“Let me go,” I said lowly, refusing to look at him.
“No can do, Princess.” He puffed his chest out and stuck his thumbs into his belt buckle. “The price Fuchsia put on your head is too high to resist. You must’ve done something really bad to put her in such a generous mood.”
So there was a bounty out for me. That was something I might be able to work with. “What did she offer you?”
“A generous contribution of scarb from her colony to my harem.” He grinned with hunger. The thought that a swab would offer her own scarb up like that made me sick. “We’ve been without company for some time now,” he added.
“I can offer you something much more than that,” I blurted, sounding more confident than I felt.
“Oh, yeah?” he raised a dusty eyebrow. “And what’s that?”
My mind raced. I had to think of something, but what would entice these desert pigs to release me? I strained to produce some brilliant miracle that would get us all out of this, but we had nothing—no possessions, no power. My mind was blank.
“I’m waiting.” He sneered, a bead of sweat making a track down his grimy skin. Time was up. I needed a solution now. Still, I couldn’t think of anything.
“She’s a Bearer,” Nathan’s voice suddenly rang out.
A tremor went through the entire canyon. All the scarb turned to the far back corner where Nathan was being held.
The tall ranger took a step toward him, leaning his ear in Nate’s direction. “What did you say, boy?”
“She’s a Bearer,” Nathan repeated, his chin in the air. “You wouldn’t want to throw away a scarb like that, now would you?”
I cringed. What is he doing? This ranger already had his feelers all over me; I didn’t want to give him any more reason to do so.
The ranger turned back to me, a glint shimmering in his seven irises. “Are you a Bearer, swab?” There was a new kind of greed there. I was about to tell him my brother was crazy, and not to listen to him. It wasn’t even a lie. Nathan was crazy to tell him about this.
One of the other rangers wearing a large sombrero stepped forward, addressing the leader by name. “He might be lying to you, Veto. He ain’t no swab, you know?”
“He better not be lying to me.” Veto’s voice suddenly turned dark. “I don’t take well to those who try to cheat me, comprende?”He made a slicing motion against his neck, then took another step toward me, his face in mine. “So I’ll ask you one more time. Is what the boy says true? Are you a Bearer?”
My heart sank to my toes. Thanks to Nate, there was no way out of this now. If I told him it wasn’t true, Nate would be killed. If I said it was, we would be in worse danger than we already were. I gritted my teeth. “Yes, it’s true.”
The ranger studied me a hard moment. He licked his lips. “Change of plans, boys.” His voice rang out across the canyon walls. “The swab stays with us.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Veto
I felt like strangling Nathan as soon as I was free. The good news was that Veto wasn’t going to hand us over to Fuchsia, but the bad news was that he wanted to hold onto me for himself, probably to breed some more of his filthy desert rats. But for the time being, I’d play the thing out with Veto rather than face Fuchsia and a death sentence. We weren’t going to fight. Yet.
“I’ll be king of this whole desert,” Veto said lowly to me as he had his men marched me back into the narrow, winding canyon passages. He threw his arms out. “With you, I’ll be king of the whole world. No more need for swabs, comprende?”
I did “comprende,” and I didn’t like it. “What about my scarb?” I demanded. Will he kill them before I can find a way for us to get out of this?
Veto puckered his lips, causing the black hairs of his upper lip to touch his nose. “I’ll give your scarb until morning to choose,” he said after a long minute. “They can either join my band, or they can die.”
“You won’t just kill them?” I asked, surprised.
He shook his big head, causing dust to fly off his hat. “We aren’t the wasteful kind, señorita. The desert taught us not to be ages ago. If they don’t cause me no trouble, I’ll take ‘em.”He gave my arm a nudge. “I need all the help I can get with all these swabs around, comprende?”
Still, resources had to be scarce. This was the desert after all. How many scarb could he sustain? I was glad that the rangers weren’t just going to kill my scarb, but I also knew that not many of them would happily join this group.
