The Ever Cruel Kingdom

by Rin Chupeco

  It took another half hour before the cannibal capitulated. By then his shoulders had slumped, a glassy look in his eyes. “Seven years ago,” he said. “They took and ate her seven years ago.” And he began, oddly enough, to cry.

  Lan sighed and leaned back, watching him weep. “You can ask him more questions now,” she said wearily. “He doesn’t deserve it, but I advise you to be gentler this time. Force the questions down his throat and he’ll close up again.”

  “What did you do?” Arjun asked curiously. Odessa had scurried forward, throwing herself on the Catseye’s arm. “And how did you know about his past?”

  “I didn’t,” Lan said, with another, deeper sigh, gathering Odessa closer. “But given the kind of life he must have led, it was likely someone he cared for had died in some terrible way. He’s angry and also constantly hyperaware of everything around him, which makes him prone to violent outbursts. He uses that rage as a shield. We needed to get past it. I can’t change his personality, but I can alter the balance of certain chemicals in his brain to lower his guard and make him manageable—for a while, at least.”

  “And you did that in increments every time you slapped him,” Arjun said, eyes widening in understanding. “Pretty clever.”

  “You sound like you’ve done this before,” I added.

  “I’ve been in his place, yes.” I blinked, but Lan continued on, unfazed. “A Catseye in Aranth named Sumiko helped me deal with a few things from my past. She didn’t hit me that hard, but I didn’t see much choice with him.”

  “Now then,” Mother Salla said to the cannibal. “We’d like to know how you came to target the Addax clan. Have you been hunting them?”

  The man shook his head.

  “This area is far from your usual hunting grounds. What made you come here?”

  “An accident, finding the meat.” The cannibal’s voice had shrunk down to a rasp. “We were already on the run.”

  “On the run? From who?”

  “Not who. What.” The man started to shake. “I saw it. A madness across the desert, lurking in shadows. A great shaking of the earth, and then something rising—high enough to mock the heavens. Dark things have come to chase us. Some of them were soot and nothingness, but among them one rose, cloaked in blue jewels, and we feared. And so we ran. We are still running. Set us free, and let us run. They will feast on the world, but at least they will feast on us last. And if you are smart, you will run, too. I know hunger. But these—there will never be enough to appease them. They are hours behind us, but when they catch us we will have nothing else but the dark. In the end, you will run. You will run, too.”

  Chapter Five

  Arjun Versus the Shadows

  “SO HOW MANY GALLA EXACTLY are we talking about? A couple of hundred? A thousand? Ten thousand? How drunk do you recommend I should be before you actually tell me the number?”

  Lisette tried to sound lighthearted, but as someone who’d actually seen those sonofabitches up close I wasn’t in a mood to return the banter. Haidee had closed the portal, which should have prevented them from following us. How in the hell had they traveled halfway around the world in the span of only a few days? I knew they didn’t require food or sleep, but I’d never seen anything even close to resembling them out here in the desert, if you didn’t count the mirages.

  “I really don’t know.” The cannibals said the shadows had been chasing them. I don’t know how many hours’ head start they had on the galla, but I doubted it was a lot.

  The desert still looked pristine, abandoned, like no shadows could possibly be lying in wait for us across the sands. But Mother Salla and the other clan leaders had started building a small fort around camp, in an attempt to dissuade attacks from all sides. Haidee was already trying to come up with something that could reproduce the Golden City’s air-domes, and Odessa and some of the Windshifters from the other clans were aiding her. Both goddesses had added their blessings to all the weapons we had on hand, so we were at least prepared should an attack come.

  “You mean, you don’t know because there were too many to be counted, or you don’t know because there’s a chance the Hellmakers are lying?”

  “I said I don’t know.”

  “Ah.” Lisette mulled that over. “So. You’re quite taken with the Sun Goddess, aren’t you?”

  “Do you really think now is the best time to talk about this?”

