Condemned

by Cari Silverwood

He liked smacking, obviously. Her butt would be remembering that for days.

  Then she saw the water bottle in his hands. Her nipples scrunched into frigid beads at the prospect of cold water. “Oh, no. No, no.”

  “Shush. You will be still for this. Or else.” That new menacing grin reinforced how what had happened had somehow changed their dynamics—in ways she thought lost to him.

  He’d enjoyed fucking her, and her obeying him.

  And he was smiling. Big plus. Even though it was a nasty smile that said I will do bad things to you again, if I want to. It was better than his previous distaste, whether he’d figured that out or not.

  The prospect of more of that bad made her stare. She had this ridiculous and absolutely stupid curiosity about seeing that happen again. Why it appealed she wasn’t sure.

  He unscrewed the lid and lifted the bottle, shaking it, drawling, “Easier to do this if you’re on hands and knees.”

  “Oh.” After a brief roll of her eyes, she lowered herself and presented her rear end.

  Before he poured anything, he said quietly, “Were you guarding your butt before?”

  “Umm. Yes?”

  “Interesting.” Then he poured. Her screams brought the other mauleons running, though within seconds they were laughing—at her. The fuckers.

  “I did her ass. Happy?” Takk continued wiping her with water and a cloth.

  “Absolutely.”

  “We wanted to watch.”

  “Well, we did, a bit.”

  “Love the red ass you gave her.”

  Who said what, she wasn’t sure. She pretended not to care.

  By the time she was standing, toweled dry though shivering, and had begun redressing, they’d stopped making lewd comments and she’d given up on glowering at them. Takk also washed himself. They gathered up everything, checked her coat was buttoned—it had mostly dried from the rinse at the baths—and they set off again.

  Takk let her ride with Zo, once Zo promised there’d be no more delays. If there were, the captain declared she would be the one to hurt. Somehow that had made them hurry.

  They didn’t want to be the cause of her suffering? The implications of that bothered her.

  Even though she resented Takk saying he didn’t fuck huleons, sometimes, just sometimes, she couldn’t see herself as the equal of humans or mauleons. She supposed she was a pretty awful advocate for herself. Which reminded her of Timin. He’d hated what he’d become. She hated what she... what she used to be, or what she was?

  This was too difficult to figure out, she decided. Not now, maybe not ever.

  An intersection where the road branched into three paths hove into view. Four signs pointed every which way, including toward them. Ahead were the three passes across the range.

  The high road that led from here had been used by the ancient vehicles. People would cruise along to check out the sights below. Most seasons, it was too hazardous for travelers with riding animals.

  Reminders of that two-century-old past showed, embedded in this road surface—fractured and melted metal parts from the trucks and cars the satellites had blasted on the day when technology was destroyed. Pistons, springs, hood ornaments, unidentifiable bits, and shattered glass. The day when Quarantine began.

  A sad moment. Gone and done with.

  She tuned back into the others.

  “Get down and put on an extra clothing layer,” Takk commanded, dismounting. “Check the girl for wet clothing. We’ll be in amongst ice and snow by tonight.”

  Zo kissed her ear then slid from their florse and helped her down. “Let’s look at you. The coat’s the outer layer so a little dampness on the fur is okay.”

  He turned her about, meticulously checking, then pulled a long shirt from his saddlebag, plus heavier pants, socks, and gloves. For her?

  Being stoic was her specialty but the care he was taking brought a sting to her eyes, and so she pretended to be fascinated by what lay ahead.

  High above, the mountains beckoned—blue-white at the peaks where the snow was already falling.

  Avalon wondered what the other side would hold. She must admit, even if only to herself—for telling them would be excruciating—these mauleons had a place in her heart. Improbable as that seemed, how would she survive without them?

  “Before we go onward!”

  What was this? She turned to Zo because he was the one speaking, addressing them as if he had some great announcement.

  “Avalon, we all bought something for you in town. Something we felt was appropriate. Since the land after this will be inhospitable, here seems a good time to do this.”

