The Liar of Red Valley

by Walter Goodwater

  “Silence!” His voice rose, filling the cavern, filling Sadie’s skull. From somewhere in the cavern came a leathery scrape across the stone and Sadie imagined a massive fist coming to crush her where she stood. “I will not be insulted in my home, not by you or any other. This world is a dark, inhospitable place and you are weak. If I left you on your own, you would be prey. You would be carrion. You would be nothing.”

  His eyes raged with molten fury. The heat of it washed over her and prickled her skin. But Sadie had her own anger and she wasn’t ready to calm down and grovel at the King’s feet—if he even had feet. She was ashamed at giving away the King’s secret, but she’d done what she had to. No one told her how to be the Liar. If the King was so powerful, why had he trusted his weak subjects to keep his secrets safe? Because he had to.

  “I didn’t give you your wound,” Sadie said. “I didn’t make enemies with the Hunter in the Dark and all those others. I didn’t ask to be a soldier in your war, and neither did Mary. But you recruited us anyway, because you needed us.”

  They stared at each other across the distance between then, the Liar and the King, the speck and the storm. Sadie felt the weight of those awful eyes bearing down on her and wanted to look away. Hell, she wanted to run away. But her problems weren’t going to solve themselves, and in the end, she really had nowhere to run. So she stood. And she stared back.

  “It has been too long since I had an audience like this. I had forgotten the stubbornness of your family,” said the King. “When mortal creatures come before me, I am accustomed to their fear and hatred. But defiance, that is a rare trait. The first Liar was similarly defiant. It was partly why she was chosen.”

  Internally, Sadie let out a huge sigh. Okay, she thought. Guess I’m not going to die quite yet.

  “I meant no offense,” Sadie said. “But I stand by what I said.”

  “As you should,” said the King. “I have rested here for a long time. I am fond of this place. I do not wish to see it come to harm. And it was brave of you to come here and tell me what you had done, on your own. That is admirable. So to answer your impertinent question: yes, I will fight, if it comes to that. And I might call on you, as I did your forebear, for aid.”

  Sadie didn’t know what to make of this creature lurking under the hill. Other than his size and power, was he any different from the things inside of Tips Bar? Why should she trust him? Why should she want to help him? But, strangely enough, she did.

  “Alright,” she said. “I’ll help, if I can. But I still have a lot to figure out with this whole Liar thing.”

  “See that you do,” said the King. “You have enemies of your own.”

  Don’t I know it, Sadie thought. Sensing their time coming to an end, Sadie braved one last question. “My mom,” she said. “Did you know her?”

  The King paused a moment. The cavern was perfectly still as he considered his answer. “We met,” he said. “She came before me, as you have done. She stood near where you stand now. I was fond of her as well. She proved an able servant.”

  What did you think of him, Mom? Were you scared? Did you trust him?

  “Thank you,” Sadie said.

  “Take better care on your ascent. The way above remains treacherous.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Climbing out of the King’s well sucked. The path just kept winding and winding. Sadie did her best to keep her feet under her and away from the edge. She walked for what must have been hours, though in the dark it was hard to know for certain. When she finally stepped back into the basement, her legs felt like hardening concrete and sweat was running down her back. The King’s Man was waiting for her, as if he hadn’t moved a muscle since. He probably hadn’t.

  “The King thanks you for your time,” the King’s Man said. “And wishes you a safe journey home.”

  She’d always found the King’s Men strange: their emotionless faces, their weird clothes, their delayed way of talking. The strangeness had gone way up when she’d seen the others waiting in the basement, unmoving. But after talking to the King himself and knowing that he spoke through these peculiar puppets—that his blood flowed inside them—Sadie was about ready to slap this bald man in a suit in his pale face and run screaming.

  “Actually,” Sadie said as she fought to keep hold of herself, “I was hoping you could give me a ride. I need to pick up a car.”

