by Ruby Dixon
“They stood in our way. You said yourself we do not have time to lose. Now, are you going to keep sobbing over the corpses of men who would have fucked you to open a door, or are you going to come with me?”
I hate this man sometimes, I really do. I really hate it when he’s right. I head forward with the keys. “How long exactly am I stuck being your servant? Asking for a friend.”
“No, you are not.” He smacks the door, frustrated. “How does this open?”
I facepalm. Oh, this man. I don’t know what I’m going to do with him.
13
We head out of the city and into a wasteland.
I blink the dirt out of my eyes and pull my hood tighter around my face, even though it’s dark outside and there’s no one out here to see us. But there’s dirt constantly flying in the air and it slinks around our boots like a fine layer of sand peppering everything. There are no trees out here in the open, and even though it’s dark, I can’t make out any grasses or foliage. I can barely make out the cobblestones of the road because they’re so covered with grit. Everywhere I look, as far as the eye can see, there’s nothing but naked hill after hill.
It makes me nervous.
“What is this place?”
“Outside the mortals’ city,” Aron says, his tone implying that the answer is obvious. “The prosperous Aventine, devoted to the God of Storms.” The sarcasm is rich in his voice.
“I know that. It’s just…was there a fire recently?” I know the question’s as stupid as the last one. They called this the Dirtlands, didn’t they? Clearly this is dirt. A whole hell of a lot of it. “There’s nothing out here. How do they make a city out in the middle of nowhere? Shouldn’t there be farms or something? Pastures?”
Roads?
Freaking trees? Something? This empty wasteland is hard for me to fathom.
I’m used to cities and buildings crowding every bit of space they can. Cars and roads and sidewalks and landscaping. This place hasn’t felt truly alien to me until now. Maybe some part of my head thought I was just in a weird sort of amusement park and that at some point, someone would peel the curtains back and real life would be on the other side.
Looking at my surroundings, though, I realize that’s a dream. However I got here, I’ve been dropped into a world that’s very different from my own. For the first time, I lose hope that I’m going to get home.
I might be stuck here.
Forever.
I tighten my grip on the cloak around my shoulders. Fuck that. I refuse to let this place defeat me. It’s only been days but I’ve already survived slavery, an execution, and an assassination attempt. If I can survive all that this place throws at me, I will find my way home.
Aron grunts. “Aventine is on the edge of the ocean, so I imagine they do fishing and trading. Do you truly care or are you yapping just to yap?”
I clench my jaw and walk.
The dirtlands are eerie. The moon is high and bigger than the moon back home, dominating the night sky and so close that I can make out the pockmarks and craters on the surface without a telescope, which is a little eerie. I can’t help but feel like the moon’s going to crash into the world if it gets any closer. Then again, Aron doesn’t seem all that concerned so that must be normal.
Then again, Aron doesn’t know how to work a door.
I shiver as we move farther and farther away from the walls of Aventine. I know it’s wisest to get away—especially after Aron did his “killing six guards” thing, but I can’t help but be creeped out and worried about the direction we’re heading.
A city named Katharn is this way, I remind myself. The barmaid had no reason to lie to me. There’s a city in this direction. We just have to keep going through this awful nothingness—the Dirtlands—until we get there. “Hopefully this isn’t a long walk,” I say aloud, because it’s reassuring to hear my voice. “If this was like a desert, then I don’t think the city would get a lot of travelers, and they did. At least, I think that’s how it would work, though I’m not entirely sure that we shouldn’t turn around and get more food and water—”
“I know this place,” Aron says, his voice ringing out over the gently sloping hills of dirt.
“You what?” I turn and stop when I realize Aron has stopped, too. I glance uneasily at the walls of the city. We’ve been walking for what feels like a half hour, but we’re still far too close. Someone on horseback—or hippoback, or whatever those animals are—could easily catch up to us.
