Song of the Worlds Boxed Set

by Brandon Barr

  “What about her shirt?”

  The third mercenary—the one with the missing eye—leaned back in his chair. “We wanted to enjoy the view.” He chuckled as he took in Aven’s disgust.

  Aven looked back to Daeymara, sickened and angry at the man’s callousness. Her face looked at peace, despite the dark mark beneath her right eye.

  Aven removed his white Guardian shirt, then covered her chest and stomach. He took out Daeymara’s lock of hair, and managed to place the torn wing back within the strands so that it would not be lost. As much as he hated the butterfly, the little wing felt special now. His thoughts drifted to Winter.

  He wished he could see her. Just to know she was alright.

  “It’s a waste keeping her alive,” called One Eye. Aven turned his head again and found the man staring lazily at him, a smirk smeared across his face. “We ain’t gonna be able to use her. Her insides are all burned.”

  “Mhadrees thinks there’s a chance,” said Spike Hair.

  “Ten to one odds she dies before we get anywhere near someone who could fix her,” said One Eye. “Just gonna end up cuttin’ the VOKK out and sellin’ it to the highest bidder.”

  The man’s one eye turned to Pike, then to Aven. “The three of you will be coming home with us, just gotta make one little stop along the way. Drop off the dead girl. And your little friend in the cage.” One Eye snickered. “All the beastie did was try and shake hands with you…and you go faintin’ like a fuggin’ girl.”

  “I don’t like this stop,” said Dheeg. “It ain’t safe. It’s a Beast world some say.”

  One Eye put a card down. “Mhadrees’ other ship has been making the run for years. Haven’t had a problem.”

  “You heard about the king there?” continued Dheeg. “He’s crazy, has some kind of spell over the place.” The man stared at the table. “He has the gods’ power. I heard he controls the minds of everyone in the city. That’s what another Red crew said. Everyone on Hearth worships him like he’s a god.”

  “I’ve worked on Mhadrees’ other ship,” said Spike Hair. “As long as you address the king as The Divine One, or Your Divineness, or some other crap, then he won’t have your eyes torn out and your dick cut off.”

  “Fuggin’ crazy,” said One Eye, shaking the dice in his hand then dropping them onto the table. He glanced at Aven again and sneered. Aven held his gaze, daring him to do something.

  One Eye grinned. “Gonna find a way to kill that prissy-boy before we get back. Don’t need no prick with a VOKK working for us.”

  “Only a coward kills unarmed men and women,” said Aven.

  One Eye glared back at Aven, brow drawn down over his empty eye socket.

  Aven felt the hair on his neck stand on end, and yet, he didn’t regret what he’d said.

  A laugh wheezed from One Eye’s throat, and his fist hit the table. “The prissy boy has big balls,” he said with a grin.

  Aven felt his muscles relax as the Mercenary returned his attention to the game. Aven hadn’t felt any fight in himself in a long time, not since he’d challenged Rozmin. But attempting to save Daeymara had rekindled that fury in him…and yet, what good was it going to do in a prison with armed mercenaries waiting outside. Aven looked at Daeymara’s hand in his, then back at the game table.

  The spiky-haired man rolled the dice. “What’s the king want with the kiehueth?”

  “Didn’t tell us,” said Dheeg. “But he wants it in a bad way.”

  “Pity,” said One Eye, “it makes a nice addition to the ship.” He put down a diamond shaped card.

  Dheeg rolled the dice, then laughed. “That’s five in a row, Piz. Pay up.” He stretched his open hand across the table.”

  Aven noticed it was One Eye they were calling Piz. Some kind of nickname? Piz glared back, then his good eye darted toward Aven. “Double or nothing on that kid in there. I say the kiehueth tortures him an entire day before he snaps his head off.”

  “You’re insane,” said Spike Hair.

  Piz squinted. “And you’re piss-ass boring.”

  Dheeg leaned forward. “Come on,” he said to Spike Hair. “Let’s ask captain. No harm asking.”

  Spike Hair shrugged. “Mhadrees wants him alive, but if you wanna ask, it’s your butt.” He turned to One Eye. “And I ain’t betting you anything.” He lifted his hand in front of Piz and rubbed his fingers together. “Pay up.”

