“What does that mean? I’m not Nordar.”
“We served him,” she said as she pointed to the first man I killed. “We still owe debt. Now we serve you.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. No. You can all go. I release you from your--”
“We did not like him,” the other sister said. Her accent was broken, and she was hard to understand. “He mean. Hurt us. Sex with other men.” She looked at the corpses on the ground.
“And you aren’t slaves?” I asked as I tried to keep my blood from boiling.
“No. We were Idonan blood clan. Rowers on the ship Yessanda. We were captured by Vaish,” the sister who had done most of the talking so far said.
“Rowers? How do you row a spaceship?” I asked.
“Ahh. I might not know right word. We helped with upkeep and duties around ship. Logs and cleaning.”
“So non military?”
“Warriors? All Nordor are warriors, we are not the best warriors. We good rowers, though.” The woman smiled, and her face seemed to brighten.
“How did you end up down here on this planet then?” I moved to the next corpse and started checking his pockets. Another set of keys, more ammo, another revolver, and a wallet filled with paper money.
“Thrall,” she stated.
“No, I get that, but if you were on a starship, and the Vaish captured you, how did you end up on this planet?”
“We asked to serve here. Dangerous on starship because of war and we might fight our own clan. Thralls on planet can become freemen or women, and have families. Maybe become adopted into clan if they pass new rite.”
“And then you ended up with him?” I asked as I gestured to the corpse.
“Ya. Sold.”
“This sounds a lot like slavery to me,” I said with a sigh.
“No. We are thra--”
“So you want to pay off your debt?” I cut her off.
“Ya,” she nodded, and then the other two mirrored her movement.
“Can you help me get to my check point? I am doing Odin’s rite of passage.”
“Odin?” she asked with amazement. Then she turned to the other two women and spoke a few words to them.
“Yeah. I need to go about fifty-one hundred kilometers south to the next checkpoint. Then I have to go another fifty or so before they will take me to the next planet. I don’t know if that will clear your debt, and if you don’t want to, you don’t--”
“You hurt,” one of the women said as she pointed to my shoulder.
“I’m fine. Like I said, you all don’t need to worry about me. You can leave now and have your freedom. I just need to get south to the checkpoint so I can complete my rite.”
“We will do it,” the first woman said quickly. “We can submit to you, and then--”
“No!” I shouted, and the women flinched. “I got into this whole mess because the wrong woman submitted to me. You don’t have to help me, but I’d appreciate it. Don’t just agree. Ask your friends.”
The woman I spoke to turned to the other two, and they exchanged a few words while I finished looting the rest of the men. There were two revolvers in the larger caliber and six speed loaders for them. I strapped on two of the belts, holstered the handguns, and then stashed the loaders in small leather pouches on the belt.
The other seven pistols were smaller caliber, but I had about eighty bullets left. I picked out the nicest four of weapons and then went through the men’s wallets. Once I was done sorting their cash, I grabbed the shotgun, broke it open, left it on the table, and pulled the two boxes of shells from behind the bar. It was thirty shots, but that meant I’d be able to kill thirty fuckers.
“We will do it,” the woman with the best English said.
“Alright. Thanks,” I said. “You might need these,” I said as I gestured to the four guns.
“Thralls cannot have weapons, unless for hunting.” She shrugged.
“Alright,” I replied. “No guns. I can carry more.” As I spoke, I saw the woman with the blonde hair and the dark eyes stare at the plates of discarded food on the ground of the tavern.
“What are your names?” I asked.
“I am Hegeia,” The woman with the best English and the light blue eyes said. “My sister is Waiola.” The other redhead nodded at me. “This is Uma.” The blonde woman with the dark eyes smiled at me.
“Are you three hungry?” I asked Uma as I made an eating motion with my hand.
“Ya,” she said with a nod.
“Is there food in the back?” I asked them as I pointed to the door at the side of the bar. “How about a shower?”
“They brought the food from the back, so there will probably be a kitchen,” Hegeia said. “I do not know about shower. The building is big, and the owner lived here. There must be one.”