  Uncomfortable, she eyed him, folding her arms. Why would anyone, even these mauleons, give her anything? It made her feel weird and edgy. Where was the trick?

  “Here is mine.” From behind his back, Zo whisked a cream package wrapped in ribbon.

  As she hesitated, Kondio approached carrying a box wrapped in white paper with berries dotted on it.

  “Me too.” Slipping a red box from his saddlebags, Timin approached from the right.

  “Thank you,” she said softly, looking from one to the other, her brow wrinkling. Best to say her thanks now before she opened anything. How could they know what she liked?

  It’s the thought that counts. Those words of her aunt’s snaked into her mind. For once, she probably spoke the truth. Whatever they gave her meant something important.

  Captain Takk had mounted his florse, and he trotted up beside Timin and leaned forward.

  “Stop. No, this is not the time for gifts. I saw what most of you bought and it’s not appropriate. We have a deal with Omage. That is still happening. I have never changed my position on that.”

  “You bought her a gift,” Kondio pointed out.

  “My new dildos are not in the same vein. They are still mine. Fucking her is just fucking her.”

  Why had she thought this good? Feeling as if she’d been struck, Avalon shrank backward and found Zo’s hands at her shoulders. He stepped up beside her.

  “What if we keep her?”

  “Keeping her is unsafe.” Looking frustrated, Takk drew finger and thumb down the bridge of his nose. “Leave it be.”

  “But...” Zo said mirthlessly. “I can tell you’re considering it.”

  “Then you know more than I do. No gifts. Let’s ride.”

  Keeping her, even the words made this seem silly. Her being a little obsessed with them didn’t mean she had to stay. Did it? That Zo thought to just do it, without asking her, made her even more uncertain.

  She shrugged at Takk and he regarded her without showing any obvious emotion. Perhaps her shrug had been lost in translation. They were at opposite ends of this but both of them thought it best she leave, eventually, one way or the other.

  Let Zo have his fantasies.

  As if they could buy her with presents.

  * * *

  J’kai watched through the scope then lowered it as the troop rode off toward the lower pass. Her newly acquired florse shifted nervously between her knees. She patted its shoulder. The mare’s leopard coat was scattered with red spots on white, with a red star-shaped blotch on her forehead. She was starkly identifiable and J’kai would not have bought her if not for the urgency.

  A pity her instructions were to wait to finish this until she joined the six warriors assigned to help her. She could have ended the girl in the forest while the sex was happening.

  Simple. Quiet. Maybe the captain would’ve had to be killed also but that would’ve been minor collateral damage.

  This other plan of cooperating with the six seemed chaotic. They’d never worked together. More things were likely to go wrong. She nudged her heels into the florse. The second-highest path was a riskier way across the mountain, but quicker. She should get to the other side before them.

  A strange feeling of relief had arisen when she’d discovered she was not to eliminate Avalon, yet. J’kai put her hand to her chest.

  In all her
days of killing, she’d not seen a huleon so welcomed by others—neither human nor mauleon.

  She clicked her tongue again, flicked the reins. “Let’s go.”

  She’d find them again at Omage. It was clear they were going there from many conversations.

  Perhaps she could learn something from this one before she ended her? Even her victims could impart knowledge.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Riding with Zo again became something she could settle into and ignore. He let her grasp the saddle or his arm to keep herself steady without much of a reaction. The road narrowed and became a rough rock-strewn track. The trees transitioned from being upstanding green firs to twisted imitations of trees with few leaves, or dead, gnarled gray things. The grasses remained for longer, a green carpet to either side, both upslope and down, until even tussocks of green were sparse.

  Snow began to fall, wafting down in flakes, and up ahead where the track curled about the mountain white patches were visible. This was the low pass she’d taken with her team, but they’d detoured several times, going off-track to avoid others. That was how they’d come across the wreckage.

  Even this route had its dangers. She couldn’t help eyeing Timin whenever they passed through the narrower sections, where toppling off your mount might mean falling over the edge to the right.

