Condemned

by Cari Silverwood

  She listened to it and felt sleepy. Nobody had ever called her special before.

  “So all you said was the truth?”

  “Yes.” It reminded her of something that rankled enough to make her stiffen. “You never asked about the flare.”

  “Hmm?”

  “The flare. It was a betrayal by my team. They wanted you to find me.”

  “Hmph. And what about the mouse?”

  “Nibbles? I don’t know if he is a mouse. I found him near some wreckage.”

  “Old wreckage?”

  “New. Maybe satellite wreckage? I think he may be a bot? Maybe.” She thought that through and firmed her voice. “Don’t you ever harm him or... or else.”

  “I thought bots were extinct? And so small? As long as it isn’t dangerous, we won’t hurt it.”

  “Okay. I guess I thought they were too.”

  “So all you said earlier was true. That’s sad. You need some fixing done on you, girl.”

  “What? I do not!” Her eyes sprang open. What did he mean?

  Zo’s grip on her firmed, his muscles digging into her softer body. “Shhh.”

  “You can’t change my past,” she grumbled.

  “It’s not your past I want to change, it’s your future.”

  Alarmed, she decided Zo wanting to fix her only cemented her views. The mauleons were as arrogant as anyone she knew. She was fine as she was.

  On the other side of the stream, the forest swam in a blur, and she saw the three warriors emerge from the trees—Captain Takk, Kondio, and Timin. Her stomach tightened. One of them was enough. All of them together was scary. She didn’t trust them. Why would she? She thought herself tough, but this was beyond what she could handle.

  What if they only wanted to bed her then dispose of her?

  Four of them. If they took her all at once they would surely kill her. Zo had promised otherwise but she’d learned not to trust words. Uncle for one had taught her that, over and over.

  She no longer trusted people’s truths. She trusted their lies.

  “Stay with me,” Zo mumbled. “They can wait.”

  Of course. She tried to relax and mostly failed. Zo... seemed nice.

  More alert, she blinked, and thought she saw something else to their left—a man-shaped figure that was gone in the same second she firmed it in her vision.

  Nothing?

  * * *

  In the forest, J’kai the assassin lay on her belly watching the mauleon troop wade through the stream and settle on the grass near where the mating couple lay. They stripped off their clothes and weapons then waded back into the water, shouting insults at each other.

  She could’ve killed the girl, Avalon, but her orders were as yet unclear. She would track them and watch, and wait. Someone high up seemed to want her dead. She didn’t care why, it wasn’t a task.

  She simply killed, efficiently, quietly, when told to. There was no one better than her, except for the almost mythical Arx. He liked to toy with his victims.

  Chapter Twelve

  Takk stayed sitting on his slab of rock, watching as Zo finally decided to haul himself upright, pulling the girl up with him. That she clung to Zo’s shadow was interesting. Bonded a little, already? He supposed that since Zo had mated her she’d be inclined to think him safer than they were.

  Strewn across the rocks this side of the stream were their clothes, as well as Kondio and Timin, lounging naked—as if none of them had a care.

  They didn’t, except for the ones caused by the war, and the ones ahead. Settling back into town and farm life wouldn’t be easy. The chunk missing from Kondio’s leg and the small marks leftover from Timin’s head wound stood out even in the shadows. His own, ditto, he assumed. The grenade blast had almost removed his eye; having some hair missing was preferable.

  He grabbed his knees, sure that them all being naked might bother the huleon girl but not caring. If she thought they’d all jump her and fuck her any second, she’d learn otherwise. Kondio had gruffly declared her too human. Timin, no real clue as to his reasons, but he seemed indifferent. Of all of them, his response stood out as so unlike the old Timin, that it scrawled another bloody symptom onto the gruesome list of things the war had done.

  He eyed Zo, wondering what’d prompted his change of mind.

  “We left our florses back there with yours. Where the forest got too thick. Hobbled yours with ours.”

  Zo nodded and started fetching his clothes though they looked sodden. The girl had none.