  Piz handed him thin strips of metal. The other two mercenaries stood. “You comin’ Piz?”

  Piz threw the rest of his cards on the table. “Yeah, I’m coming.”

  “You gonna ask the captain?” asked Spike Hair.

  Piz stood with a grin. “Yeah, but not now. He’s too sober. Got to get him good and drunk.”

  Laughter spilled down the hall as the three mercenaries left, leaving the cards and dice scattered across the table. Aven found his anger overwhelming his sense of anxiety. He was angry at himself. He’d challenged the one-eyed mercenary who had stared him down like a predatory animal. And what had he gotten? A possible death sentence. His eyes fixated on the metal grating that held him in. He was completely helpless trapped inside the cell. His only hope was that this Mhadrees wanted to keep him alive.

  Aven took one last look at Daeymara’s face then released her hand and moved over to Pike and took a knee. It was then he saw the dark burn mark on Pike’s left arm.

  “They used a weapon on you,” said Aven, nodding toward the burn. “How are you feeling?”

  Sweat glistened on Pike’s rigid face. “The burn on my stomach is worse, but I’ll live,” he said.

  Pike’s eyes remained lost in some thought as he continued to stare down at the floor. Aven surveyed the room again. He noticed a long black tube affixed to the wall in the opposite corner. Beneath it, on the floor, was a small circular piece of metal with holes dotting it. A drain.

  Aven stood and went over to it. He found a small lever beside the tubing. When he pressed it down, water spattered from the end of the tube onto the floor.

  “Looks like we can drink and pee in here,” said Aven.

  Pike turned his head, and his eyes came to rest on Aven’s shoes. “I can’t seem to get away from you…the one person I hate the most.”

  Aven’s head snapped in Pike’s direction. A shiver ran through his body as he stared at Pike’s down-turned face. He remembered that tone, and that vicious tongue. A prickling sensation swarmed over his skin, turning his blood cold.

  The world had shifted again. The metal grate of the cell no longer separated the good from the bad.

  “They tricked me,” said Pike. “Tricked my father.” His eyes remained fixed on Aven’s shoes, staring darkly, lost in the images of his mind. “I wish I could be there to see it. To see what he does to them.”

  Aven pushed the lever back up, and the splattering of water over the drain stopped. Questions raged in Aven. What had happened to the brain wipe? The VOKK in Pike’s head, had the bolt of lightening altered it somehow?

  As Pike stared on in silence, the implications of the situation began to slide their fingers around Aven’s neck. He was trapped inside this cell with Pike. Eventually he’d need to sleep. But would it be safe? Did Pike have any weapons beside his hands?

  “What happened?” asked Aven. “The Guardians, they wiped your mind…do you remember that?”

  “I was there. Deep down, the real me was there, just locked away. Rueik. He betrayed me. He promised to help me kill you.” The last two words come out as a hiss. “I still can get what I want though.”

  Pike’s gaze drifted up to meet Aven’s.

  Murderous intent overflowed in those red, swollen eyes. Hatred spewed from them like venom and sent spider legs scurrying up the back of Aven’s neck. He had no doubt Pike would follow through with his threat. The question was when.

  It was like a nightmare, only it was living reality.

  “Rueik’s a Shadowman,” continued Pike. “I heard him tell Zoecara. She…” Pike closed his eyes
as if in pain, and took his head in his hands. “She’s…”

  Pike’s entire demeanor changed, as if an inner hurt was consuming him. Part of Aven wanted to kick him in the face and deliver the first blow, but then, he also saw an opportunity. Was it possible to break through Pike’s hatred for him? Cautiously, Aven came beside Pike and put a hand on his shoulder. Pike’s breathing eased, and he opened his eyes.

  Before Aven could react, Pike’s fist flew at him and battered the side of his face. Aven tumbled backward onto the metal floor. Quickly he sprang to his feet. The left side of his jaw felt like fire as he pressed his palm against it.

  Pike stared at him and leaned back against the wall. “I’m going to kill you,” said Pike. “On my family’s grave, I swear it.” He sat there, head resting against the wall, breathing hard.

