by Sam Ryder
After getting dressed, I walked down to the street level to see if the Queen had issued her decree. The sun shone brightly. It was the first time in years that I had slept past dawn.
I found a message posted on the door of the guest house:
BY DECREE OF THE QUEEN OF PARIS,
Fellow Enders, as many of you may already be aware, two humans are in our company, who are traveling with two Enders. I have met with them and can verify the honor of their intentions. In fact, I believe they are on a mission to help the Ender people. They are seeking recruits for a war party to march on Rome. Follow your hearts wherever they may lead. And if you choose to go with this war party, go with honor and cut off some of the Rising’s fucking heads.
Your Queen, Sienna
I whistled. Damn, the woman wasn’t one to be trifled with. I especially liked the last line.
The others had already read the decree and waited patiently for me to finish. “Sienna is officially my new favorite person,” Belenie said.
I couldn’t argue with that.
“Now we just need to take advantage of her support,” I said. “Let’s see if we can find this Lustak character she said we needed on our side.” Apparently, he was the chief of the Parisian law enforcement group known as “the Corps”. Adi had told us all about it on the walk back to the palace. I was still in disbelief that Paris had any form of law enforcement, which made me somewhat ignorant. Despite their predisposition for violence, the Enders really weren’t so different than humans. Hell, not even the Rising had a formal police squad, unless you counted Atticus’s gang of shoot-first-ask-questions-later thugs.
We followed Adi’s directions to the Corps’ headquarters, what turned out to be a small one-room building sitting on top of a hill overlooking Paris. An Ender guard stood outside the door brandishing a sword and standing at attention.
“Is this it?” I asked. “It’s so small.”
“This is the place,” Gehn said. “Adi’s directions were clear.” Even Gehn had been surprised to hear about the Corps, which hadn’t yet been established when she lived in Paris.
I walked up to the guard, who glared down at me. He was a tall bastard and could easily play offensive line in the NFL.
“Name’s Cutter,” I said. “We’re the group the Queen discussed in the decree. If possible, I’d like to meet with Lustak.” I tried to make my request as congenial as possible but without hiding the command behind it.
“Is he expecting you?” the guard said.
“No,” I replied. “But the Queen suggested I meet with him.”
The guard chewed his lip and fingered his sword’s hilt, as if he was just itching to test the blade on my throat. After a moment, he shrugged as if to say, ‘Who am I to argue with the Queen?’
He opened the door, holding it until each of us had passed inside. Behind us, the door slammed with a crash that made my bones tremble. A small desk covered in papers sat in the middle of the room. A very wide, round ogre slouched behind the desk. He wore a thick brown beard—somewhat rare for Ender men—and stared out the window with glassy eyes, one of which drooped lower than the other, his bulbous nose like a disfigured wart in the middle of his face.
“Sir?” I said as we walked in. “You must be Lustak. My name is Cutter. I am the man who met with the Queen.”
His eyes slid from the window to look me up and down. The enormous Ender male didn’t say a word. He squinted at me, then looked back at the window.
“Uh...” I said, trying to collect my thoughts. “The Queen suggested I speak to you—that you might be sympathetic to our cause.”
“How do I know you met the Queen?” he asked, slurring his words.
The women shot me confused looks. “Sir, the decree...” I said.
“What decree?”
A copy of it sat on top of his desk, the top of the paper drooping over the edge. I wondered how many copies had been made by hand and how long it had taken. I wondered if Adi had assisted in the penning, if this copy was one her hand had written.
He hasn’t read it yet. Damn.
“Sir, the Queen issued it this morning,” I said, pointing to the paper on his desk.
Lustak turned his head to see where I was pointing, sighed, and looked back out the window.
Is this the same Lustak the Queen suggested would be able to influence other Enders and help us in our cause? I wondered. He seemed like a shade of man at best.
I stepped closer and caught the unmistakable aroma of scotch in the air. Upon closer inspection, a half-empty glass of scotch sat on his desk. As I recognized it, he grabbed it and threw the rest of it down. There was an empty over-turned bottle on the floor near his feet. I wondered if he’d polished off the entire thing on his own in one sitting.
As the glass clinked on the top of the desk, he looked at me again suspiciously. His eyes were bloodshot, half-open.
Great. And it’s not even lunchtime. Even I don’t drink this hard, especially not on the job.
“You met the Queen,” he said sarcastically. “Prove it.”
“You don’t think this decree is enough?” I asked. “How can I prove to you that I met the Queen if you won’t even trust a formal announcement from her own hand?”
Lustak remained silent. He didn’t care about any of the proof that already existed. He wanted me to come up with something else. I stood there, staring into space, searching through my brain for a way to prove to him that I was the real deal. The Queen said he was important to our cause, something I shouldn’t treat lightly.
“You would agree that, if I could not be trusted, meeting the Queen would have resulted in my death, right?” I asked. He nodded. “When I met with the Queen, she made me sit at a long table and eat in silence. No comments were to be made. I couldn’t even introduce myself. She refused to utter a single word—except to tell me to be quiet—until we finished the meal. We ate fresh fruit.”