  “How come you ended up this deep in the forest?” That reminded him. “Getting out of that grave was courageous, girl.”

  Before the wide-eyed thing could say anything, Zo clamped a big hand around her neck. It stilled her and she visibly relaxed. Interest piqued, he raised a brow.

  “I had to chase her down. She hid.” Zo grinned. “I told her you’d be punishing her.”

  “Not you?”

  “I felt it was more your job.”

  The sadist, Zo, denying a chance to smack a girl’s ass? Takk pushed himself to his feet, groaning. His injuries chose to pain him. The water had chilled his muscles. He rolled his neck, settled a contemplative look on the pair.

  “I don’t do your bidding, Zo. Tell me why she ran.”

  “Scared. Figured she could get away from us. Thought the deal you gave her wasn’t worth keeping to. That enough?”

  He grunted then paced closer and couldn’t help looking at her body. She was fine and curvy in all the right places, if petite. The perfect pink circles of her nipples advertised female, as did the triangle of hair where her legs joined. And the way her legs were all girly in shape appealed. Her red hair was drying, curling about her neck. A well-bitten neck. Zo’s doing.

  Nothing a male could do about it when attraction stirred in him.

  Her cute little baby claws made his cock sit up, though he wasn’t sure why that affected him. It just did. And she noticed, and then his cock chose to erect itself some more.

  He ignored it, addressed Avalon. “I understand why you might think to escape. The words I had with you were arranged while you were scared witless. For that reason I excuse you this once. That deal was for you, to save you from being impaled, shot, killed. Understand?”

  “Of course,” she whispered. Though she met his eyes, a second later she lowered them.

  “Good. Once only. There are reasons we can’t let you free.”

  Zo cleared his throat.

  “Yes?”

  “I told her we’d not sell her. That we’d let her go before Omage. Once we’re near there the border is only...”

  He’d been shaking his head slowly and Zo finally received the message and ceased to speak.

  “Remember how we discussed this being dangerous for us?”

  Zo nodded. The girl squeezed closer to Zo and he absentmindedly stroked her back and drew her to him. “Yes. I thought—”

  “No. Here’s why. If she gets caught before she crosses the border, we’re in deep trouble and she will still be killed, or whoever takes her might do worse to her than the priests at Omage—even if they don’t hand her to authorities. If she crosses the border into Montague, logic tells me someone there arranged this mission of hers and arranged for her to get caught, killed, hence that flare that gave her position away to us. The hurried trial says maybe someone here is involved also. And so, she’s not going to be allowed to live.”

  Awareness brightened Avalon’s eyes and she looked worried. Yeah, he’d judged that correctly.

  “Stealing the Claw of Truth was meant to prolong the war. It would’ve taken a lot of organizing. Someone with money and a thumb in the realm of politics is at the bottom of this. Someone at the top. Even their king?” He thought it probably not the king, but he didn’t really understand human politics well enough. “So you cannot be allowed free, Avalon. For our sakes, and for yours.”

  “Crap.” Zo’s mouth twisted. “I’m sorry.”

  The black look the girl shot Ta
kk made him reconsider punishing her.

  “Understand me?”

  She inhaled then nodded, her eyes closing. “Yes.”

  “Do you know who organized your mission?”

  “No.”

  Her answer was too swift and Takk frowned but decided it not worth pursuing. He had enough data to make a decision. More wouldn’t help as they could do nothing to the powerful person behind this, could not even tell anyone here, as they’d be asked where the info had come from.

  “I messaged ahead to Omage while we were in town. They’ll be expecting her. Humans are at a premium there for ceremonies, so a sale is pretty much guaranteed.”

  When she trembled, Zo pulled her backward to peer down at her. He squeezed her shoulder. “Don’t worry. They’re a religious order of love. They pray for the end of the Quarantine and use humans to fuel their prayers.”

  “How?” she asked.

  “Fucking. They get you to fuck.” Zo shrugged. “Not my idea of reality but they believe it helps.”

