Zillow Stone in Paradise

by Brindi Quinn

  Way to lead us to such a lovely spot, Theodorius.

  “This had better be worth it.” I muttered. “We’re going to need to restock our water supply soon.”

  But Theo wasn’t paying much attention to what I had to say. He was distracted. He kept looking over his shoulder at Kipper, who hadn’t moved in the time it had taken us to cross the pit.

  “Theo,” I said again. “Water.”

  “Right.” He shook his head to shake off some of the collected sweat, forcing me to lean away to avoid salty splatter. “Don’t worry about that, Zillster. There’s a sorry excuse for a waystation not too far.”

  He looked over his shoulder again.

  That was when I made my move.

  In a flash, I had him pinned to the wall, one of my arms across his neck, my hip thrown into his groin.

  “Z-Zillow?” He released his fist and something small and clear fell onto the ground.

  I neared my sweaty face to his. “What’s going on, partner?”

  “I–”

  “Tell me.”

  I felt his adam’s apple bob against my arm. “L-let’s go into the cave, okay?” he said. Since when had he turned into such a stutterer? I waited for his eyes to betray the answer. His eyes were reluctant, however. They fled from me, falling over my shoulder in search of relief.

  But whatever they saw there only made them further troubled.

  Eyelids widening at an alarming rate, Theo took in a short, sharp breath.

  On your guard, Zillow Stone!

  I released him and spun.

  My intuition was right. There was movement on the far side of the bridge. A very short person was sprinting over the rocky bridge, much swifter than should have been possible. It most certainly wasn’t Kipper. It was a girl, with bouncing red hair tied back at the top of her crown.

  Head down, Theo put a hand on my shoulder. “Kill her,” he whispered to me, before dropping his forehead to my shoulder. “Please kill her.”

  Chapter 8: Murderer

  I had never killed anyone before. And I wasn’t about to waste my first kill on a stranger.

  That I was saving for Crash.

  I grabbed Theo by the collar and pulled him upright. “That gambit,” I said rashly, eyes fixated on the red-haired girl. “The Grav-100. You used it. That girl is the one, isn’t she? It’s Chloe.”

  Theo stiffened, indicating that I was right. “I’m sorry, Zill. You have to do it! PLEASE. I can’t.” He shook his head. “I’ve tried and I’ve tried, but I just can’t.”

  Theo’s desperation had reached new levels. He was more than weak; he was pathetic.

  “Then train, you dimwit!” I gave him a shake. “Mold yourself. Become stronger and faster until–”

  “Well dang! That’s not the point!”

  Theo’s Marker was closer now. She was moving across the bridge like a nymph.

  “What do you mean it’s not the point?!” I scathed. “That’s the whole damn point, isn’t it?”

  “NO. I mean, I could kill her, but I can’t.”

  I didn’t understand.

  “Every time I try . . .” He didn’t finish. Instead, he twisted away from my grip and turned his attention to the cave. “This place has no outlet, so she’ll be trapped. This is the only time it’ll work. Do this for me, Zillow Stone, and I’ll do anything you want. Just . . .” His eyebrows dipped in the middle. “Don’t make me watch, okay?”

  Make him watch?

  Annoyance hit me, sharp and direct. I folded my arms. “Kill her yourself.”

  This whole partnership was a joke. Theo had been using me from the moment we’d met. He’d used me to retrieve a retrect costly enough to buy the Grav-100. He’d used me to help him get to the pit. And now he was coercing me into finishing the game for him. Rather than spending my time hunting down my Marker, I’d been tricked into following a weak, broken boy from ruin to ruin, all in the hopes of gaining knowledge he probably didn’t even possess. I was days behind where I could have been, had I not met him. I could have killed Crash by now. I could have returned to the University a victor.

  If I finished the game for Theo, here and now, he would go home, and I’d be stuck out here, none the wiser.

  Theo was a con.

  The conniving boy was taken aback by my response, as if he actually expected me to agree to something so stupid – as if he really thought me that foolish. Panic was apparent on his brow when he realized I was going to do nothing of the sort. Kill his Marker for him? What rubbish!

