“They involved themselves in this situation when that flying man interfered.”
“He saved the lives of those scouts. You were going to kill them.” She watches me closely, unafraid. “Or am I wrong about that?”
“I do the will of Gaia.”
Victoria nods to herself. “Then she will show us Luther’s Homeplace. And there will be no violence between our people and his, because we follow the will of our mother.”
Do I detect irony in her tone? I let it slide. Instead I focus on the foothills before me, crags and cliff sides, for signs of human habitation—trails blazed along the ridges, caves that yawn black in the predawn darkness. There are plenty of openings in the rock, numerous places where Luther could have tucked his tribe away, high above the marauding bands of goblyns hungry for their next kill.
I scan the rocks and slopes before me with a keen awareness for heat signatures, the pulsing beats that would come from a human heart.
“Vincent is concerned, my lord,” Victoria says presently. “The men are exposed. The higher ground surrounding them makes them easy targets.”
“Tell him to trust Gaia.” I scan my field of vision from left to right. “And to trust me.”
Victoria shakes her head. “It’s Luther’s infidels the men distrust, afraid they will gun them down without a fair fight.”
“That is not Luther’s way. He is a man of peace.”
There: two—no, three heartbeats. Quivering rapidly in the night, each hidden behind large outcroppings of rock along a low ridge. No more than thirty meters up the steep grade and spaced ten meters apart. Wise of Luther to have sentries posted.
I point them out, unseen by the naked eye. “Have Vincent speak to them, explain why we are here. We come in peace. Emphasize we will not raise our weapons against them.”
“Are the three sentries armed?” She peers into the darkness, locating the mind of each one.
“We must assume so.”
“Gaia didn’t tell you?” She raises an eyebrow.
I should slap her for such insolence. “We haven’t much time, my lady.”
She relays the message to Vincent, who steps forward from the pack with his empty hands out to the sides.
“Friends! We come in peace,” he calls up to the sentries. “You have no reason to fear us. We have never sought to harm your people. We are much alike, sharing many of the same gifts. And we share the same enemies.” He pauses, looking up along the ridge for any sign of movement. He could be speaking to the mountain itself, by all appearances.
Then a narrow cascade of sand shuffles down the hillside and a voice demands from above, “Who are you? Why are you here?” The guards remain hidden, but they adjust their position, no doubt lining up the sights of their weapons with the men below.
“We come from the coast, fifty kilometers west of you. We are the people of Lord Cain, whom your leader is well acquainted with. Please let him know we are here with a message.”
A few moments of silence drag on before the voice returns.
“Very well. Lay down your weapons if you truly come in peace.”
Vincent’s hands remain floating in the air at his sides. “Unfortunately, we cannot comply. Our weapons are not intended for you. There are dangerous people headed this way in an armored vehicle, and we are here to meet them.”
“Who’s coming?” calls down another of the sentries, located just south of the first voice.
“They are from the United World.” Vincent pivots to face the second voice. “They seek our destruction, both yours and ours. For now, they have sent only a handful of spies into our land, but more will follow in greater numbers. And when they come, we will be overwhelmed by their strength.” He pauses. “We must stop them now before it is too late.”
“And your message…for Luther?” the first sentry speaks up again.
Vincent nods amiably. “We request his permission to act without any interference. We must apprehend these enemy spies and take them with us back to Lord Cain, to be done with as Gaia wills.”
“What if Luther refuses to give you this permission?” The third sentry speaks up for the first time, a woman’s voice.
Vincent faces the dark hillside where her voice originated. “Then we would ask to speak to him directly. Either way, we wait for you to pass along our message. But we ask that you make haste, as there is little time before the spies arrive.”
“How do you know they’ll come here?”
“They have nowhere else to go,” Vincent says simply.
Voices whisper along the ridge before another stream of sand and gravel tumbles downward in the wake of a retreating shadowy form.
“Now we wait,” I mutter. “We’ll see how deep a sleeper Luther is.”
Victoria regards me for a moment. “You haven’t slept at all.”
“I will sleep soundly once these UW bastards are dealt with.” I smirk, recalling the blade she held not so long ago. I plan to sleep alone.
“And what will be done with them?”
An image of the soldier I staked into the hard-packed shore passes through my mind’s eye. The man’s corpse will be plain to see by the Argonaus and its crew. And Gaia-willing, there will be four more bodies to add to my message for the United World government. I will drench the sand crimson with it: They are not welcome here.
“You will reap the whirlwind...”
I frown at Victoria’s hoarse voice, the look of horror she casts upon me, as if she’s seen everything in my mind. Did the images somehow transfer through this link we share?
“Focus.” I grip her by the throat. “My use for you is dwindling, woman.”
We turn our inward gaze to the dark hillside where a figure descends the steep grade, followed by a massive figure whose arms and legs gleam in the moonlight like a robot from an old film. Luther and his pet cyborg, Samson the bodyguard. Both appear to be unarmed. They make their way down with caution, familiar with the shifting sand and ash at their feet, tumbling in rivulets beneath every step.
“With whom am I speaking?” Luther’s voice echoes off the ridge above him. He halts halfway down.
