Kael's shouting stopped when the first prisoner began screaming.
The young scavenger was sitting beside a stack of confiscated shields when the brass band around his wrist suddenly turned red. He grabbed it with his other hand and tried to pull it off. The band tightened instead, biting into his skin.
"Help! Somebody get it off!"
All along the shoreline, more bands began to glow. Men who had surrendered their weapons scrambled to their feet, pushing against the guards. A woman dropped her bowl of stew and fell to her knees as a pale thread of light stretched from her wrist toward the largest dropship.
Valerie hurried down the loading ramp. "Everyone stay where you are! Guards, don't strike them. Get the wounded away from the ships!"
"They're running!" one guard shouted.
"They're being pulled," she snapped. "Look at their hands!"
Sebastian turned on Kael, who stood chained beside the ramp. "Start talking."
