Thus Falls the Shadow

by Martin Swinford

  “So you see honey, it’s not personal.”

  “Well that’s big fucking relief!” Bex looked like she wanted to kill someone, and it didn’t really matter who it was.

  “You have missed one important point.” Calno’s quiet voice cut through the conversation.

  “Yeah sweetie?” Martha purred. “What’s that?”

  “If you kill me then not one of you will leave this planet alive.”

  “You’re bluffing! All your troops left, remember, headed off on your crazy crusade.”

  “You think I would leave myself unguarded?” He laughed then, a savage cackle of a laugh, and for the first time I saw madness in his eyes. Suddenly he threw his head back and howled, an ululating call that rang through the darkness and out over the forest.

  Twenty-Six

  THE WILD KWA ATTACKED, howling out of the tunnel to crash like a wave over the mercenaries. Armed only with sticks and stones they made up for it by weight of numbers. Martha’s crew opened fire sending bodies flying backwards, but for every Kwa they killed there were more pouring forward. Hans was the first to be overcome, crashing to the ground beneath a pile of enraged Kwa. Blows rained down as he twisted and fought, his screams muffled by the bodies that crushed him until the spears and clubs had done their bloody work and he fell still.

  Martha couldn’t help herself, she turned to see the Kwa attack and Calno took his chance, sprinting to his right and diving for cover behind a low wall. Martha cursed as she snapped back on target, firing a burst of shots that ricocheted uselessly from the stones, before taking off after her prey, ignoring Rilk who dived full length for our guns. He grabbed his pistol and shoved my shotgun to slide across the floor to my outstretched hand. At the same moment another mercenary was overcome, pulled to his knees and skewered by the spears of the Kwa, who stabbed him again and again until his screams were cut short by an ugly looking Kwa who used teeth and all three claws to rip the soldier’s head from his shoulders. For a moment the Kwa paused staring at the head that it held by the hair. Then, as we looked on in horror, it licked the blood from its lips, howled to the sky and then leapt into the fray wielding the bloody trophy as a weapon.

  I grabbed the gun and dived for cover behind a fallen pillar with Rilk thumping down beside me.

  “Bex!” I shouted. She looked in my direction, then back after Calno and Martha. Reaching up the back of her jacket, she pulled out her combat knife and grinned wildly in our direction.

  “I’m gonna kill the fucker!” she shouted, and raced away.

  “Does she mean Calno or Martha?” asked Rilk.

  “Does it matter?” I replied. “We’d better get after her.”

  “What about the crew?”

  I risked a glance over the pillar. The mercenaries were making a break for it, Guy leading the way with his men bunched tightly behind him. Even as I watched, another man was pulled down, disappearing into the mass of Kwa that raged around them.

  “They’ve got their own problems,” I said. “Come on!”

  Keeping low we ran after Bex, trying to keep her in sight as she headed back towards the stage. I could see neither Calno nor Martha which worried me until I saw that Bex was heading downwards.

  “She’s heading down the ramp,” I said, pointing.

  “Maybe thinks Calno can escape through the hangers.”

  “Maybe he’s got a ship down there.”

  We picked up the pace, pounding over the rough ground, heedless of the bullets that still whistled wildly across the ruins.

  We stopped at the top of the ramp.

  “Looks pretty dark down there,” I said.

  “Whole fucking planet’s fucking dark!” Rilk flashed a grin in my direction and for a moment I felt the full realisation of what I could lose.

  “Rilk, I...”

  “Aw, not now,” he said, then cupped his hand around the back of my head and pulled me in until our foreheads touched. I closed my eyes tightly and for a second my whole world was the feel of his skin on mine and the strength of his hand in my hair. Then I felt the rasp of his cheek as he pressed dry lips against the curve of my jaw.

  “Come on lover boy,” he whispered. “Time to go hunting!”

  He whirled away and set off down the ramp, moving quickly but keeping in to the side. I followed, cheek tingling, head spinning, shotgun at the ready.

