The merchants from the Carcass Coast arrived, a desolate territory in the northwest Deadlands. After them came the sailors from Crooked Cove, shipmakers whose intricate sailboats floated along the Briyne. Countless others arrived, from every small and large territory in the Deadlands.
Still, Jira did not appear.
Queen Marisk of the White Wastes arrived next, soaring in on her pale wyvern. She, and the riders that flanked her, wore bone-white armor, made from the tusks of great northern sea beasts. It was lightweight but strong, a piece of loot Sonara had always wanted, but never had the chance to take for herself.
People cheered, throwing flowers into the sky as the Queen’s wyvern landed with the others from the north.
Jira came last, an army of Diamond Guard at his back.
They rode on identical sand-colored steeds. Everything, from the tips of their ears down to their heavy hooves, was covered in hammered gold armor. The soldiers, carrying spears and swords adorned in diamonds on their pommels.
And Jira himself…
“Oh, goddesses be damned,” Sonara said with a huff.
He stood on the back of a golden chariot, pulled by six steeds. The chariot was intricately designed, patterned with hadrus and sand beetles made of rubies and emeralds and more diamonds. His crown, atop his large head, was so bright it cast fractals all across the Gathering as the crowd erupted into murmurs. Others stood in equal parts of terror and awe as the King of the Deadlands rolled through the valley, his monstrous frame practically glowing like a beacon in the sunlight.
All the while, Azariah stood motionless in the thick of the crowd, her hood pulled low, her body pressed close to Thali’s.
There was fear that filtered from her. But there was also hatred, as the crowd began to drop to a knee; a deep burn that had Sonara stepping away from the princess as her very insides felt set aflame.
“They bow when they should boo,” Azariah murmured. “They kneel when they should point their swords at him instead. When we are done here, when we make our mark and we steal from him what the Wanderers uncover…” Her eyes followed her father’s retreating chariot as he went to join the queens. “None will ever bow again.”
On and on, the territories arrived from all across the continent. From the east, workers from Miner’s Hope, on smaller, wingless cousins to the wyvern, scaled skin as red as blood. From the south, weaponmakers from Gutshot Bluff, who were known for their skill in blacksmithing. Years ago, Sonara, Jaxon and Markam had paid a visit there to get her sword fixed after a run-in with looters traveling from Soreia to trade in the north. They weren’t as good as the weaponsmaidens from Soreia, but they had done well enough.
With every territory that came, Sonara’s curse itched for escape.
She could scarcely focus on anything but the effort to hold it in. A place like this, with so many come together… her curse would soar out of control. She may never be able to get it back once it did.
It was Jaxon and Markam’s turn to stiffen when a small group of travelers arrived from Wildeweb, their sigil of a tree revealing them. Those who lived in Wildeweb made their homes among the treetops, cautious of the beasts that hunted on the ground. It was the only territory in the Deadlands that had towering plants, a tangled jungle of overgrowth that many of the medicines in the Deadlands were derived from.
Their leader rode on the back of a wagon, hauled by a young wyvern, not yet having grown its full wings. Its jaw was sealed shut with chains.
The steady stream of travelers coming up the mountain pass slowed to a trickle. The valley was filled with hundreds when Sonara first heard the sound:
A buzzing, far away.
Nearing them with every passing second.
“What is that?” Azariah turned and tilted her head. Sonara got a whiff of pure curiosity, sweet as edible stalks of wheatgrass.
The taste traveled outwards from her, to everyone now slowly turning towards the western edge of the Bloodhorns, at the other entrance into the pass.
A pillar of dust rose from between the mountains.
“Sonara! Sonara, wait!”
Fear surged through her, and with it, curiosity like a soaring wraith. She turned and ran, Jaxon shouting her name. She wove through the tents, leapt across smoldering coals.
“Sonara!” Jaxon’s voice followed close behind. “What’s wrong?”
But she faded into the mess of booths, passing by until she came to the closest finger of the fallen goddess. With trembling hands, she gripped the vines, hauling herself up with the others who climbed in hope of getting a better look.
