Moon Chosen

by P. C. Cast

  “Yes,” Mari assured her.

  “Then we have enough to hold them off if we don’t panic.”

  “I’ll move with you, Mama. We’ll make it home—I know we will.”

  “Get ready. More are coming,” Leda said.

  Mari readied herself as the sickening humming vibrated through the forest around them. She was lifting the goatskin to her mouth as the next wave of arachnids materialized from the darkness.

  There was a ferocious snarling and snapping, and Rigel was suddenly there, fighting through the tightening noose of spiders to press against Mari’s side.

  Leda spit a spray of repellent at the attacking horde, soaking three of the creatures and knocking a fourth from her arm and stomping it into the ground. Mari did the same, stabbing two with one swipe of her blade.

  “Stand over Rigel,” Leda said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “Don’t let them lure him away from you. They get Rigel alone and they’ll wrap him in their web so the nest can devour him.”

  Mari stole one moment to hug the pup to her before she positioned herself so that she was standing over Rigel, her back still pressed against her mother, telegraphing don’t leave me, don’t leave me, don’t leave me … over and over to the pup. Rigel growled low in his throat. His attention was riveted on the skittering darkness around them, but he was pressed against Mari’s legs reassuringly. “Don’t you worry, Leda. He’s not going anywhere.”

  A new wave of arachnids descended on them, and Rigel fought with Mari, snapping up any spider that got past the repellent and Mari’s knife.

  “As one, we move forward. Slowly, carefully, Mari. Between attacks on my word,” Leda said, but before she could signal her daughter, light bloomed on the path ahead of them and first one man carrying a torch, then a line of them, rushed toward them, batting at the spiders with clubs.

  “There are female Scratchers in the path! Grab them and let’s get the hell outta here!” came a Companion’s command.

  For half a heartbeat Mari froze, then they will not take Rigel away from me! screamed through her mind and she bent to scoop the pup into her arms. She was already moving as she grabbed her mother’s arm, pulling Leda with her off the path, when something big and powerful shoved her, so hard that Mari fell forward, taking Leda and Rigel with her. She curled into a ball around Rigel, so that as she hit the ground she was protecting the pup. Before she had even stopped rolling, Mari was reaching for her mother when the shout cut through the night to them.

  “Run!”

  Scrambling to her knees, Mari looked up to see the big man standing where she and her mother had been. Spiders swarmed over him as he used his fists to batter them away. And beyond him the torches drew ever closer.

  With a sense of unreality, Mari watched Xander’s gaze find her. Then his eyes grew huge with disbelief and disgust, and she remembered that she was clutching Rigel in her arms. Xander’s head began to shake, back and forth, back and forth as he stared at her incredulously.

  “It’s a male! Kill it!” a Companion shouted at the same time a frightened scream split the night.

  As one, Mari and Xander turned toward the scream in time to see a Companion holding a torch high, and dragging Jenna behind him.

  With an inhuman cry of rage, Xander raced for his daughter. He ignored the spiders that sprang on him, covering his back, neck, and head. He ignored the Companions that sighted crossbows at him. And, even for a while, he ignored the barbs that struck him, over and over. Mari counted a dozen arrows buried to the feathers in his body, but he was still running toward the man holding his daughter.

  “We can’t help him. Run, Mari! Now!” Leda’s frantic whisper brought Mari back to herself.

  “But they have Jenna,” Mari sobbed.

  “And if we stay they will have us, too. Run, Mari! Now!” Leda repeated. She grabbed her daughter’s hand and pulled, forcing Mari and Rigel to sprint into the darkness with her as Xander’s cries of rage and pain faded with the glow of torchlight and the scent of blood.

  12

  Nik had never been to Farm Island after dusk, and he didn’t relish the thought of a visit now, but at least he would be rid of the crying female once they got there. For what seemed like the thousandth time, Nik glanced over his shoulder at the captive Scratchers. The five of them were tied together, wrists to waists, so that they could march, one after another, in a line. The crying girl, the one that they’d captured just as the Scratcher male attacked them, stumbled along last in line, weeping inconsolably. The small group of Hunters, led by Thaddeus and his Terrier, Odysseus, surrounded the females, keeping well-lit torches held high so that they wouldn’t be surprised by any more spiders, and prodding the captives to keep up a fast jog. By now it was well past sunset, and the last thing the already battered group needed was for a roach swarm to catch them before they reached safety.

