by Dawn Chapman
“Desert Runner.” I swallowed, twisting the ring around my finger. My arm had started to feel better, but there was pain all over. “Maddie Vies, what is this? How can I hear you?”
The female’s eyes twinkled as she moved ever so slightly to place her head on the ground beside me. One giant eye trained on me. “The ring you own is mighty, it once belonged to a Queen.”
“A Queen.” I’d known only what the shopkeeper had told me when she tried to buy it from me, nothing more.
“We have quite the quandary, Maddie.”
“What do you mean?”
“Such a naïve small creature. You know nothing of this world. You don’t even remember me, do you?”
I attempted to get my brain to work, but the more I tried, the less I could actually recall. It was as if everything was fading away from me.
HEALTH – 30%
It was still dropping. “Am I dying?”
The large eye blinked at me. Its watery surface had a thousand places I wanted to look, all reflecting an image—an image of me.
“Yes, you have severe internal injuries.”
“I don’t want to die.”
“That is precisely what you said to me many years ago.”
I struggled. What? There was no way…. “You’re the same Tromoal who broke me in half?”
“Yes. I would have eaten you then if there hadn’t been something different about you. Now that we meet again, I know there are many reasons why you’re alive today, and who you are.”
I felt weakness creeping inside me once more. “What did you do to me?”
HEALTH – 20%
“So many questions, but you have little time. If you wish to live, you must do something for me.”
“I can live?”
“There are conditions, but yes.”
“Then help me…” I knew I sounded squeaky, desperate. I managed to glance over my boots, towards the Hog to where Alex lay.
I needed to know the conditions, but I didn’t have the time. I felt my life as it ebbed quickly, even with the ring, even with all the good intentions in the world. There was nothing I could do to protect those I cared for more.
I stared at my health bar once more.
HEALTH – 15%
“I’ll accept anything,” I cried. “Just help me.”
The Tromoal’s eye moved back, so her huge toothy grin spread. I could see the blackness of her tongue. She didn’t smell so nice either. I guess Tromoal-sized breath mints weren’t a thing?
It looked like she was about to swallow me whole. “I mean anything but eat me!” I shouted at her.
There was a chuckle. “You must place your ring hand on my nose.”
I struggled to move high enough up to do so, but then I felt something. I tried to spin around, but I couldn’t see. There was a push, and I felt like I was floating. Had she picked me up? Was I actually off the ground?
I didn’t look. Instead, I concentrated on doing exactly as she asked. I placed my hand on her nose.
A flash of white light exploded around us. Blinding me… “Now what?”
“Repeat exactly as I say this, but insert your name instead of mine.”
Worry flooded through me, and yet I was curious to what she was intending.
“I, Riezella, Matriarch of the Fifth Clan from Trofoth, am now duty bound to Desert Runner Maddie Vies. We are joined as one, will live as one.”
The words… What did they mean? I had no choice, right?
I looked over towards the Hog once more, and my heart ached. For Alex, for me, for everyone on Puatera. “I, Maddie, Desert Runner of Maicreol am now duty bound to Riezella, Matriarch of the Fifth Clan from Trofoth. We are joined as one, will live as one.”
This time, when light exploded around me, there was also something different. Energy, beautiful, freeing energy.
HEALTH – 95%
I hadn’t had that high a health bar in years. No pain either. I seemed to gain strength—and something else. I felt dozens of entities within my mind.
“What is this?”
Riezella’s voice resounded inside my mind this time as I had no idea where my physical body was, nor could I see.
“You are sensing the others… they’re your family now.”
I could hear them and feel them. There were hundreds—seven hundred and two males and one thousand eighteen females. So many more than we thought. There were also several other tiny voices…
“They’re our young awaiting hatching.”
“They speak to me already?” I had no idea… I felt overwhelmed but suddenly complete.
“We’ve much to discuss. But your friend and the quest you are on is important to you, yes?”
“Yes, I have to… I want to talk more, though.”
“Then you shall return soon, but for now, go. We leave you. We must search for food.”
I felt a sudden drop, my feet touching the ground. When the light subsided, several gusts of wind pin-wheeled me around. When I got my orientation back, I sprinted for the Hog.
Chapter 9
“Alex!” I shouted as I ran. There was no reply… I wrenched open the door. The side window was smashed in, all the stuff in the back everywhere, glass and bottles of water spilt.
A gash dripped blood from the side of his forehead. I reached out to touch him gently. “Alex, can you hear me at all?”
There was a slight moan, and he squirmed. I let out a breath, kissing the side of his cheek. “That’s it. Come back to me… Here.” I pulled the strap from around his middle, and he moaned once more. “I need to get you in the passenger seat. Do you think you can move?”
He didn’t respond but managed to help me slide him out of the seat. When he tried to stand, he wobbled, almost pulling me over with him.
I did the best I could, taking my time in getting him around the Hog to the other side. I had to move several bits of rubbish out of the way before he could sit. Then I handed him a healing vial and some water. “Drink both. You need them.”