“I know this place,” he states again and lifts his hands. Faint sparks glimmer at his fingertips and the air feels charged with electricity. I can feel my hair standing on end as if I’m being shocked, and above us, the skies crackle with thunder.
I gasp at the sight. He’s lit up like a firecracker. “How did you do that?”
Aron ignores me. He lifts his hands toward his face, studying them with a frown furrowing his brow. As he does, I realize that the sparking light coming from his hands is being…sucked away. Like there’s a gigantic invisible vacuum and it’s pulling all of the energy out of him. He clenches his jaw as if concentrating, and the light coming from his hands grows stronger. It makes my head hurt to look at it, and I wince, squinting at the light.
The auras that surround his fingertips elongate and bleed away toward the distant horizon. He turns, his back to me, and I move to watch as he does the same thing in the opposite direction. Again, the magic bleeds away from his hands in the exact same direction as before.
Something’s sucking away his lightning, and it’s something over the hills.
“This is a dead place,” he tells me after a moment, and his fingers go out like snuffed candles. He drops his hands and looks around us thoughtfully. “There is no magic or life in these lands. It is being pulled towards the Citadel.”
“First of all, this is fucked up. Second of all, you could have done the lightning thing with your hands all this time and you break necks instead? What the fuck, man?” I give him an incredulous stare.
He grins at me, and it feels like more of a showing of teeth than a friendly gesture. “I like to break necks. Especially the necks of those that anger me.” He stares down at his hands. “And the lightning is…difficult. I do not think I am supposed to be doing it.”
I shake my head slowly, amazed. This man has no idea of what it means to be a person. Not yet. He makes my head hurt. “So your lightning is…what, being drained?”
“Everything is. The spark of life, my essence, everything. If we were to stay in these lands long enough, it would bleed our lives from us.” He points in the distance. “It is all being sucked away to the Citadel, the bastion of Tadekha, goddess of magic. Her devotees pull the force of every living thing for many leagues to power her temple. The High Father is not pleased by it, but he does not stop her.” He looks thoughtful. “Or so I thought. Perhaps she is part of the reason we have all been cast out.”
“Mmm. Lucky me.” I shiver in my long cloak and brush my fingers over my skin as I get another faceful of wind-blown dirt. “You think she’s there in the Citadel like you showed up here?”
“It is possible. I feel a great magic there, but it might be that I feel her followers draining everything.” Aron studies the distant horizon, frowning at it. “If she is there, I do not know if we should venture in that direction.” He flicks a glance over at me. “She is not a goddess that is friendly to me. Aventine and the Citadel have long been uneasy with each other.”
Lovely. “So if she’s being punished, she’ll be there, sucking up all the energy in the world like her own personal black hole. But if she’s not, do you think they would help us? Maybe give us some horses to get to Katharn?”
He shrugs. “Does it matter how fast we get to our next destination? Are you late for something?”
“Well, no—”
“Then we walk on. I have no wish to visit Tadekha or her sniveling worshipers.”
I clench my jaw. “Fine. We’ll keep going, then.”
<
br /> So we walk.
And we walk.
And walk. It feels like we’re walking endlessly toward a horizon that never changes shape no matter how long we walk. My feet hurt and the gigantic moon moves through the sky, disappearing behind the distant mountains on the horizon, and still we walk.
Occasionally I glance backward to see if I can see the city walls, but they disappeared hours ago, which makes me feel better.
Slightly.
As the sun rises, the skies bleed gold and pink, and I have to admit, I have a new appreciation for this day. This is the Hour of Blood. Dawn. Sunrise. I was supposed to be executed along with dozens of other blondes just because we had the bad luck to be slaves. A knot forms in my throat but I ignore it, just like I ignore the ache in my feet. Aron’s not slowing down, so I don’t either.
By the time the sun is up, though, I’m ravenous and so thirsty that my mouth feels like a desert. I’m also starting to resent the fact that Aron doesn’t seem to be stopping for anything. He doesn’t look tired, and his walk is just as brisk as ever. Me, I’m dragging. I’m sleepy, hungry, and exhausted. I also have to use the bathroom, but I haven’t seen one or even a bush to hide behind. There is literally nothing in the Dirtlands and I’m not about to pop a squat in front of my good buddy Aron.