Her palms stung as the prickly blossoms scratched at her skin. But she climbed, ever higher. Up and up, until she saw them coming along the mountain pass.
Adorned in red armor, riding on black two-wheeled machines that roared as if they held the souls of wyverns within…
The Wanderers had arrived.
Chapter 12
SIX MONTHS AGO
Beta Earth
Cade
It wasn’t hard to play a part.
After thirty-one years, Cade Kingston found it easy to slip into the act of being someone else. He kept those someones filed away in his mind. He memorized their mannerisms, the way some of them smiled with half their mouths. Some stuttered in the face of fear, or acted a drunken fool, unable to utter out a single clear word.
Part by part, person by person, he kept them filed neatly away, ready to change himself out at a moment’s notice.
It was how he’d managed to claw his way up the ladder of this broken universe. How he’d managed to bite his tongue, grit his teeth, and keep quiet when Jeb was on one of his power surges. Jeb was a man of many threats, and Cade was a man of survival.
For himself.
For his crew.
Above all, for his younger brother Karr.
It was playing parts that allowed them to live their life with the illusion of freedom, because some was better than none. A starship could go anywhere, see anything, and yet it was the art of surviving that kept Cade crawling back to Jeb’s doorstep, dropping off the next lot of illegal goods every time.
It was several months ago, sitting in a holo bar on the northern continent of Beta Earth, that Cade finally played the part he’d been dreaming of playing for years.
Jeb Montforth lived and breathed smoke, and he’d blown a faceful across the table at Cade, the stinking cloud twirling right through the holo between them.
It was one of a dancing girl, half-naked and whole perfect, though nothing about her was real.
But Jeb liked perfection.
And he was less than thrilled about the Starfall getting caught by the ITC.
So less than thrilled, in fact, that he’d made the threat that brought out the hidden monster in Cade Kingston.
“We’ve had plenty of eyes on us in the past,” Jeb had said. “You screwed up, Cade. And now thanks to you, we have more eyes than ever before. I have half a mind to march down to the skyrise I’ve put you up in and tear your precious brother’s skin from his face. That would teach you, hmm?”
Oh, that smug smile.
Cade’s blood boiled while his mind said: Play the part. Protect Karr. And so he’d simply become the smooth criminal the man across the table had made him to be, Cade laughing along with Jeb as if he’d just made a stellar joke.
“You know my little brother does whatever I say, Jeb,” Cade answered, “and that means he does whatever you wish. Let’s not be rash. Punishing him isn’t the wise way to punish me. We both know who holds the power here.”
Jeb lifted his glass of swirling, glittering purple, and raised a scarred brow. “You’re like a son to me, Cade. But family isn’t everything. Mistakes have a way of breaking apart even the strongest of bonds.”
Cade nodded. “It won’t happen again, Jeb. I’ll find whoever tipped off the ITC, and deal with them.”
Here he was, groveling like a dog, even though his crew hadn’t done a thing to give themselves away. Nobod
y on his crew would have crawled to the ITC for a measly tip-off sum. It was Jeb’s fault they’d gotten caught. Jeb’s fault that they were docked indefinitely. The man had feds eyeing his every move. Of course his hired hands were bound to get caught, now and then.
But the bastard couldn’t see beyond himself.
Cade focused on the diamond ring glittering on Jeb’s finger. It was the size of a river stone. He and Karr and the crew had stolen that ring for Jeb, thinking he’d hock it off on the trade planet Xanthar. Jeb had kept it for himself. Glittering perfection, even though a man like him could have purchased ten of those rings on his own.
Cade thought everything was clear. He’d been given an earful, accepted a threat for his brother’s safety… and now?
“Another drink, Jeb?”
Cade raised a hand to signal the barkeep.
But Jeb suddenly lashed out to grab Cade’s arm. He pulled him forward with the force of gravity, until they were forehead to forehead. Sweat to smoky breath. The lights that made up the holo girl flashed beneath their chins, so bright Cade’s eyes burned. He could smell the alcohol on Jeb’s breath, almost taste the fury pulsing out of him.
