by L. S. O'Dea
“What? Is something coming?” He glanced behind him into the trees.
“No.” Her face heated. She had to stop staring at him. He was not Jethro and even if he had been, it didn’t matter. An Almighty wouldn’t make a good mate for her. She strode past him. “Put the canoe there.”
“So close to the water?” He dropped the boat and helped her cover it with vegetation.
“We don’t have to hide it too well. Only a fool enters this part of the forest.” She glanced at him as she straightened. “It’s not too late to skip the swamp. Backtrack through the woods.”
“How much time will it add to our trip? And don’t forget to factor me into your equation. I’m going to slow you down considerably.”
She frowned. He was right. Alone it would add an extra day. “With you another two, possibly three days.”
“That’s too long.”
“You don’t know what the swamp is like. There are River-Men everywhere and they’re all hungry and hunting.”
He ran his hand through his hair. He was considering her suggestion.
“Reese will be fine for a few days, I’m sure. They want you, not her.”
“You don’t know Jason. He might not kill her, but I don’t put it past him to torture her.” His blue eyes pierced hers. “She’s just a kid. Not much younger than you.”
“I’m not a child.”
“I don’t want to argue with you, but I have to get to the city as quickly as possible. I won’t let anyone else suffer because of me.”
She understood. She hadn’t meant for anything bad to happen when she’d escaped the encampment, but so many had died because of her one selfish act. Still, going through the swamp was stupid and dangerous. She glanced in the other direction. She could trick him like she’d done in the tunnel. Lead him the wrong way until it was too late for him to go back. “You win. Come on.”
He grabbed her arm, studying her face. “Don’t even think about leading me through the forest instead of the swamp. If you do, our deal is off.”
She glared at him. “I wasn’t—”
“You’re not a very good liar.” He tapped her nose. “Your eyes give you away.” His finger traced her cheek. “That and the pretty, pink color your skin turns.”
She turned away from him, her face heating even more. “This way.” She headed toward the swamp, her heart pounding from his compliment or fear, she wasn’t sure which.
The air became heavier and the ground damper as they moved closer to the swamp. Say hissed in a nearby tree. She nodded at the Servant. Something was following them besides Say.
“Stay close,” she said to Hugh as she unsheathed her knife.
“What is it?” He pulled his own knife.
“We’re being stalked. Cold Creeper, I think.” It was hard to distinguish odors in the rank, swamp air.
“I’d love to see one of them.” He glanced around.
“No, you wouldn’t.” She quickened her pace. The Cold Creeper wouldn’t follow them into the swamp.
“Actually, I would. Not out here, but somewhere that I can study it.”
“Like your lab?” She didn’t care for Cold Creepers but they didn’t deserve to live in a cage.
“Don’t say it like that. I wouldn’t hurt it. I’d only try and figure out what it was.”
“What do you mean by that? It’s a Cold Creeper, like I’m a Producer and House Servant.” And a little Almighty.
“I know that’s what they’re called now, but I’d like to know what they were before Professor Conguise turned them into Cold Creepers.”
“What does that mean?” A chill ran down her spine as she glanced back at him.
“These creatures aren’t natural. They were created.”
“No one can make a new creature, a new species.”
“They can and did. It’d been done in the past and Professor Conguise is doing it again. I know your father told you about Conguise’s experiments.”
“Yeah. He mentioned them.”
He snorted back a laugh. “I bet he did more than mention them.”
Dad had. He’d described them in detail. It was worse than the stories of the Exhibit from her childhood.
“I believe that the Cold Creepers and the River-Men are creations of the professor’s. I think that’s why the Supreme Almighty and his Council don’t want anyone in the forest.”
“Why would Conguise do something like that? How would he do something like that?”
“You know they were using DNA from the original Trackers and Handler to create new ones. Not clones but close.”
“What’s a clone?”
“That’s when you take the DNA from one creature and make a duplicate of it. An exact duplicate. The new Trackers and Handlers aren’t duplicates of the original.”
“I’ve never heard of clones.”
“It was outlawed centuries ago, along with genetic engineering of any kind. Conguise shouldn’t have been performing those experiments. I was sure that Jason would make the professor pay for what he’d done.”
“But instead, they blamed it on you.”
“Yes.” He almost spat the word.
“Why would they do that? If it were sanctioned—”
“It may have been sanctioned by Jason and his Council but I’m sure the public hasn’t approved and won’t. That’s another reason why I need to get back in the lab.”
She stopped. “We have a deal.”
“And I’m not backing out on it. I’ll go to the lab and create the serum and help you and the others to fight this war, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t also run reports to prove we’re all genetically related. The serum isn’t going to be easy to recreate. All I’ll need to do is start the tests on our DNA and the machine will do the rest.”
She studied him closely. He wasn’t lying but he was leaving something out. “I’m holding you to our deal. You’ll create the serum and then help us win the war. Your experiments, reports and everything else can wait.” She turned and started walking again.
“You don’t understand. I can create the serum and—”
She spun around. “No. Serum only. That was our deal. There’s no changing it.”