His eyebrows lifted. I figured Lustak would know about the Queen’s rituals. I didn’t take anything from the palace, so that was the best way I could prove my word was true.
Even if it was all ritualistic bullshit.
“Okay,” Lustak said, clearing his throat. “You came from the Queen.”
“I mean no disrespect,” I said to him, looking around the room. “But sir, what do you do? They told me you were the Chief of the Corps here in Paris. That’s a thing? I mean, I have never seen any police forces in the Ends at all. What does the Chief of the Paris Corps do all day?”
Lustak shifted in his chair, lifting himself to sit more upright and shake off the cobwebs. “You’re looking at it,” he said. “I sit here and enforce the law.”
“I don’t understand,” I replied. “What law? I always thought of the Ends as a pretty lawless place.”
He chuckled, his chest heaving. “Yeah, well, it is a lawless place,” he said. “But this is my job. I’m a rather new Ender. After I turned, I was one pissed off motherfucker. Eventually, I found my way here. The Queen likes to get to know her new citizens. She learned about my background.”
“Which is what exactly?” I asked, my curiosity growing now that the conversation was back on track.
“Ex-military. I did several combat stints during the Nor-Kor-Russian War.”
“No shit, so did I.”
“What unit?”
His eyes were narrowed again, but at least he appeared more lucid, even if he was testing me. “114th battalion. Jungle specialists.”
“The Wild SOBs,” he murmured, believing me now.
“Not the nickname we came up with, but yeah. We were pretty wild.”
“Fuck me.”
“I’ll pass, but thanks for the offer.”
He chuckled, pulling out a draw in the desk and extracting another bottle. “What’s your drink of choice?” he asked.
“Anything with alcohol,” I said.
He chuckled again, unscrewed the top and filled the glass a quarter of the way. Then he pushed it toward me. I cou
ld see his lip marks all over the edge of the glass, which was kind of gross, but I wasn’t about to insult the man. I threw it back in a single slug, which made Lustak laugh loudly. “Ha! A man after my own heart!” He refilled the glass and offered it again. I took this draught more slowly, savoring it. The scotch was pretty damn good, just the right amount of burn on the way down.
“You were an officer, weren’t you,” I guessed. Despite his current state of inebriation, I’d long ago learned to spot an officer based on the way they carried themselves, even out of uniform and off-duty.
“Guilty as charged.”
“Let me guess, you weren’t in the jungle.”
“Fuck no. But I was in the thick of things in, of all place, goddamn fucking Mongolia.”
“Oh shit.”
“Yeah, there was plenty of that. Goat, sheep, human. Our motto was: ‘Watch your step.’ The types of landmines we were worried about were different than you’d expect in a war. Also, did you know they eat goat testicles in Mongolia?”
“Yum,” I said.
“They’re actually not bad. Still…makes you feel all icky afterwards. Anyway, after the Queen learned of my skillset, she created the Corps and asked me to run things.”
“Looks like a pretty cushy job.”
“It is. I’m so bored I start drinking right after breakfast.”
“Look, Lustak, I know you have little reason to trust a random human dude who shows up on your doorstep, but how would you like to lead men again?”
“I already lead men.”
“Not like this. Look at you. You’re just sitting here, drinking your life away. I’m talking a military situation. I’m talking the next major war. Enders and their human allies versus the Rising and the Wanderer’s Guild. I want a man of your background on my side. The Queen said you were the key to our success.” Maybe not an exact quote, but it was close enough. Plus, officers always liked if you blew a little smoke their way.
Behind the alcohol-induced fog, his eyes seemed to clear up. “She said that?”
“Yeah, she did,” I said.
A smile spread across his face. “I’ve wanted to go to war with the Rising ever since I transformed,” he said. “Even before I became an Ender, I wasn’t a fan of that douchebag, Atticus.”
“Good,” I said. “Then join us.”
Although I was hoping he’d stop with the drink so he could start to sober up, he filled the glass to brimming and then chugged it. He slammed it down on the table so hard it shattered, glass shards radiating out in all directions. “I’m in,” he said.
“Hell yeah,” I said.
“What’s the plan?” he asked, using the back of his sleeve to wipe his mouth. “Have you formulated a strategy?”
I inhaled through my teeth, hoping this wouldn’t derail things. “We’re still in the early planning stages, taking it one step at a time. We knew we’d need the Queen’s support and we got it. She told us about you and here we are. She also mentioned an Ender named Belogon.”
“Belogon,” Lustak said, not trying to hide the loathing in his voice. “Cocky-ass bastard but smart as hell. He’s also ex-military. A strategist.”
I could tell they’d had their battles. “Can you work with him?”
He offered a toothy half-smile. “I could work with Atticus himself if it was necessary to put down the Rising like the bunch of dogs that they are.”
“Excellent. Do you know where we can find Belogon?”
He laughed at that. “Yeah. He’s putting his years and years of military training and experience to use in the Parisian gardens.”
“Seriously?”
“I shit you not. He runs them. Where do you think all the fresh fruit comes from to sate the Queen’s appetite?”
Ah. Interesting. “OK. Do you want to come with us to meet him?” I asked.
