by Scott E Moon
Cla-ven-da wasn’t a good mate, not of Droon’s kindred. She could heal his wounds and his sickness, but could not heal the far-sickness or be a true mate, no matter what the Clinger promised in his dreams. The Clinger wanted to eat him. The Clinger wanted to eat her. Droon laughed, grinding his teeth, clicking and rattling with his throat. He could try to mate with her. That would make her more afraid.
He climbed down the cliff, perching where the tallest tree reached up from the valley floor. He watched Kin-rol-an-da in the distance and considered the human who destroyed his world. The humans called Droon’s home Hellsbreach, but it was just another word of creatures that talked too much.
He stared down at the man who had burned his home world. The man didn’t cry now. He didn’t shake his fists at the sky and yell angry words. Kin-rol-an-da had been eaten by women for three days, but they put him in the birthing pit and he healed. He escaped. He killed. He set the fires.
Droon wanted to eat Kin-rol-an-da, even if he was the Last Man, the end of the Long Hunt. Kin-rol-an-da was the only one to know the home world. Droon clenched his fists and shook them as he shook his head.
He didn’t want to forget his home. Kin-rol-an-da would remember. Droon didn’t understand how he could forget or precisely what forgetting was. If he ate Kin-rol-an-da he might remember better, but how would Kin-rol-an-da remember if he died?
Droon needed the blood of Kin-rol-an-da before he rejoined the ten-thousand-warrior pack so he could become first among them, but he didn’t understand if Kin-rol-an-da needed to be alive.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
BEAR led the way without explaining where they were going. Kin followed and watched the shadows. He thought he knew where his friend was taking them and didn’t argue. Bear hardly made a sound as he moved. He paused to stare up the trail before looking around. Then he nodded and continued. Ogre stalked beside him, sleek and silent, but oddly playful.
“What’s he doing?” Rickson asked.
“Listening for the Reaper,” Kin said quietly. He followed behind Bear as though a single sound would doom them all. Rickson wasn’t as quiet.
“Or Clingers. He said there were Clingers out here,” Rickson said.
“Clingers don’t leave their valley.”
“But he saw them.” Rickson walked sideways to see down a side trail and then walked backward for a few steps. He spun around and hurried to catch up. “Why would he say he saw them if he didn’t.”
Kin ignored Rickson and watched Bear reach the top of the trail. The steep path forced Bear to put one hand on the ground for balance as he went over the top.
“Why’d he say he saw a Clinger?” Rickson asked.
“Because he did.”
“But you said they don’t come out of their valley.”
“Be quiet.”
They emerged at the top of a narrow canyon that twisted downward. Bones were scattered across the path like the pavement of a road. At the bottom, the canyon widened into a field of evergreen trees that had lower branches gnawed off. Silence held the bone yard as though even the wind feared to trespass.
“Where are we going, Bear?” Kin asked.
Bear shrugged. “We need horses. I figure if you haven’t caught the Reaper by now, it’s because you can’t. So, we need horses.”
“And we have to go through a den of wolves to get them?” Kin asked.
“I can handle of wolves. I’m a shepherd,” Rickson said.
Bear crouched, watching and listening for danger before he responded to Rickson’s boast. “These aren’t Earth wolves from your ship’s menagerie. They didn’t just escape and turn feral. These are native wolves. Hold your breath; hold very still and look down there, right now, do you see it?”
Kin saw a huge wolf creeping between the trees. Its fur looked like steel wool combed into sheets of razors. Others followed behind, moving silently in a formation with military precision. Bear had told him about the local wolves, but Kin had never seen them. His first impulse was to compare them to the Reapers. It could be a good fight. The thought of facing one of these creatures filled him with dread, but he didn’t think they could rip a man out of assault armor and eat him still screaming.
“So where are the horses?”
“Near the water, if the wolves haven’t eaten them. I trained those animals to walk on rope bridges if necessary and these monsters stole them,” Bear said.
“Why would they do that?” Rickson asked.