“Let me talk to them first,” I told him.
“Fine, fine.” Veto waved his hands in the air like he was swatting away a bee that had suddenly turned annoying. “But they must decide by morning.” With that, he left to walk at the front of the procession.
After five minutes of walking through the winding canyon, we came to another opening, this one even larger than the first. It stretched at least two football field lengths. Steep walls surrounded the entire area, giving it the feeling of being inside a large bowl. It was filled with handmade buildings and shelters, all crudely made out of wood and bits of discarded metal, probably taken from the remains of human settlements. Animal skins stretched over many of the windows and doors. The most prominent feature, however, was a slowly turning windmill at the center. I could smell the fresh water it pulled up from the ground drifting in the hot air.
Rangers lounged in the doorways, bottles of liquor at their feet. Some sat around died-out campfires chewing on bits of rawhide and even a bone here or there.
“You eat meat?” I asked the ranger who held my right arm incredulously.
He shrugged. “Our stomachs can handle it. Better than starving, right?”
We passed a pen of goats and a fat pig as we went further into the settlement.
“Where are all the women?” I asked the ranger. So far all the rangers I’d seen had been male.
He gave a wicked grin. “They don’t last long here.”
I really didn’t like the sound of that.
But it was kind of fascinating the way the entire band was run like a pack of wild dogs. Filthy and coarse, but it worked. They’d learned to survive.
The rangers brought me to the center of settlement, right to where the wind mill was. It slowly brought cupfuls of water up out of the ground with each turn of the wheel. The water dumped into a large wooden cistern to be stored. It was pretty clever.
We came to a large building, not more than an oversized shack, with a red scrap of cloth over the doorway and a deer skull nailed to the top. Veto emerged from it with arms stretched out wide and a clean, woven poncho placed over his shoulders.
“Welcome to my kingdom,” he said, flashing his yellow teeth as he grinned widely. He walked toward me. “You are now part of it,” he said putting his hand on the shoulder of the guard at my left. “Let’s treat her like the madre she is,” he said with great compassion, “or will be.” He laughed, and the others laughed with him. He put his arm around my shoulder and walked me away from the guards.
“Now, you must be tired and hungry. The desert can make you completely loco if you’re not careful.” He stopped us at the wooden cistern and picked up a dented tin cup. He filled it with water and put it to my lips. I hesitated a moment. But the water was actually pretty cool from the shade of the mill. I drank. “Good girl.” He patted my shoulder like a puppy, then steered us back to his house. “I’ll show you where you and your scarb can rest while I have my men make up a feast. We need to celebrate!”He squeezed my shoulder and laughed loudly. I ducked as he took us through the low doorway into his house. It had just one room, but part was portioned off by a large, hanging sheet. “This is where you and your females can sleep.”The word “harem” came back to mind. A king-size bed with plush pillows sat on the opposite side of the room.
I had absolutely no intention of sleeping in that hut or that bed.
“Rest here,” Veto said, stroking my chin with his grubby thumb. “I�
��ll go get your scarb.”With that, he left. I looked at the pile of blankets on the floor and decided to sit, trying not to think what had happened on those blankets.
How am I going to get us out of this? Veto’s rangers have us all split up. There’s no way we can get out of here without being more organized. I’ll have to insist that I meet with all my scarb tonight. I glanced again at the big bed. Before anything worse happens.
I heard the Iva hissing before I saw her. Three rangers dragged her into the hut. She had her heels dug into the ground and was spitting like a pinned cat. The rangers practically threw her at me. She caught herself and was back on her feet in less than a second, ready to fight. But the rangers just left laughing about “the spirited one.”
“Iva,” I said calmly. “It’s just me.”There was still a wild look in her eyes. Her hair was matted with sweat and dust. Panting hard, she took me in, then her shoulders relaxed and her fists unclenched.
“These scarb are beasts,” she huffed. “I could kill them all right now.”But I noticed a deep tear in her right wing.