I force my aching legs to move faster and stride up to his side. I’ve been walking a few steps behind him all this time because I simply can’t keep up with his effortless speed, but it makes conversation difficult. “Hi,” I say breathlessly. “Can we talk for a sec?”
He glances over at me dismissively. “You are talking. Speak.”
God, this guy really is a dick. I hate that I let him grab my ass. “What’s the game plan? We don’t know how long it’s going to take to get to Katharn, so like, when are we stopping to eat and rest?”
He scowls at me as if I’ve said something highly obnoxious. “You are tired?”
“You aren’t?” When he shakes his head, I sigh with frustration. “Well, here’s the thing. I’m mortal, right? Mortals need to rest and pee and eat and all that good stuff and you might not, but I sure do.”
That makes him pause in the middle of the dusty, dirty road. “Rest and pee and eat?”
“Not all at once of course—”
He tilts his head. “Should I be doing these things since I am now mortal?”
Tricky question, and I have no answer for him. “I don’t know? Do you feel the need to, uh, relieve your bladder?” This is such a weird conversation to have with a god.
Aron thinks for a moment. “No?”
“Then maybe gods don’t use the bathroom. Look, I don’t know. All I know is that I need to do these things.” I press the heel of my hand to my forehead, and I’m not surprised to find that I’m trembling with exhaustion. “So please, can we take a break for a few?”
He considers this. His hands go to his hips and he studies the wide open fields around us, then the road. Then he gazes back behind us, as if he can still see the walls of Aventine. After a moment, he glances over at me again, his expression sour. “Am I going to have to carry you, Faith? Is this what you are going for?”
My jaw drops. “You arrogant prick. No! I would like five fucking minutes to rest my feet. Can we do that?” I drop to the ground and sit on the dusty cobblestones, glaring at him. “The very last thing I want from you is a free ride.”
Aron snorts, as if he doesn’t quite believe that, and I want to punch his smug face. What a huge dick.
I ignore him, because truth is, it feels so damn good to sit down and rest. I’m thirsty and my feet hurt like there’s no tomorrow. I’m starving, too, but we didn’t bring food supplies. I wonder how far away Katharn is. I’m starting to worry that leaving the city was a mistake, but we couldn’t really stay there, either. I don’t know what to do. I look around at our barren surroundings. Somehow I thought journeying outside the walls would be okay. That there’d be a nice road and some trees for shade. That there’d be countryside and farmland or something. Maybe a stream to drink from.
This place is just empty. There’s absolutely nothing. It’s a little creepy and definitely makes me feel defeated just gazing out at it. “I need to stop for a bit,” I tell him. I’m suddenly exhausted from everything we’ve been through over the last few days. It feels as if it’s all crashing in on me and I don’t think I could get up if I tried.
As I sit and try to catch my breath, Aron paces. When it’s been all of two minutes, he gives me a cross look. “Well?”
“Well what? I’m still resting.”
He lets out an impatient breath. “For how much longer?”
I stare at him, irritated and a little aghast that he wants to get moving again already. “I don’t know—an hour? Two? Does it matter?”
“We should get going. You were so eager to leave and now you will just stop? This is not a safe place. We are not safe here.” The god gestures angrily at the mounds and mounds of dirt that make up the landscape. “Every moment we spend in this place, we are in danger.”
“For a guy that doesn’t even know what a bathroom is, you sure are certain of that,” I mutter.
Aron scowls at me. “I wish to go, Faith.”
As if that solves it. “Yeah, well, I wish I had better company. We don’t always get what we want.”
He looks incredulous, as if he can’t quite believe I’m not jumping to my feet to do his bidding. “Faith,” he says impatiently.
“Aron,” I reply in just as testy a voice.