“Fuck no. If I show up at his doorstep it won’t help your chances. I recommend only one of you go. He won’t appreciate a gang up, trust me on that one.”
“Thanks for the tip. In the meantime, any support you can garner from the Corps would be appreciated.”
“Consider it done. I’ll also put some feelers out around town. I know plenty of Enders at this point. Many of them will want to fight.”
“Awesome.” I extended a hand and he grasped it, his skin rough and lizard-like. His shake was like a vice. He would be a formidable warrior on our side.
Chapter 13
Belogon
“A garden?” Gehn said as we walked down the road leading toward the west side of Paris, where apparently the gardens were located. “Since when does Paris have a garden?”
I shot her a confused look. “Really?” I said. “You didn’t know that there was a garden here?”
“We’ve always been told that the Rising is hoarding all the food,” she said.
I thought back to the fresh fruits that I ate while with the Queen. I’d had the exact same thought as I’d gorged myself on the deliciously sweet delicacies.
This hierarchical bullshit rears its ugly head again, I thought. I guess human nature takes over even if you’re not strictly human. To be honest, it pissed me off a little. Though I was grateful for the Queen’s support, the fact that she was maintaining a secret personal garden made me utterly disappointed in her. I wondered if Adi was aware of it, or if she was as in the dark as to where the Queen obtained her daily fruit platters as everyone else.
On the west side of town, a tall wall loomed, taller than any of the buildings in Paris. A small doorway—barely wider than my body, and shorter than me—hid behind a beefy Ender guarding it.
“I’m going in,” I told the others. “I’ve got the Queen’s word behind me.”
Gehn didn’t look certain, but she agreed. I think it helped that my approach had worked with Lustak. I knew how to talk to ex-military guys.
I approached the guard, who stared me down with disdain. “Hey,” I said. “I am here to meet with Belogon.” I waved a copy of the Queen’s decree like a flag. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I’m good with either.” He chewed his lip, seeming to consider. His hand settled on the haft of his weapon, a massive battle axe that looked capable of felling an oak in half with a single chop. All right, I thought. The hard way it is. But then, to my surprise, he stepped aside, offering a staccato knock on the door’s wooden surface. There was a rhythmic quality to it—some kind of a signal to someone or someones inside.
The grating sound of a bar being raised ground through the door and then, a moment later, it opened inward. Another large Ender blocked the opening, glaring at the exterior guard. He grunted an unintelligible question and the exterior guard grunted something back. The grunts continued for a few minutes, almost like some strange barbaric language, and then, finally, the interior guard moved out of the way. The exterior guard nodded me inside.
“I’ll be back as soon as possible,” I said to the women. I didn’t like having to leave them alone, but at least two of them were Enders in the Ender capital city. So long as no one tried to hassle Hannah, they should be all right.
I ducked my head and stepped through the doorway. My eyes growing as wide as dinner plates when I saw what was hidden behind the walls.
Lush green gardens fanned out in front of me. Apple trees lined the garden’s edges. Tomato plants, carrot greens, broccoli bunches, and other unidentified vegetables were sprouting from beds of dark soil. Gardeners—Ender males—worked the area. Dozens of them.
So this is where they all are during the day, I thought.
Anger rose in the back of my throat. The Queen might want her people to thrive, but she wanted herself to thrive more. It disgusted me. It also made me angry that these males knew about the gardens—hell, even Lustak had known—and yet they didn’t share this information with the females.
The brightness of all the green nearly blinded me. The Ends were brown and gray, a mixture of desert and ruin. I rarely saw vivid colors like the fruits and vegetables in this garden anym
ore. Except for the rare oasis, plants and growing things were a thing of the past.
The interior guard led me down a narrow path through the garden, which led toward a central structure in the center of the walled-in area.
As I strolled through the garden, something felt off. At first, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. My stomach fluttered with unease. It didn’t feel natural.
About halfway down the path, I figured it out. Every few dozen feet, a gardener worked—tilling the fields, caring for the vegetation, and so on. As they raked the soil with their gardening hoes, they struck the soil at the exact same time, in perfect unison.
I stopped dead in my tracks to observe this phenomenon, waiting for one of them to alter their motions, but they never did. It was like they were multiple people controlled by one brain. It was eerie as hell.
Every gardener kept their head down, focusing purely on their work. Most of their skin was blue, glistening with sweat in the morning sunlight. Perfectly synchronized, they dug at the soil. Then, again in unison, they all grabbed buckets that rested next to them, lifted them, and poured tiny granules onto the dirt—seeds or fertilizer or something. Something was very wrong here, but I couldn’t for the life of me identify what. It was almost like they were automatrons, robots made to look like Enders. It was a ridiculous notion. We weren’t in some futuristic SciFi thriller. We existed in a post-apocalyptic society that had regressed. Robots were a million times more impossible than the idea of repairing the power grid.
Shaking off the uneasiness, I continued down the path to the hut at double pace to catch up to the guard. I slowed my pace as I approached the hut, not knowing exactly what to expect. What would happen if I approached Belogon too aggressively? Lustak warned me he was cocky. I knew the type—there were plenty of them in the military. Some were broken during basic, but others thrived on it, their confidence carrying them through.