by Ivy Cross
At least the sunlight is on full bright, and I can see that the thicket thins out after a few more yards. Be thankful for little victories.
I carefully part the thorny tendrils and slip farther in. The plant’s sharp bristles rake against my bare arm and legs, but, if I move just slowly enough, I can keep going. Painfully slowly, I work my way toward the other side of the bramble. When only a few final whips of the thorny plant stand in my way, I leap through to the other side, not worrying about the burning stings of the damn plant’s final attack.
Coming out on the other side is like surfacing from a deep and particularly painful pool of water. Before I can get my bearing, my shoe snags on a root and I drop to the ground. Daggers of pain shoot into my upper thighs, as the thorn bush gets its final licks in.
“Fuck! Fuck you, you stupid forest. And fuck you, Vanthae. Your mother’s a—”
“Hello!?”
I turn my head quickly in the direction of the voice and climb gingerly to my feet. It was a female’s voice. A human female’s voice.
“Hello?” I cup my hands to my mouth and shout as loud as I can.
Just when I’m starting to think there’s not going to be a reply, the voice comes again. “Where are you?”
“I’m—” Wait, where the hell am I? “I’m by a large patch of, uh, red thorn things that hurt like a sonofabitch… Can you follow the sound of my voice?”
“Yes, keep talking.” The voice sounds closer. “I think I’ve got you.”
A tall woman emerges from the dense foliage on my left. She looks just about as bad as I feel. Dirt and grime cover her bare legs all the way up to her tattered shirt, and black mats of hair frame both sides of her face. I probably wouldn’t be able to recognize her if it wasn’t for the mostly obscured I pity the fool! on the front of her shirt.
“Alex!”
“Tal?” Alex stares at me with her mouth agape like she’s seeing a ghost.
I know how she feels.
In just the short time I’ve been on Vanthae I have already started to feel like I’m completely cut off from humankind. Even with Dekkar by my side, some part of me has still felt isolated, and it takes seeing Alex again to put that into focus.
Alex throws her long arms around me and squeezes hard enough to make breathing difficult. I don’t mind. I squeeze her back just as tightly, trying to hold back tears. The moisture from her shirt seeps through mine, but the chill feels good against the countless thorn scrapes on my body.
“What happened to you?” I ask, still not letting her go.
She shakes her head and blows out a ragged sigh. “Probably the same thing that happened to you and all the rest.”
“Are you out here alone?” I ask. “Where’s the woman you came down in the escape pod with?”
Alex doesn’t answer, but her ragged breathing gets even harsher and her body rocks against me as she quietly sobs. I decide it’s best not to press her on the topic.
I pull back to look at her dirt and tear-streaked face. “It’s okay now. I’m just glad you’re here.”
Alex sniffles and attempts a smile. “You look like you’re doing okay. Are you out here alone too?”
“No, I have one of the natives with me. Well, had… I’m trying to find some—wait!” I stare at her soaked t-shirt in shock. “You’re wet!”
“Oh, yeah, sorry about that. I—”
“No, I mean where did you get wet!? Where’s the water!?”
Alex points behind her, a bewildered expression on her face. “There’s a stream just back there. I stopped and drank right before I heard you here… have you not had anything to drink?”
“No, I mean, yes. But I need mud. Come on, I’ll explain on the way.”
She gives me another confused look but follows when I start out.
The stream is just where she said it would be, but it’s not the one Dekkar and I drank from on the way to set up camp. But, and most importantly, the slice of bare earth on both sides of the water glistens orange in the bright sunlight.
“So, you actually think mud is going to be enough to take care of the poison in this Decker guy?”
“Dekkar.” I plunge both hands into the cool, silky muds and pull out two large handfuls of the orange stuff with a sucking plop. “And I don’t really know. He told me this stuff has healing properties—I just hope he wasn’t raving out of his mind when he mentioned it this last time.”
Alex kneels and scoops up a couple of handfuls of her own. “I’ll bring some too, then. Couldn’t hurt to have some extra. I know I sure could have used some magical healing mud…”
“How do you mean?” I ask, leading the way back toward the thorn thicket.
For a moment, I don’t think Alex is going to elaborate but, eventually, she blows out a sigh. “We came down hard. Something must have gone wrong with our escape pod because we came down really hard. Sarah was the girl I got paired up with—I don’t think I said more than two words to her before we got into that thing together.”
She sighs again, but it comes out more like a sob.
“I don’t know if she decided not to buckle her harness, forgot to do it, or if the damn thing just didn’t work properly. All I know is when we smashed down to the planet, she got thrown around like a Raggedy Ann doll. It would have been a kinder thing if she’d been killed outright, but that didn’t happen. I—I stayed with her until it was over…”
“I’m sorry.” I can’t think of anything else to say. Not that anything would really help anyway. So far, Vanthae hasn’t been all that accommodating to its human visitors.
It doesn’t take quite as long to navigate the thorns on the way back to the camp, but by the time I see Dekkar again, it’s been over an hour since I left him dying on the ground.
Alex is shaking her head while we’re still yards away from his still body. “You should brace yourself, Tal. It doesn’t look good.”