“But—”
“Then the deal is off. I’m more than happy to skip the swamp.” She’d rather face a few Cold Creepers than dozens of River-Men.
“Fine. Serum only, but you’re being stupid. I can do both.”
“Not if you want to save Reese.” She held out her hand. “I can trust you to keep your word, right?”
“Yes.” He almost growled as he shook her hand.
Once again, she moved toward the swamp, wishing he’d refused to agree. She really didn’t want to do this.
“Are we still being followed?” He was right behind her, knife ready.
Her ears tipped back. Say was moving through the trees without pausing or hissing. “No. Cold Creepers have enough sense to stay out of the swamp.” She stopped, sheathing her knife and pulling her backpack from her shoulders. “One predator gone and hundreds more to replace him.” She took a rope from her sack.
“Time to climb?” He stared up at the trees. All of them were tall without low branches.
“Yep.” She handed him one end of the rope.
CHAPTER 31: HUGH
CLIMBING UP THE FIRST tree had been kind of fun. It wasn’t any longer. Hugh glanced down. They’d been traveling from tree to tree for a while now. He was hot and sweaty and the little twinges in his arms and back had grown into throbs. His hands burned, being shredded by bark and rope. He’d give anything for a pair of gloves. He’d torn off strips of his shirt and tied them around his palms, but they were nothing but bloody pieces of cloth now.
“Can you make it up here?” Trinity stood several feet above him.
“Yeah.” He wanted to groan but he refused to give her that satisfaction. He’d insisted on going through the swamp and she was waiting for him to whine about it. He could see it in her eyes. He grabbed a branc
h and moved upward.
“Hurry. We don’t want to spend the night out here.”
“I’m going as fast as I can.”
“Go faster.”
He pulled himself up next to her. They were far above the water and he wished they were even father up. She hadn’t been joking about the number of predators. There may not be quite a hundred, but the water was full of River-Men. “Do you think they know we’re up here?”
“They know and they’re hoping we fall.” She moved out on the branch. “Put your feet exactly where I put mine.”
“You don’t have to tell me that every time we cross from tree to tree.” He followed her, wincing as a twig broke under his hand.
“It’s important.” She stared at him. “If you misstep it’s over.”
At least ten River-Men lurked in the water between the two trees. “I pray I break my neck.” The thought of being grabbed and pulled under the water by one of those things sent chills down his spine.
They moved to the next tree and the next. It seemed never ending. It was getting darker. He didn’t want to ask but he had to know.
“You said that you didn’t want to sleep out here. How much farther do we have to go?”
“You wanted to come this way.” She moved up the tree.
“I’m not saying that it was a bad idea.” He spoke through clenched teeth, partially because he was physically exhausted and partially because he was in no mood for her attitude. “I’m asking how much farther.”
Say hissed from two trees ahead.
“I didn’t ask for your opinion,” he yelled at the little Servant. Say bared his teeth and continued to the next tree.
Trinity had stopped and was looking upward. He followed her gaze. The top part of the tree was gone, the branches above charred from fire.
“Probably, got struck by lightning,” she said.
“What do you suggest we do?” From this position, the next tree was quite a distance away. The River-Men waited in the water below. He didn’t want to go back but he didn’t think they had a choice.
She went farther out on the branch toward the other tree. “Do you think you can jump?” She turned toward him, her golden eyes searching his face. “Don’t lie. If you miss, you die.”
“I’ll never make that jump.” There was no room for manly bravado in this situation.
She stared at him for another moment and then leapt. The River-Men dipped below the surface and then back up as she landed safely on the other tree. His heart thudded in his chest. She wasn’t leaving him. She wouldn’t do that. He had faith in her. He trusted her, but his stomach knotted. He’d trusted before and had been betrayed.
She tied the end of the rope around the trunk of the tree. “Do you think you can cross on the rope? If you don’t, I’ll come back, but then we’ll have to backtrack and that means sleeping in the swamp tonight.”
His arms and back ached and his hands were a bloody mess, but he could do this. He had to do this. “Throw me the rope.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” He wasn’t sure at all but they didn’t have time to go back. He caught the rope and tied it to the trunk of the tree, making sure it was tight-really, really tight. Then he grabbed the taut rope and wrapped his ankles over the top of it. Hand over hand, he moved away from the safety of the tree. He glanced down. The River-Men were swimming faster, excited and anticipating a meal. He picked up his pace, the rope tearing into his hands. Blood, hot and sticky, mixed with his sweat and trickled down his arms. Say hissed and then hissed again. The hissing turned into a growl and Trinity gasped. Water hit his back and he stopped. The River-Men swam in frenzied circles below him.
“Keep moving,” she yelled. “Hurry!”
“What happened?” He scurried across the rope, one hand over the next. She was the queen of the forest. She didn’t panic but she was panicking now. “Please, tell me what’s going on?”
“You don’t want to know. Just move!”
He tipped back his head. She stood on a branch that extended over the water, spear in hand.