“To attract other monsters, snakes mostly. Crashdown wolves love to eat snakes,” Bear said. “But they also eat horses if they’re hungry enough.”
“And shepherds who don’t listen,” Kin said.
Bear laughed.
“Hah, hah. Maybe you can kill them with your stupid jokes,” Rickson said.
Kin looked at the boy. “Who do you think they would catch first?”
“Not me. I can run faster than him,” Rickson said, pointing at Bear.
“But you don’t know where you’re going. Hard to get away running in a circle,” Bear said.
Rickson forced a queasy smile. He looked at Ogre. “Shouldn’t you be growling or something?”
The dog’s tongue hung out of his mouth.
Kin moved around the top of the trail and watched the wolves prowl out of sight. The narrow valley curved out of view, though Bear claimed substantial meadows existed beyond the bottleneck with waterways and other spectacular sights. Bear told grand tales, especially after a few mugs of mead, but the details were usually consistent. Kin thought he could piece together an idea of what to expect from the landscape. The challenge would be getting past the foot of the trail, an area patrolled by a score of wolf monsters.
“How smart are they?” Kin asked.
Ogre huffed.
“Smart enough to keep watch in shifts and leave bait in traps,” Bear said. “You can’t parley with them, if that is what you’re hoping for.”
Kin removed his binoculars from his belt and studied the floor of the valley, the steep walls around it, and the clouds that drifted near distant peaks. He lowered the binoculars and saw Rickson near the top of the trail, staring intently at the scene below. Kin winked at Bear, smiled, then adopted a serious expression.
“The only way we can do this is to send Rickson first. Once the wolves chase him, we can move in and steal the horses,” Kin said.
“I don’t like that plan,” Rickson said without looking up.
Bear laughed.
Rickson continued, “Why don’t we send the Reaper down there and steal the horses while they fight.”
“Good idea,” Kin said. “Bear, go ask the Reaper if he would help us.”
“Right away,” Bear said, but he didn’t move.
Rickson edged back from the trail and challenged Kin. “This would be a lot easier if you’d ask for help. Clavender is going to get killed because you’re too proud to let Fleet troopers take the glory. They could catch the Reaper and kill it before dinner time, but we’re out here trying to steal horses that are probably already dead. I know wolves—whatever kind they are—and they don’t leave meat on the hoof for later.”
“These do,” Bear said.
“Just because you live alone and don’t take baths doesn’t mean you’re some kind of wise man,” Rickson said. “It only means you stink.”
Bear laughed loud enough for the Crashdown wolves, or even the Reaper, to hear. “I like this boy, Kin. Why haven’t you brought him up before? I’d have to box his ears a few times, teach him respect, but he’s opinionated, and I like that.”
“I watched you and Kin get drunk once,” Rickson said.
Bear looked at Kin questioningly.
Kin shrugged. “He’s a bit of a spy.”
He knew Rickson was right, mostly. He wasn’t sure the Fleet troopers could catch Droon. In a battle, the discipline and technology of modern soldiers was hard to resist. Generally, it took a Fleet trooper to beat a Fleet trooper, but Reapers were fast. They never got tired and n
ever slept.
How could he explain to a provincial boy that had not seen the inside of a spacecraft since he was a child that the Fleet always came first? Commander Westwood would drop a nuclear bomb on Crashdown and leave if it suited his strategic objective. The people of Crater Town should be praying their interests were exactly the same as the Fleet’s interests.
“Why do we need the horses again?” Rickson asked.
Bear eyed Kin before saying, “We’re trying to catch a Reaper. In case you haven’t heard, Reapers are fast.”
“You’re just using Kin to get your horses back,” Rickson said.
Bear grabbed the shepherd by the back of his collar and hoisted him onto his toes. “You better look me in the face when you make an accusation like that. As it happens, I could get the horses myself. I just haven’t gotten around to it.” He dropped Rickson.
The boy stumbled, gripping his staff with one hand, flailing the other for balance.
Kin turned to Bear. “So what’s your plan?”