That’s an understatement. Dekkar is pale as a corpse, and even as we close the distance, I can’t see his chest rising at all.
“Dammit.”
I fall to my knees beside him and press my ear to his lips. His skin is still hot as a stove, and after a moment I hear a painfully shallow and ragged breath whistle out.
“He’s still alive!”
“God, he must be about as tough as he looks then,” Alex says. “What do you do with this mud? Feed it to him?”
Good question.
“He rubbed it on our skin before… so I think it might only be used topically.” I plop one of my handfuls of the stuff onto his wounded bicep and massage it deeply into the wound. The process is bound to be painful, but Dekkar doesn’t so much as bat an eye—probably not a good sign.
“So… we just wait now?” Alex asks.
I spend the next few hours filling Alex in on the details of what happened to Bailey and pretty much everything else that’s happened to me since emerging from the escape pod. She listens with interest, but that interest is no match for her reaction to the leftover brisna I share with her—a week on Meow Mix rations makes a girl really appreciate meat.
Around the time the sun begins to dip in the sky and shadows start to creep in on us, Dekkar’s fever breaks and some of the color starts to return to his skin.
I apply another glob of mud to his arm—there’s no dosage information included with this stuff.
“I think I saw him move a little,” Alex says from her side of the dead fire.
As if in response to her words, Dekkar raises a hand and catches my wrist. His eyes only open to slits, but the smile on his face is clear.
“Goddess.”
Chapter 15 – Dekkar
“We will face some difficulty.” My voice is hoarse, but I feel some of my old strength coursing through my veins again as we work our way through the forest and toward my village.
More than one night’s rest would probably have been prudent. But fuck prudence. The anger blazing in my chest will be enough to hold me aloft for what comes next. Haelar�
�s spear had been tipped with the poison of lailae berries. I suppose I should not be surprised, considering the kind of man he was. But still, I cannot come to terms with such a thing. The use of poisons in battle has always been forbidden, for there can be no more cowardly or dishonorable path to victory.
And I cannot wait to throw it into Regar’s face.
“Because of what happened with Haelar?” Talia asks. She and her friend have taken to walking close at my sides, as my balance has not yet fully returned.
“Yes, in part,” I reply. “Haelar was our leader’s brother. And though he was not truly liked by many—including his brother—Regar will take it as an insult that he was killed. Even more so because I was the one who ended his life.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t mention it,” Alex says.
“Yeah, that might not be such a bad idea,” Talia agrees. “If you’re wanting to request help with the Calji, it probably isn’t smart to lead with I just killed the leader’s brother…
I ponder their words for a moment but can make little sense of them. “I do not understand what you mean.”
Talia looks around me at her friend and narrows her eyes. “Just don’t tell them you killed Haelar. This forest is gigantic, and we aren’t exactly tripping over other people out here. If you don’t say anything about what happened, we’ll probably be on our merry way to the Calji before anyone bothers to notice Haelar isn’t around to stink up the joint anymore.”
I shake my head. Perhaps the fog from the poison still muddles my thoughts. “I cannot not tell Regar about his brother.”
“Why not?”
“Because it happened. He started the battle, and I killed him in honorable combat. It must be reported to the tribe.”
“Even if that means trouble for us with your leader?” Talia asks.
I shrug, tiring of the word games. “The consequences of what I must report are not important. Honor dictates our path from here.”
Talia makes an exasperated sound but says nothing more on the topic.
We tread on across the well-worn path toward my village. The foliage gradually thins until we reach the rim of the valley. The aroma of many mingling cookfires greets me like a welcoming friend.
I doubt the village guards will act similarly.
From our vantage point above the valley, my village looks like a perfect circle of precisely arranged tana huts set within the tall wooden walls. The den of the First, the large hut at the very center of the village, looks particularly quiet and foreboding.
“It’s bigger than I was expecting,” Talia says, whispering as though not wanting to be heard by those so far below us. “You’re sure it’s a good idea for us to be coming here?”
I study the expression of worry on Talia’s smooth, delicate face. I had never doubted that I would return to my home, regardless of what Regar might say on the matter. But there will be trouble, of that there can be no doubt. Only now, it is not just my fate in the balance.
I decide to frame the situation for Talia and listen to her thoughts on our return.
“There will be turmoil before us. Not just because of what happened with Haelar, but also because I disobeyed our leader and was cast out by his command. I believe I was right in doing so, and I think little of Regar’s ways as our leader, but he holds sway over many of my tribe”
“Okay… nothing you’re saying makes me want to go down there,” Talia says.
“Yeah, I’ll second that,” Alex puts in. “Although, I would risk quite a bit if there’s even a remote chance I could get some pants.” The taller female shifts awkwardly and tugs on her thin tunic.
“There is a tradeoff,” I explain. “We will need at least a party of three to reach the Calji and have hope of retrieving your friend. Not only is the way treacherous, but the Calji would see it as an insult to be greeted by a lesser party.”
“Uh, we’re already a party of three, Dekkar.” Talia grins at her friend.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, I cannot stifle the laughter that comes. There is so much she does not understand about our ways.
“A party of warriors,” I say.