“Are you crazy? Get back by the tree. ” If she fell, those things would tear her up.
“Don’t look at me or at them. Keep moving!” She threw a spear but her aim wasn’t toward the ground; it was toward him. He froze, as a River-Man launched itself from the water.
“Holy Araldo!” He moved faster than he’d ever moved. The pain in his hands was gone. The ache in his back was gone. Nothing remained but fear and shock. “They can jump! You didn’t tell me they could jump.” Once again, water hit his back and legs.
“I didn’t know.” She threw another spear at a circling River-Man.
He was almost there only a few more feet to go. The River-Man submerged and then it burst from the water, using its muscular tail to propel it upward.
“Hugh!” she screamed.
This one was big and was getting closer. Its long arms extended, reaching for him. He flew across the rope, but it wouldn’t be fast enough and then she was there, in the air, spear in hand. “Trinity!”
She jabbed the River-Man in the side on her way toward the other tree. The River-Man grunted in pain and flung its arm, hitting her on the shoulder and spinning her off course. She’d never make it to the tree, not now. He secured his legs over the rope and let go with his hands, dropping down and grasping her backpack, as the River-Man crashed back into the swamp, drenching them both with water.
She stared up at him, her golden eyes huge in her pale face.
“Move.” His voice was barely more than a grunt. Her backpack wasn’t going to hold forever and his legs couldn’t take much more, plus the River-Men were circling for another jump.
She scrambled up him, digging her claws into his arms, chest and thighs as she went. He gritted his teeth as his eyes met the brown eyes of a River-Man below and then she grabbed him by the waist of his pants and helped him up. She had her hands and feet tucked around the rope like his. As soon as his hands were back on the cable, she flew across the rope, hand-over-hand. He followed, refusing to look down. He didn’t want to see it coming. There was another splash. A little water hit his back. That River-Man must’ve been small. The big ones would jump soon. He couldn’t let fear stall him. He focused on moving, always moving, and then her hands grasped him, pulling him to safety.
He shoved her against the trunk of the tree, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her neck. “If you ever do something stupid like that again, I’m going to kill you.”
She laughed, her warm breath ruffling his hair, as her fingers skimmed down his back. “If I hadn’t, you’d be dead.”
He pulled back, but kept his hands on her waist, unable to completely let go. “I don’t care. If something happened to you...” His hands traveled up her sides to her shoulders, gripping hard as he shook her. “Don’t ever risk your life for me. Do you understand?”
Her eyes widened, staring into his and her lips parted slightly.
His gaze slid to her mouth. She was Tim’s daughter. A kid. He dropped his hands. “How would I explain your death to your father?”
She stiffened slightly and pushed him aside. “You wouldn’t. You’d never make it out of here without me.”
He reached for her as she leapt back to the other tree, but he was too slow. “What are you doing? Get over here. They’re waiting for you to do that again. That big one can jump.” He continued yelling at her but she ignored him as she untied the rope from around the trunk.
“Untie the other end,” she said.
“No.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Not until you stop being reckless.” It was a stupid thing to say. She had to jump again and his heart almost stopped at the thought.
“I might get tangled in the rope when I jump if half is still hooked to that tree.”
He glared at her as he untied the knot. It was the only option available to him. He flung the rope to her. She rolled it up and put it in her backpack. In an instant she was airbo
rne and the next she was in the tree with him. He’d be amazed at her grace and assurance if he wasn’t so furious with her.
CHAPTER 32: TRINITY
TRINITY WAS SICK OF the silence. Hugh hadn’t said a word since she’d returned with the rope. At first she’d been glad, because she was still angry with him for treating her like a child. She’d been sure, for one moment, that he’d been going to kiss her. She didn’t like him. He annoyed her, a lot, but she’d wanted that kiss. She’d saved him and he’d saved her. If he hadn’t grabbed her backpack, she’d have landed in the swamp. She shivered. Her nightmares would’ve come true and she would’ve been tangled in the river grass, eyes forever open but never seeing.
With every step, the ground under her feet got firmer and a little tension slipped from her shoulders. They weren’t safe. Other predators roamed the non-swampy parts of the forest, but she didn’t mind them as much. There was something about being grabbed and pulled into an underwater world that bothered her more than being torn apart. It was weird because drowning would be less painful than being ripped to shreds, but the River-Men were her secret fear and Hugh had saved her from them.
She’d hate to admit it to him, but she was impressed. He was holding up better than she’d expected. He had to be exhausted and he was definitely hurt. His hands were raw and bloody. She needed to take care of them soon. The scent of blood would draw predators. She detoured a bit from her original path and then stopped, listening. The forest was quiet. Say was following a few trees behind them, alert but relaxed. “There’s a stream up ahead. Go and wash your hands.”
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“I’m not leaving you.” She remembered how nervous she’d been the first time Gaar had left her.
“I didn’t think you were.”
“Your arrogance amazes me.”
“It’s not arrogance. It’s logic. If you were going to leave me you would’ve done it either before we went into the swamp or in the swamp.”