  “What else are we gonna do until those things—you call them galla?—show up? If they show up. I’m still not sure if those scum didn’t hallucinate the whole thing. Or lie so you would take pity on them. Lars still thinks they can be saved.” She fingered the trigger on her Howler contemplatively.

  “You’re still not allowed to shoot them, Lissie.” I scanned our surroundings. No sign of galla. No sign of the Golden Army, either. If we were lucky maybe they’d run into each other instead.

  “That’s Mother Lissie to you.”

  “I don’t think so, no.”

  She chuckled. “I’m not going to shoot them—yet. Stop changing the subject.”

  “I don’t see how it’s any of your business.” My relief after realizing Haidee wasn’t mad at me was so immense I could have spotted it from miles away. I was nonetheless determined not to let Lisette and her big mouth get me into any further trouble.

  “It became my business when I made the mistake of kissing you.” Her grin was wide. “Your girlfriend has a good heart, though—she didn’t even attempt to set me on fire. Not like the other one, her twin—Odessa, right? I think I might prefer the girl from the night-world. Her bloodthirstiness rivals my own. How did you even meet Her Holiness Haidee?”

  “On an aspidochelone.”

  “A what?”

  “A great whale. One of the largest known. People used to mistake them for islands. They’d land with their ships and—look, like I said, it’s no business of yours.”

  “Is it serious?” she persisted. “At least answer that.”

  “Yeah,” I said, staring out into the dunes. “It is. Why so nosy about her? Going to try to woo her away?”

  “If she were available, I would. But whatever I am, and whatever jokes I make, you know I wouldn’t do that to you. I’m curious, is all. You told me before that you never wanted someone to grow old with.”

  Because I never thought I would grow old to begin with. “Things change.”

  “So they do. The world’s spinning, and there’s rain falling up and down the Skeleton Coast. Two surviving goddesses have turned into four, galla are nipping at our heels, and now you’re a romantic. Glad I’m a constant, at least.” She hefted her Howler, squinted through the sights. “What do they look like?”

  Like black holes that moved and consumed everything in their paths. Like they were made of nothing, and everything we feared. “You’ll know soon enough,” I said dryly.

  “I’m happy for you,” Lisette said. “If that means anything. You’ve never looked like you had anything to laugh about before, in all the years I’ve known you. You’ve always been so serious and angry. It’s nice to see a little smile on your face every now and then, especially when you think she isn’t looking.”

  I glared at her. She only grinned back. “Just stay on guard,” I muttered. I knew what she was doing. We’d been far too much on edge in the hours since the cannibal’s revelation, and this was her attempt at lightening the mood.

  “You think she can pull some strings and get us amnesty from her mother?”

  “Doubt it. She and her mother aren’t on the best terms right now.”

  “So what you’re saying is that we’re gonna have another Sun Goddess and these demons to worry about. What’s the story with the other one again? Is she to be trusted? Don’t get me wrong—I’m very appreciative of how Lady Odessa chose to punish those men, but I tend to be wary still, considering that she can blow shit up so well.”

  “Haidee trusts her, so I will.”

  “You’ve never been this quick to take someone else’
s word.”

  “I trust Haidee. That makes all the difference.” I hesitated. “I’m sorry again about Jassen, Lissie. And Esme and Barden.” It was customary for the oldest member of each desert tribe to assume leadership. That Lisette was now the mistress of the Addax clan said much, and none of it good.

  “Sorry enough to give me five minutes alone with that piece of shit who tried to gun down my family?”

  “Lissie.” The cannibals were trussed up in a solitary section of camp where they were constantly under guard. Not all of the other clans were happy with the arrangement, with some members loudly voicing their discontent, but Haidee had been insistent. For all the clans’ distrust and dislike of the Sun Goddesses, I thought, they were quick to accede to her wishes. Veneration of the goddesses had been around far longer than the hatred for them; it seemed almost instinctive to obey.

