“Good!” Remington fell back in his chair, I imagined almost in relief. “I am glad. I shouldn’t have wanted to hurt you or your sister.” His mouth curled up in a smile, and I swallowed hard. 

  What was this goal he was so adamant about me achieving? Something told me it wasn’t anything good. “What is it you want me to do?”

  “I’m certain you’ve heard about the little… trouble we’re having with our neighboring planet of Shiarizi.” He folded his hands, and rested them on the metal table, acting as if I’d been reading the newspaper every day during my time of captivity. 

  I bit my lip and kept back a sarcastic response. “I always thought we had a close alliance with Shiarizi,” I said bluntly. 

  He nodded. “That we had — until about seventeen years ago.” 

Oh. So that was why he had expected me to remember it. Still… even though I thought back to Geography Class at school, I couldn’t remember any trouble Kachino had been in with Shiarizi. 

Remington was… “kind” enough to fill me in. “You see, the king of Shiarizi, King Titus Jaxon, borrowed a great amount of money from our wonderful Prime Minister Crynn. He promised to pay it back within ten years, with interest. But ten years passed, and he didn’t pay. So he asked for five more years. Our prime minister was very gracious, and allowed that. But now it has been two years since then, and he still refuses to pay. Our prime minister was fed up, as were we. When a small conflict started in a town on the west side of Shiarizi called Rinrinari between the Shiarizians and some of our Kachinoan suppliers, we sent soldiers over to protect our suppliers. King Titus took it as an invasion, however, and has declared war.”

  I thought I was getting what he needed me for. “And you want me to train in the military to fight the Shiarizians,” I surmised, my tone cold. He wanted to make me into a killing machine. Wonderful.  

  “Good guess,” he said, a hint of a smile tugging at his mouth. “But no.”

  I looked at him in unbelief. What was the point in telling me all that if he didn’t need me for it?! I rolled my eyes, getting fed up, and leaned forward. “Then what exactly do you need me for?! Why can’t you just let me and my sister go?!” I cried, straining against the cuffs on my chair again. 

  He still remained calm. “You have an inventor’s creativity in your blood,” he stated simply. “You are good at thinking up new plans. And that is why I want you to be a spy.”

  I fell back in my chair. A spy? Much less, a military spy?! If I was caught, I’d be…I felt the water in my mouth dry up, and my hands started sweating again. I flexed them nervously. “Y-You’re going to send me o-on a mission? W-where? W-when do I begin? N-now?”

  He laughed, but I couldn’t find anything too funny about it. Maybe he just liked watching kids get killed. I mean, he was going to order my sister to death for crying out loud! “Ainslyn Paine, you’re much too important for us to just throw out there with no training!” He leaned back in his chair, and crossed his arms. 

  “Oh,” I mumbled. I was a bit relieved, to say the least. If I had some training… at least I would have a little bit more chance of being able to survive.

  “You are going to go through extensive training over the course of the next few years. When I see that you are ready, I will send you on your mission.”

  I nodded, slowly. “Sir- about this mission—” I noticed my hands were clinched again, and I stretched them out again, trying to look calm and confident. But I hesitated to ask. Did I even want to know what it was? My curiosity overcame my fear. Besides, I would have to find out someday.

  “Yes? Ask what you will.” 

  “What… what is this mission?” I whispered, almost afraid of the answer. 

 A smirk curled like a slithering snake onto his face. “You are to capture the princess of Shiarizi.”