by Edward Nile
When she slapped James, the cold air made the blow sting all the worse.
"So why the HELL did you snub me?!" Tessa shouted, giving him a shove.
James put a hand to his cheek and smiled. He couldn't help it. This, this was the fire he remembered.
"Answer me!"
Seeing Tessa's eyes glisten sobered James. "You were young—"
"Almost twenty! Did a five-year difference between us matter that much?"
"It did when it came to you," James said.
Tessa shook her head. "I'm not buying it. That was a shit excuse then and it's a worse one now. Tell me the truth," she demanded. "I deserve to know, Jim."
"I…" James felt clumsy, trying to explain things. But he hoped he could voice his feelings better now, after dwelling on everything that had happened for so long. He'd pictured this very conversation dozens, maybe hundreds of times. Even in his own head, he never could get it right.
"I didn't want the past to repeat itself," he said after a long pause. "I lost my mother in the Xang War. Then a couple years later, I lost my dad. When you and I got close, all I could imagine was us having a kid, and then getting killed and starting the cycle all over again. You were so young and full of life. You hadn't lost anyone in a battlefield, hadn't seen what it's like. And I knew if you were with me, the Ironshield, the war would have you, too."
Tessa looked at James as if he'd just rambled in Xangese. "Theodore. Kolms. Is. My. Father," she said. "The war was going to have me no matter what. You had to have known that." She tilted her head, looking as though she were trying to read James' mind. "That's not the reason though, is it? Not all of it."
An argument died on James' tongue before he had the chance to voice it. He wouldn't lie to Tessa, not now. Not ever again if he could help it. She was right, she deserved that much and more.
"No, it's not." James' shoulders sagged.
"Tell me." Tessa leaned over and placed a hand on his. Even through gloves, the contact sent a thrill up James' spine.
James swallowed. He felt another slap coming, but he had to get it all out there, had to tell the truth. "I was afraid you didn't love me, but my title. I was afraid we'd rush into things and, when the smoke cleared and the fighting stopped, there'd be nothing left."
Tessa shook her head. "You're an idiot." She didn't hit him again, instead raising the bottle to her lips for another drink.
Waiting for her to say more, James wished she would strike him. He looked around. Na’Tet still sat with his pipe, looking out at the road. James knew he wouldn't be able to follow the conversation from that distance, but he also knew the tribesman had better senses than anyone else he'd met.
"I'm sorry, Tess," James said. "I was wrong."
"Damn right you were wrong." She shoved the bottle at him. "But what can we do? The past is past."
"Am I too late?"
"Too late for what?"
"I mean…" James took a shot for courage. "Have you started seeing anyone else since?"
Tessa quirked an eyebrow. "What do you think—"
"Holy James, Holy Kolms."
"Damn it 'Tet, we're not—"
"Look!" Na’Tet stood and pointed up the road.
Then James heard it, the sound of roaring engines. He stood and looked where 'Tet was pointing. A caravan of military trucks revved up the road, heading toward Helmsburg. They curved past the lake in an orderly line, carrying troops who were visible from the backs of the trailers, sitting on long benches, rifles leaned on shoulders.
James and Tessa looked across the water. More trucks entering Helmsburg from the west, and another caravan disappearing up the wooded hill to the north, toward the King Tractor Factory. Toward Matthew Kaizer.
"Fuck!" James patted his jacket. No weapons. That's what I get for rushing out for a morning drink. "They must be after me."
"No shit." Tessa had pulled a veritable hand cannon from somewhere and was checking it over.
"Where the hell were you hiding that?"
Tessa scooped up her coat and draped it over herself, switching the gun from hand to hand while putting her arms through the sleeves. "They'll be at Matt's place already. We have to go to the hideout and warn Uncle Ivan."
"You think Matt's going to rat you out?"
"One of his people will. I can guarantee it. Not everyone's as saintly as Matthew Kaizer." Tessa mounted the ridge as the last truck rolled by. None of the vehicles had slowed or stopped to investigate the three of them, but that didn't mean someone wouldn't come back to rectify the mistake.
Another automobile was coming down the road, a civilian half-ton with a cargo of wooden crates. Glass bottles clinked as it approached.
"Tess, what are you doing?!"
She slipped out of James' grasp and strode into the path of the truck, gun pointed at the driver.
He slammed the brakes. Glass shattered in the truckbed, and milk spilled out between wooden slats along the sides.
"Get out!" Tessa shouted. "We're taking your truck."
Chapter 28
Aldren decided maps were assholes.
For the past two days he’d had one eye on the road, and the other on the damned asshole piece of paper in his hand. How was he supposed to know how much of this or that squiggled line he’d traversed? Ah yes, hrmm, he thought to himself in a dry old man’s voice. See here, we took a right bend along this scribble, so we’ll be taking this line which joins with that smudge to make a curve that looks like my left nut. Occasionally he caught Mayla peeking at her own tightly folded map, but either pride or stubbornness wouldn’t let him ask for a look.