“Oh.” Talia shields her eyes from the sun and peers down across the valley. “So, you’re saying the choice is between going to your village or giving up on Bailey?”
“Yes.”
“Then I guess I vote for going down there and seeing if Regar is as much a prick as Haelar was, I guess. I can’t stand the thought of just leaving Bailey at the mercy of her kidnappers.”
“I don’t really know if I get a vote,” Alex says. “But I’m with Talia.” Her voice takes on a hushed quality. “I’ve already had to stand by and watch someone taken from us too soon… It would be nice to get a win for once.”
“Then it is settled,” I say, starting the trek down the mossy hillside. “With any luck, they will not try to kill us upon first sight.”
“What!?” Both females cry out as one.
I grin back at them over my shoulder. “A joke to lift your moods.”
“Gee, thanks.”
The path down to the edge of my village is gentle, and with each step, I feel as though the aftereffects of Haelar’s poison is lifted more. There is power in our ancestral lands. I can feel that now more than ever. But I need to remember the poison still rages inside me. The mud keeps it at bay, but I will require more than just that to be truly healed.
“These walls didn’t look so tall from back up the hill,” Talia says at my heels. “I didn’t expect it all to be so… townlike.”
“What did you expect?”
“I don’t know. Maybe some haphazardly arranged tents or tipis… a large bonfire or two.”
“That is how you lived? The tribe of the hoo-mans?”
“Humans. And no, not exactly. I think maybe I just fell asleep to a few too many old-timey westerns.”
I grunt in response but understand little of what she says. There will be time for questions later. For the moment, there are more pressing matters.
As we approach the main gates, four guards break from their posts and walk toward us quickly. Posted guards are nothing unusual, as raids from neighboring tribes seem to happen about every other season. But four warriors… that is both excessive and unprecedented.
“Brothers! I have returned to speak with our leader on an urgent matter.”
The two guards in the lead tip their spears in my direction. I recognize them as Ib and Aena, the sons of one of our village’s leather workers. They were Proved together fewer than six moons ago.
My hand drops to my own spear, but I do not yet pull it.
“Stop! You may not approach the village, outcast.”
Chapter 16 – Dekkar
Outcast… that seems to be catching on.
I stride forward until I am peering down at the two lead guards. They hide their fear far better than the two striplings in the rear, but their fidgeting and sideways glances show the truth just the same.
“I said I have urgent news for our leader—”
“Our orders are to turn you away… or kill you if you do not obey that command.” Ib juts his chin out in challenge.
He is the largest of the group but still a head shorter than me. And even in my weakened state, he would not fare well against me in one on one combat—he is no Haelar. But he has three backers, and his attitude suggests he would be willing to bear the shame of enlisting their aid to defeat me.
I step closer, ignoring the tip of Ib’s spear as it dances just in front of my eyes.
Talia’s hand brushes against my arm. She does not speak, but her message is clear. You are still weak from the poison. I ignore this too, for she does not understand the ways of the Vanthae yet. To show weakness or fear in this situation would spell our doom.
“Haelar is dead,” I spit the words into Ib’s face. “Do you not think Regar would wish to hear of this?”
Ib’s expression flits through a rapid sequence from confusion to excitement.
“Haelar? Dead?” Ib glances over at Aena, unable to keep the grin from his face. “You killed him in honorable combat?” Despite the tension of the situation, it is clear Ib is pleased with the prospect of Haelar’s death. He was hated by many in the tribe, and most can point to at least one way in which their life was made worse in some way by the cruel man.
“Honorable on my part, yes,” I reply, relaxing my stance slightly. “Not so much on his.”
“What do you mean?” Aena asks. His spear dips to the ground, likely forgotten.
I angle my wounded arm toward them to inspect. “Lailae berries. He laced his weapon with poison like a coward.”
One of the striplings gasps then claps a hand over his mouth.
Ib nods his head furiously, his smile widening even more. “I knew it! The Valat fucker! All that show of strength and he was nothing more than a soft poison slinger.”
“He was,” I agree. “So, you can see why I need to enter our village. Regar needs to know what became of his brother, and the tribe will need to know as well that it was my hand that brought him down.”
Ib grunts his understanding. “Then you wish to proclaim this feat as your Proving? Bold. But even if you have a witness—”
“I do.” I gesture to Talia. “This female was attacked by Haelar. I stepped in to stop him because she is my claim.”
Talia clears her throat beside me, but she does not speak. The truth is, I do not know if she recognizes my claim or not. And now that the truth of her identity is out, I do not know if I have even actually made such a claim… and we have had little opportunity to discuss the matter. But for this matter with Haelar to go as smoothly as possible, the situation needs to be shown as clearly as it can be.
Ib’s eyes crawl up Talia’s body a little too slowly for my liking. “As I was saying, even if you have a witness, and Regar and the rest of the tribe accepts your battle with Haelar as your Proving—”
“The rest of the tribe will,” Aena says with a smirk. “Everyone will be glad to know that bastard is feeding the mud mites.”
Ib gives his brother a disapproving glance for his interruption. “This is true also. The problem, as you well know brother, is that we have been given our orders by the First and he is no longer here to rescind them or to speak with Dekkar.”