  The ramp opened out to show the wide-open space of the hangers stretching away from us. From our right the dim light slipped in through the cave mouth bringing a hint of form to the darkness. To our left I could sense the loom of the back wall and at regular intervals columns reinforced with metal girders supported the roof. Around their bases crouched cables and cases, tools and boxes, and other items that inhabit the spaces that spaceships leave behind. I followed Rilk as he crept along the wall towards the back of the cave. My eyes were starting to adjust but it was still hard to see anything in the gloom.

  “Calno!” Martha’s words sounded suddenly loud in the darkness. “Why don’t you come out? You can’t hide forever!”

  “Are you getting worried Martha?” Calno’s disembodied voice floated mockingly through the cave. “Poor Martha! All alone in the dark, your soldiers all dead, ripped apart by the claws of my children, and even if you manage to kill me, the same fate awaits you.”

  “Honey, you don’t scare me.” Martha’s words dripped out of the darkness. “I’ve stared death in the face so often we’re almost friends.”

  “Ah, but such a death as this? Can you imagine it Martha? Can you feel the claws that grip you? Can you smell the stink of breath? Can you imagine the wetness of warm saliva on your skin, even as the teeth rip into your face? Imagine the pain Martha! Imagine the pain as the nails of my children rend your flesh from your bones!”

  The sudden chatter of gun fire was Martha’s answer, momentarily filling the cave with noise that died away in a diminuendo of echoes.

  “Shooting in the dark now Martha, you must be getting desperate.”

  “Yeah? Well let’s light it up!”

  A click followed by a rattle as something bounced on the hard floor. The burst of flame as the grenade exploded against the far wall was followed by the blast of warmth on my face. The flames did light up the caves, but it was an untrustworthy light, a flickering trickster that danced over walls and pillars before hiding in the shadows.

  A silhouette showed briefly against the flames, another rattle of gunfire and the shadow fell with a scream.

  “Bex!” I cried, and took off, Rilk at my side, making for the spot where she fell. I shielded my face with my hand as another wave of heat hit us as the fire leapt forward. Smoke billowed around us and I stopped, suddenly unsure.

  “Bex!” I shouted again, ignoring Rilk’s frantic gestures of warning.

  “You’ll bring Martha right to us!”

  “I don’t care!” I replied. “We’ve got to find her!”

  “She’s over here.” Calno spoke from the shadows. “She’s badly hurt.”

  I took a few steps in his direction, wary and slow despite myself. For a second the smoke cleared and I glimpsed a small crumpled figure with someone kneeling close, but by the time I got there Calno was gone.

  “Oh Bex.” I knelt and took her hand in mine, Rilk did the same to her right. She was unconscious, her breathing shallow, and bleeding heavily. Two of the shots had caught her just below the ribs and try as I might I couldn’t stem the flow of blood.

  “Hold on Bex!” I said as her eyelids flickered and her breathing quickened.

  “It’s Ok, we’re here.” Rilk said, then looked at me and shook his head. “Do you see her knife?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “Fuck. Means Calno’s got it.”

  Her body spasmed in pain and I felt her grip my hand. Suddenly her eyes opened wide. She gasped and fought to speak but the sound died in her throat. Tears welled up in her eyes and she blinked them away. I put my hand on her forehead and then stroked her hair. She calmed a littl
e and her breathing slowed. Then, her eyes seeming to fix on a distant point, she spoke for the last time.

  “Kill the fucker!”

  She breathed out, her eyes closed, and she was gone.

  “Poor kid,” said Rilk.

  “I never should have brought her,” I replied.

  “Such a touching scene!”

  Smoke-wreathed and fire-lit, Martha appeared like an angel of death: exquisite and lethal. Her eyes shone with reflected flame but there was no warmth there.

  “Hello boys,” she said. “Now stand up, slowly and leave your guns on the floor.”

  We got to our feet. I could see that Rilk was measuring the distance, tensing himself to spring.

  “Don’t bother.” Martha’s weapon came up smartly. Her finger tightened on the trigger.

