by Maia Tanith
He almost smiles now, but it is humorless. “She is a different species to you. To us. Smaller. Weaker.”
I growl at him, deep in my throat. She may be a human, but she has proven her worth to me. She has the heart of a fighter.
He looks back at me, calm as anything, and nods in understanding at my unvoiced threat. “We won’t hurt you, or her. An enemy of the Emperor is a friend of ours. At least, for as long as you follow our rules.” He motions with his hand and I hear footsteps behind us. “Can you accept my terms? All things considered, I’d prefer not to have to kill you both.”
I look down at Hannah. Her skin is flushed red and her breathing is labored. “She needs medical attention. Will you help her?”
He bows his head in agreement at the implied bargain. “We will.”
Much as it rankles to bow my head before another, I have no choice. Hannah needs help. She must come first, before my pride. “Then I will accept your terms.”
Besides, they are enemies of the Emperor? My head swims with questions, with questions and with hunger and fatigue. It doesn’t make sense. No one lives in the forest.
A canteen is pushed into my hands. I gulp the water down like I’ve never drunk before. Clear and cold and delicious. I’ve never thought water had a taste until now. It tastes like gold.
I drink nearly the entire bottle and then a lump of dried meat is pressed into my hands. Before I bite into it, I look at Hannah and instantly lose my appetite.
I should have saved her the water. My greed took over.
As if he can tell what I am thinking, the soldier bends down and unscrews another bottle, and gently pours a few drops into her mouth. He looks up at me as he speaks. “We need to get her back to our base. We can look after her better there.”
I cram the dried meat into my mouth, chewing and swallowing so fast I feel pain in my throat. Dry jerky has never tasted so good. I can feel the strength returning to me. Well, some of it at least.
I will likely need my strength. We might still be in danger, and I do not completely trust these fake soldiers.
I am still chewing the dried meat when the soldier motions to me to stand. “We need to keep moving.”
I push myself to my feet. The food and water are now swimming in my empty stomach. I watch as another soldier silently appears from the trees behind me and lifts Hannah into his arms. His uniform is even more tattered than the first soldier, and his face dirty.
I feel myself tense at another man being so close to her. Protecting her is my duty, my right.
He looks at me and raises an eyebrow, as if he can hear my jealous thoughts. I can barely carry myself, let alone her, and he knows this. He turns and begins walking quickly away, his boots crunching on the mulch of rotting leaves and sticks on the damp forest floor. Now that he’s made himself known, he doesn’t have to worry about keeping quiet. He must have had great training in the past, to stalk so well.
“Be careful with her,” I manage to croak out. He does not bother to reply. I lope after him, my legs still swaying unsteadily under me.
The leader walks up beside me. “It’s a days’ walk from here to get to—well, you’ll see.” His eyes glint at me, his mouth turned up in a smirk. “We might as well get to know each other.” He leaves the sentence there, obviously waiting for me to speak first.
I glance at him and grunt, then keep walking, keeping my eyes fixed on the man holding Hannah.
The leader smirks again. “I’m Raeath. I was a soldier in the Emperor’s army. Now I wear his uniform while I fight against him.” He smooths down the front of his shirt with one clawed hand. With his other hand, he is still holding tight onto the handle of his gun.
Perhaps I am not looking at pathetic as I feel. Perhaps they still see me as a threat. “And the others?”
One of them walks behind us. He doesn’t need to watch me. I won’t try to escape while they hold Hannah, when I am too weak to take her away. And his words, while I have yet to trust him, are making me curious.
Raeath nimbly jumps over a fallen log and I scramble over, cursing in my head at my clumsiness in my weakened state. “That’s young Daem ahead of us carrying the human kit—he was a pilot once, and Bjiol behind you was a smuggler. We have all sorts. You name a profession and the Emperor has targeted them at one time or another. Those who escape often end up finding their way to us. The lucky ones, that is.”
Us? The words swim through my head. “There are more of you?”
“Oh yes.” He smiled his half smile at me. “There are more of us.”
The soldier at the rear speaks up. “You’re telling him too much.”
Raeath looks sideways at me and answers, not bothering to look back. “Perhaps I am. Perhaps I will regret sharing so much. But I don’t think so.”
He lifts his hand holding the gun and I stop. The soldier behind me stumbles.
Raeath points the gun at my forehead. “Our leader will be pleased to make your acquaintance. We don’t get many people making it this far into the forest without an interesting story behind them. Make no mistake though, stranger, if you do anything to surprise us on the way there, there will be no second chance. We have learned the hard way not to take unnecessary risks.”
I stare him in the eyes. He isn’t bluffing. In his eyes, I can see a man like me, a man who has killed before, out of necessity perhaps, or out of pleasure, and would kill again. I also see a man like me who has made difficult choices, whose only possible path in life was perhaps not of his own choosing, but a means to survive. I see a warrior who will not think twice to act if he is threatened.
I nod. Words don’t come easy to me at the best of times, although I know I need to say something else, so he knows I am on his side. For the time being at least, until I really know what his side is. “My name is Taark. I was once a soldier, too. One of my pack expressed her disapproval of the Emperor in somewhat harsh terms. I did not discipline her, as she spoke nothing but the truth. She was found dead the next day. I was accused of her murder and sent to the Games.”