  “That last female is in bad shape.” O’Bryan caught Nik’s glance. “I know she’s just a Scratcher, but man, Nik, her crying is getting to me.”

  “Yeah, I know what you mean,” Nik said as his cousin fell into a steady jog beside him. “I’m used to them being depressed and pretty much out of their minds, especially at night. Who isn’t? That’s why they need us to take care of them like we do. But this female’s crying is weird.”

  “It’s like she’s mourning that big male we killed last,” O’Bryan said.

  “They do form attachments, a lot like children,” Nik said, glancing behind them again at the sobbing female as she stumbled to keep up with the others, who jogged, blank-eyed and completely silent, with the Hunters. “Males try to steal the females from the island. And some of the females actually seem to go with them willingly. Two did just that a week or so ago. They were shot coming out of the Channel with the male who was leading them away.”

  “Well, this one must have been attached to the male who attacked us. Do you think he might have been trying to protect her?”

  “Hell, O’Bryan, is that even possible? You know how the males are—they get so violent and out of their minds that they can’t even be domesticated like the females. Would it know that it was protecting the girl?”

  “You’re right. It’s probably not possible,” O’Bryan said, wincing as the female drew a breath and then began sobbing even louder.

  “She’s younger than the others. She’s just afraid. The forest terrifies me at night, and I’m not a childlike Scratcher. I imagine being out here is doubly frightening to a half-wit. She’ll be fine when we get her to the island and the floating homes where it’s safe,” Nik said.

  “Yeah, I’ll be glad to get rid of her, too. Not far to the bridge now,” said Miguel, breathing heavily. The man was obviously in pain—his left cheekbone was bloody and swollen, and he’d fallen back to the rear of the Hunters with Nik and O’Bryan.

  “Miguel, that cheek looks bad. You sure you’re okay?” Nik asked.

  “Fine. I’m fine. Wish we’d got that bitch who hit me, though.”

  “Heal up and come back out with me. Maybe we’ll get lucky and run into your Scratcher again,” Nik said.

  “You’re going to keep searching?” Miguel said.

  “Of course I’m going to keep searching. You saw the tracks as clearly as I did,” Nik said with no hesitation, though a good measure of irritation. Why the hell did the pup seem important only to him?

  “Yeah, and I also saw that the spider pack crossed over his tracks. A half-grown canine, even a Shepherd pup as big as that one was, can’t survive an attack by an entire pack of those things,” said Miguel.

  “Oh, really? That’s the same half-grown canine who can’t have survived the fucking bloody beetles and damned swarming roaches—yet those were his tracks, I’m sure of it,” said Nik.

  “I’m with Nik—the pup should be found,” O’Bryan said before Miguel could respond. “If he’s still alive, he has to be a truly special canine.”

  Miguel shrugged and then winced painfully. “Hey, I hear you. I’m in, too
. As soon as this is healed, I’ll go out with you again.”

  “I’ll hold you to it,” Nik said, choking down the comment he wanted to make—the one where he told Miguel that he really needed Hunters who were also Companions. Using a Terrier’s nose to track would help him far beyond what humans could discover. And, of course, there was also the fact that Miguel’s skin had been broken—badly. It was doubtful he would heal enough to Hunt, or be chosen as a Companion, ever.

  “Halt!” Thaddeus called back at the group, and the Hunters pulled the Scratchers to a ragged stop.

  Nik looked around them and could see that they’d come to the edge of the pine forest. Before them the torches illuminated an ancient stretch of broken asphalt, and as they paused clouds scudded across the face of the moon, veiling the feeble, milky light. Then, with a sudden gust of wind, rain began to drizzle through the canopy, making a comforting pitter-patter on the fronds of the ferns and causing the broken road to glisten like a shattered mirror.