I put a hand on her arm. “I know.”
Just then, the rest of our female scarb were brought in. There were only twelve left after our fight with the rangers. Fear was bright in their eyes.
“Come sit,” I told them, patting the blankets and spreading them out so we could all sit together. Everyone did, except for Iva who stood rigidly, her eyes continually flashing to the doorway.
“How can you be so calm, Cat?” she fumed. “Do you understand what they intend to do to us?”
“I do,” I said.
“Well?”
“No one’s going to harm us,” I said resolutely. “We’ll figure something out.”
“Stupid of your brother to get us into this,” Iva sneered.
Anger instantly flared up in me. “Nathan didn’t think it through,” I said hotly. But at least we’re still alive and not in Fuchsia’s hands.”
“I’d rather die than stay one more minute in this pit,” she said lowly. The other women nodded their heads.
“Me, too,” I agreed. “We’ll get out of here.”
Iva turned on me and showed her broken wing. Tears filled her eyes, and her perfect face crumpled like broken glass. She fell to her knees and started sobbing. I’d never seen her like this, and it totally took me aback. Iva was always so strong, so composed.
Not knowing what to do, I put a hand on her trembling shoulder. “I’ll get us out of this,” I told her again, hoping, without any idea of knowing what we were going to do, that I was right.
We waited in the hut for half an hour. Iva quietly cried. The others just sat quiet. And my mind strained to think of a plan. They’ve put so much faith in me. I can’t let them down now. But seeing Iva crumble made me feel hollow and terribly inadequate. The one who had all the answers for me now needed me to come up with the answer. Problem was, I had no clue what to do.
Veto came in through the doorway, chest puffed out like a king penguin. “Come, my señoritas,” he said with a bow. “Tonight, we feast.” His cronies followed, circling us like hawks and herding us out into the settlement. We shuffled our feet along the dusty path between the hovels toward a roaring bonfire that lit up the northern canyon cliffs. The thick scent of barbecuing meat filled the cooling evening air. It made my stomach churn. Although we’d been hungry for days, I’d lost my appetite.
A wide variety of foods was spread out onto the long flat rocks of the mesa wall. Our male scarb were there, too, standing in several small groups mixed amongst the rangers. No one was being held anymore. Except for Bram, I noticed. Four rangers kept him from running to Iva. Immediately, I went over to Nathan and Derrick. Both had jugs of water in their hands.
“How are you?” I asked my brother, quickly looking him over for signs of injury.
“Fine, I guess,” he said lowly. “I hope you’re not too mad at me,” he said timidly, the way he used to when he was worried Mom would scold him for bringing a toad into the house.
“Oh, Nate,” I sighed. “I can’t be mad at you. I don’t know if it was the smartest thing to do, but we’re all still alive and that’s the most important thing.”
“It’s all weird though,” he admitted. “It’s like they’re trying to fatten us up before they kill us or something.”He leaned in close to me. “Are you sure they aren’t cannibals?”
The thought hadn’t crossed my mind, but I couldn’t tell him no. I wasn’t sure of anything anymore. Rangers who took prisoners, ate meat, and kept animals?
“Madre,” Veto called to me from his seat by the bonfire before I could answer Nathan. “Come sit with me.”He held out a large leg of meat as if I were a dog he could entice over. I rolled my eyes and bit my lip. “Come on, come on,” Veto crooned. Two of his largest rangers came over to make sure I complied.
“I have to go,” I told Nathan, and reluctantly left my brother.
“That’s a good girl,” Veto praised me, patting the pillow next to him for me to sit on. His two guards pressed in behind me. I sat. “Get our madre here something to eat,” he ordered one of the rangers passing by with a large plate of food. The ranger offered the plate to me. “What would you like?” Veto asked as I tried to hold my breath from the stink of the pig meat. “Chops? Ribs? Bacon? I had my fattest pig slaughtered for us tonight, come on now and eat.”