I blink tears away from my eyes. Her death still haunts me. “We were to be mated.
“I have no quarrel with anyone except the Emperor and his cronies. I will not surprise you. I want to live.” I look towards the cub who has only just noticed we’ve stopped, and now stands looking back at us from under the hanging branches of a tree ahead. Hannah is still unconscious in his arms. My heart beats too hard when I look at her pale face. “I want her to live, too. So I will do what you ask.”
Raeath looks satisfied at this. He lowers his arm.
Have I let them know too much? That if they have her, I would do anything, anything in the world that’s asked of me, to keep her safe.
The soldier speaks from behind us. “How do we know we can trust what you say?”
Raeath looks at me and tilts his head, answering before I can think of a reply. “We don’t. We just accept it. Zev will make the final decision.”
The cub turns and continues walking, Hannah still cradled in his arms. I hear the solder behind me spit onto the ground, but he doesn’t say anything.
The rest of the day continues in silence, with only muttered swear words when we cross a patch of thorny bushes that leave stinging scratches on our ankles. The stings are nothing to how the rest of my body feels.
I pass the time thinking about what they’ve told me.
Zev will decide my fate, and Hannah’s. I wonder who he is, this mysterious Zev.
They must have a camp somewhere in the forest, and well-hidden. I know that sentries scan the forest from the sky regularly from the low flying surveillance aircraft that are generally reserved for watching over smaller or more remote settlements where ground surveillance is deemed unnecessary or too expensive. The Emperor after all does like to keep a close watch on his people. Their group must not be large if they have managed to go undetected. I estimate maybe five or six more maximum.
Perhaps they are nomadic, it would be safer that way,
even in the depths of the forest. Maybe they raid settlements close to the forest. They have dried meat, after all. And they must be based next to a water source, but I don’t know of any rivers close by.
Whatever and wherever their camp is, I will find out soon enough. If they have medicine to help Hannah, I will stay with them until she is healed. Then—then I will figure something else out. How to deliver my promise and get her home.
My insides clench at this thought. She must go home, even if…
I don’t let myself say it aloud, not even in my thoughts.
For now, I walk behind the young cub and glare at his back. I should be carrying her, not him. He’s the only one who hasn’t said a word to me yet and I dislike him the most. Because he is the one saving her.
The days are shorter in the forest. In the middle of the day, the sun peeks through the gaps in the canopy above us and the few rays that make it down through the leaves to the forest floor only just illuminate the ground. It must only be late afternoon when the sun all but disappears, leaving the forest floor dark and treacherous. I stumble a few times, even though I can see well in the dark. All our kind can see well in the dark, but after walking all day, my vision is swims in and out of focus.
Hannah is now stirring restlessly. She has been moaning on and off for the last hour. Raeath, for all that he has no reason to care about her welfare, shoots her worried glances. Perhaps he is worried about how I would react if she were to die. They seem to want me alive for now.
Raeath finally calls for us to stop. “Eat, rest.”
He shoves a canteen of water at me and I take a long swallow.
The cub places Hannah on the ground, careful to make sure she is as comfortable as possible. He whispers something in Raeath’s ear, who frowns and nods.
He looks up at me. “Daem will go on ahead.”
I open my mouth to object, and he cuts me off. “You are too slow. She is going to die. Daem can get her there faster on his own.”
I know I am slow, but I cannot push my body harder. I grit my teeth and nod.
The cub picks her up again and strides off. I sink into the ground and stare after them as he disappears in the gloom. I don’t mean to close my eyes, but in seconds I am asleep.
I wake to a none-too-gentle shake from Raeath. He grins above me, his silhouette dark. I know he is grinning because I can see flashes of his teeth, but around us details are hard to make out. It’s well and truly nighttime.
The venom’s hold on me feels less than before. My head is not so fuzzy, and my steps are less clumsy. We move on faster than we had before.
I can’t make out any obvious trail but every so often the men will see something and nod to each other and continue or turn slightly one way or the other.
I am too tired to ask more questions. I want to ask about Hannah, but I don’t want to give myself away, the depth of how much I care. If I say it out loud, it will become more real.
A low hum from behind us. My guards crouch down and motion for me to do the same. There’s a flash of light above us as the low-flying aircraft scoots by just above the treetops.
“That’s the second one today. One came past while you were out cold before,” Raeath remarks. There is a question in his statement that I ignore. “That’s more than we usually see out here.”
I shrug. I am not so special that they’d send this many people to search for me. Or I didn’t think I was.
Not long after, Raeath stops and raises his arm. We are still in the thick forest, with nothing around that is any different to what we’ve been walking through. Roots make the ground uneven, and there is a layer of mulching leaves underfoot. The tree trunks are thick and tall, with vines weaving up and down and around them so thickly it’s hard to tell where the vines end, and the tree begins. The undergrowth is thick with grass with edges that leave little cuts all over your skin and spiky bushes that go no higher than knee high. It’s claustrophobic. I don’t like the feeling of being so enclosed by the trees.