  “Humans back on Old Earth used to dance for rain and other things. Same deal.” Takk turned away, wondering when the clothes they’d laid out in the meager sunlight would dry. It would take hours.

  Of course the religious fucking wasn’t plain old fucking from what he’d heard. If weird, it was still fucking. It was better than dead. Damn religions, none of them made sense to him.

  “We may as well get dressed. We can hike back in wet clothes. They’ll dry faster on us if we walk with the florses. You ...” He looked pointedly at Avalon. “Can walk naked until we get some clothes for you. Let that be your punishment for lying to me.”

  She made an O with her mouth but didn’t ask what the lie was. Which only meant he’d figured that correctly.

  “Sir?” Timin spoke up.

  “Yes?”

  “She’s human and has that red shade of hair. If we go about with her like that, someone will know who she must be.”

  “Well thought, soldier. Once we leave this area, we should be okay. In the meantime, any suggestions?”

  “I have a bag in my saddle pack, sir. I can cut holes.” He shot the girl an odd look. “She can still walk naked, but her hair will be covered.”

  As if Timin cared that she be punished. Takk twisted his mouth. Maybe there was hope for the mauleon. He’d visited more whores than any of them before his injury.

  “Do that. To discourage her wandering off, someone bind her hands until we get to the packs and the rope. Also tie some canvas or similar about her feet. Without shoes she’ll get cut up walking.”

  Zo looked about. “Canvas? We don’t have any. How about someone carries her? There’s nothing anyone’s likely to carry.”

  And so it was that he ended up walking back to the florses with the girl over his shoulder, her head and bound hands to the front. Least that way the others could watch her ass wobble. He had no such inclinations. Of course. Though the hike back did give him an opportunity to examine her.

  “Your hair is much better without the gel you used.”

  Her reply was silence for several paces until, “I liked my spikes.”

  “Spikes for a prickly girl? The priests will cure you of that. They’ll cut it short.”

  Again with the silence.

  It was probably true and also would be a pity. Slowly, her long red hair had dried into a pretty wave of locks that almost touched his knee. Like a red waterfall, he decided.

  If she was his, he’d keep it long so he could grab it when he wanted to.

  Once they reached the florses, Timin cut eye, mouth, and nose holes in that bag then pulled it over her head, tucked in her hair, and cinched it at the neck. They still had no adequate shoes for her. Sighing, he led her to Kondio. She could ride with him. So much for making her walk.

  “At the next town with a market, we can get her clothes and shoes, and so on, and a warm coat for the mountains.” The list was getting long. “This is going to cost us.”

  Kondio guffawed then leaned down from the saddle to grab Avalon beneath her arm. “Miss fancy thief had better pay us back then.”

  He helped heave her up to sit before the mauleon. The bag on her head had kept her quiet. The cloth over the saddle should stop her thighs chafing.

  “The priests should pay us well,” he mused. “If not, we can surely find another buyer.”

  “A discreet one?” Zo led his florse closer. “You said it’d be bad if her identity was discovered and I know the priests won’t blab, but anyone else might.”

  In other words, life could get complicated for them if Omage said no. Takk mounted his florse, gathered the reins. “Let’s hope it won’t come to that then.”

  He’d thought this through but keeping the human girl had a lot of consequences.

  The vow to rescue her would hold. He did not go back on promises.

  Well... He eyed her as Kondio jabbed his heels into his florse. They trotted toward the road through the last spindly trees. He wouldn’t go back on that, unless she made life too dangerous for his soldiers. They were his top priority.

  The day’s temperature dropped as clouds swept in. Despite his orders, the girl ended up swathed in a cloak as Kondio somehow recalled he was a gentle mauleon, or something. She wouldn’t have frozen; it wasn’t that cold. Maybe having a naked female sharing his saddle had taken a toll.

  His orders weren’t really orders anymore. They were no longer in the army, not since her execution had been signed off. He was no longer their commanding officer.

  It would probably take a while for their attitude toward him to change. And his attitude toward them.

  Zo rode up alongside and matched the pace of Takk’s florse. “So you know—I almost forgot this—that mouse pet she has is probably a bot.”