Bear eyed Rickson for another moment then stepped to the edge of the trail that dropped toward the valley floor like a slide. He pointed at the walls of the valley to his right. “There is a trail this way. We can follow it, then drop down near the lake. It’ll take a bit of climbing, and if you fall, you’ll die. It looks like you’d have a chance to grab one of the ridges or land in those tree tops, but don’t kid yourself. You fall, you die. So, don’t fall.”
Kin examined the path Bear described, noting the foot and handholds. There was even a stretch of trail a bit wider than a rope. That’s comforting. “How long will this take?”
“Couple of hours until we start the descent. A couple more to get down. The wolves don’t look up often, so as long as they follow their normal patrol route, we should be able to reach the horses without problems.”
“And how do we get them out?” Kin asked.
Bear smiled. “That’s the easy part. All we need to do is ride them through a little water fall.”
“Can you climb that, Rickson?” Kin asked.
“I can climb anything he can climb,” Rickson said.
“Now, that sounds like a challenge.” Bear popped his knuckles, then rolled his shoulders.
“You go first, then Rickson. I’ll go last.”
Rickson stared at him defiantly. “You think I won’t go.” He strode toward the questionable ledge that led across the wall of the valley.
“Now hold on, boy. I have to go first. You don’t know the way. Kin is doing it right. Any military commander would do the same. Put your best first and your second best last. That keeps everyone together. No shame in it.”
“That’s not how I would have put it,” Kin said. “Just watch where Bear puts his hands and feet. Don’t take chances. Go slow.”
They looked at Ogre, who was panting happily, enjoying the sudden attention. He whined when no one spoke.
“He’ll be alright,” Kin said.
Rickson shook his head. “We can’t leave him, not out here.”
Kin knelt and petted Ogre for a long time.
“This sucks,” Rickson said.
“He’s probably the only one who will make it home,” Kin said.
“Rickson could take the dog back,” Bear suggested.
“Too dangerous.” Kin worried about the dog, but trusted the animal’s instincts. Ogre came and went as he pleased, sometimes disappearing from Crater Town for days at a time. He kept his attention on the dog, avoiding Rickson’s pleading gaze.
“If it’s too dangerous for me, then it’s too dangerous for him,” Rickson said.
“Not the time to argue,” Kin said.
“Whatever. We can’t leave Ogre up here with Clingers, Reapers, and Crashdown wolves,” Rickson said.
“The wolves are down there and we don’t know where the Reaper is,” Kin said. “Run home, dog.”
Ogre settled down with his face on his paws.
Kin massaged his forehead, remembering the scene outside the Valley of Clingers—dogs howling in pain as Droon gorged himself.
“Maybe I could carry him,” Bear said.
“You can’t carry him.” Kin stroked the dog and stepped back. “Go find Laura.”
Ogre looked away, hesitated, and then started to move. He stopped several times, looking at them, but eventually headed back the way they had come.
Rickson adjusted his tunic and pack. Bear looked him over, nodded, then went to the ledge. He didn’t seem afraid, but neither did he dance over the thousand foot drop or make jokes.
Kin hesitated at the ledge and looked back, spotting Ogre as he crept back toward the ledge. The dog stopped and hunkered down. Kin smiled. The dog lifted its head hopefully.
“Go on,” Kin said.
Ogre lowered his head onto his paws. Kin turned away and moved onto the ledge.
He didn’t need horses, for the same reason Bear thought Rickson would be the one caught by the wolves. It wasn’t about speed. It was about knowledge. Kin knew the mountains better than Droon. Bear knew the mountains better than Kin. With luck, they’d be able to trap the Reaper and recover Clavender unharmed. No plan survived first contact, but there was nothing left but to begin. He trusted Bear and couldn’t leave Rickson. He’d just follow anyway.
WIND buffeted Kin as he edged above the valley. He glanced down, tracking the progress of the Crashdown wolves. They seemed so much like soldiers that Kin expected them to stand and remove their masks. But as far as he could determine from such a distance, they didn’t hold long conversations or review maps drawn in the dirt. The hunters probably didn’t need maps, or conversation, for that matter. Wolf packs had an alpha male. None of the pack would question orders without being driven away or killed. They stopped to lie in the sun. From Kin’s vantage, they seemed very close to the lake.