Raeath signals something to the other man, who bends down and sweeps his hand across the ground. Perhaps they have left something here and are searching for it. Then he grasps something and pulls, and the ground is lifted away to reveal a dark entrance.
I breath in sharply. Their hide-out is a hole in the ground? This is where they have taken Hannah? I open my mouth and then close it again as I step closer. It’s not a hole. It’s a passage. A steeply sloping passageway, high enough to walk through if we stoop our shoulders.
Raeath bends over and enters, then waves me in. I stoop my own shoulders and follow.
The second man enters behind me and pulls the trap door closed behind him.
It’s pitch black. No matter how many times I blink, there is simply nothing to see. My knuckles twitch with tension. I am not built to live underground, like a rat.
“Put your hand on the wall and walk,” Raeath says. “Feel your way along. The ground is flat, mostly. Try not to trip because you’ll fall on me.”
The tunnel stretches for what feels like at least a mile. The air is stale, and stuffy, but breathable. I wonder how any fresh air gets down this far into the tunnel.
We walk along the sloping path and it takes me a few minutes to realize it’s leveled out. I can touch both sides of the tunnel with my hands without stretching out my arms. As we walk, I can extend my arms further until finally my fingertips only brush the wall either side. I can stand up straight now too. I roll my shoulders, ease out the cricks in my neck.
“Keep your hand on the left side.”
I do what he says, and we continue. The air feels cooler now, and the wall that my left hand traces feels less like packed dirt, and more like smoothed rock. Then finally, there a faint glow ahead of us. Light. Not enough yet to illuminate the tunnel and so faint its almost hard to see. But there is something ahead of us.
As we get closer to the light, I can start to make out shapes. Raeath’s silhouette, his shadow creeping back down the tunnel. The shape of my feet as they step carefully across the packed dirt floor. The rock under my left hand feels as though it’s felt the hands of a thousand men over the years, to the point of wearing smooth.
We aren’t in a man-made tunnel any longer. We’re entering a cave. No, a cavern. It is large enough that if I lift my hands above my head, I will not reach the top. The light source is a single blue-tinged lamp, the type they use on long-range spacecraft when the ship has long interludes between fueling. Ingenious, that they’d bring one underground. It would light the cave and the tunnel entrance for a year at least before it would need to be replaced. It must have been difficult to source—they are ruinously expensive.
The men are watching me, gauging my reaction.
“I never knew this existed.” I ran my fingertips along the wall, marveling at it. I’ve never been in a cave before.
“It wouldn’t be much of a revolution if everyone knew where we were,” Raeath remarks, too casually to be accidental.
I jolt my head back to look at him.
Revolution.
The word sparks a flame in my chest, a flame that I’d thought was long ago snuffed out. It’s a word I’d thought about many times, even before I was imprisoned. A word I’d never dared to say aloud. A word that led Marfin to her death, and nearly to mine, as well.
Here, under the ground in this damp cave, Raeath speaks it with confidence. It feels strange to hear it spoken. Strange and exciting.
“Now we go to Zev.”
The cave turns out to be underground cross-roads of sorts. Aside from the tunnel we have emerged from, there are two other exits. One is slightly lower overhead and looks as though men have dug it out. The other, the one we walk down, is a tunnel through rock, with stalactites hanging from overhead and dripping cold drops of water onto the floor. The ground is slippery underfoot.
“This was once an underground river,” Raeath explains. “We’ve expanded and extended it here and there.”
There are a thousand quest
ions running through my head. I start with the most important. “Hannah is here?” I finally say.
“Your human is here. She is being looked after.”
I don’t want her to wake up without me. She will think we’ve been captured again, or worse, think that I’d left her alone. “Take me to her.”
Raeath, who is walking in front of me and leading the way, he turns back to reply. “You’ll get to see her soon enough. Once we’ve taken you to Zev.”
“I want to see her first,” I growl, and straighten my pained back to look him dead in the eyes.
Raeath moves his hand to his gun. Behind me, I hear the other man move to do the same. “Let me remind you who is in charge here,” Raeath says softly. “You’re here because you might be useful to us. Perhaps you will be invited to join us. Zev will decide this. Until then, you have no rights here.”
I slam my hand into the wall in frustration, but my rebellion is over before it has begun. I need their cooperation if I am to see Hannah again. They have made it clear that I have to earn their trust first.
I have no choice but to follow them, raging on the inside, but on the outside appearing as meek as a newborn foal.
Hannah
All I remember is a burning pain. I have been coming in and out of what’s happening around me, and it could be minutes, or hours, or weeks since I blacked out, but I have no idea. I remember Taark’s voice, and being held by warm, strong arms. I remember jolting, like someone carrying me was running, with every bump sending waves of pain through my body until I blacked out again.
It’s ominously quiet. I’m sure I can hear the sound of wind in the trees, and the occasional chirp of birdsong. Not what I would expect to hear if I am in deep space, on my way home.
Everything is ominously still, too. No sense of movement, no vibration of engines. Nothing.