  I wasn’t going to help him and there was nothing he could do about it. The one who was most certainly Chloe had just made it over the bridge, in nearly half the time it had taken me. I was faster than fast, but as it turned out, she was fast too.

  “Tch.” I felt my mouth object.

  When she reached the edge, she fell onto her kneecaps.

  “Made it,” she panted. “With seconds to spare.”

  She was holding her tracker close to her face and watching it intently as it blinked red. The glow of it flickered against her cheeks and reflected in her eyes, quickening faster and faster until–

  It stopped. And the pen-like object lit up vibrant blue. Theo’s mark copied, basking his hand in blue glow.

  Chloe let out a heaving breath of relief.

  From what I gathered, the blinking had been a countdown, and that countdown had just run out. The effects of the Grav-100 were set; if Chloe moved too far away from Theo at this point, she would suffer a penalty. Whatever the penalty was, the gambit pamphlet hadn’t been clear. Maybe Markers, like prags, had implants that could disperse shockwaves or poison when triggered.

  No, that didn’t make sense. Why would the unholy ones allow themselves any disadvantages within their own game?

  “Chloe.” Theo’s voice wobbled as he said it. His cheeks had taken on an ashy appearance, despite the heat of the air.

  The girl was fair, with a dainty nose and high cheekbones that kept her face on the borderline of being gaunt, though she was too pretty to be considered so. Her hair was vibrant red, to an unnatural extent. Starting tied up high, it reached to the center of her shoulders and wiggled against her black jumpsuit like a thick snake. The space beneath her eyes bore those trademark trios of upside-down pyramids.

  A Marker through and through.

  “Theodorius.” She didn’t pay any mind to me. She went straight for her mark, interlocking her gaze with his in a delicate yet steadfast way. “Are we going to fight?”

  She didn’t necessarily sound happy about it.

  Theo looked in no position to fight, either. He was juddering slightly, and struggling to find something to say. The pair of them stared at each other a minute or two, while I stood on awkwardly, before Theo finally nodded. Mouth grave, he dropped his pack to the ground and set about retrieving one of his long knives.

  That was when Chloe finally acknowledged me.

  “Whose are you?” she asked.

  I wasn’t property, but my mouth was trained. “Crash is my Marker,” it said, through bared teeth.

  “And you and Theodorius . . .?” she continued.

  I shrugged. We were no longer partners, as far as I was concerned. We were nothing.

  But Chloe left the question hanging in the air and I began to wonder if she was implicating some sort of romantic interest.

  Ha! That was laughable.

  “It’s not like that at all, Chlo!” The protest came from my former partner, who was suddenly fired up and shaking his head feverishly.

  He was worried that she’d think so? And why would she even ask in the first place? And had Theo just used a nickname for his Marker? I surveyed the pair of them.

  “Please don’t interfere,” Chloe told me. “You can watch, but please don’t interfere. I don’t desire to hurt one of Theodorius’ friends.”

  “Have at him.” My arms remained crossed. I wasn’t planning on interfering; I was planning on watching Theo get smoked.

  Chloe stowed he
r tracker somewhere on her person and stood with her knees bent in readiness.

  I didn’t expect much from Theo; he was an uncollected mess.

  Perhaps that was why I was so surprised when he suddenly charged at Chloe, menacingly enough to make me back against the mouth of the cave.

  Maybe this would be a proper showdown after all.

  Theo’s attack may have been fierce, but agility was on Chloe’s side. She zipped around her prag, landing an elbow into the back of his neck, while at the same time kicking in the back of his left calf. He staggered forward, but came up from the crouch, recovering with a twist of his hips and swinging his blade across Chloe’s shoulder. She let out a yelp and grabbed at her shoulder, and Theo took the momentary weakness to reach around behind her and grab firmly onto her ponytail.

  How quickly he’d resorted to hair-pulling. I shook my head in disapproval.

  Chloe used the move to her advantage. She grabbed ahold of his forearm and with her opposite hand, made a chopping motion, landing hard on Theo’s wrist. This time he was the one to recoil.

  “Hell, Chloe!” he barked.

  “S-sorry!”