  As the King’s Man drove away, Sadie twisted in her seat to stare back up at the King’s house. People in town were always guessing at what it was like inside, what the King was like. Now she knew, and wished she didn’t. She’d imagined him being much like her, like a human, living alone in his big white house on a hill. A sad, noble, mysterious benefactor. Maybe that was the whole point of the empty manor: the illusion of normalcy. Would the citizens of Red Valley feel differently about their benevolent protector if they knew the truth? Would they storm the hill with pitchforks and torches? Who was she kidding: they wouldn’t care. People had to find a way get food on the table; they didn’t have time to worry about the dark things lurking on the edge of town, as long as they stayed there.

  Once the trees hid the manor from view, Sadie spared a thought for the King’s warnings about his enemies coming to Red Valley. He didn’t seem afraid, though how would she know? And he said he’d fight, but he’d been wounded fighting these things before, and he’d been stronger then. He’d claimed that their previous battles had destroyed everything around them, which made Sadie wonder how Red Valley would fare. The King said that he cared about the people in the town, but she doubted that would be enough to spare them from becoming collateral damage.

  They turned off the side road and started back toward town. What would Graciela think when she told her that she’d been to see the King? Or when she tried to describe him?

  But even as she thought this, she remembered Beto’s battered body and Graciela’s averted eyes when she dropped her off. She probably needed to give her friend some time, and hope that would be enough. They’d been friends since grade school, and Sadie couldn’t imagine—

  The front tires in the heavy car exploded in a loud bang. The car began to swerve all over the road as the King’s Man tried to control it, steel rims gouging the asphalt. Sadie sloshed around in the backseat, the loose seatbelt barely holding her in place. The car turned sideways and finally came to a stop blocking both lanes of traffic.

  Sadie spilled out of the car just as the sheriff’s deputies arrived. There were three patrol cars waiting for them. Sadie glanced back and saw the spike strip they had laid out on the road.

  Oh, you stupid, stupid men.

  “Get your hands in the air and get out of the way,” one of the deputies demanded. His gun was pointed right at Sadie. She raised her hands, but did not move.

  “You don’t want to do this,” Sadie said, her voice fluttering with adrenaline.

  “Stand aside!”

  “Listen to me. One of your deputies just went to the hospital,” Sadie said in a rush. “You all heard about it, you must have. He went up against one of the King’s Men, and got his hand bitten off.” She locked eyes with the closest deputy, a young man with a bead of sweat on his nose and a leveled shotgun. “I was there. I saw it. I heard him scream. He thought he could beat the King’s Man, but he never had a chance.”

  “Get out of the way or be treated like the enemy,” one of them said. He was an older man with a black mustache and jowls that hung over the collar of his uniform.

  “Enemy?” Sadie said. “This isn’t a war.”

  “Yes, it is. And you’re about to be on the losing side, little girl.”

  There was a groan of metal as the driver’s door opened. All five deputies trained their pistols and shotguns on the King’s Man. Sadie’s gut filled with sour dread. This was not going to end well. She inched off the road into the dirt and knelt down, her hands on her head. The deputies barely even looked at her.

  “Put your hands where we can see them and step away from th
e car, sir.”

  The King’s Man did not move.

  They’re all about to die, Sadie thought.

  The King’s Man did not raise his hands. They hung limp at his sides, as usual, as he walked around the car and stood in front of the firing squad. His mirrored eyes surveyed each of the deputies in a slow arc.

  “The King finds this unexpected interruption,” the King’s Man said, “displeasing.”

  “You are under arrest,” the deputy with the black mustache said.

  “On what charge, Deputy Lester Jones?” said the King’s Man.

  “Put your hands up!”

  The King’s Man cocked his head. “No.”

  “Put your hands up,” Deputy Jones said, “or we’ll be forced to open fire.”

  Oh, hell. They weren’t here to arrest the King’s Man; they’d come to kill him. They were even stupider than she thought.

