anger. Of doom.
    Finally, Mac shook his head and stood. “I haven’t got any idea at all what you’ve done here.” He glanced over his shoulder. The Nyrian men looked anywhere but at the painting. “Aza? Do you know what this is? Bane? Jesat? Any idea?”
    Dake was the one who stepped forward and stood beside Mac. He stared at the painting for a long moment with his arms folded tightly against his chest. Obviously, something about the art made him very uncomfortable. Without looking at Mac, he said, “It’s the planet you call Mars. The way it looked the last time we were in this solar system. This is a view of that world during the attack.” He sighed, glanced away, and then focused on Mac, not the painting. “When the Gar take everything from a world, it’s done quickly. The people have no time to escape. Nothing survives. Not the smallest microbe, not the largest, strongest creatures. All die. All are utilized, either as energy or, in some cases, as food. We . . .” He glanced over his shoulder at his four companions and then focused again on Mac and took a deep breath. Let it out.
    â€œWe power the ship during the process—it takes a lot of energy to plunder a world, so all of us are needed in the engine room at the same time. It’s bad enough knowing what our energy is being used for, but we’re also forced to watch. To witness the death of entire worlds. Death by order of the Gar. It’s meant to teach us fear, so that we will recognize their superior strength. They want us afraid of them.”
    He lowered his head and looked away, but Mac couldn’t take his eyes off the man. Anger built, starting deep inside and forcing its way to the surface. Why hadn’t he realized? How could he possibly have missed their reality?
    Zianne had told him much the same, but he hadn’t thought beyond her fear, her terrible circumstances as a slave. He’d not truly considered what she’d admitted, that the Nyrians had been the power behind the deaths of entire civilizations. Their energy had enabled the destruction of uncounted worlds, had caused unimaginable horror. Rage had him clenching his fists and his jaw when he asked, “Does it work? This method of the Gar’s to put fear in the hearts of their captives?”
    Dake shook his head. “Your anger is valid. All of us would understand, should you choose not to help us further, but the Gar’s orders do not always work the way they want. All they’ve done is harden our resolve to find a way out, though until now, until you gave us this opportunity, we’ve been unable to escape. It is a sin against Nyria for us to take our own lives, but we had finally decided that was our only recourse after