“Alright. You three go cook us breakfast. Then we can shower and get out of here. Do you all know how to drive?”
“Ya. We can drive.” Hegeia nodded.
“Do the cars here take fuel cells? Or powerpacks? Internal combustion?” I asked as I moved to the door. There was a narrow window on the side of the exit, but the glass was thick, and I couldn’t really see the cars parked in front.
“Fuel cells. If you want to drive ten thousand kilometers, you will need to purchase more.”
“Is that money on the table enough?” I asked as I locked the front door of the tavern.
“Ya,” Hegeia replied. “For food too.”
“Good,” I replied. “You three figure out breakfast and get showered. I’ll finish with the guns and then search the rest of the house. Understood?” I looked out the window again, but I didn’t see any movement on the street. I guessed the walls of the tavern had dampened the sound of my gunfight, or maybe the men inside here were the only other people who lived in this village. Either way, it didn’t look like anyone else was on the streets, and this locked door looked stout enough to hold off an uiun-bair.
For a few hours at least.
“We cook for you. Then we will bathe.” Hegeia spoke a few words to the other young women. They nodded, smiled at me, and then walked back behind the bar.
I went back to the bar, grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the top shelf, opened it, and then took a long pull from the bottle. It burned a bit heading down my throat, but that was what I wanted. I was alive still. Even after King Vaish had tried to stab and poison me.
Now I just had to worry about an entire planet that wanted me dead.
Chapter 8
My three new recruits cooked a bunch of eggs, toast, and bacon they had found in the kitchen. I ate my plate in less than ten seconds, and Uma told Hegeia she would make me more while the other two women showered.
I finished searching the house above the tavern and found a large jacket I could wear instead of the uiun-bair fur. I had hoped to find a nicer pair of pants or some boots, but the man who owned the tavern was much smaller than me, and the only garment that fit me was the bulky jacket. The clothes the other men wore were either stained with blood or food, and they were all too small for me, anyway.
Hegeia and Waiola had finished showering when Uma brought me out a second plate of eggs. The sisters cleaned up nicely, and they had replaced their previous clothes with loose fitting pants and sweaters I presumed they took from the man’s closet.
“Uma, go shower,” I told the blonde woman with the dark eyes after she proudly presented me the second plate of hot food. Hegeia translated, and the dark eyed women nodded to me before she went up the stairs to the home.
“How long has that been playing?” I asked Hegeia as I nodded to the television on the wall.
“Three or four days,” she said.
“Hmmm,” I said around my food. King Vaish must have started playing it shortly after it was apparent I was going to get out of the wilderness. Did Madalena know about her father stacking the odds against me? It seemed like a lot of extra work to ensure that I died before he got the chance to hang me from the tree.
&nb
sp; “You not hurt?” Hegeia asked as she pointed at my injured right shoulder. I was eating with my left hand, and I could feel the shattered bones on my right starting to pull back together.
“I am, but I’ll be fine,” I said as I ate another bite of breakfast. It was actually delicious, and I thought about asking them to make me more, but I also wanted to continue on with my mission.
“Most people are looking for you,” Hegeia said.
“Most people?” I asked.
“Ya. It is high bounty. A lot of money. Ronnolo came up here with us because others are coming to look for you, and they might want sex at night.”
I already guessed from their earlier conversation that their owner was pimping them out, but the way Hegeia spoke was strange. It was as if she bore the man no malice. Maybe the strangeness wasn’t so much the lack of emotion, but these women had seemed much easier to read than Madalena’s clan. The Idonan’s appeared to be more emotional, but Hegeia didn’t seem angry about being pimped out.
“I didn’t see anyone else in the wilderness,” I said.
“This is far off place. They are coming,” Hegeia said, and then Uma said something as she walked into the room where we ate. The blonde woman had also found some bulky and loose fitting clothes to wear, and she was towel drying her hair with what looked like a bed sheet. Hegeia nodded at her, said a few words in their language, and then turned back to me.