Chug, brrr, chug.
Dammit. The Hog wouldn’t start. I said one silent prayer and then tried again. There was very little life left in him—I doubted it had much to give, but with a splutter and a huge bellow of smoke, the engine roared to life.
I slowly backed up from the crater that had almost been Alex’s deathbed. We pushed on forward to Port Troli. We weren’t that far now, maybe an hour. The mountain terrain had been a great lead-in. Although not the easiest path, it had proved at least an interesting one.
I twisted the ring around my finger and wondered what the hell had happened. Was it a dream? Had I been knocked out that badly I’d hallucinated it all?
There were several giggles inside my mind though, and I stifled my own. “Sorry,” I tried to say back. I wasn’t sure if they heard all my rambling questions or thoughts.
Riezella’s voice came to me again. No, they do not. But I do. Do not fret, Maddie. We’ll be here for your return.
I turned my attention back to Alex as he glugged the last of the water. “What happened?” he asked. “Where did the Tromoal go?”
“I don’t know,” I lied. There was no way I could tell him that there’d been some weird binding ritual. I had no idea what it meant for me. For us?
God dang! There was no us. Who was I kidding?
“Your ring…” he said. “It’s glowing still.”
And yeah, it was. There was a soft pink glow that hummed around it. Alex paused then he looked away. I couldn’t find a reason to try to make him glance back at me. Or to do anything that might heal this. As far as he knew, I was still going to marry Dail, though that was the furthest thing from my mind.
Then I felt something. Uggh. That familiar ache in my hip. The pain was there, and then there was more pain. Whatever I’d just been through had zapped all the healing magic Alex had used on me. The one thing he wanted to give me, a pain-free life.
I tried to hide things, and I’d do it well until we parted company.
The silence in the cab was horrible. I didn’t know what to say or do. I wanted to stop the Hog and confess all, to do anything to keep this man at my side, but the words and the pedal to the metal seemed to be stuck.
The usual city market signs appeared to be burned out. My instinct rose. They’d recently been attacked. Of course they had. The Tromoal hoard had been this way. As I looked around, I could see this was the aftermath of their raid. There were upended carts, small animals and chickens running loose. Then there were the bodies. Burned, ice burned. There was no end to this destruction.
Had I sided with devils?
No, I couldn’t think like that. They were my family now, no matter what they were. They weren’t cruel. They just needed what they needed. Food. A place to stay and a place to have their young. The fact the estate had taken upon themselves to supply them for so many years and for Hanson to abuse it… I was mortified.
Destruction lay all around us, I tried my best to keep going.
“Stop.”
I had no idea why he wanted me to stop, we were in the middle of the market. He exited the Hog though, like there was a bomb under his ass. I followed and ran with him towards a stall.
It looked like he knew something. “What is it?”
“This was Jenni’s,” he said. I noticed the sheer horror on his face, how he’d paled.
I looked around, seeing nothing but the devastation of what had happened earlier that day. I had no answers, no warm offering to comfort him.
“Where do they live? In the city?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know exactly. They’ve probably moved around a bit. Not staying in the same place was better for them. I don’t have time to go hunting for them.”
I opened my mouth then stopped myself. I didn’t want to be stuck in the city any longer, either. But I couldn’t help myself. “Give me their last known location. I’ll drop you off as designated, and I’ll take the potions to her.”
Alex glanced at me, then around the market. The burning smell, a mix of rotting flesh and foods hit me in the face with the prevailing winds. I gagged.
“Come on, let me get you where you need to be, then I’ll go look.” Alex turned back to the Hog, and I followed. “This will work out okay. You can get the info needed to your friends.” I tried to act like I knew all about this. The politics of cities, however, scared me. So much and so many people at stake on the whim of some deranged man, chaos. “And then you can meet up with Jenni and her sister later.”
He forced a smile. “Onwards then.”
I drove past the carts and the bodies. There was nothing we could do for them. The Port clean-up was obviously not a priority due to the fact there weren’t many guards here. I wondered what they were all thinking now that the Tromoal had been to visit. I really had to help get that sorted as soon as I could, diverting food as much as possible towards the lands. Not just because it was the right thing to do, but because they were my family now. I had to help them.
Alex gave me the address I needed to take him. It wasn’t far, and an awkward silence still sat between us. I really didn’t like it.
When I pulled up to the doorway, there were two guards, just like when I’d picked him up. They just wore different uniforms.
I turned off the engine, and the guards glanced our way but didn’t move.
Alex flicked my map reader up, keying in two addresses for the girls. “Try them both for me.”
“I will. I promise I won’t give up on this.”
Alex glanced at me and red spread up his neck. “I might not see you again,” he said, “but thank you for everything you’ve done for me.”
I wanted to say so much, the words burning the tip of my tongue. Instead, I reached forward, pulling him to me in a hug. “No, thank you.”
And he got out.