  “Any last words?” She showed her teeth in faint semblance of a smile. Rilk stepped in front of me.

  “Just do it!” he said.

  Calno rose up behind her like an avenging ghost, wrapped his left arm around her and plunged the knife into her neck. Still she tried to fight, struggling even as the wave of blood washed down her front. Her finger tightened on the trigger, sending bullets spraying into the roof above as Rilk and I hit the ground. But Calno just held her tight, murmuring into her ear until her eyes rolled back in her head and she relaxed into his embrace. He laid her carefully on the floor, plucked the gun from her lifeless fingers and disappeared into the dark.

  Twenty-Seven

  I PULLED MYSELF TO my feet, trying to stop my hands from shaking. I felt like the horror was filling me up inside and threatening to spill out.

  “Will?” There was a catch in Rilk’s voice. “He hasn’t got up,” was my first thought, and then I saw the blood.

  “Rilk!” I fell to my knees beside him. “Are you hit? How bad is it? Show me!”

  “Cool it!” His voice was quiet but firm. “Fucking ricochet got me in the side. Take a look will you.”

  The right side of his stomach was matted with blood. I felt around his back.

  “Fuck that hurts!”

  “Sorry!” My hands slipped over the broad muscle and found nothing, no exit wound. “Bullet’s still in there.”

  “Thought so. Fuck!”

  “Hurting bad?”

  “Fuck do you think?”

  “Sorry!”

  “No.” He smiled then. “I’m not taking this out on you.”

  “I’ve got to get you out of here.”

  He shook his head. “No way. We’d never make it. The Kwa are still out there, Calno’s loose in here and now he’s got a gun.”

  “So what are we going to do?”

  “You’re going to have to take him. Hunt him down.”

  “You’re crazy, I can’t do that!”

  “Sure you can, you’re going to have to.”

  “I’m not leaving you!”

  “Stay here and we’re both dead. Calno knows where we are. He can kill us any time he wants.”

  I thought for a second as Rilk’s face contorted in pain and his blood leaked through my fingers.

  “Ok, but I’m coming back for you and then we’re getting out of here.”

  “Love your optimism, how the fuck are you going to do that?”

  “I’ll let you figure that out while I go have a word with Calno.”

  “A word?” Rilk’s savage grin surfaced for a moment.

  “Yeah, with this!” I reached for my shotgun.

  “That’s my boy!” said Rilk. He looked around. “Just help me to sit up.”

  “What about your wound?”

  “Have a look in Martha’s jacket. She should have a medikit.”

  I scrambled over to the still form. Martha’s body lay in a pool of blood. Her eyes were still open and her lips had pulled back from her teeth giving her face a savage appearance as if death had revealed her true form. I shuddered and focussed on finding the pouch while trying to ignore the sticky warmth of the blood on my hands. Finally, I found the medikit and ripped it free.

  “Here,” I said to Rilk.

  “Good. Pass it to me.”

  I handed it over and he searched through it for a moment before pulling out a package.

  “Get that over the wound, make sure it’s tight.”

  I ripped open the package, unfolded the dressing and then pulled away Rilk’s shirt. He winced in pain as I put it in place and pressed to seal it to his skin.

  “Fuck, that hurt.”

  “Any better now?”

  “A little.” He looked around. “Get me over to that pillar.”

  He gritted his teeth as I half carried, half dragged him and then let out a sigh of relief as I got him in position.

  “Ok?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” I noticed his breathing was faster. “Pass me my gun.”

  I went back and picked it up, trying to avoid looking at Bex.

  “Here.” He took it and I watched his hands go through the automatic routine of checking the magazine.

  “Ok?” I asked again.

  “Better than OK!” The fleeting grin showed again. “If he turns up here I’ll fill him full of lead.”

  “What?”

  “It’s an old tough guy saying. It refers to the bullets.”

  “I thought they were tungsten alloy?”

  “Have I ever told you what a pedantic fucker you are?”

  “Have I ever told you that you’re beautiful when you’re annoyed?”

  “This is really not the time!” He smiled despite himself. “Now go get him!”