  Aven glared back, rage surging through his veins like fire. “Do it!” said Aven with contempt. “Come try and kill me. I’ll make it cost you. You’ll be a bloody mess when I’m done with you.”

  The callous words felt foreign to Aven’s tongue, but they sprang from somewhere deep inside.

  Pike stared at him, a glint of amusement in his eyes. “I could have killed you after they first brought you in. See the legs of Daeymara’s cot? Metal rods. Could have brought that down on your unconscious face. Again. And again. And again. But I didn’t, know why? Because I need you alive for a little bit longer.”

  Pike looked past Aven, out the metal grating of their prison. “They want to feed you to that nasty creature we passed outside in the hall. They want to see what it does to you. If I kill you, they might throw me in there. So for now, you’re my little friend. Just don’t touch me, or I’ll fuck your face up again.”

  Aven looked at the metal feet on the cot, then glanced around the room for any other weapons. He wondered if he had it in him to strike first. Wait for Pike to fall asleep and…he knew if he did, he’d have to finish it, right then and there. Kill or be killed. He saw the metal lever to the water hose. If it could be pried off, it would make a good blunt weapon. He imagined stooping down over Pike’s head while he slept. Swinging the lever down, into the side of Pike’s skull. Despite his desperation, the thought made him sick.

  “Isn’t she gorgeous,” said Pike. His eyes drifted over to Daeymara. “My father would have hired her in an instant. Big, full breasts, strong legs. Look at her, completely naked. Completely unconscious.”

  “Stop!” snapped Aven.

  “Oh,” said Pike, feigning surprise. “You care about her?”

  Aven stared at him. The need to kill Pike weighed on his soul like a sick thought.

  “I swear, Aven. If I catch you coming anywhere near me—I’ll kill you, and then it will be just me and her alone in the room. You have an imagination. You understand. You try anything—you better be sure you can kill me.”

  Aven moved beside Daeymara, then dropped down beside her.

  Pike gave him an ugly smile.

  Aven looked away to Daeymara’s face.

  He didn’t need to say anything more to Pike. They understood each other. Perfectly.

  If Aven found an opportunity to kill Pike, he’d take it. He reached into his pocket and found Daeymara’s braid. He would protect her, no matter what it cost.

  CHAPTER 5

  AVEN

  “I feel your pain,” said a woman’s motherly voice. “All this death. All your loss.”

  Aven opened his eyes and was met by utter darkness and a sense that he was completely engulfed within something. Instinctively, he stretched his body out and felt resistance from every angle, as if wrapped within a slick sack. He was covered in wetness that stank like vomit. The smell filled his lungs as he gasped.

  “Save me!” shouted the voice in his ear. It came from a hard form pressed up against his stomach and face.

  Smothered, unable to breath, Aven kicked and squirmed, losing all control of his body, like a youth encased in a tight-bound bag, sunk to the bottom of a lake. His lungs burned, ready to explode. Madness overtook him as he wrenched back and forth to escape the airless space.

  Suddenly he was free.

  Aven gasped and opened his eyes. He rose shakily to his feet, drawing in deep lungfuls of air. Frantically he looked about him, spinning in a circle. Three dingy green walls and one metal grate enclosed him. The smell of urine drifted to his nose as he continued to suck in air.

  “A nightmare?” asked a familiar voice.

  Pike lay stretched out on the floor in the far left corner. He blinked, as if just waking from a long sleep. He sat up and grimaced, and grabbed his head with a groan.

  Aven ignored him, his thoughts drifting back to what he’d awoken from. It was too real. He’d never had a dream like that. Not that vivid. And the voice…he thought back on it now. It sounded like his mother’s. He’d been pressed against her in that creature’s stomach, engulfed in airless space that squeezed the very breath from his lungs.

  Somehow, that animal he’d passed earlier in the corridor was getting into his mind.

  He took another deep draught of air.

  “Where are we?” asked Pike.

  Aven looked back at him.

  “What is this place?” Pike asked again, a frail, fearful tone in his voice.

  Aven stared at him. The look Aven found in Pike’s eyes was genuine dread.

  “What’s going on, Aven? This looks like a cell.”