I quickly scanned the plate for something I might be able to swallow. “I’ll just have some lettuce.”
“And a bottle of blackberry wine, too,” Veto added and shooed the ranger off to retrieve it.
I picked at the lettuce on the plate. It looked like it had been sitting out in the sun too long, but it was food. So I ate it. I didn’t bother with the wine, sipping from the tin cup of water instead. The rangers drank freely of the liquor, though, except for the two that Veto kept sitting right behind me. The rest however, were soon laughing and talking loudly. Veto started making crude jokes and swaying in his seat.
Then I heard a sound I hadn’t heard since my childhood, the roar of a distant jet in the sky. I looked up and couldn’t believe what I saw. Sure enough, a small white plane crossed the sky above us.
Veto noticed my gawking. “Pretty fancy, huh? Some of those swabs are starting to refurbish relics from the old days. Guess they’re leaning on human technology more and more.”He pulled his belt up over his belly, since it had slipped down from his large meal. “You have to be pretty powerful to afford one of those though,” he continued as the jet made its way over the mesas and further into the horizon. “That one belongs to Suzette. She has the richest American colony, just over there in Texas, right on top of a large oil deposit. Guess that’s how she can fuel it. Word is she plans to conquer Europe using those planes.” He stuffed a large piece of pork into his mouth. “I’m going to be that rich someday. Fly my own little airplane all around the world.”
I tuned him out and watched as the plane vanished from sight. Swabs with planes. The world was changing fast.
The sky turned from pale blue to deep navy and still Veto ate. Someone brought out a banjo and twangy music filled the air. Some of the scarb started to dance. They tried to get my females to join them, but they all resisted. They were just forcing a small girl who’d been one of our best foot soldiers to join them by the bonfire when I stood up.
“I think it’s time I speak privately with my scarb,” I told Veto boldly. “We’ve had a lot of fun tonight, but morning is coming early. I want to help them make the best decision possible.”
Veto wiped at the liquor running down his chin but didn’t bother with what had already spilled onto the curly hairs of his chest. “Very well.” His words were slightly slurred. “But I won’t be having you do that sort of thing in private. You can talk very well over there.” He motioned to the far side of the bonfire. “Where my amigos and I can keep a good eye on you.”He motioned for the two guards to follow me.
“I would really rather go somewhere
private so we can speak freely,” I pressed.
“No go,” Veto slashed his hands through the air, making an imaginary “x.”“I’ve changed my mind,” he said darkly as he picked his steak knife off the table and twisted it into his plate. He slid his other arm over my shoulder. “Let’s forget about talk tonight. Drink some more wine.”He sloshed the red liquid at me.
“I would really appreciate talking with my scarb,” I said as politely as I could manage through my gritted teeth.
“My scarb,” Veto corrected sharply. “You’re all part of my little band now.”He gave my shoulders a shake, resuming his drunken playfulness. “Isn’t that right, little madre?”
My heart sank. How am I going to get us out of here if I can’t even talk with my scarb? I looked at Derrick on the opposite end of the bonfire. His hands clenched in fists. For the first time, he wasn’t right there at my side. I could see it was killing him. We’ll be fine. I wanted to tell him. But Veto splattered the last of the wine into his mouth and announced loudly to the entire camp, “All right, amigos. Fiesta’s over. Time for bed.”
Immediately, the rangers began to stumble away from the bonfire. Some just plopped down on the dirt right there, eyes closed.
Veto stood, keeping his arm around me, pulling me to my feet. His guards were right there to make sure I didn’t try anything. “You’ll spend the night in my bed,” Veto said lowly into my ear. “If you give me any trouble about it, I’ll see to it that all your scarb are dead by morning.” His less-intoxicated rangers herded all my scarb into a tight circle inside a pen designed for animals. This pen backed up against the rock wall of the mesa. My body was completely rigid and my mind numb as he walked us away from any protection I could hope for.
SWAB (A Young Adult Dystopian Novel) Page 24