Jeb Montforth was not a man to be crossed.
“You screw up again, Cade Kingston,” Jeb said, squeezing so hard that the corner of his diamond ring broke through Cade’s skin, “and it will be the last you ever see of your brother, your ship, and your entire crew. You can’t run from me. I own some of the deepest, darkest corners of this galaxy, everyone and everything in them. I will make you a ghost of yourself.”
“Nothing you do can hurt me,” Cade said through gritted teeth.
It was those words that had made Jeb smile his crooked demon’s smile.
“My dear, foolish boy.” Jeb leaned back and pressed a kerchief to his skin. He smiled at Cade, the very same way he once had, when he’d waltzed into the orphanage on a distant, forgotten moon and purchased the Kingston brothers for a mere hundred tokens. He took another sip of his drink and set the glass down. “I’m not going to lay a finger on you, Cade. I’m going to cut your little brother apart, piece by pathetic piece. And I’m going to make you sit there and watch me do it.”
His stare held.
And Cade was reminded, with a sudden finality, of the true darkness that brewed within Jeb’s heart.
“Pick up the tab, would you?” Jeb patted Cade on the cheek. And then he’d simply gone, whistling as he walked away.
Cade couldn’t stop shaking.
He hadn’t felt fear like this in ages, not since the day he’d walked into the Starfall to find Karr alive beside their dead parents.
And so Cade drank, and he kept on drinking those fears into a deep pit, hopeful that with each sip, they’d stay away longer in the days to come. At some point in the night, he’d been cast out by the bar’s owner.
He stumbled down the street, tripping over his own feet, where he ran into a group of looters, and soon after, fell into darkness, covered in his own blood.
When he woke, it wasn’t in his motel room in the West Sector that he shared with Karr, but instead, a pristine private hospital room. Crisp and clear and bright white, a chandelier over his head and a pretty, red-lipped nurse at his side. One of her eyes was replaced by a digital implant, a red light blinking in the center where a pupil should be.
“Where am I?” Cade asked with a groan. Certainly not anywhere near his apartment. He ran his hands across the silken sheets, blinking back the brightness from the small chandelier.
“Just a moment.” The nurse smiled and left the room, sweeping past a silver curtain to where Cade heard a door open and then close.
Footsteps.
The door opened again and the curtain was swept aside as a salt-and-pepper-haired man walked in, wearing a slick silver three-piece suit, a pressed red kerchief in his lapel pocket.
“You drink like a fish,” he said. “It’s a wonder you survived the night.”
“You…” Cade opened and closed his mouth in shock, unable to find the right words. “You’re…”
“Friedrich Geisinger,” the man said, smiling as best he could through a tight, wrinkle-free face. He held out a large hand. Cade didn’t move to shake it. “You have me to thank for saving your life.”
“My brother,” Cade said instead. He blinked a few times, as if he could force himself to fully wake. “I have to go.”
“Not so fast, Mr. Kingston.” Geisinger settled into a high-backed chair beside the glass window-wall that overlooked the entire city below. Overhead, the crystal-and-gold chandelier tinkled as the air powered on, cooling the room. “I’d like to have a word with you first. It won’t take long.”
Cade almost laughed, stricken with confusion and shock and… where in the hell was he?
It wasn’t the West Sector, with its looters and call girls and slick criminals running the streets like Jeb. Cade looked out the glass wall. The view was golden, and glimmering, buildings towering into the sky around him, and in the distance, a shimmering river with boats rocking on its windy surface.
The City of Stars, just across the new arched bridge that resembled one from Old Earth, centuries past. He could almost make out his apartment building, far across the bridge, amid the stacked slums.
“What’s going on?” Cade asked. He ripped a needle from his arm, hissing through his teeth at the pain. “What do you want from me? I’ll… go to the authorities, if you don’t explain.”
Geisinger smiled a wolf’s smile. “You’re a criminal, Mr. Kingston. I wouldn’t suggest you do that.”
Pure silence, thick and uncomfortable, as the man simply sat and watched Cade fumble for reality.