  Sorry?

  It was hard for me to digest what I had just heard. Theo’s Marker was apologizing to him? What was the point of that? To catch him off-guard? To trick him into lessening his attacks? No, the apology had been more effortless than that. It had come out as naturally as when two people bump into one another at the market.

  Their people were born with extreme lust for ours . . . except this girl, with her delicate yet steadfast demeanor, didn’t seem all that lustful. If anything, she seemed indisposed.

  Maybe this one wasn’t as bloodthirsty as the rest. Maybe she was unique. After all, she didn’t appear to be taking any pleasure in the brawl. She didn’t smirk in the same disgusting way MY Marker did.

  That’s exactly what she wants you to think, Zillow Stone. I told myself. Don’t fall for it.

  Theo charged at her again, and she held up her arms to block, but he hooked his arm around her neck and readied his knife. It was a clear shot, yet somehow, Chloe’s vigorous clawing at his arm was enough to make him loosen his grip. She pivoted and rammed her open palm up the side of his cheek. From somewhere around Theo’s mouth, a spurt of blood escaped.

  Something was off.

  Though Theo’s shot had been clear, he had stalled.

  His fighting wasn’t bad. Aside from the hair-pulling, he was a better fighter than I anticipated. Not to mention, he had that knife, and although he’d only unsheathed one of the pair, Chloe didn’t have any weapon to speak of. Surely in the months that they had met and matched, Theo could have taken her. She was fast, but he was clearly stronger. Size alone gave him that. So why . . .?

  Theo punished Chloe by grabbing her around the waist and throwing her into the wall of the pit. Still, his weapon remained widely unused, hanging limply in his hand. Aside from that initial slash at her, he hadn’t put it to use, and now it was acting more as a hindrance than a help.

  Regardless, that last bash was enough to leave Chloe against the ground. Sweaty, she gripped at the wall in an attempt to pull herself up, but the thick and heat of the air were getting to her.

  Theo watched her struggle from a distance. His mouth appeared to move, but I couldn’t make out the words.

  “What are you doing, Theo!?” I shouted. “You have a clear shot!”

  Theo threw me a grimace that wasn’t fully readable, though it looked something like contempt. He was mad that I’d left him to do his own dirty work. Despite this, he obeyed me, coming directly over Chloe and raising his knife. She was clutching her torn shoulder again, while laboring to stand. The fight had been quick but intense, and it was now apparent that Chloe had borrowed whatever energy she had exerted. She hadn’t been properly prepared for this fight.

  She didn’t look like an unholy monster.

  She looked like a girl.

  Holy. Unholy. Marker. Marked.

  Theo put the tip of his knife against Chloe’s throat and held it there. At its kiss, she stopped struggling, and instead braced herself against the wall. Theo’s knife held resolute for a helping of seconds. In the meantime, Chloe began to speak. Though it was too soft for me to hear, it reached Theo and his shoulders hunched in response.

  This wasn’t at all what I had expected.

  Theo couldn’t kill her, not because of physical weakness, but because of another form. Theodorius wasn’t the killing type.

  Was I?

  I approached them. I came right up behind them. I put my hand over Theo’s fist that was still grasping the knife. Theo gave a jolt when he felt me there but did nothing to rebuke it. His knuckles were pronounced beneath my hand. Never before had I felt so strongly the line between life and death. There was something powerful about it, and it sent a shiver up my arm. I wondered if Theo could feel it too.

  If I pushed his hand, we would become murderers together.

  I understood then why Theo had asked for my help. Because he would never be able to win the game on his own. He didn’t possess the gumption to follow through.

  Did I?

  I told myself that the girl was unholy; that she would have done the same to me, if given the chance. I told myself that this was practice for Crash; that it was his neck beneath my blade.

  I watched Chloe’s pupils as they stared Theo’s down. Now that I was nearer, I saw the spark of life yet lingering behind her eyes. She didn’t read as broken – not fully. If she wanted to, I suspected she could have mustered enough energy to fight back. She didn’t look angry. She didn’t look defeated. She merely looked tired.