“Get up. We are leaving.”
“You know what, Aron? People prefer it if you’re nice to them. I hear you get a lot more done. You should try it.”
“Nice?” His lip curls as if the very thought is repugnant. “Why must I be ‘nice’? I am a god—”
“Were a god,” I point out. “You were, and now you’re an Aspect.”
He narrows his mismatched eyes at me and then strides over to where I lie in the dirt. The hairs on the back of my neck prickle, but I don’t get up. I wait to see what he’s going to do. Aron moves to my side and touches my cheek with the backs of his fingers, a gentle caress. The brush of his skin against mine makes a spark jump through us, pleasurable and sharp.
I stare up at him in surprise, fascinated at that gentle touch. My non-existent panties are totally in trouble right now, because just that small touch is making me crazy.
“Faith,” he murmurs, voice gentle as he strokes my cheek.
It takes everything I have not to lean into his caress like a kitten. I close my eyes and sigh. “Mmm?”
“Get your ass up,” he says in that same gentle tone. “Because I am fucking leaving.”
I open my eyes and scowl up at him. “Bye.”
His nostrils flare. “I was nice! Get up!”
“Bye,” I say again and stretch my legs on the cobblestones. It’s not comfortable, but it infuriates Aron, and so it’s worth it.
We glare at each other for a long moment, waiting for the other to break. I’m determined not to, though, and I feel a triumphant surge when he turns his back and stomps away. Score one for the mortal. Of course, when he continues to storm away, I start to feel uneasy. “Where are you going?”
“I told you. I am leaving. It is not safe here.” He doesn’t turn around. “If you are wise, you’ll leave, too.”
That warning’s a little unnerving, but I don’t like the fact that he’s telling me what to do. I’ve had enough of that already, and the stubborn part of me just wants to ignore him even more. He’s trying to scare me into trotting after him, and it’s not going to work. “See you around, then. Good luck finding another shmuck to be your anchor.”
He doesn’t stop.
Fine, then.
I feel uneasy as he leaves. I watch his back retreat for quite a while, because the ground is so level. I wonder for a moment if I should go after him, and then I decide that no, I’m not. It’s only our magic bond—one that I never should have volunteered for—that�
�s making me have second thoughts. And I’ve been alone up until this point, haven’t I? I might be better off without Aron at my side. So I watch him go until he’s no more than a distant speck on the horizon.
That’s that. Fuck that guy.
The sun gets high in the sky. It starts to get warm. Really warm. Time to get moving, then. I get to my feet, which ache the moment I put weight on them, and start to head down the cobbled road in the same direction as Aron. For a moment, I feel foolish. We’re traveling in the same direction anyhow, but like petulant children, we’re not going to be together. It’s so silly.
Of course, he started it.
Of course, that sounds even more childish.
My head throbs and my entire body hurts. I realize it’s not going to get any better the longer I stay in one place, so I head after him on the road for a bit. Strangely enough, I start to feel better the moment I begin traveling again. I do wonder if it has something to do with our bond.
Before I can contemplate that thought for too long, I hear a low, rhythmic pounding. I press a hand to my breast, but it’s not my heart. As it grows louder, I glance up at the skies. Is this Aron’s doing? Some weird thunder god bullcrap to intimidate me? But the skies are clear and light blue with the early morning. I notice in the distance that there are clouds of dirt. That’s odd. Either it’s really windy…or something’s moving.
Unease worms through my belly.
A moment later, I see shapes slowly lumbering into view. A moment after that, I realize they’re not so lumbering after all. They’re actually going pretty fast for the land-hippos, and there are riders atop them. Their movements match the steady drumming I hear, and I frown at the sight. My first instinct is to hide, but there’s nowhere to go. I glance ahead down the road, but Aron’s not in sight any longer. Maybe I can beat them. They look as if they’re coming up from one side of the Dirtlands, so I limp into a half run, moving as fast as I can. Fear makes me move faster than I thought possible.