The horses were small, shaggy creatures, and looked smaller from so far away. They munched grass near the water, laboring beneath packs of supplies they still bore. Kin didn’t doubt Bear trained them well. They’d be useful.
In the distance, the howl of the Reaper filled the air. Kin pressed close to the rock wall and didn’t move. He had never heard such a wail, not on Hellsbreach, not in the nightmares he suffered in the space casket that had been his tomb until pirates salvaged it.
Rickson’s idea of pitting Droon against the Crashdown wolves had merit. He could draw Droon into the valley below. The process would be time consuming and dangerous, but the Crashdown wolves might injure—or with luck, kill—the Reaper. Once Kin rescued Clavender, he could try the plan. Of course, he could also lure the Reaper to Crater Town where hundreds of Fleet guards would be ready for a fight. But that idea worried him. Too many things could go wrong. There would be questions he didn’t want to answer.
Kin hurried to follow Bear, who put on a sudden burst of speed. When he came to the rocks Bear had been holding, he understood why the man was in a rush. Over the years, wind and rain had exposed several toxic minerals used to make fuel for space travel. The metallic portions were slippery and he could smell sulfur and other chemicals under the surface. This was also the reason the walls around the valley were steep. The entire rock face was likely to slide to the bottom at any moment. Today might be safe, but eventually this wall would come down. He made a note of the deposits and urged Rickson across to safety where all three of them rested in a shallow cave full of bird droppings.
“You didn’t tell me about the mineral deposits,” Kin said.
Bear smiled. “I bet your Fleet would like that. Maybe you can trade the information for your freedom.”
“Maybe.” He doubted the Fleet would bargain for what they could easily take once they found it. Even now survey teams were scouring the area around Crater Town for fuel.
“What are you talking about? Why would the Fleet want Kin? He hasn’t done anything, besides being a big pain in their ass by running off to chase a demon,” Rickson said.
“I was in the Fleet a long time ago,” Kin said. “T
here are some unresolved issues I hadn’t thought to worry about on Crashdown.”
“Like what?” Rickson asked.
“Don’t worry about it. Let’s go.”
They climbed down, fingers raw and muscles aching by the time they reached the bottom. Kin wouldn’t have cared if the wolves were waiting for them licking their chops. His forearms were engorged and his hands trembled. He motioned for Bear and Rickson to remain quiet.
The trees in this area didn’t seem tortured by the bristling pelts of passing wolves. Animal trails led to water. Birds chirped. Insects droned.
Less than an hour later, Kin and his companions emerged into a meadow full of flowers. It reminded him of Becca.
She had desperately wanted to ride a horse. Kin had taken her to a place much like this meadow to teach her, long before volunteering for Hellsbreach. He wished he could go back to that day. For a dangerous moment he imagined her walking next to him, when he should’ve been watching for the wolves.
“There are my girls,” Bear said, approaching the horses, soothing them, and then feeding them from his pouch.
“Try to keep them quiet,” Kin said. “I’ll watch for wolves until they’re ready, but we need to move quickly.”
Bear gathered the four horses and put them on a line.
“Why can’t we ride them now?” Rickson asked. His voice waivered as he looked around the meadow. Kin was glad to see the boy’s response. He sensed the danger. That might keep him alive.
“I don’t have time to examine them. No use riding a lame horse,” Bear said. “Take this rope, Rickson. You’ll lead two and I’ll lead two.”
The wolves began to howl from every corner of the valley.
“Go. I’ll catch up,” Kin said. He waited until Bear and Rickson had a head start before following. He saw the pack charging across the valley. Pairs of wolves joined the pack at each intersecting path or stream until thirty of the monsters fought for the lead, bumping each other and snapping teeth. Smaller animals scrambled out of their path, unheeded by the carnivores.