  Nik gritted his teeth and muttered a curse. The rain would dilute the pup’s trail. He had to get back to that big holly bush early tomorrow with hunting Terriers before the scent was completely untrackable.

  “In the lookout! Hunters to enter the island!” The shout pulled Nik’s attention up to the observation blind that had been built into the last of the massive pines that bordered the asphalt.

  “Go ahead. I have you covered,” came the answer from the tall Companion who moved out on the wooden deck, crossbow notched and ready, and his Shepherd by his side.

  Thaddeus waved to the guard, and then motioned for the group to follow him. They jogged onto the broken road, following it up to the bridge. Thaddeus lit the torches that framed the entrance.

  “First, Miguel, I don’t like the way that wound looks. I give you leave to return to the Tribe and get it tended. Lawrence and Stephen—accompany him,” Thaddeus said. “The rest of you watch the Scratchers as we cross the bridge. Don’t let them misstep. They fall into the Channel at night and we’ve lost them and wasted a Hunt.” Thaddeus caught Nik’s gaze as his Hunters began cutting the thick ropes that bound the females together. “Nik, you’re responsible for the last girl.”

  “Me? Why?”

  “Because your puppy chase made us late.”

  “We found sign of him!” Nik tried to keep his tone reasonable, but he was just so damn sick of explaining the obvious.

  “Sign, but no pup. What we did find was a hunting pack of wolf spiders, a grown male Scratcher who needed killing before he killed us, and a female who won’t shut up.” Thaddeus went to the crying female, cut the rope that connected her to the Scratcher in front of her, and with a rough jerk pulled her forward, handing the tether to Nik. “Like I said, you’re responsible for her.”

  The female stumbled and Nik had to grab her arm to keep her from falling to the ground. She gave a little sobbing shriek and scrambled as far away from him as the rope would allow, then stood there, crying and looking at Nik through large, liquid eyes.

  “I think you should try talking to her,” O’Bryan said.

  “Talk to her?”

  “You know, like you would a scared pup.”

  Nik snorted sardonically. “A scared pup has more sense than a Scratcher.”

  “Oh, come on. You know that they can understand us just fine, even though they don’t talk much—or at least during the day they can.”

  “All right! Let’s move out!” Thaddeus called from the front of the group, and they began to shuffle forward.

  The Scratcher girl’s crying increased and she kept backing away, pulling Nik with her, as if she thought she could drag him into the forest.

  Nik sighed and wrapped the rope around his fist, planting his feet. “Come on now,” Nik said, as gently as he could while he pulled on the rope, trying to coax the female forward. “You don’t want to go back there. It’s dangerous.”

  “Nik, you gotta get her moving. Thaddeus is already pissed. He’s going to skin you if she holds us up anymore,” O’Bryan said.

  “Go on! We’ll catch you.” Nik shooed away his cousin and then faced the female. She was just so pitiful and ugly! Like all the Scratcher females, she was small. Actually, this one was even smaller than usual. Her dark hair was full of ivy and leaves, and her flat-featured face was smeared with dirt and snot, tears and blood.

  “You don’t have to be afraid. You’ll be safe on the island.” Nik gestured toward the bridge and the group that was moving away from them and onto it. “Everything will be okay once you get there.”

  The Scratcher met his gaze, and spoke. “Nothing will be okay again. You shot my daddy.”

  Her voice was small, and choked with emotion, but her words were completely clear—perfectly understandable. Nik had a sudden flashback to when she hurled herself at the dead Scratcher’s body, clutching it and keening. Thaddeus had had to drag her away from the corpse. Her emotional response had been strange—there was no doubt about that. And now she was speaking to him? At night? She really had been connected to that Scratcher male.

  “What is your name?” Nik surprised himself by asking.

  “Jenna.”

  “I’m Nik. Jenna, would you let me help you across the bridge to your new home?”

  Jenna hesitated, wiping her face with the back of her hand. She looked from the bridge to him, her face suddenly alight—bright and burning. “Would you let me go? Please?”

  Nik felt as if she had just gut-punched him. “Jenna, I can’t!” he blurted. “And even if I could, you can’t go into that forest alone at night. You’d be killed.”