“I am Vincent. I come seeking—”
“I know why you are here.” Luther gives him a direct look, not intimidated by the warrior. “Are you in communication with Cain?”
For the first time, Vincent seems unsure of the situation. “Yes, I—”
“Then he and I will speak directly to one another through you. Is that understood?” Luther’s tone leaves no room for misinterpretation, asserting instant control over the situation.
“Very well,” Vincent says.
“Tell him it’s just a power play,” I say to Victoria, who relays the message. “We could overwhelm these nomads easily. But for now we will play along.”
Vincent nods to no one in particular, hearing Victoria’s thoughts. “Lord Cain agrees to…speak through me.”
A change seems to have come over Luther since the last time he showed up at the Shipyard gates. “Tell him clearly, in no uncertain terms, that the United World team is under my protection. As long as Milton is with them, he will be their escort. He will bring them here, and I will discuss concerns that affect us all. They will remain here while I wait for Cain to arrive in person. At that time, he will participate in the dialogue I have started with the UW representatives. Now relay this message to Cain, exactly as I have said it.”
“No need,” Vincent says with a disdainful smile. “He can see and hear all that we say. In real time.”
Luther clenches his jaw. “What does he say to these terms?”
Vincent pauses, listening again. “Lord Cain says there is no reason for this matter to involve you. The UW spies have attacked our people, not yours, and we seek only to repay the wrong they have wrought—”
“That’s not what I heard,” rumbles the cyborg, taking his place beside Luther and folding his steel arms across his massive chest.
“Do you also intend to speak directly to Lo
rd Cain?” Vincent’s tone makes it clear the half-machine is unwelcome in this conversation.
“Nope,” Samson said. “But he should know we recognize a load of crap when we hear it.”
I mutter a few curses. Vincent chooses not to pass those choice words along to his audience.
“When Milton came upon the scene, you were attempting to strip the UW soldiers of their oxygen supply, and you had already injured two of their team.” Luther’s gaze focuses on the blades sheathed across Vincent’s torso. “They were cut. One in the leg. Another in the arm.”
How does he know this? “Their presence alone is an attack upon our people, both his and mine!” I shout. “They are not here for our welfare. Their intent is far from benign.”
Victoria relays the message, and Vincent voices it to Luther.
“I seem to remember telling you why they were venturing inland,” Luther says.
“For the children...” Vincent replies, puzzlement spreading across his features before he catches himself. Of course this is news to him.
“We have something they lack: the ability to reproduce,” Luther continues. “The destruction they wrought upon our continent had an unexpected side effect on the rest of the world.”
“Came back to bite ’em in the ass,” Samson mutters.
“They’re sterile. That’s what you’re saying.” Vincent tilts his head to one side at this revelation. “So they are coming to take what is ours. Well, if that isn’t an attack on our people, I do not know what is. We have to stop them.”
Luther holds up a hand. “Now is not the time. We can use them, once we have convinced them to help us. We can’t risk turning them against us. Not so soon.”
“What do you mean?” Vincent softens my exact words: “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You are expecting children in your settlement, correct?”
“Of course,” Vincent replies.
Luther already knows this. All four of my wives are with child, and I also planted my seed in the fertile wombs of half a dozen other men’s wives. I alone hold that right, being my bunker’s alpha male—now the only one with virile seed to be found in the Shipyard.
“And you all have been exposed to the dust on the surface?”
“We have breathed this air since All-Clear,” Vincent says. “Gaia has blessed us for it.”
“But the United World does not see blessings as such,” Luther cautions. “They see us as subhuman freaks of nature. Any children you bear will be viewed in the same way.”
Vincent raises his chin. “We are Gaia’s chosen people. Let the UW call us what they will. It means nothing.”
Luther pauses, collecting his thoughts. “They will exterminate all of us once they have what they came for. Your people as well as ours.”
“Gaia would not allow such a thing!”
“Gaia again,” Samson grumbles, but Luther silences him with a glance. The cyborg exhales loudly through his nostrils.
“We are immaterial to them. They have bombed other settlements since All-Clear, obliterating them. On our journey west from Eden, we passed through many scorched ruins bearing signs of recent ballistic missile attacks. The UW doesn’t see our kind as human beings. All they want are the unborn children growing inside incubation chambers deep in Eden’s sublevels. My children. Samson’s.”
I narrow my gaze. “He is saying the UW doesn’t want any of my offspring, only his own. Is that it?” Victoria relays the message, but Vincent appears uncomfortable sharing it.
“Your children will be exposed to the elements when they are born. Your wives breathe the air while your young grow within them. Willard has convinced the United World government that the fetuses protected within Eden’s walls have not been contaminated.”
“These children in Eden—how can they possibly be yours?”
Luther’s shoulders sink. “When we were captured by Willard almost a year ago, he experimented on us. Samson and myself, as well as two women. Their ova were extracted, and multiple sperm samples were taken from us—against our will.”
“Not as much fun as it sounds,” Samson adds. “Believe me.”
“That was when they…robbed you of your gifts?”