  “Go ahead, Theodorius,” she said. “But if you do it, please do it on your own. Otherwise it won’t count.”

  Her words were partially meant for me and they hit me quite sharply.

  She had a point.

  This wasn’t my fight.

  I let my hand fall and I stepped away, feeling daft for ever having approached them to begin with.

  And then the pretty girl, with red hair stuck to her cheeks by sweat, did something strange: She smiled. It wasn’t a full smile; it was something much softer. “Last time I told you that when we met again, this would end, Theodorius, one way or another. We can’t keep prolonging it. These dunes are going to ruin us. They’ll change us. I’d rather it end now, while I’m still me. So please–”

  Thunk!

  Theo’s hunting knife made a dull sound as it hit the ground.

  “Damn it, Chloe!”

  Just like that, the tension was broken.

  “I told you, I can’t do it if you’re watching me like that.”

  Chloe turned frantic. “S-sorry! What am I supposed to do? Where else do you expect me to look?”

  “Let’s just call it a day, all right?” Theo wiped his mouth on his shoulder. “Screw what you said last time. It should have ended then anyway. You had me and you let me go, so I owe you one. I can’t kill you when I’m in your debt. I’d never live it down, Chlo.”

  Chloe tucked her sweaty hair behind her ear. “Oh stop. I had no choice last time. It wasn’t a fair fight. You were worn out from that do-in at the marsh. Not to mention your foot was all messed up. It wouldn’t have counted if I’d beaten you then.” Her eyelashes fluttered. “If I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill you at your strongest. I won’t settle for less.”

  I squinted at them, studying as Marker and prag bashfully reminisced on their previous fights. Chloe was growing softer by the minute and Theo was sporting an idiot’s grin. I didn’t know much about the relations between men and women, but I was quickly coming to a conclusion, and it was one I didn’t understand.

  “WHAT THE HELL?”

  Rather abruptly, the pair of them ripped from their intense focus on one another and snapped heads to me. I hadn’t planned to uncork my aggression at them this way, but I couldn’t help it, foolish beings they were.

  Theo’s eyes opened wide in shock. “Uh, Zillster
?”

  “You don’t want to kill each other,” I accused. “You enjoy each other.”

  Crash’s taunting face flashed into my mind. Markers were evil. And we were their prey. Few Easterners ever returned from their stints in the wilds. Knowing that, how could Theo hold back? How could he look at her, a Marker, that way?

  They were the enemy.

  “Zill!?”

  “You’re not a warrior, Theo. You’re a–”

  I was about to go on when I realized the expression on Theo’s face wasn’t due to the allegations I had just made. No, his wide-eyed attention was directed at a very specific part of me.

  “Zillow! Your hand!”

  . . .

  At some point during the fight, my mark had flicked from green to red.

  . . .

  My veins reacted first by accelerating. I wanted a rematch with my Marker, but I didn’t want to be cornered in this hell pit when it happened. Gambits wouldn’t work now. There was only one way to go and no place to misdirect to. That left one option and one option alone.

  We had to get out of here, and fast. Theo’s unnatural relationship with his Marker would have to wait.

  Chapter 9: One Four All

  Three prags and one unholy one fled through the dusk. According to Kipper and Theo, there was a waystation an hour west, close enough that I wouldn’t need to waste any gambits on misdirecting Crash again. Chloe kept close to her mark as we ran, not wanting to endure the penalty of defying the gravity gambit, whatever it may be.

  I observed the pair of them. Now that we were out of the pit, they acted as though they’d never battled in the first place. They recollected and made small-talk, and Chloe gave Theo pointers on capturing wild game. While it went against everything I knew, Kipper didn’t seem to find their relationship strange at all, although I suspected that was due to his complete disinterest, over anything else.

  There seemed to be very little the prag was actually interested in.

  When we first neared Waystation Ollopto, I expected to hear the familiar boom of music set to lights, though there was none. Waystation Ollopto, as it turned out, was a simple place, shabby in comparison to the gaudiness of Zelpha. A log cabin lit by one flickering post sat amidst a thicket of dead wood. What once may have been a forest was now a dried graveyard, marked by the skeletons of downed trees.