  Pike’s left hand was still pressed to the side of his head.

  Was it possible? Could Pike have slipped back into his brain wiped state? Or was he only pretending?

  “Aven!” said Pike with urgency. “Say something! What’s going on?!”

  “What do you remember last? Before you woke up here?”

  Pike closed his eyes, his fingertips scratching softly through his hair. “I…I think…” he took in a shaky breath. “We were all walking…to your farm. I remember looking up and seeing a ship. Way up in the sky. A starship. After that, I don’t remember anything.”

  If this was an act, it was a good one. And what did Pike have to gain by pretending? He’d already made plain who he was. What he wanted to do to Aven.

  “We’re on that ship you saw,” said Aven. “It was a mercenary ship. They’ve taken us captive.”

  Pike’s brow wrinkled, and he shook his head. “Why would they take us?”

  “For our VOKKs. They’re valuable, apparently.”

  Pike stared at the cell door. “Did they say what they’re going to do?”

  “No.”

  Pike stood, his eyes darting about the room. They stopped on Daeymara.

  “She’s been injured,” said Aven. “They left her in here like this.”

  The concern in Pike’s eyes brimmed over into tears. He suddenly moved toward Aven. Everything within Aven tightened.

  Pike looked like he was about to reach out and embrace Aven, but he stopped short, as if sensing something unwelcoming in Aven’s posture.

  Touch me and I’ll kill you, Pike had said earlier. Aven remained tensed, but then stepped forward and closed the distance between him and Pike.

  Pike put his arms around Aven. “I don’t know why I’m so emotional,” said Pike. “I’m sorry.” Pike let out a long breath. “You’re going to hate me for saying this, but I’m glad it’s you here with me. You’re the only friend I really have.”

  Aven stood, uncertain of what to say or do. Though Pike seemed to have slipped into his brain-wiped state, would he drift back…to the old Pike?

  Pike stepped back. “Is she going to be alright?”

  Aven shook his head. “She hasn’t woken yet. I don’t know if she will.”

  He studied Pike, pondering how strange it was that a face could change so drastically. It was as if he were inhabited by a completely different person. Aven could kill him now. Pike wouldn’t know what hit him. Aven glanced down at the metal posts of Daeymara’s cot. It was then he remembered the smell of urine when he’d first woken from the dream. On the floor beneath
the cot was puddle of urine.

  Unwanted tears stung Aven’s eyes. He bent down and saw how Daeymara had wet through the cot.

  “Pike, would you help me lift her bed. Over there, to that water hose.”

  They lifted her and the machine with the line attached to her arm, and set her over the drain. Aven pulled down on the lever and water came out at a slow drizzle. He began washing her legs.

  “How are we going to clean up that spot on the floor?” asked Pike.

  Aven frowned. He thought of asking Pike for his shirt, but then what if the old Pike returned? There was no telling how he might react to his shirt being used as a urine mop. Aven retrieved his own shirt that he’d used to cover Daeymara’s chest and threw it at Pike. “Soak it up with that, then rinse it clean over here by the drain. We can cover her again when it dries.

  When they were done, the floor was clean. They decided to leave Daeymara over by the drain, so that when she relieved herself, it would be much less of an ordeal to clean.

  Pike knelt beside Daeymara, his eyes downcast. “They should at least give her a blanket. Something to cover her besides your shirt.” He glanced up at the wet garment hung over the hose.” It’s indecent, leaving her like this.”

  “They aren’t decent people,” said Aven, inspecting the lever. He pulled on it, to see if it would be possible to remove. In the off position it continued to twist until it came free in his hand. The weight of it surprised him. It was large and heavy, and had a small riveted point at the end where it locked into the wall. A perfect weapon.

  Aven glanced down at Pike. What if he stayed like that? Good, kind. What if he never reverted back? Somehow, Aven doubted this fortunate turn of events would remain. If there was a time to do something about Pike, it was now.

  Pike wasn’t this honest, pure-hearted man before him. The person kneeling at Daeymara’s bedside was a lie. Could he bring himself to do what he should? To make sure that unforgiving man never returned?

  One glance from Pike, and the sad stupid look on his face drained all the anger out of Aven.