  “The King wishes—”

  But they didn’t let him finish. “Time’s up.”

  The King’s Man started to move, but was too late. The deputies fired as one and the world suddenly roared with noise. The bullets and shot tore into the King’s Man. He staggered back against the car, and the windows shattered under the barrage. Dark blood—the King’s blood—burst out on his blue suit and spattered his pale skin. He stayed on his feet longer than any human could, his face registering nothing as his body was cut apart.

  The cacophony stopped when their guns ran empty. The King’s Man slumped to the road and did not move. The deputies didn’t move either, just stared at the bloodied man and ruined car over their smoking guns.

  “He was unarmed,” Sadie heard herself say. Her voice was muffled in her ringing ears. “He did nothing wrong. And you shot him!”

  The deputies belatedly remembered Sadie was there. “Shut up,” the older one said. “He was resisting arrest.”

  “So you murdered him?”

  “You said it yourself. Those things are dangerous to everyone in Red Valley.”

  “No, just to morons who pick fights with them.”

  The deputies were looking uneasy and a bit surprised. They were in uncharted territory now. And there was a witness.

  “You’re under arrest,” the deputy said as he started toward Sadie. He tucked his pistol away and retrieved handcuffs instead. “Things have changed around here. If you’re working with the King, then you’ve got no place in this town.”

  “The King’s been here longer than any of us,” Sadie said. “There wouldn’t be a town without him.”

  “He’s got to follow our laws, like everybody else,” the deputy said. He didn’t have the ironclad confidence in his voice that she’d heard from Undersheriff Hassler. He sounded like he was repeating something he’d been told but wasn’t sure if he believed. “Now get up.”

  But before Sadie could stand, the King’s Man spoke. No, that wasn’t right. The King’s Man’s mouth was open, but his lips didn’t move. This voice came from the King’s Man, but it was a different voice altogether, one that boomed across the road and echoed off the nearby hills, one that Sadie recognized.

  “You miserable ingrates,” said the King of Red Valley. His words were like a cataclysm. “I have held back the outer darkness. I have given you life and bounty. I have stayed my own wrath when you make a mockery of my power. And this is how my endless patience is welcomed. With violence.”

  “What is this?” the young deputy asked Jones. “What do we do, sir?” But he didn’t have any answers; none of them did. They just stared around at the empty hills as the terrible voice surrounded them and spoke of doom.

  Sadie felt the ground under her start to shake.

  “You assault my anointed with your petty weapons of war. You confuse my infirmity for your strength. You are nothing. You are not worthy of my violence. But blood demands blood.”

  The road split open. Deputy Jones tried to jump out of the way of the widening expanse, but it swallowed him like a hungry mouth and he vanished beneath the earth. His screams lasted only a moment before they went silent. The other deputies scrambled back to their patrol cars as more cracks appeared.

  “I will not be mocked.”

  One of the patrol cars tipped front-first into a new chasm. Metal bent and snapped; glass shattered. The other cars backed away at frantic speeds, even crashing into each other. But they did not seem to notice, and they did not slow until they disappeared around a turn in the road, their sirens fading to nothing.

  The King’s voice fell silent and the road began to knit itself back together. After a few moments of unnatural twisting and grinding, it almost looked as if nothing had happened. There was no sign of Deputy Jones or the swallowed patrol car.

  Sadie just knelt there, hands still on her head. She knew the King was powerful, even before meeting him in person, but she hadn’t expected this. The very earth of Red Valley responded to his commands. What the hell did Undersheriff Hassler expect to do against that? The King’s Man they’d shot still hadn’t moved. His dark blood spread across the road. Some of it had been smeared on the lenses of his mirrored sunglasses.

  War, the deputy had called it.

  She heard a car coming down from the manor before she saw it. It was the Cadillac she’d seen before. But he was not alone. Two more old cars followed, one painted green, the other yellow. Unreadable faces stared out from the windshields of each.

