by James Axler
AROUND NOON they passed through the shattered remains of what must once have been a sizable ville. Doc's guess was a town called Kingston, but the effort of recalling so much of his distant past had wearied the old man, and he sat down for much of the time, trailing his bare feet over the stern, gazing at their jagged wake, locked in his own thoughts. Not even Lori could tug him back for several hours.
Ryan realized just how frail Doc Tanner's hold on reality truly was.
"LET'S PULL HER IN," Ryan said a little after two o'clock in the afternoon.
"Hours of daylight left," J.B. protested, looking up at the sky, puzzled. "No storm threatening, so why stop?"
"A vacation," Ryan said, grinning. "There's a clearing to the left there. I can see a waterfall, white over the rocks. Good defense all around. Haven't seen any mu-ties. Let's just stop, like Doc said, and rest up. We'll start again at dawn."
"Gaia, but that's a wonderful idea, lover." Krysty sighed and ran her fingers through her mane of scarlet hair so that it rippled against her skin like a wave of fire.
It was an idyllic place.
Ryan and Jak scouted the region around the landing place while J.B. held the mooring line ready for a swift flight. But they found no trace anywhere of any human footprints. Ryan checked the radiation count, taking a reading that dropped below the orange. Everything that he'd ever heard made him certain that the entire northeast industrial area had been nuked almost out of existence, leaving the place a throbbing hot spot that for a long time actually glowed at night, according to some of the older men and women at Front Royal ville.
The water that tumbled eighty or ninety feet from the lip of an escarpment was fresh and sweet without any kind of chem taste.
There were ample deadfall branches that would make an excellent fire—one with a glowing heat but very little smoke to attract any potential enemies.
Doc lay down on the gently sloping beach of soft white sand and instantly fell asleep. Lori sat beside him, plaiting a chaplet of tiny white and golden flowers that she'd found growing in an abundant profusion near the border of the forest.
Spruce, larch, white oaks and hickories dominated the sloping hillside above the beach, with tiny red squirrels and chipmunks darting fearlessly among them, showing no fright at the appearance of the humans.
"Coming, J.B.?" Krysty asked.
"Where?"
"There," she responded, pointing toward the beckoning shade of the green forest.
"Why?"
"For the pleasure of it, J.B., like Doc said. It's a vacation for us all. Rest and relax and stop your mind running on death."
"I'm happy here, Krysty."
The Armorer was sitting cross-legged in the sand, a few yards nearer the water than Doc and Lori. He had the mini-Uzi cradled in his lap, already halfway through fieldstripping it. His glasses caught the sun, and his fedora was pushed well back on his high, sallow forehead.
"Come on," Ryan urged.
"When we chilled the stickles, I thought I heard something catching on the mechanism. Something didn't sound right. The selective fire blowback's my guess. I've got to check it out, Ryan. You know that."
"Sure. Watch the boat."
The Armorer nodded his agreement, bending happily to his task.
"Jak," Krysty called.
"Yeah. You going to walk?"
"Want to come?"
The boy was still stripped to the waist, his boots off, breeches rolled above the knee. He was paddling in the shallows of the river, one of his lethal little throwing knives poised in his right hand.
"Fishing."
"You'll never get anything with a blade," Ryan said disbelievingly.
"Want to bet?"
Ryan laughed. "I know better, kid."
"Go pick flowers, One Eye. Have some fish grilled for you when you get back."
"Sounds good." Krysty smiled and hooked her arm through Ryan's elbow. "Looks like you an' me, lover."
"Looks like it." Ryan called across to J.B., "Be back 'fore dark."
The Armorer waved a casual hand.
Close together, hips touching as they walked, Ryan and Krysty made their way into the cool, scented gloom beneath the waiting trees.
"Herb the blacksmith, back in Harmony ville, knew lotsa old songs and verses," Krysty said. "Told one 'bout a lost path through the woods. How it was gone, but it was still there for those who had the eyes to see it."