Luther nods. “They amputated Samson’s powerful arms and legs. Tore out my claws. Removed Shechara’s eyes. All the gifts bestowed upon us by our Creator via the spirits of—”
“We haven’t come to listen to your heresy,” Vincent interrupts. “Only to ask that you do not interfere with our interception of the UW team. Nothing else concerns us.”
“And all that we ask,” Luther reiterates, “is that you allow us the time necessary to talk with these soldiers, to convince them to help us get our children out of Eden.”
I frown, glancing at Victoria. “Why would the UW ever agree to help them? They’re here to take the children for themselves!”
Victoria relays this to Vincent.
“It may seem counterintuitive,” Luther replies, “but we have reason to believe this team of UW personnel may be willing to see things differently. Two of them no longer wear their protective suits. They should begin to notice changes in their physiology within a matter of days. During that time, we will keep them here with us, and we will show them the two incubation pods that were smuggled out of Eden—”
“What?” This is the first I’ve heard of it. “When did this occur?”
“We have reason to believe,” Luther continues, “that the woman driving that armored vehicle has defected from Eden. She sent two of our unborn children to us a few weeks ago via a gifted courier, one who is able to make himself invisible to the naked eye. We will show them to the UW doctor and allow him to run certain tests on them.”
“What will these tests prove?”
“The United World government has yet to ascertain that these children are one hundred percent human, unaffected by our gifts.”
I shake my head. “This changes nothing.”
“You have not met Arthur Willard,” Luther says. “He is not planning to simply hand over these unborn children. They are little more than a means of leverage for him, to be used as he sees fit. He won’t think twice about exterminating them if things don’t go his way. He only wants to leave this continent.” Luther pauses at the gravity of the situation. “Willard is an unpredictable man, and he may very well destroy the tenuous relations he’s established with the UW.”
“But if he is able to bargain with them, then what?”
The crease in Luther’s brow relaxes for the first time. “The children will be safe, free from Eden. Our people can join forces to take them away and then, together, we’ll protect our shores from the United World’s retaliation. We won’t be alone in this. The spirits of the earth will be with us, of course.”
More heresy! To Victoria, I growl, “Our warriors should kill these infidels—a holy slaughter in the name of Gaia our one true mother!”
She watches me. “I doubt you’d want me to share those sentiments, my lord.”
“Their children do not concern us!”
Or do they? If the fetuses in Eden truly are the UW’s only hope for the future, then to destroy every last one would be a surefire way to bring the United World to its knees. While my descendants continue to reproduce in greater numbers and multiply in the decades to come, the people of Eurasia will die out as a species—if Eden’s incubators are out of the picture.
Mass abortion would lead to their mass extinction.
Victoria cringes back from me without breaking our physical link. There is no denying that she has read my thoughts, and they repulse her.
“Has Cain nothing more to say?” Luther glances at the warriors behind Vincent who shuffle their feet, impatient and agitated. Samson adjusts his stance, prepared to throw himself in front of Luther the moment any shooting starts. “I know our peoples do not share the same beliefs, but we are discussing our very survival. If we do not work together, we will be no match for the UW troops when they pour upon your sho
res.”
Vincent nods at length. “Gaia has told us the same,” he relays my words. “She desires that we join forces with you and your people.” He pauses a moment to let that sink in. “So we will do as you ask. Lord Cain will arrive the day after tomorrow, along with every fighting man and woman from our tribes. Until then, our warriors here will not interfere with you or the UW spies. We ask only that you provide us with shelter from the sun in the interim. Providing that you have the space available.”
Luther’s eyes appear to glisten in the moonlight. “Of course. We have more than enough room for you.” He opens his arms wide in a broad gesture of welcome. Samson, on the other hand, stares down at my people, speechless. Perhaps he did not foresee such a peaceful outcome, and he is disappointed there will be no fighting. “You look hungry. Join us inside, please.”
I cannot help but sneer at the look on Luther’s face, as eager as one whose fervent prayers have finally been answered. He’s begged for months to have our people join together as one. Now he will have his way.
And I will play along until we reach Eden. Then my warriors will be given their orders: Find the incubation units and disable them. Every last one.
Victoria pulls away from me, breaking our link and shattering my view of the warriors climbing the foothills to meet Luther and Samson. I scowl in the dim light of the bedchamber as she gathers her clothing and pulls it on, covering her nakedness in haste.
“I am not through with you.” I grab hold of her wrist as she rises from the bed.
She casts a cold gaze upon me. “But I am through with you, Cain. I will not be party to what you have planned. It is pure evil.”
I scoff, pretending she can’t possibly know what I am planning. “Luther and I finally decide to bury the hatchet, and you—”
“Don’t you dare try to deceive me.” She wrenches her arm free. If anything, she has only grown stronger during her pregnancy. “I know your thoughts as if they are my own. They disgust me. You disgust me.”
“You would dare speak to me like this? After all I have done for you? I made you my wife, for Gaia’s sake!” An honor in and of itself.
Spirits of the Earth: The Complete Series: (A Post-Apocalyptic Series Box Set: Books 1-3) Page 61