“If you hurt my brother…”
“Your brother is the least of my concerns,” Geisinger said. “I understand he is the greatest of yours, though. I also understand that you are not in the position, judging by the joyful little conversation you shared with Jeb Montforth last night in the West Sector, to truly protect your brother right now. Your ship is locked away in an ITC storage bay, and there is no hope of it ever getting out.” He looked at a golden watch on his wrist. A strange, ancient thing. “Right about now, there’s a team of men about to uncover a thousand kilos of Stardust in the walls of your ship. You’ll be locked away for life, and your brother… well, he’s only eighteen, and with twenty being the new age of adulthood on Beta Earth, it means he’ll be sent back into the system. And with his record, I can assure you, it won’t bode well for him. He’ll probably spend a lifetime melting trash on Old Earth. A few days there, and it’s likely he’ll contract the Reaper’s Disease.” He sighed. “I believe these are all problems you must solve, Mr. Kingston. And I can help you solve them.”
Cade’s pulse raced, beeping as some hidden scanner in the room kept track of his vitals.
What in the hell was going on? He crossed his arms, wincing as he saw all the bruises, and glared at the polished monster across from him. “What do you want from me?”
Friedrich leaned further back in his chair, as if he were prepared to take a nap in the sunlight that was now streaming through the wall of glass. A warm chuckle came from him, so out of place in this strange, stark moment. “Confusion is a funny thing, Cade. Shall I call you Cade?”
Cade nodded.
“Very good.” He leaned forward, his eyes narrowing as much as his tightened skin would allow. “I’m not one to waste time, because it requires much of me. I’ll get straight to the point. You and I have a common enemy, Cade. The Reaper’s Disease has plagued Old Earth for centuries. It’s since stretched past the borders, carried to other planets across the stars. A silent killer. Your parents, I believe, spent their entire adult lives searching for the cure?”
Cade nodded.
“I’ve spent a lifetime searching for the cure, as they once did. And I believe, Cade, that I may have finally found it.”
Cade’s mouth fell open. “You…” He almost laughed… but then he stopped himself. Because here, for the ver
y first time, he saw an opportunity. A glimmer of hope.
“I’ve recently acquired a dwarf planet on the edge of the galaxy. It’s not one commonly known—a newly discovered one, I might add. To most, it’s useless. A poisonous atmosphere, and too small to bother wasting precious resources to send colonizers too. But it belongs to me now. And it holds a secret, Cade. A secret I intend to be the first to uncover.”
Cade’s head spun.
Geisinger Corp was a pharmaceutical kingdom that spread its wings across the stars, and the man before him, who’d put Cade up in this shimmering room and saved his life, despite the fact that Cade still felt he was in danger… Friedrich Geisinger was the leader of it all.
“What does any of this have to do with me?” Cade asked.
Geisinger leaned forward. “Geisinger Corp is a burgeoning business. And as soon as your ship is cleared, I plan to send you on a job to retrieve, quite possibly, the greatest substance in the history of medical advancement. The Reaper’s Disease will be eradicated. And Old Earth… perhaps she may yet stand a chance of recovery.”
The door suddenly opened beyond the silver curtain, and the red-lipped nurse shuffled in.
“Sir? There’s someone here to see you.” Her tone was perfectly even, her smile and her lush curls so motionless it was like they were sculpted out of clay. The red light in her eye flashed twice.
Geisinger nodded. “I’ll be right with you.” He turned back to Cade as the nurse scurried away. “If you accept my offer, and agree to my terms in silence, I will reshape your very existence. You and your brother will become men worthy of your last name. You will be as rich as kings.”
Kings.
Cade churned the word around in his mind, and with it, Jeb’s face appeared, that snarl and sneer, that jagged scar and his words last night, not forgotten even with all the alcohol.
To accept this job would be to double-cross Jeb. It would be to put Karr’s life in certain danger.
But this was Friedrich Geisinger, seated before him, a man so powerful he made Jeb look like a slug.
Blood Metal Bone: An epic new fantasy novel, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo Page 14