  “You don’t know everything, Nik.” Tears began to leak down her face again.

  “Okay, sure, you’re right. I don’t know everything, but I do know that if you don’t go over that bridge with me, Thaddeus will drag you over it.”

  “Is he dead?”

  “Thaddeus? No, he’s right up there and he’s going to—” Nik began, purposely misunderstanding, but the innocence in the girl’s big eyes stopped his words. He drew a deep breath, ran a hand through his hair, and began again. “Yes. Your father is dead. I—I’m sorry,” he added, feeling as if he was trying to balance on shifting sand.

  Jenna’s slender shoulders drooped. “Why?”

  “He attacked us. We had to kill him.”

  “Not that. Why are you sorry?”

  Completely taken aback, Nik had no answer for her. He just stood and stared at the girl, until finally she wrapped her arms around herself as if trying to physically hold her small body together, and slowly started up the broken road to the bridge, leaving Nik to follow her.

  They caught up to the group easily. Nik was shocked by how agile Jenna was, which was totally unlike the other Scratcher females who moved as if they were not really aware of the world around them. During the daylight hours they worked slowly, silently, but meticulously in the fields where something mysterious about their touch made each crop thrive and each harvest bountiful. At night they could only be led, prodded, goaded, or herded. Left on their own, it seemed to Nik as if the other captives would have behaved like normal Scratcher females, or any other burrowing animal, they would try to find a cavelike hole and crawl into it. If a hole wasn’t readily available, they’d scratch one into the dirt and then hide in it.

  They didn’t take care of themselves.

  They didn’t converse.

  They didn’t weep for their fathers.

  They didn’t ask questions in small, knowing voices, or stare at him with big, tearful eyes.

  Nik watched Jenna from the corner of his eye as they moved carefully down through the last of the rusted skeleton of the bridge and to the road that wound around the eastern edge of the island along the Channel River. Jenna was still crying, though softly now. The rain mixed with her tears, washing the blood and dirt from her pale face, and leaving her looking very young and very sad.

  “You caught up before Thaddeus noticed you were lagging. Good thing, too. He definitely got
up on the wrong side of the nest today,” O’Bryan said. He glanced at Jenna. “And she’s not making so much noise now. Nice job, Cuz.”

  “I don’t feel so nice.” Nik hadn’t realized he’d spoken aloud until O’Bryan gave him a stunned look, saying, “Did one of those spiders bite you? Damnit, Nik. You should have—”

  “No, no I’m fine,” Nik said hastily, not looking at Jenna. “Just real ready to be home.”

  “Cuz, I second that. But no worries, there’s the dock. It’ll be no time now.” O’Bryan clapped him on the back. “And you did finally find sign of that pup of yours.”

  “Yeah, I did. It’s been a great night.” Nik’s voice sounded flat to his own ears and when he glanced to the side he saw that Jenna was staring at him. “Come on.” He gave her rope a little tug. “Let’s get you to your new home.” Looking away from her, Nik picked up his pace, leading the girl through the Hunters to the other Scratchers who were standing silent and empty-eyed on the wide wooden dock. She followed him with no further protestations until he reached the dock, then she stopped as if she’d run into an invisible wall. Nik glanced back at her to see her staring out at the Channel and the row of floating houses that bobbed lazily with the current.

  Nik hesitated, and then instead of pulling her onto the dock, he went to her, speaking low in what he hoped was his best calming voice. “It’s okay. The houses are where the Scratchers—” He paused and then corrected himself. “—I mean, they are where your people live. The water keeps them safe. No bugs can get to them, not even swarming roaches. Just, uh, pretend like they’re floating caves.”

  “Nik, you know they’re mindless! Stop wasting time trying to talk to it. You’re holding us up. Again.” Thaddeus glowered at Nik from the boat they would row out to the floating houses. The other four Scratchers had been lifted aboard, and they sat silently, staring down at their hands.

  Nik took Jenna’s elbow and gently, but firmly, guided her to the boat where Thaddeus promptly grabbed her by the waist and tossed her in with the others.