by Scott Moon
Kin never learned his name. The people of Crater Town had been glad to see him leave.
Last night, he had been face down in Droon’s camp, beaten into submission. Now he leered at Kin. Raif stood behind him, smiling.
“That’s him. Ten thousand credits for each of you if we take him alive, five thousand dead,” Raif said.
“Five thousand is a lot of money.” The tattooed pit fighter held a section of sheet metal with a handle cut into it and razor sharp edges on the business end. He smiled, yellowed teeth poking out of his dark gums.
Kin surveyed the others. The woman appeared hard as the rest but crouched slightly and held her abdomen. Fear radiated from her sallow face. Dark circles surrounded her eyes as she stared at him. She was having doubts about their plan. The remaining two men were small and looked on the brink of starvation. Unlike the pit fighter, they wore patched canvas shirts and carried axes — Bear’s axes.
Droon howled in the distance, definitely moving away from Kin and the fight he couldn’t avoid. The Reaper’s furious voice cracked. He screamed a battle cry that was answered by a gunshot. The rifle report echoed across the canyon.
“I should have let you bleed out, Raif.”
“You should have.”
The woman backed away from Kin and stared at Raif. “You know each other? You said he left you for the Reaper, just like us.” Her wide eyes betrayed her. She had been on the verge of panic, but now she was angry and afraid.
Raif came at Kin but did it by moving quickly behind the pit fighter and toward Kin’s flank. The pit fighter charged at the same time. Kin shot him in the face and turned the rifle on Raif, who dropped to the ground, avoiding the first shot. Kin stitched the ground with bullets. He was a good shot, but Raif scrambled and rolled while the other two men and the woman rushed Kin. Everything happened fast. In the space of seconds, Kin was shooting at multiple targets and moving backward.
The woman was injured and slow. The two smaller men proved more dangerous, working as a team, coming at Kin from both sides. He shot the man on the right, then took out the woman as he swept his rifle toward the other man. He retreated, narrowly avoiding an axe in the face.
He stumbled on the man he had just shot, dropping the empty rifle and pulling his pistol. Kin preferred to shoot people in the body, center mass, and the head, but he squeezed off two rounds as he brought the pistol up, catching the last traveler in the pelvis both times.
The man fell, dropping the axe, clutching his wounds and grunting. On his next breath, he began to scream.
Kin stepped on the man’s back and shot him once in the back of the head. He looked for Raif, not surprised to see him running ninety degrees from where Droon assaulted the rock formation. The man had either been on Hellsbreach or encountered Reapers someplace else, because the escape route he chose was just what Kin would have chosen.
Rocks and the tangled roots of bushes turned under Kin’s feet as he ran, holstering his pistol and swinging the second rifle from his back. He dodged around the scrub brush and scraggly saplings that struggled to live in the rocky valley. He knew he should be running toward Rickson and Clavender, but he wasn’t going to let Raif get away again. After fifty meters, he realized his quarry was faster than he was. He guessed which way Raif would turn next and took a short cut, running up the side of an exposed boulder and coming down in Raif’s path.
The one-handed trooper slid to a stop. “Please.”
Kin flipped the selector switch on the rifle to fully automatic and fired, moving forward, punching a cluster of bullet holes in Raif’s chest. Fleet trooper survival instinct had been drilled into Raif and he proved he was a combat veteran by his actions. He was a lying coward, but a fighter to the end. He flailed his injured arm and covered the wounds with his good hand, which resulted in his fingers being sliced off by bullets. When Kin was close enough, he ceased firing and kicked him hard.
“I bet you wish you had your armor now,” Kin said. He knelt and checked Raif for anything useful, but found nothing. There wasn’t time to go back for the rifle he dropped and this one only had two magazines left. He wished he could recover Bear’s axes but counted himself lucky and ran toward the rock formation. A lot of damage could be done with two magazines from a Fleet rifle.
He pushed the pace. Droon had gone quiet and Rickson had only fired one shot.