Ryan could see what had prompted her line of thought. The trees were well spaced, with daggers of golden sunlight thrusting through the top branches and dappling the floor of the forest. They could hear the light breeze as it tugged at the fresh green leaves that danced and swayed. The air tasted fresh and clean. Gradually they were leaving the rolling sound of the Hudson behind them.
They picked a path between the trunks, climbing up the slope.
"It's a beautiful day, Ryan."
"Good day for a vacation."
"Look, down there."
They stopped on a grassy knoll that thrust out between the trees, overhanging the beach, giving them a view clear across the river. From that height it shone and glittered like molten glass, barely moving. A little farther above them they could hear the thundering of the waterfall.
Far below them they could easily make out the twin shapes of Doc and Lori, lying close together on the beach, seemingly asleep.
"Oddest love match I ever saw," Ryan said. "I know he's not really two hundred and thirty years old, but he's definitely around his middle sixties. And she's still in her teens."
"You disapproving, lover?" Krysty asked teasingly.
"No. Course not. I'm pleased the old goat's so happy, and the girl couldn't have found a nicer person than Doc. Specially after that double-crazy Keeper she lived with."
"Look at J.B."
Ryan, arm held loosely around Krysty's slender waist, shaded his eye against the sunlight. The Armorer had laid his coat on the sand and was stooped over the stripped segments of his blasters, carefully wiping each one, using a tiny container of oil to grease them. J.B. was in his element, relishing the vacation in his own dedicated way.
"Jak looks like a little boy at play," Ryan observed. "Not that he ever had any kind of childhood."
The white hair blended with the sun-bright sand. As they watched, the lad flicked his wrist. There was a flash of silver from the thrown knife as it splashed into the river. Jak plunged his hand into the water, coming out with something that wriggled and glistened blue-green in his fist. As though he sensed that he was being watched, the boy whirled around, scanning the wall of the forest. He spotted the man and the woman far above him and waved the trout in triumph. Jak shouted something to them, but the words were whisked away on the soft westerly wind.
"Supper should be good, lover," Krysty whispered. "Come on, let's walk some more." She waved to Jak, and then she and Ryan stepped back out of sight of their companion on the beach.
AS THEY MADE LOVE on a bank of light green moss, shaded from the sun, Ryan kept the G-12 at his side. This place was as near to an Eden as anything he'd come across in the Deathlands. But that didn't mean that it was free from serpents.
The foaming stream that fed the waterfall was only a few yards from them, chattering over the rounded stones. A miniature wading bird, wings darted with vivid turquoise and crimson, hopped and picked its way through the water. A gold-throated woodpecker hammered away at a live oak behind them, the thin sound of its rapping beak echoing around the forest. A mutie raccoon, no more than four inches long, skittered over the fawn carpet of leaf mold, ignoring the lovemaking couple who watched it.
"Makes a change to see a mutie animal that's gotten smaller," Krysty said.
"I saw some bear tracks and what I guess is a bobcat," Ryan said. "They looked a coupla weeks old. Mebbe more."
"Gaia, but I hope you're right!" Krysty exclaimed, pretending to push Ryan off her, looking around. "A bobcat on top of me as well as you would be too much."
Ryan moaned in pleas
ure as the girl laughed. When he was deeply buried in her, she was able to do amazing things with her stomach muscles, lying quite still, yet somehow sucking and caressing him with rippling waves of pressure. He lowered his face to hers, kissing her gently on the lips, tasting sun and salt on her skin.
"I love you, Ryan Cawdor," Krysty whispered. The tip of her tongue danced over his lips, probing between his parted teeth. She sighed as he thrust harder against her, feeling his swelling climax racing closer. She began to pant, raggedly and urgently showing the nearness of her own release.
"Not yet, not yet, not yet," she chanted, head rolling back. The long coils of her burning hair seemed to rise, brushing Ryan's cheeks and shoulders with an odd, sentient life of their own.
"I can't… can't…"
"Soon, lover, soon…yes! Now, you fierce bastard, now!"
They fought to a mutual orgasm, Ryan collapsing on top of her, feeling as though the core of his soul had been sucked out from his loins. He could feel her powerful muscles, fluttering uncontrollably with the power of her own ecstasy.