“We think that we should be leaving soon,” the redhead said to me, and the other two women nodded.
“Okay. Let’s load up one of the cars with whatever we need to bring and then get going.
“You should shower first though,” Hegeia said. “We are grateful to be your thralls, but we will be in the vehicle for many days together.”
“Oh yeah,” I sighed. “I probably smell terrible.”
“We will prepare the van for the journey.” Hegeia stood from the seat she’d taken at the table and took a step toward the front door.
“Wait,” I said, and the three women turned to look at me.
“I’ve been betrayed before. I could use your help, but I also want to let you know that you three can go free if you want.”
“We are thralls. We--”
“Yeah, I get you have some sort of honor wrapped up in this. Here is the thing, I don’t want to get down to a city somewhere, have you three decide you want the bounty on my head, and then turn me in. You just saw me kill ten men. I don’t want to kill women, but I need to get to the checkpoint. You three can go free now, or you can promise to help me. If you are thinking about turning me in, it won’t end well for you. Get it?”
“I understand,” Hegeia said with a slight smile. Uma asked a question, and Hegeia spoke to the other two women. They seemed upset, and both of them shook their heads as they looked at me. Uma spoke rapidly, and then Hegeia translated.
“You have already treated us better than we could have hoped for. We will help you. We will help you until we are freewomen or you let us submit to you. We owe King Vaish nothing.”
“Alright,” I said. “Load up whichever vehicle you think will get us to where we need to go. I’ll take a quick shower.”
The three women smiled at me and then moved toward the front door of the tavern. I took the last two bites of my food and then ran up the stairs and to the shower.
The bathroom was only two meters long by maybe a meter and a half wide. It had a small sink, tiny toilet, and shower that my shoulders were too wide to fit inside of. In fact, the shower in my suite on Persephone was probably about twice the size of this space.
And it was a hell of a lot cleaner.
I locked the door, turned on the water, and stripped off my clothes as fast as I could. Then I jumped into the lukewarm water while I held onto one of my newly acquired revolvers. I really wasn’t expecting the women to betray me, but the last time I’d thought nothing bad would happen, I’d lost my four best friends.
It was a bit difficult to wash with the injury in my right shoulder, but the range of motion was returning, and the broken bone felt as if it was halfway healed. As soon as I finished cleaning myself, I threw back on my blood stained pants and tied my boots on. I looked at the shirt, realized it was too nasty smelling, and just decided to put the jacket on. Next I put my gun belts back on before unlocking the door and heading down the stairs. I kept one of the revolvers in my hand as I poked my head back into the front room of the tavern. I realized that I had lied to myself a bit; I expected the three women to betray me, so I was surprised to see them come in through the front door without leading a bunch of armed men to me.
“We have cleaned one of the vehicles, taken some extra fuel cells from the other two, put some food inside, and also some alcohol.” Hegeia pointed to the top shelf of the bar, and I saw that they had cleaned it out.
“Okay. Great. So you are ready to go?” I asked.
“Ya, but you should bring shotgun.” Hegeia gestured to the double barrel sitting on the bar. “We are not allowed to move it.”
“I won’t forget. Let’s get--” I stopped talking when I heard two doors slam through the walls of the tavern. The three women’s eyes opened wide, and they dashed to the window beside the door.
“Men. They have guns and come this way.”
“How many?”
“Four. No. Five,” she answered, and the three of them moved away from the window.
“Did they see you packing up the vehicle?” I asked.
“No. We saw no one outside,” she answered.
“Get back into the kitchen,” I told them.
The beast in my stomach growled and then screamed when I didn’t let him take control of my body. I didn’t need him to kill these men, and he’d just scare the shit out of the three women helping me.
“We could lock door?” she asked me with a hopeful expression.
“Nope. Something tells me these are the first of many. I need to take care of them, and then we have to get the fuck out of here.” I pointed to the back room and reached for the shotgun.
“We could distract them?” Hegeia asked with a shrug, and the look on her face explained what she meant by distract.