Why only one shot?
Kin agonized over what he would find when he reached the cave. Rickson couldn’t fight a Reaper. He shouldn’t have left them. He should have stayed and done his duty.
That’s what happens when you get tired. Stupid mistakes. You can’t keep this up. Why don’t you just quit? He berated and cursed himself, but it didn’t make him faster.
He was intensely thirsty as he ran. It seemed like a year since he last sipped from his water pouch. He didn’t waste breath cursing Raif or Droon, but his thoughts alternated between the two killers and his own stupidity.
When he was close enough to see the cave entrance, he heard Droon again and saw him sprint out of sight into a gully. The valley floor seemed flat from a distance, but it was cut through by erosion, rock formations, and dying bushes. Thick clusters of trees thrived near the river, but he couldn’t know if Droon had gone that way.
The single shot worried him. Rickson wasn’t trained to use a Fleet rifle and probably dropped it after the first shot. Droon probably stormed into the cave and slaughtered them. Kin ran into the cave, afraid of what he would find.
“Rickson!”
No answer.
“Rickson, answer me!”
“We’re here. Calm down. It’s been half a second since you burst in,” Rickson said.
“You only fired once.”
“I only saw him once,” Rickson said. “I thought you were going to be back before dark.”
Kin looked out of the cave and realized he hadn’t paid attention to the failing light during his race to get back. Now he remembered how the orange glow of the setting sun had highlighted Droon’s features. Night was upon them, and Droon had his games to play.
“We’ll take turns standing watch. Two nights without sleep will ruin both of us,” Kin said. He looked at Rickson, who studied him as though he knew Kin had just killed five people. He lowered the rifle and put his hand briefly on Rickson’s shoulder. After he pulled his hand back, he said, “You did well. That rifle kicks.”
Rickson smiled. “I noticed.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
KIN watched the sun rise. He perched on the rocks and held his axe in a relaxed manner. He turned the weapon in his hands, pondering every detail. He thought of Bear and his axes and how the man claimed Kin’s version wasn’t heavy enough.
Golden light blazed on the canyon floor and on the sides of the mountains around him. The island of rock formations was slick with morning dew, as was the tundra and rocky soil that stretched to the winding river and beyond. A herd of large, shaggy animals wandered at the limit of his vision. He didn’t know what manner of beast they were, but they were moving farther away.
He went to the campfire. Rickson yawned as he heated a pot of coffee.
“Enjoy it while it lasts,” Kin said. Most of the supplies had been lost with the horses.
“I never ate so good. Bear traveled like a king,” Rickson said. He looked away when he mentioned his new and newly lost friend. He faced Clavender. “She didn’t sleep well. I had to hold her down twice. She wanted to go to the Reaper.”
“Why do you say that?” Kin asked.
Rickson focused on his small cup. “She kept saying his name. I had to hold her down.”
“You already said that.” Kin suspected the boy had quite a wrestling match with the beautiful, alien princess and was embarrassed.
“I know. You’re not a good listener. I have to say everything twice.” He paused. “Everything twice.”
Kin laughed.
“What is wrong with her?” Rickson asked.
Kin examined Clavender and said no
thing. Bruises marred her skin. He could see where the Reaper had gripped her and guessed what he had done or tried to do. His heart sank. He thought she could awaken if she wanted to, but her heart was broken. She was a gentle creature and could never have anticipated the savage nature of a Reaper. She’d probably felt compelled to heal him, to be kind and forgive his violent nature.
Kin didn’t believe the monsters were evil in a moral sense. The Reapers who had tortured him had seemed to believe they were helping him but had been unaware of how much pain their remedies caused. Droon saw something in Clavender that prevented him from eating her or killing her outright. Fleet troopers claimed a Reaper would mate with anything, but Kin always dismissed such talk. Reapers had nothing that approximated a human moral code. For a Reaper, rape most likely made sense, just like eating a live animal in small bites or swallowing one whole made sense, depending on the circumstances.