  “Right!” I stood, then quickly bent down and kissed him. “I’ll be back,” I whispered.

  “You better!” he replied. “Now go!”

  I went.

  The fire from the grenade was dying down but it was still difficult to see. I walked into the shadows hoping I looked less scared than I felt but steeling myself for the end I knew had to come. I had no plan, no tactics now, and no time to think. All I had was an enemy ahead and Rilk behind me. I was out of options. For perhaps the first time in my life I had nowhere to run, and the realisation filled me with a fierce sense of exultation.

  “Calno!” I shouted into the smoke and dark. “Show yourself! It’s time to end this!”

  “End this?” echoed that mocking voice. “You think you can end this?”

  I fired from the hip, a single blast in the direction of the voice.

  “Yes!” My answer was punctuated by a double click as I chambered another shell.

  “I don’t think you want to kill me, Will.”

  A wilful breeze blew through the caves chasing away the smoke. Suddenly I saw him, silhouetted against the sky in the mouth of the cavern. He seemed remarkably composed, his gun pointing in my direction but downwards at a spot somewhere between us. I took a step forward.

  “You seem very sure of yourself,” I replied.

  “You’re not a killer Will, you’re a seeker. Your journey through this system is in pursuit of truth and meaning. You don’t want to kill me.”

  I hesitated then.

  “Perhaps,” I said eventually, “but I think you have to die.”

  “Why? Because you consider me mad? Am I crazy, Will?”

  “Perhaps we’re all crazy. Maybe Drd had the right of it and there is madness in our souls.”

  “Maybe,” he replied, “but my madness is a thing of beauty. A madness that will cleanse the Kwa system. You can join me Will. I can see there is a part of you that wants to believe. Believe your eyes! You saw my children rally to the call. You saw the light fall from heaven!”

  “I was wondering about that,” I said, taking a step nearer. “How was that possible? And then it occurred to me that this planet is not entirely enveloped by the dust. There must be times when a beam of light from one of the Kwa suns pierces the dust and hits the planet. It could be calculated, and an ambitious man might time his speech to coincide with the light touching the ground.”

  He looked down then, and when he loo
ked up his expression had changed. The gun came up, his finger tightened on the trigger, but too soon. The bullets splashed across my legs as I shot him full in the chest. The impact threw him backwards, dead before he hit the floor. For a moment I felt nothing, then my legs turned to fire and I crashed to the ground.

  Twenty-eight

  I FELT LIKE I LAY THERE for eternity, aware of everything but experiencing nothing. I was lost almost beyond reach, but there was one thing that could pull me back.

  “Will?” His voice was quiet but it pierced the veil that covered me.

  “Will?” It came again and I felt something stir inside me.

  “Will?” I flexed my right hand, pushed it against the ground and rolled myself over.

  He was half sitting up, leaning against the pillar. Under his jacket his left hand was wrapped round his stomach, his right rested on the floor still holding his gun. His head was lolling and a trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth but his eyes were clear.

  My legs were a whole world of pain. I reached out, gripped the floor and pulled, dragging myself across the hard stone one agonising slide after another. By the time I reached him I was gasping for breath and a red mist filled my vision. I rested my forehead on the cold slab and for a moment my consciousness slipped away. The feeling of his hand on my head brought me back and with a huge effort I managed to push myself up until I could lean against the pillar next to him.

  “You got him then.”

  I nodded. “What are we going to do now?”

  “Here.” Rilk opened his hand to show two hypodermics. “Painkiller and adrenalin. If you use them both you might make it out.”

  “What about the Kwa?”

  “Take my gun, use the explosive rounds. That should scare them away.”

  I shook my head. “Sounds like a long shot. I’d rather stay here.”

  “If you stay here then we’ll both die.”

  “Then you go!”

  He didn’t reply. We both knew he wasn’t going anywhere. I pulled out my comm unit, knowing it to be a futile gesture.

  “Anything?”

  “No. Out of range of the ship and there’s no tech on this prehistoric planet.”