“No. I can take out five. You three don’t need to do tricks while you’re with me.” I loaded the shotgun with shells from my pocket, snapped the action shut, and then put four shells into the palm of my left hand.
The women ran back into the kitchen without saying anything else, and I aimed the shotgun at the front door. The handle on it twisted, and I took one step to my right so I’d have a better angle on the opening.
The first man took a load of buckshot in the chest and flew away from the doorway like a rag doll. The other four men didn’t have time to gasp because I stepped through the open door, aimed my weapon at the man bringing up the rear, and pulled the trigger. My second shot caused his head to disappear, but his corpse stayed standing as I turned to the closest fucker on my right.
These men were dressed in cold weather gear, and they carried bolt action hunting rifles. They hadn’t expected me to be waiting for them, so their weapons were resting on their shoulder straps instead of in their hands.
Too bad for them.
The butt of my shotgun smashed the third fucker’s face in, and then I spun to elbow the fourth man in the nose. He screamed as my strike caused his face to break, but I was already turning to the last man. He was actually bringing his rifle up to aim at me, but I brought my shotgun low and around to knock his weapon clear before I brought the butt back up to slam into his face. His head snapped back, and he tumbled down the stairs to land in the snow.
I broke open the action of my shotgun and replaced the two shells with fresh ones from my left hand. The other homes and structures on the street showed no activity, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that there were eyes on me.
“Waidola, Uma, and Hegeia!” I shouted back into the tavern, and the three women ran out of the kitchen. I gestured to the bodies of the men, and they helped me pull them in
side of the tavern. I thought two of them were still alive, but the damage I’d done to their skulls hinted that they might not wake up from their coma.
“Search their pockets and take any money,” I ordered after we’d dragged the men inside. The women quickly dug through the men’s pockets while I checked the snowy street. I didn’t see anyone else, but my gut was telling me there were hostiles out there.
“We have all their money--” Hegeia started to say, but I interrupted her.
“There is someone out there,” I said. “I need one of you to hold this shotgun while I use one of the rifles.”
“We can’t--”
“You don’t need to shoot it. Just hold it,” I said as I held it out to her.
“No. Thralls cannot--”
“I take,” Uma said as she grabbed the shotgun from me. She nodded toward the doorway and then took the pair of shells from my left hand. I passed them to her, and Hegeia said some disapproving words in her own language. Uma didn’t seem to care though, and Waiola bent down to pick up a rifle. The action made Hegeia gasp, and she turned to her sister.
“We don’t have time for you to get angry at her,” I said as I grabbed Hegeia’s shoulder. “You need to go out to the vehicle, back it up to the door, and we’ll run in. I’ll cover you from the doorway. You have to go quick. Any assholes out there might guess you are helping me.”
“Ya,” Hegeia said as I grabbed the nicest looking bolt action rifle from one of the men. It only had iron sights, but it felt comfortable enough in my hands, and I stepped next to the door.
“Ready?” I asked as I looked over my shoulder at the three women. Both Uma and Waidola were grabbing short stack rifle magazines from the men, but Hegeia’s eyes were on me. The redhead nodded, and I gestured for her to run.
She sprinted out the door, and I leaned out afterward. My thumb flipped off the safety, and I swept the sight across the walls of the buildings while she ran. She made it to the middle van, jumped in, and I heard a chime sound as the hydrogen engine cycled on.
There was a movement at my two o’clock, and I leaned out of the door so I could bend around the side of the entry. There was a figure in a second story window, and I saw the outline of his silhouette against the sunlight. I couldn’t make out his exact details, but he was in a crouched firing position, and it seemed as if he was pointing a rifle in my direction. My reflexes kicked in, and the sight of my rifle swung to his position. My finger squeezed before I even realized I had the shot lined up, but I knew my aim was true a split second after the bullet left the barrel of my rifle. It punched through the window across the street, and the silhouette went down before he could get his own shot off.
Prime Valkyrie Page 11