Sinbad: Rogue of Mars. John Garavaglia

Then the elder gave out a heaving sigh. “Despite of everything that has happened, you still retained your optimism. Maybe if I had your sanguinity I would have gotten out of here years ago.”

      The Azurian man had been watching Sinbad, his face inscrutable. Perhaps he had been waiting for the Earthman to come out of the depression that had paralyzed him all on his own, but it didn’t appear to be happening.

      “Hoping to hold out, are you, Sinbad?”

      Sinbad’s gaze flickered toward the old man, a mildly questioning look in his eyes.

      “You’re figuring that if you simply shut down, refuse to cooperate they won’t kill you because they need you, and perhaps it will provide enough time for your friends to come rescue you.”

      The old man could not have been more wrong. Sinbad wasn’t thinking of anybody like that. He was, first, convinced that they wouldn’t find him, and further influenced his

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      captors would indeed kill him if they decided that he wasn’t going to cooperate. There was no grand stalling tactic involved here. Sinbad was simply positive that there was no way out.

      Unaware of that, the old man continued, “I’m sure they’re looking for you, Sinbad, but they will never find you here.” He approached Sinbad and crowded so that they were on eye level. His voice became soft, even understanding. “You don’t like fighting.”

      Sinbad shook his head, despondent.

      “I didn’t like it either when I was leading Akhdar’s army.”

      Sinbad’s eyes widened and stared at the old man.

      “You were a soldier?”

      “I was sergeant-at-arms, until I was ordered to lay waste to an entire village.”

      “Did you carry out the order?”

      The Azurian shook his head, “No, I couldn’t go through with it. It was occupied with innocent civilians. I’ve killed several members of my battalion in order to save as many people as I could.” He buried his face in his hands.

      “Then what happened?” Sinbad carefully asked.

      “On the planet you are from, Sinbad, do they have the saying, ‘no good deed goes unpunished’?”

      “What did Akhdar do to you?”

      “He took everything from me,” the old man replied. “Not only he stripped me of my rank, he seized my home, my land, and had my entire family slaughtered before my own eyes. He even made me choose in which order they would die in…all my sons are dead. My lineage ends with me when I go into the next world. I begged him to kill me as well, but he said I wasn’t worthy of death. So he casted me here in the dungeon to be with all the scum I brought to justice. Worst of all, Akhdar even took my name away from me.”

      “He took your name?”

      “He replaced it with ‘traitor.’ So everybody I would meet will know the crime I committed against the crown.”

      JOHN GARAVAGLIA

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