This is a routine trip, a formality, he insisted in his mind. I pass through, snap a few pictures, then go the fuck home. ‘Ate some rice, tipped over some cows,’ that would be as exciting as his report to Sam Mutton would get.
‘Saw people get shot and watched a snake get thrown at our escort’ could be left out. Maybe he’d scribble in something about indigestion. Just to add a bit of excitement.
“If we only had more time, I’d show you some proper Xangese night life,” Genlu called from the driver’s seat. “Maybe you’ll want to spend some proper time in Feng Dao on your way back.”
“Think we saw enough our first night.” Mayla didn’t look away from her window as she spoke. Genlu had tried to cozy up to them since their stop at the rice farm. She wasn’t having it.
To her credit, he is laying it on a bit thick. Aldren had played enough poker to recognize a tell. Genlu was getting more and more anxious. Probably worried about a bad review of his performance reaching the Dao.
Then what was he worried about? Lang, the man who’d run the snake game. He’d kept his end of whatever bargain Mayla made with him.
Far too early the morning after, the woman shook Aldren awake.
“Need you to be my lookout,” Mayla hissed.
Aldren propped himself onto his elbow. The girl Mayla had been flirting with the previous night slid her bare arm from his equally bare chest with a sleepy mumble. Aldren didn’t remember quite how that had happened – he’d had a few drinks after the shindig quieted down – but he could piece enough together from his return to the guest hut to know he had a good time the rest of the night. Which made this early waking all the more irksome. “What for?” he asked, his tongue thick with sleep and soured with stale rice wine.
“I won the bet with Lang last night. He owes me, and I have to collect.”
“I getting a cut of that action?” Aldren lifted the blanket to get a better look at the nude form nestled against him. “Otherwise I think I’ll stay here.”
Mayla scoffed. “Trust me, this is worth more than money. You coming or not?”
Aldren seriously considered refusing. The way Mayla watched him, though… Not challenging, not daring him to say no. She looked, well, disappointed. Like she’d already given up on him. Disappointed, and alone.
Maybe she is batshit crazy. Aldren thought of the snake. Scratch that, she absolutely is. But we’re
partners on this little adventure, whether I like it or not. Aldren stretched out with a yawn. “Gimme five minutes to get dressed.”
“You have two.” Mayla shot a look at the hut’s opening. “This needs to be done before our friend wakes up.”
Damn, how early was it? During this whole trip, Genlu had been the first one awake. Shit, Aldren thought, looking out past the bamboo curtain. It’s still dark out.
Mayla led Aldren through the somnolent village. Besides a few tired women fetching water from the wells, no one wandered the dirt paths. The sky was a dark gray. Dawn was some time coming and the drab, listless lighting robbed the vibrant shades of green and brown of their color, so that even the rice paddies and bamboo leaves looked corpselike, pale, tall stalks sticking up like massive bones left pointing to the sky. Worse was the cold. A place as humid as Xang had no business becoming an ice box all of a sudden.
Rubbing his arms, Aldren yearned for the jacket he'd left in the hut. He wanted to get further acquainted with the girl on his sleeping mat even more. Maybe there'll be time for another go before we take off.
"Figure I have you to thank for my bedmate," Aldren said. "The way you were on her last night, I'm surprised she didn't crawl in with you."
"Who says she didn't?" Mayla replied, sparing Aldren a glance over her shoulder. "I know you Arkenians say ‘three's a crowd.’ Never much took to that philosophy myself." She winked and turned back to face the path ahead, leaving Aldren gaping. Blood rushed to his cheeks. She has to be messing with me. He hadn't gotten that drunk, had he? Nah, he waved off the notion. I'd have definitely remembered that. Mayla's bare form flashed through his mind, from that night in the barn. Yep. He'd have remembered.
Mayla turned into a shadowed space between a pair of closely built huts. Lang leaned against a wall there, smoking a long pipe, its embers illuminating his face.
"Watch the path," Mayla whispered to Aldren before sliding into the space with the Xangese man.
What, she determined to screw the whole village? The situation reminded Aldren of some of the less glamorous parts of Talenport, where a customer would wait in the mouth of an alley for his turn with a working girl.
Shrugging, he lit a cigarette and watched the empty dirt road, trying to think about anything but what those two might be doing. He heard hurried whispers from them in Xangese. Something rustled, like paper.
The fuck am I looking out for anyway, the man's wife? Aldren blew a smoke ring and swiped it out of the air, agitated.
Genlu appeared around the corner of a hut down the way, looking around, a lit cigarette between his teeth.
Ditching his own smoke, Aldren turned and poked his head into the crawlspace. The scene inside wasn't what he'd thought. Mayla had her map unfurled, whispering with Lang as she pinned it to the wall with one hand, the other holding a match aloft for illumination. Lang pointed out markings on the map with the end of his pipe.
"Genny's up," Aldren said.
They looked at him.
"He headed this way?" Mayla demanded.