"Fireblast," he exclaimed. "How d'you like them apples, lover?"
"I guess you don't get many of them to the bushel, huh?"
Ryan rolled off her, wincing at the stickiness. "Where d'you get that expression from? Not many of them to the bushel!"
Krysty grinned at him with the sleepy, contented face of a cat that's gotten the best of the cream. "Back in Harmony. Mother Sonja had a host of old sayings like that. Guess she never figured it'd be used for a real mind-blower like that."
"Guess not."
"Didn't you have sayings like that, lover? Back in your own family."
"Not that I recall."
The smile slipped away, and she saw the tension come snapping back into his face, hardening the lines around his eye and mouth.
"Ryan?"
He stood up, turning away from her. She had a moment to admire the muscular slimness of his naked body, his back, arms and legs seamed with a multitude of old scars.
"Ryan? I'm sorry I touched a nerve."
"Don't signify, lover." He moved to the edge of the water and dipped a toe in it, whistling at the cold. "Feels like meltwater."
"Going to bathe?"
"Hell, why not? Come join me."
She gasped at the shock of the icy stream as she crouched to wash herself. She leaped out suddenly, running on the cropped turf to try to get warm again. A raven, wings carrying the polished sheen of sunlight, floated over the treetops, catching her eye.
Krysty pulled on her silken bikini panties, adjusting them across her hips, easing the flimsy material from the cleft between her buttocks. She hoisted her trousers and tugged on the elegant western boots. The water had splashed her hair, and she ran her fingers through it, letting it float across her shoulders.
"Come out, lover. You'll freeze, and the cold's doing nothing for that…" She pointed at his shrunken genitals, giggling at him.
"It'll warm up," he said, some of the toughness easing from his face once more.
"Get dressed, Ryan. Then come and sit here by me. There's another hour or more before we need be heading back to join the others."
He got dressed, leaving his chest bare, relishing the feel of the sun on his skin. Ryan held up his brown shirt, shaking his head at the stain on it, which was nearly black.
"Poor Hennings," he said.
"Seems years past. Can't be more'n a few weeks since he bought the farm. One too many mornings…" Her voice trailed away.
"Mebbe we should settle on going west and try to find some of the Trader's old crew."
Krysty rested her hand on his bare shoulder, feeling the skin still chilled by the stream. "What about Virginia?"
"And the Shens?"
"Sure, lover. And the ville at Front Royal where someone's the baron… someone who owes you a debt."
Ryan breathed deeply so that his ribs became prominent against the skin of his chest. "It's too many years. Like you said, Krysty. A thousand miles behind. Best leave it there."
But he couldn't hide the note of doubt in his voice. The girl lay stretched out on her back, hands behind her head, looking up at the harsh planes and angles of his face.
"You aren't sure?"
"No. No, I'm not."
"Talk about it."
"You know the story. You heard it down in the swamps."
"I want to hear it from you, Ryan. Now. Your story, your words. There'll never be a better time."
Ryan folded the bloodstained shirt and placed it on the grass, then lay down at the girl's side.
Beginning to speak…
Chapter Seven
"PLANT A BULLET anywhere in the domain of Front Royal ville and it'd grow a blaster. That's what folks used to say. By the long winter! It was a good, rich land, Krysty. The biggest ville in all of Virginia. My father said he figured it might be the biggest in the whole of Death-lands. But I don't know 'bout that. The nukes came so thick the sky was black. But they were short half-life missiles, most of 'em. My great-great-grandpa took what he saw and held it fast. Great-grandpa got more. Timber and water and grazing. Cattle and horses. Even a few hogs. Deep in the Shens there was sheltered hollows where the rad didn't reach. Great-Grandpa Ryan built and stole and killed and kept."
"You were named after him?" Krysty asked, not wanting to interrupt the flow of words from the man at her side. She felt that he wanted to talk it out, and like she'd said, now was the time and the place for it.
"Surely was. He had chill-cred, did Great-Grandpa Ryan. His son just held what there was. By then, around the mid of the century, there was some trouble from the Walkers and the Takers."