  “What the fuck?” Takk twisted to stare at Zo then at the girl.

  * * *

  J’kai replayed the audio. The last time, at the stream, it’d been corrupted but this time she had it down clear. The mouse was a bot. She focused her tech dissection specs on the florse of Kondio, watching carefully until they rode out of range. The mouse was perched behind the mauleon, tucked into a bedroll. Though mostly hidden, the tactical specs managed to catch some of the details, highlighting and diagramming the creature in bright reds and blues.

  She’d studied tech, memorized blueprints in the archaic section at Huge Library. The library was named after the city of Huge. Huge City was named after its founder, Bartholomew Huge, and was only a medium-sized place, which confused the tourists immensely.

  Recreating old tech was a lucrative business, if you could do it.

  This mouse-bot though, and bot it was indeed, held many dark spaces where her specs could not decipher any logic to the wiring and so on. There was a neat little multi-fuel reactor burning at its core. The rest? She didn’t understand it much at all.

  Once she killed the girl, if she killed her... Assuming a command would come was not wise. If it came, she could catch the bot and study it, pull it apart.

  She rose from her hiding place and jogged after the mauleons. Purchasing a new florse would be wise.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The advantage of wearing a bag on her head—and my my, how ironic to find a plus to this—was that she felt anonymous, less sexy, and less notable, even if her tits had been freezing before the cloak was given to her. The disadvantage was the flip side of that coin, as in it let these mauleons see her as an it. Zo had told her she was a person. He’d also spilled about Nibbles. And where had Nibbles gone?

  At least her hands were free. Riding with bound hands would have been difficult. The smallest lurch and she’d not have stopped herself from falling.

  “A bot seems unlikely. I’ve seen it eat.” Kondio’s warm voice rumbled through her back, between her ribs. All of these mauleons could get jobs as heaters.

  “A bot could eat, if the power reactor it uses is sophisticated enough,” Takk mused from their left, reins held loosely enough that she wondere
d if he’d keep hold if the florse spooked. What if she screamed and then leaped off, ran for it?

  Plots and plans for escape kept sprouting in her brain. Useless right now, she was stuck here riding. She’d have the best chance at night.

  “What?” Kondio twisted. “They can eat food?”

  “Yes. Some of them, according to what they taught us in school.”

  “Well, I never... Must’ve skipped that class.”

  “I figured it might be one, or it might not be. Tech is not everything. The world is a beautiful puzzle, waiting for us to sort it out.” Riding to their right, Zo opened his arms to the heavens and rode hands-free for a few paces. “It could be magic?”

  “Magic?” Takk scoffed. “Zendokai says magic exists?”

  “Why not?”

  From the rear Timin sang out, “Bot says it’s mechanical, you idiot, Zo.” Takk’s eyebrows popped up. Zo screwed himself around to look. “Magic is like, not real.”

  She felt Kondio’s chest move as if he laughed silently. “The boy speaks.”

  “He does.” Takk grinned.

  “I will consider your theory, Timin. If you can prove its innards are that—mechanical. Magic is as likely.”

  “Catch it then. I’ll look for screws and welds, or a magician’s mark saying Zo was fucking right.”

  “Good, good.” Her most recent lover had a smug look to him, even seen through the ragged eyeholes of the bag. Truly he’d been compassionate... for an enemy.

  The mauleons continued batting ideas about and it seemed to her as if insults were never taken seriously. Novel. Insults suffered were generally meant, she’d learned from painful past experience.

  The bag was making her nose itch. In a gap between their barbed words with each other, she made a suggestion. “If you dyed my hair black, you’d not need this.” She pointed at the bag.

  “You speak, small thief.” From the feel of it, a hand gathered the bag material. “What say you all? I see a flaw in her argument. Her eyebrows are red too.”

  “And her cunt hair.”

  They all chuckled.

  That voice had been Zo’s. She caught him grinning, in the glance she managed before Kondio dragged her to look up and back at him.