  Eventually, her anxiety tied her stomach into too many knots and she spoke.

  “What if Timin has a fit?”

  “Hey?” She felt Zo shift. “I see. It’s possible. I think he knows. I know he does. Either he stays in one place on flat ground and does nothing dangerous, uses nothing sharp, tries nothing new, or... he lives life.”

  Zo’s statement left her thinking. What else could Timin do? Live a proper life or hide himself away. She knew what she would do. What she was doing, really. She could’ve played it safer than she had. Being a huleon was like having fits, only other people were the hazards.

  “Yes,” she murmured. “I was thinking I could sit with him and maybe—”

  “Grab him before he could fall? You’d fall too. He’s going to look into new medications once we reach home. There is that.”

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  Zo squeezed her shoulder. “It’s good to know you care.”

  Fuck. She stiffened. That was indeed what it was. Where had her I don’t give a damn for the rest of the world attitude gone?

  Somewhere else. She should look into that. Dig it up again. She would probably need it at Omage.

  Several times she caught Takk staring at her as if he’d found a new bug underneath his boot. Well, no need for words, she’d figured him out. It still hurt, strangely, and she realized she had been hoping that somehow this odd situation she was in would not end up with her having to run from Omage. She’d been hoping to stay... with them. Ugh. Her mind was half cesspool, half whirlpool of insecurities and stupid.

  By nightfall on the second day in the mountains, the temperature was dropping fast. Snow was falling thicker and visibility was low.

  Takk turned back and gathered them on a small flat section. He yelled above the strengthening wind. “We need to find a camp out of the wind or we could be in trouble!”

  “Yeah, I’d say a blizzard is coming.” Rime had formed on Kondio’s gray hair where it sneaked past the hood. He pulled his hood closer, tightened it. “Lucky we didn’t try the higher pass.”

  “We could camp here but it’s too exposed.” The wind doubled and died, as if tricking them. “Was planning to stop here! The map... The map doesn’t show anywhere promising, for quite a distance.” Takk looked about, then past his shoulder.

  “I know where we are,” Avalon ventured.

  Water had frozen in the shape of rivulets on the mountainside to the left, as if a pond had formed above and melted and refrozen. It was a distinctive mark.

  “What do you mean? Is this going to help us?” Zo asked, speaking near her ear and placing his hand on her waist. “Speak up.”

  “This is where my team went higher to avoid another party of travelers we saw coming. Up there.” She pointed. “It’s where I found Nibbles and where the battle sat came down. This ice is from the heat of its core. It melted the snow. It’s still hot.”

  “Really?” Timin craned back his neck. “Dangerous though? Could be radiation too. And the melting might be a problem.”

  She was revealing a few secrets but what was the point in keeping a secret that could save them from sitting out a blizzard on the face of a cliff?

  “I can show you the way up. We had equipment that measured most forms of radiation. It’s partly how we bypassed the ancient locks guarding the Claw. The core is using something that isn’t reaching dangerous levels. We’d be safe and warm in the wreckage. That is, safe unless the sats use something we cannot detect? Do they? The old battle satellites?”

  This was a question none of them seemed able to answer.

  The silence lasted all of a few seconds.

  “Sir?” Zo asked.

  “We’ll do this. You and Avalon can be our guide. If we don’t get out of this wind, I’ll have a frostbitten cock and I’m unhappy at that.”

  Which was how she ended up showing her previous enemies how to stay alive. Not that traitorous really, she decided. After all she’d already shared body fluids with them, had a few dozen orgasms with them. This was... minor.

  After carving a way up the new route, their florses broke through a bank of snow and climbed up onto the plateau and ravine area where the satellite had slid to a halt. Pieces of metal projected from the snow upslope and ahead, where the craft had rolled and slid along the ravine before coming to a rest. The visible hull curved toward the sky and farther back were fins and struts, spewed loops of metal cable, and the blue-black barrels she’d assumed were weapons. The upper parts of the ship were coated in snow. Stalactites hung where water had, almost, cascaded to the ground.