Krysty nodded. "Heard my Uncle Tyas McCann speak of them. Said they was the descendants of the Levelers and the Diggers."
"Never heard nothing 'bout them."
"Go on, lover." She reached out to touch his left hand and felt a reassuring squeeze from Ryan.
"My father took it over around 2050. By then the power was established. There was a rising of the workers on the west side of the ville. Wanted rights to the land they worked. Father put it down. Lots of dead, gibbets on every hill from Nineveh to Oak Ridge."
It had been a dreadful, awesome sight that struck fear into the hearts of every man, woman and child who worked for the Front Royal ville. The bodies hung there, tied with waxed cobbler's twine that didn't rot. The birds picked at the soft tissues of the faces first. The eyes and the lips went, then the cheeks and the tender flesh around the neck. As the slashing wind and rain tore the thin clothes away from the corpses, more of the weathered meat was revealed for the crows and the ravens to feast on.
Baron Titus Cawdor was a tall, broad-shouldered man with fierce eyes and a ready temper. He married the daughter of the baron of a neighboring ville, joining the families. He took over the other ville when his wife's father—an excellent horseman—died in a mysterious riding accident. His wife, Lady Cynthia, was never physically strong, and after the birth of the third child—all boys-she sank into a decline and a wasting sickness, accompanied by a bloody flux that carried her off less than a year later. She was buried in the marble Cawdor family mausoleum.
Morgan Cawdor was the firstborn of the baron's sons. Tall and as straight as a tree, he was everything that his father wished for. He could outride, run, wrestle, shoot or swim any of his fellows. He was kind where his father was cruel, considerate where the baron was a thin-lipped autocrat. Morgan took care to watch over his youngest brother, Ryan, protecting him from any danger.
And the main danger was the second of the Cawdor sons.
Harvey Cawdor.
"Harvey," Ryan said, his voice cold and far away. "Two years younger than Morgan and two years older than me."
"Why didn't your father do something to check him?" Krysty asked.
"Harvey was my bane. He was wicked. Fireblast! But such a bitter, evil bastard!"
Harvey Cawdor was everything that his older brother was not and lacked every one of Mor
gan's virtues. His sole strength was an overweening ambition, coupled to an iron will to garner what he believed to be his right. His mind was warped and twisted, dwelling in dark corridors that were rank with the lust for power.
"They told me that his birthing ruined him. He was breeched, they said. One leg trailed, like this…and his shoulder was hunched and crook'd up."
Ryan limped around the clearing, his right leg dragging a deep furrow, gouged from the soft green moss. His right arm was lifted, and twisted, giving him the lopsided walk of a hunchback. Krysty watched him, face solemn.
"I recall an old tape we had in Harmony. An actor from Europe. The paper was torn and the name was gone, but there was a picture on the label of a warped, bent man, long black hair, and a chain of gold. It was a play about a baron from olden times. Most had been wiped by the pulse. But the start was left."
Ryan dropped his shoulder, sighing as he sat down once more by Krysty's side. "Was this baron like Harvey? Blood-eyed bastard?"
"Uncle Tyas McCann knew the play. He said this baron killed old men and children and married the wife of one of the men he killed. How he could smile and smile and still be a villain."
"Harvey smiled like that. If'n he could find some puppy to blind or a kitten to drown and save and drown again, that was when he smiled a whole lot. I learned early, Krysty, that when brother Harvey smiled it was time for little Ryan to get the fuck out of his way."
The sound of the waterfall seemed to be changing, matching the somber mood of Ryan's tale. It no longer chuckled brightly over the stones. Now it seemed to whisper and mutter of dark plots and inductions dangerous. The afternoon was becoming colder.
Krysty shivered.
"What is it, lover? Want to go back to the others? I can smell woodsmoke. Jak must be getting his fish ready."
"I'm okay, Ryan. Go on."
"What happened to this crookback baron?" he asked.
"Got chilled."
Ryan nodded. "Yeah. Be good if… Where was I?"
"Morgan and Harvey."
She noticed that twice already, unconsciously, Ryan's right hand had reached and touched the scar that seamed the side of his face, jagged from eye to mouth.