My insides screamed to go after him, but my body froze, my actions uncertain.
I watched as he nodded to the guards, and they escorted him inside.
I looked at the ring on my finger.
A voice came to me. Maddie, are you all right? What’s happening?
It wasn’t the matriarch. I didn’t know who it was, but the voice was rich, male.
“I… I don’t know,” I replied.
We’re here for you, no matter what you need. I am Dalfol.
I looked inside myself and then admitted, “I just let the one true love of my life walk away from me. How do I move on from that?”
Everyone says time heals all, but we know that it does not. If you’re so strongly inclined, then you should break the fear that binds you and risk something you’ve not before.
“You can see that?”
We see everything that was and will be.
Wow, I really did have a lot to learn about the Tromoal.
As do we about you, the voice replied. If I can help ease this pain, please come and seek me out.
The little fog that surrounded me when he was there faded, and I focused on the dash of the Hog.
I needed to move. The first location that Alex programmed in was blinking at me. About five minutes away at most. So pulling away from where he had gone, I headed off on his mission. To find Jenni and get her the potions she needed.
The city streets grew more and more crowded, people milling about, but their faces told their stories. They were scared, hurt, worried. A couple glanced my way, and then two guys tried to stop the Hog. I revved the engine and aimed at them. It wasn’t long before they moved out of the way. No one messed with a Runner.
I didn’t recall being over in this section of the city much. The streets themselves started to grow smaller. I would soon have to give up driving and walk. That never bothered me usually. Now, with the darkness and the fact the city was almost un-marshalled, my stomach knotted.
I found a semi-decent place to leave the Hog, grabbing a small bag to put Alex’s box inside, making sure I had a fair number of weapons and my potions. I plucked the reader from the display so I could use it to find the location.
The reader beeped slightly, and I followed its direction, keeping my head low and my stance unapproachable. No one would tackle me here, I was sure.
Yet just ahead of me stood three figures. I was heading their way. And it seemed to be the location I needed. The closer I got, the more attention to detail I took in without openly staring at them. I assessed their stance, their displayed weaponry. They were heavily armed, and they knew it.
One of the taller ones caught my eye and didn’t back down. So I took him to be the leader of the trio. I stepped in closer, my hand instinctively lay on the hilt of a dagger.
“No need to be jumpy, miss,” he said. “What brings you over to this side of town?”
“Looking for a sick girl… her and her sister. They used to live here. I was checking up on how they’re doing.”
“That’s mighty kind of you,” one of the others said with a sneer. I didn’t like the look of him as he bounced from one foot to the other.
The taller one placed a hand on his shoulder, which instantly calmed the guy down. “None of that, Trei.”
“Do you know of these girls?” I was short and to the point. I didn’t want to waste time if this wasn’t the right place for them.
He nodded, and I breathed an inward sigh of relief. “We took the house from them about six months ago. They were moving on.”
Oh no, there goes that lovely feeling.
“However,” he grinned, “I took a shine to the little one, Jenni, and we persuaded them to stay.”
“They’re here?” It seemed too good to be true.
“Inside.” He indicated the house.
I wasn’t falling for that one. No way. “Could you call her ou
t?”
The guy’s demeanour changed in a heartbeat. Gone was the friendly grin, overtaken by someone slightly deranged.
The second guy, who hadn’t spoken or done anything, was the one to lunge for me. Grabbing for my backpack at the same time, I slid out of it and whacked him in the face. “Don’t you know what these mean?” I said pointing to the badge on my shoulder.
“Never seen them before.”
“Shame. All the better when I kick your asses then.” I pulled my daggers from their hilts and waited for their move.
The second guy drew a sword. Crap. I really didn’t want to do this. These guys looked like they were highly trained.
Glancing at the taller man, he nodded and moved in to strike. It would have been easier to parry with someone holding daggers like me, but I had dealt with swords before… just had to get used to dodging and, unfortunately, get in closer to actually get a strike.
He wasn’t expecting me to be so good. I did exactly what I knew I had to do. I managed to get in under one of his swings, close enough to take a chunk out of his arm.
“Marcus,” he yelled.
The tall guy, Marcus, cocked his head and the attacker stepped back. I half expected Marcus himself to come at me, but, instead, the door in front of me opened, and a young girl stepped outside.
Chapter 10
“Marcus, what’s all the damned noise about?”
That was Jenni, I was sure of it. So they were telling the truth.
“Hey, kid, you know, just trying to have a little fun.”
I slid the daggers back and stood with my arms crossed. “You do know who I am, after all?”
“Hard not to hear the rumble of a vehicle way out here,” the young girl said as she approached me with the three guys looming over her. “You’re a Runner, and you’re here for something big, or you wouldn’t be in the slums of our city.”
I pointed to my backpack. “Yes, I am. Alex sent me.”
The girl’s face changed, and she ushered the big guys back. “Alex! Why? What would bring him back to the city?” Then she turned to Marcus. “Wake Melee. We may need to move after all.”