  A pond skinned thickly with floating ice lay beside the wreckage. It was perhaps a little smaller than the last time she’d seen it.

  The wind had picked up and was flinging snow about. She had to shout.

  “The core is deep within the hull! We don’t need to cozy right up to it to be warm enough.”

  “Good!” Zo flicked the reins and the florse plowed and half-hopped through the deepening snow. Its mini-wings were kept folded flat to its hide. “This way?”

  He pointed to a dark hole in the hull.

  “Yes. There is a ship’s corridor mostly intact. Further in, a fracture in the walls leads to what must be the engines. They’re dead but some power core still lives, hums.”

  “I don’t quite see how that can be, or know if it’s truly safe, but you’re still with us! That must be a sign.” He touched the zendokai tattoo on his temple and muttered some rote phrase.

  Even she wasn’t sure how valid were the radiation readings. On the way here, with the mission in mind, they’d been foolhardy, perhaps. Excited as well as scared.

  The florses fitted through the hole in the hull if their riders ducked, and she and Zo stayed in the lead. After dismounting when the ceiling dropped lower, Zo led their mount by the reins. Darkness seemed to gather in the hollows and crevices, on the walls of this dead craft. Peeled-away hull let in flurries of snow and some light as well as brutal washes of cold. Not enough light for her though. She hugged herself.

  When they moved away from the hull tears where the outside showed, the wrecked satellite swallowed her and Zo in gloom again.

  She hung onto his coat at first, then realized how weak that might appear and let go.

  “Keep hold of me.” He squeezed her gloved hand back into place. “I need the reassurance.”

  That made her grin.

  “Dig a light from my bags, Ava. That one.”

  She dug, found it, switched it on, all the while wondering at this nickname he’d called her. Nicknames were so very personal.

  The hull had muffled the wind noises. They threaded their way deeper, left
the other three mauleons at a fork in case she’d gone the wrong way. Finally she judged they’d reached where she’d camped before.

  A few empty cans, a shred of paper, and a glinting golden bullet dropped onto the snow-decorated decking said her team had rested here. Once upon a time, she’d thought them her friends.

  She grimaced then stared at Zo as he tramped back to this room’s opening and beckoned to the others. Friends were generally fleeting things.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Everyone’s noses and faces were red from the blistering wind. This inner area of the crashed sat was warm enough to let them strip off the furs and heavier clothing. Timin and Kondio lit a fire using debris they’d found and wood saved from lower down the mountain. It wouldn’t last long but it was worth it, even if the smoke hung around on the curved ceiling in a cloud that slowly drifted away, sinking as it cooled.

  Food was brought from the bags. The florses were fed on grain and given water. Then everyone sat or lay on their makeshift pillows of coats, jackets, and saddlebags, eating meat strips, fruit, and traveler biscuits.

  The water in her canteen came out cold enough to make Avalon choke. Takk, she noted, had seated himself nearest the exit. He might’ve been guarding them if not for the liquor he was drinking, straight from its original bottle. Aragorn Rum. Toxic stuff from her recollection.

  “This place is too big for a mere satellite. This is made for people to walk along.” Timin nodded at the walls.

  Released from his hooded coat, his russet mane had sprung out from his head even crazier than usual. At least it was clean. When she first met him Timin had been the grimiest of the troop. He caught her eye and smiled. Nibbles scampered into his favorite spot on Timin’s shoulder then leaped and ran off into the shadows.

  Casually, as if it was their normal, Zo put his arm around her and pulled her closer. “I haven’t seen bunks though. Maybe this is what they did, for some reason.”

  “True. So much we don’t know.” Rubbing his lame leg, Kondio stared at where the mouse-bot had gone. “Saw a few bodies of his sort. Pulled out one from the snow by its tail. He’s from this ship. There must have been a few bots. Hundreds maybe.”