  Lisette laughed, though she couldn’t quite hide the quick flare of pain in her eyes. “It’s been a hard couple of years for us, but we’re doing our best. I wish Esme could have seen the rains. She would have liked that. How do you know that scum was even telling the truth? He would have said anything to stop us from killing him.”

  “He described the galla a little too accurately to be making it up. Especially those blue jewels he said one of them wore.” Odessa had mentioned them in particular; every gift she had received had come from a galla wearing distinctive lapis lazuli stones, as if they were marked as leaders of their own clans. That information worried me. But from the way she’d told it, they’d never been hostile to her.

  A faint whine buzzed through the air behind us, and we turned to look. A thin layer of air hung over the camp, encompassing it much like the Golden City’s domes. It wasn’t as thick and it flickered in and out of view a few times before finally holding steady, but it was a good replica, given the circumstances. As always, I couldn’t help but feel impressed and proud of Haidee’s resourcefulness.

  “Your girlfriend is useful as hell,” Lisette said. “I’m tempted to kneel before her and swear my undying devotion.” She grinned hugely. “You better be putting everything I taught you to good use to make her happy.”

  “Lisette!” I barked, hoping Haidee wasn’t within earshot.

  Lan came trotting up, her face grim. “Odessa wants you to get ready. She’s been getting visions again, and she thinks an attack could come within the next half hour.”

  “Visions?” Lisette asked, alarmed. “Hold up, the other goddess can see the future?”

  “One of the galla’s gifts, or so I’m told,” I said, “but not one she can control. How accurate have they been before?”

  Lan frowned. “I’m not sure. I told her I’ll be joining your watch in any case. You’ll need the help if she’s right.”

  “Better tell the rest of the front guard,” I told Lisette. The clans never had to fight as a single unit before, and I didn’t want anyone making mistakes at this point.

  “On it.” Lisette slung her Howler onto her back. “If they show up while I’m gone, leave some for me to shoot at.”

  “Lady Haidee said that Miss Lisette was an old flame of yours,” Lan said once the other girl was out of sight.

  I scowled. “We weren’t ever serious—”

  “Ah. My apologies. I didn’t mean it that way. Lady Haidee only mentioned it to me because I asked.” The Catseye was glowering worse than I was. I thought I knew why.

  “Lisette was flirting with Lady Odessa, wasn’t she?”

  “I thought it might have been my imagination, but . . .”

  “It’s not. She flirts with everyone, usually when she’s nervous and won’t admit it. Can’t blame her, though. She’s been through a lot. And as for our . . . uh . . .” I knew, and Haidee definitely knew—I was pretty sure—but trying to explain my past relationship with Lisette to anyone else always seemed to put me on the defensive.

  Lan raised her hand to stop me. “You don’t need to explain. I know what it’s like, trying to take what little pleasure you can get, when happiness is something you’re afraid you’ll never have the chance to find. It’s the same out here in your dry desert as it was back home amid the rain and the ice. I apologize if you thought I intended to judge you—or Miss Lisette. I was simply . . . a little put out by her forwardness. Though Odessa was oblivious. As always.”

  I had to smile at that. Even practical, levelheaded Lan could get jealous. That made me feel better. “You’ve left some old loves back home too, huh?”

  “Some. The last one . . . died.”

  “Ah. I’m sorry.”

  “So am I. She was one of my rangers. She was killed on my watch.” Lan’s voice was a little too steady to be calm, but she seemed willing enough to share. “For the longest time, I thought that refusing to talk about her death was the best way to ease my guilt, but it only made it worse, to the point that it impaired my actions. It was Odessa and Sumiko who made me see the light, made me realize bottling it up wasn’t good for me. Accepting that she and my rangers are gone didn’t make the guilt disappear, but it isn’t as much of a burden on my mind as it once was. I cared about her, but we weren’t together because of some deeper emotion. I’d lived a solitary life for the most part, and Nuala . . . made living it more bearable.”

  “Lisette did that for me, too.” The Catseye was telling me all this deliberately, in a show of solidarity. I appreciated that. “And now here we are, in love with twin goddesses.”