Aldren looked down the slope. Genlu was indeed striding toward him, flicking the butt of his cigarette aside and blowing out a last cloud of smoke. The man looked less than impressed.
"That's a yes," Aldren intoned.
Paper crinkled as Mayla stuffed the map away. More urgent whispers. Aldren looked back in time to see Lang vanish around the rear of the hut. He didn't get the chance to see much else before Mayla yanked him into the shadows with her.
She clamped her mouth over his, her tongue wrestling Aldren's for dominance and winning.
He made a feeble attempt at pulling back, but the woman snaked a surprisingly strong arm around his neck. After another second or two of this, he stopped resisting and kissed her back just as fierce. Aldren ran his hands up Mayla's lithe form, feeling firm muscle along her thighs, her hips, her…
Just as Aldren was cupping her ass in his hands, Genlu coughed from outside the crawlspace.
Mayla broke the kiss and cast Genlu an annoyed look. Knowing how she felt about the man, Aldren didn't think that part was much of an act.
"Are you two finished?" Genlu looked around as he spoke, as though suspecting someone else were nearby. "We should get back on the road."
Aldren was loath to move just then, with the assuredly visible bulge in his pants, but Mayla's look said their little diversion was over.
He sighed. "Lead the way."
Genlu had barely let them out of his sight since, and never for long. Aldren wanted desperately to know just what it was Mayla had bet with Lang to find out but didn’t know how to ask. Whatever it was, Mayla wouldn’t bring it up around their escort. Aldren wasn’t sure she’d even trust him with the information. She certainly made a point of cupping her hand over whatever part of that map she kept scrutinizing.
The green tops of the Tonkar Mountains disappeared into a low cloud of white mist to the northeast. To the west, vacant fields stretched beneath a thin blanket of fog. Aldren strained to see something, anything besides empty road and bare hills, but there wasn’t a barn or farmhouse to be seen. They were truly in the middle of nowhere.
Only not quite. Aldren looked at his map. On the other side of those mountains was a fair-sized fishing town. The last place to be cleared before this journey, and the disarmament deal, could be declared complete.
Politics, Aldren thought. It's all just pageantry. The Xangese could be hiding a hundred military factories and all the tourism in the world wouldn't catch it. So why bother, if not for appearances?
He glanced over at Mayla. She lifted her head fleetingly to gaze out at the road before turning back to her study of the map. Aldren might as well not have existed.
He relived that kiss again and forced the memory aside just as quick. She's a Quarish girl with an axe to grind. It was a distraction, nothing else. This was Aldren's last job. After this, he would be free. I can't let anything fuck that up.
Even if people's lives hung in the balance? Aldren knew he was a coward at heart, but was he a heartless coward, too?
There isn’t anything here, Al, so you've got nothing to worry about. He settled deeper into his seat, as much as the rock-hard cushions would allow, and got ready for a nap. Before he could close his eyes, something appeared ahead to break the monotony of the empty road.
A pair of military trucks, surrounded by a half-dozen rifle-bearing Xangese soldiers, formed a barricade at the first fork in the road Aldren had seen in hours. He didn't need Mayla's pointed look to tell him this was the very same fork she'd shown him in the barn.
"What's going on, Genny?" he asked. "There another event we weren't told about?"
"I'm not certain, Sargent Mal." Genlu pulled over next to the roadblock. "If the two of you would please wait in the car, I'll ask." He climbed out.
Five rifles were raised and pointed at Genlu before he could take his first step. One man with stripes of rank on his lapels wrenched Genlu's paperwork from his raised hand while a pair of his soldiers approached the car, shouting at Mayla and Aldren in Xangese. She raised her hands above her head, and Aldren followed suit. "Never thought I'd be saying it," he muttered out the corner of his mouth. "But I sure wish I had a gun on me right now."
Mayla scoffed. "What would that change?"
"It'd make me feel better."
Genlu and the officer were engaged in a heated discussion. The other men kept their weapons on Genlu and on the motorcar. Aldren didn't see any of them so much as blink.
"Can you make out what they're saying?" he asked Mayla, trying not to move his lips too much.
"Unsafe road conditions to the west," was Mayla's tight-lipped reply. "Something about violent waves."
"And they're planning on pushing the ocean back with bullets?"
"The only thing those men are here to push back is us," Mayla replied. "This s a ruse if I've ever seen one."
"Hopefully we get a chance to find out," Aldren said as one of the angry-looking soldiers came closer, rif
le drifting from Mayla, to him, and back.
The officer turned from his conversation with Genlu long enough to bark an order at his subordinate. The soldier spat off to the side as he lowered his weapon and stepped back. After further commands, the others did the same.
Aldren let out a slow breath but didn't put his hands down yet.
Genlu sketched a short bow to the officer, which the man returned in kind.
"Friends of yours?" Aldren asked as their escort returned to the driver's seat.
Genlu didn't answer right away. For a few moments, he occupied himself readjusting the rear-view mirror. "A small problem," he said without turning. "We'll have to take the mountain road due to weather issues along the coast."