“How are we going to get her back to Crater Town?” Rickson asked.
Kin said nothing for a moment. Then, in a quiet voice, he spoke without taking his eyes from her. “It’ll be more difficult now. Do you see these bite marks? His blood is in her. He knows where she is. He knows if she is awake and whether she’s running from him or toward him.”
“Why would his blood be in her if he bit her? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” Rickson asked.
“Reapers are venomous. Fleet researchers speculate they used to be poisonous but don’t really know. I met an expert who believed Reapers used venom to track or control prey.”
“What happened to the expert?” Rickson asked.
“He died.”
“You know a lot of people who died.”
Kin touched the boy’s shoulder. “It’s been nice knowing you.”
“Not funny,” Rickson said. They pondered Clavender as she slept.
“Did he rape her?” Rickson asked.
Kin shrugged.
Tears swelled in the boy’s eyes.
“Better than being eaten.” Kin checked his weapons and gear. “Wake her. It’ll be best to move during the day.”
“Is she going to be okay?”
“I don’t know. Wake her up,” Kin said. “Don’t assume anything. I’ve never heard of a Reaper raping a human, except as a way to invoke terror before eating.”
“Eating what, a human?”
“No, they eat crackers. Got any?”
“I thought when you said the Reaper would eat me alive it was a figure of speech,” Rickson said.
“Wake her up. We need to get moving.”
But Rickson couldn’t wake her up. Kin tended her wounds again and took his time. Droon was probably closing in, but she needed careful attention, more than just cleaning and binding wounds. She needed him to sit with her and be silent in spirit.
“I am sorry, Kin,” Clavender said softly. Her voice sounded weak. He squeezed her hand and looked into her eyes. She smiled as only an exhausted person can. She arched her back and stretched.
“For what?” he asked.
“I tried to take the Reaper to my people, but something interferes with the wormhole. I made things worse.”
“I doubt it,” Kin said.
“He was in my head. I feel him. He draws me back. Every moment away causes me pain.”
Kin put a hand on her shoulder but didn’t know what to say. Few people survived a Reaper bite. Escaping was almost impossible. He still suffered from the wounds the Reaper women on Hellsbreach inflicted on him, but they had done other things to heal him. His situation was different, but he didn’t understand why. Guilt plagued him. Reapers dragged thousands of troopers into pits on Hellsbreach, yet he was the only man to emerge alive.
“He knows you,” Clavender said.
Kin brushed hair from her eyes. “The mind of a Reaper is slippery. They are individuals but can’t easily differentiate between group memories and their own. They care little for the linear concept of time as we know it and confuse themselves as often as not. He may know me, or he may only think he knows me.”
She studied him. “How do you know that?”
“I was on Hellsbreach for a long time. They took me prisoner and I escaped. It’s a complicated story, one the Fleet didn’t appreciate. High Command questioned my loyalty afterward and ordered me to initiate the final detonation sequence to destroy the Reaper’s world.”
Kin didn’t care if Rickson heard. The boy knew the Fleet wanted him, although Kin had never intended to reveal his captivity. He tried to ignore the look of horror on Rickson’s face.
Distant thunder drew Kin’s attention west. He couldn’t see the wormhole. It had drifted behind the mountains between his location and the coast, which meant that it was very low. He couldn’t remember the last time the wormhole wasn’t visible. It didn’t orbit the planet as the moons and stars did. Sometimes he felt as though the anomaly was staring at him.
“The trip back to Crater Town will be dangerous. Is there another place I could take you? Do your people have a stronghold?” Kin asked. He hoped she would say no, because Crater Town needed her. Yet he hoped she would say yes, because only a miracle was going to save them from Droon. Sophia’s warnings of Clavender’s people remained with him. According to the wise old woman, Clavender’s people were both numerous and warlike. Without knowing more about them, Kin simultaneously feared them and hoped for them as allies.
“I cannot return to them. My desperate actions might have saved us from the Reaper had I reached my people, but they would use me to start a war they cannot win.” She sat up and pulled the travel blanket around her.