  The first car crept around the ruined one and stopped near where Sadie knelt. The King’s Man stepped out and opened a door for her.

  “The King requests that you complete your journey in alternate transport,” he said.

  Sadie looked at the fallen King’s Man. “What’s going to happen to him?”

  “The King wishes you to remain focused on the tasks before you,” the King’s Man said. “He apologizes for the unfortunate delay.”

  “Right,” Sadie said as she got to her feet.

  The King’s Man paused, head turned. Then he said, “The King promises that the source of these disturbances will be addressed. And soon.”

  Sadie didn’t know if that should make her feel relieved or terrified. Or both.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The second King’s Man dropped Sadie off at the hospital. Thankfully, they saw no more sheriff’s deputies on the way. The parking lot was mostly empty, and Sadie found her mom’s red Nissan without much trouble. She allowed herself to forget what she’d seen beneath the King’s house and on the road afterward and just focus on the freedom a car would provide.

  But any excitement at the thought faded as she approached the driver’s side door and looked inside. Her mom’s car was a mess, as always: food wrappers littered the floorboards, gum wrappers filled the ashtray, a paper coffee cup with a ring of lipstick around the mouth sat cold in the cup holder. And the weight of her mom’s absence clamped down on Sadie’s chest like a vise.

  She sat on the curb next to the car. Tears spilled out and dripped onto the concrete. She tried to catch her breath, but the sobs stole it away. Her mom was gone and was never coming back. She was gone and Sadie was left, like an old paper coffee cup, half empty and alone.

  You should have told me, Mom. About everything. I would have listened. But you got too good at keeping secrets. Too good at believing the Lies, just like Mary said. Too good at keeping people away.

  Or maybe Sadie would just have to learn to do the same. Couldn’t get hurt that way. Couldn’t get left behind.

  When the tears stopped and Sadie could breathe again, she fished the car keys out of her backpack and unlocked the car. The inside was blistering hot, but Sadie welcomed the heat as she thumbed away the last of the tears from her cheeks.

  Unsurprisingly, there was no sign of her mom’s ledger anywhere. It couldn’t be that easy.

  “Alright, you piece of junk,” Sadie said as she tried the key in the ignition. “I need something to go right for once.” The engine groaned, shuddered, and gave up. Sadie swore and wished her mom had done more Lies for Honest Bob. �
��C’mon…” she said through gritted teeth, but the engine still wouldn’t turn over.

  Sadie rested her forehead on the steering wheel. She could feel the tears threatening to return. Mom, you died and left me with just secrets and crap. All I need right now is for your stupid car to start. Is that too much to ask?

  She turned the key one last time and pumped the gas. The car coughed and belched black smoke, but then the engine turned and the car came to life. Sadie exhaled and allowed her shoulder muscles to unclench. The A/C kicked in and blew frigid air into her face. She closed her eyes and just let the warmth of the car seat and the coolness of the air conditioner seep into her body.

  Alright, she thought after a wonderfully long self-indulgent moment, you have a car, twenty bucks in your wallet, and a quarter tank of gas. What are you going to do with it? After talking with Mary Bell, she knew the basic rules of being the Liar, but what she needed was experience. She needed people to know she was a threat.

  And she had an idea.

  She drove to the only drug store in town and bought a jumbo pack of Band-Aids, some rubbing alcohol, and a bag of cotton balls. The cashier gave her a look that she pointedly ignored. Then she drove back to the Treehouse Diner. Denise met her at the door, grease-stains on her apron and a ballpoint pen behind her ear.

  “How you doing, hon?” she asked when Sadie came inside. “You ready for me to put you back on the schedule?”

  Sadie smiled weakly. “Not yet. I still need a little time to process… everything. But I think I can help out another way.” When she explained her idea, Denise raised a penciled eyebrow, but she didn’t object. It was an unconventional way to drum up business, but business was business.