  She laughed. “If you had a chance to do it all over again, would you still choose her?”

  “I wouldn’t have fought her over a dead whale, but everything else I’d do again in a heartbeat. Even that damn scorpion.” I should have known the very instant I’d seen her that first time, with her stupidly beautiful hair and her stupidly gorgeous eyes and her stupidly sexy empathy for everything and everyone around her even when none of them deserved her compassion, me included. “You?”

  “Wouldn’t have asked her to sleep with me before we’d even had an official first date, but the same.”

  “Wait, what?” Odessa had always struck me as the shy, introverted type, an opposite to Haidee’s more cheerful, outgoing personality. Of course, that felt like an odd thing to say after I’d seen her nearly suffocate the Hellmakers.

  “I’ll tell you all about it later, if you’d like.” Lan pointed. “I think Odessa was being optimistic when she said the attack would come in half an hour.”

  She was right. I could see a seething blanket of shadow slowly encroaching over the horizon. I bit down on my tongue to stop myself from cursing again. The cannibals had been right, damn them. How had these hellspawn traveled from the Abyss so quickly? My gaze flicked through the teeming mass, seeking out the one with the blue jewels, but there was no hint of color whatsoever in that death-ridden army climbing toward us.

  “Get ready!” I roared, and the other Firesmokers scrambled to take their positions, their Howlers gleaming in the sun. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lisette climb one of the sand knolls, crouching and aiming her gun.

  The whining behind us grew louder. The air-dome grew thicker over the camp, as impenetrable as Haidee was ever going to make it.

  Our orders were simple enough. The Firesmokers were to fire wherever the shadows grew thickest, to take out as many as was possible in one shot. The Mudforgers had already compromised the ground around us, ready to transform it into quicksand at a moment’s notice. We’d already pulled all the rigs back into camp; our strategy didn’t require them, but in case the worst happened and we needed to run, we’d kept them close. I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that.

  Odessa emerged from camp and trotted in our direction.

  “What’s she doing?” I demanded.

  “She thinks she can still control some of them.” Lan didn’t sound too happy about it. I assumed she and the goddess had argued, and that the Catseye had lost.

  I could hear howls rising from one part of the encampment, where the cannibals were rattling their chains and cr
ying out in fright. Trash as they were, I couldn’t blame them for fleeing this.

  Odessa reached us, her brow already creased in concentration. Lan touched her arm, and I could feel warmth from patterns I couldn’t see, spiraling out from them both as she slowly added her strength to the goddess’s, followed shortly by crackling energies.

  “Don’t shoot until I say the word!” I called out. To my shock and delight, the black throng seeping toward us was slowing down, almost to a complete standstill. It was working. I didn’t know how Odessa was doing it, but she was controlling the shadow mob.

  It struck me then, the immensity of the power she could wield—the power she could so easily turn on the rest of us if she wanted to, had she not been on our side.

  I could hear the cheers as the others noticed, and I spotted some starting to lower their guns. “Keep them up and focused!” Lisette roared from her nearby dune. At the same time, Odessa gasped.

  I saw it, too; within the swarm, a hint of blue, faint enough that I had to screw up my eyes to see it clearer, to make sure it wasn’t just a reflection of light hitting the sand. The huddled shape that bore those jewels was smaller than I’d expected; the size of a child almost, shriveled up and hunched over, inconsequential compared to the demons around it, if not for that sparkle of color in its fist.

  Odessa screamed, backing away, her eyes wide. She jumped in front of a startled Lan, her arms spread wide. “No!” she shouted. “I rejected you! I won’t let you have her!”

  Her focus was broken. The army of shadows skittered forward again, ready to consume, bearing down on us at incredible speed.

  “Now!” I shouted, and punctuated that order by firing right at that grotesque shadow-infant. It disappeared before I could hit it, but my flames took out a hefty portion of the horde. The rest continued to surge ahead, ignoring the other explosions as more Firesmokers shot into the crowd.