Kin yielded to her calming influence. He needed to think, and there was no better place for peace and quiet than beside Clavender. Reaper bites tortured the body and the mind. He understood this, yet Clavender hid her discomfort and fear. Anyone else would have run screaming toward the monster. Anyone else would be dead, nothing but Reaper aftertaste.
“Are you my hero?” she asked.
“Something about the way you say that makes me think you’re amused.”
She laughed. Her eyes lit up. “The men of the Ror-Rea are not so different. They think women need protecting and saving.”
“It’s good to see you laugh,” Kin said, and it was good. Clavender’s beauty differed from Laura’s good looks or even Kin’s idealized memory of Becca. When Clavender smiled, he felt it. Rickson felt it as well. It seemed a weight lifted from them all. “You never talk about your people. What would my name be if I were a warrior of the Ror-Rea?”
She laughed again, although Kin sensed fatigue behind her expression.
“Most likely you would be The Wingless One Who Strikes Hard.”
“How about the idiot who pisses off Reapers?” Rickson said.
“That would be more accurate,” Clavender said as she touched the boy’s arm. She winked conspiratorially.
Rickson smiled and stood straighter.
“Settle down, Rickson,” Kin said.
Clavender sat beside Kin and held his hand. He understood at least part of the reason the Reaper hunted her and why every resident of Crater Town held her dear. To be near her was to experience a feeling of wellbeing. To be touched was to be healed. He had a feeling that the Clinger on Droon’s back had a different fate in mind, given what Sophia said about them. Droon had carried her for days rather than eat her a piece a day as Reapers often did when traveling, but being eaten by a Clinger seemed worse somehow.
“I should not have taken Droon through the portal,” Clavender said. “My people are single-minded and stubborn. They would have resented my opening the way for the Reaper when I have refused to open it for them.”
“Could they kill a Reaper?”
“Yes. Reapers fear the Ror-Rea,” she said. “My father was the king and a warrior.”
“Is he dead?” Kin asked.
“I do not know. I left the Ror-Rea when I was young. He abdicated his throne to search for me,” she said. “Your people need me. They do not understand this p
lanet.”
“Why’d you leave your home?” Kin asked.
Clavender glanced away, but Kin continued to stare at her, waiting for an answer.
“We should go. I can feel Droon’s hunger,” she said.
Kin didn’t move. He held Clavender’s gaze, taking advantage of her discomfort and feeling guilty about it. “Do we really need you at Crater Town, or would we be safe without you?”
Rickson stood and glared at Kin. “You’ve seen the weather around Crater Town. From the summit of the pass, the ocean looked weird. You and Bear both said it.”
“He is not accusing me of anything, Rickson. Are you, Kin?”
They stared at each other for a moment. She looked away, stood, and rolled up one of the blankets. Eventually, she faced Kin.
“You have been talking to Sophia,” she said.
“She told me a story.”
Clavender nodded and looked down. She handed the blanket to Rickson, and while he stowed it in his pack, she walked closer to Kin. “She did not tell you the entire story because she does not know it. This planet is not named Crashdown, it is Edain, and is for the people of the Ror-Rea. No one may remain without our blessing.”
“Without your blessing,” Kin said. She didn’t look away. She didn’t blink. Her eyes answered his question.
Kin checked his weapons and went to the mouth of the rocks. He caught Rickson looking at her with both pity and a desire to save her. The boy wasn’t hard to read. Kin suspected he knew his thoughts.
Before Clavender regained consciousness, Rickson plagued Kin with questions about Reapers. He was obsessed with the idea the Reaper had his way with Clavender. Kin knew why this bothered the orphan. The boy’s mother died in childbirth and his father eventually died of heartbreak. Rickson became a very young, very lonely shepherd, unable to endure the sound of children playing and mothers calling them to dinner. But most of all, he ran from the sounds of women giving birth.
Years later, he learned to amuse town children as a big brother might, but he never stayed long.